Ventilation.

now more especially to those avenues which branch off from the Stock Bridge to the Quayside —there is an atmosphere in which oxygen and nitrogen form but a veiy small proportion . The sun never penetrates these localities ; they are uniformly damp , I may say wet ; a peculiar slimy

mud adheres to everything about , even the walls on either side for at least a yard upwards ; and the smell—the peculiar smell!—not exactly the " concentrated essence of sink , " but a dilution of street sweepings , sewer exhalations , and deconTposing—what in the vernacular is called " clarts !"

And yet our merchants have their offices in some of these places ! Tt is not surprising that many of them die before attaining the meridian of life . It has been said that , for longevity , these

localities will hold their position amongst the best in the town . That may be . But why ? Among the poorer classes the delicate all die off in infancy or youth . Naturally of a hardier constitution than those who are the offspring of the delicate as well as the strong , when thej do become

acclimatised—and nature is very accommodating to the healthy—they not unfrequently become octogenarians , or centenarians . But how many fall in youth and in manhood ? Perhaps they do not average twenty-five years taken altogether ! As illustrating the anomalies of natureI remember

, reading in the Builder , many years ago—to the editor of which publication I am indebted for more than my interest in ventilation , and to whose pages , during the preparation of this paper , I have had occasion to recur—of a woman who resided

in London , and fell into ill-health : her medical adviser ordered her into the . country for change of air . She went . But she grew gradually worse day by day . After careful consultation , it was found that in London the front door of her house opened upon the gully-hole of a drain , the

ammonia from which was indispensable to her comfort and her health . Of course—as the tales have itshe lived there ever afterwards . But is that a good reason why every front door should be placed opposite a gully-hole ?

LondonParisLiverpoolEdinburghNew-, , , , castle , and other par excellence architectural towns , in modern' times , have adopted the objectionable plan of building their houses in a quadrangular form , enclosing a space in the middle . The objection to this is , that a free current of air cannot traverse from end to end of the space so

enclosed . The new parts of Sunderland furnish the best street-ventilating plan that I have yet seen . Both back aud front are open . There are no archways , enclosing yards , midden-steads , privies , and filthy back lanes : the eye extends from one end to the other . And next to

ventilation , light is a capital thing . I feel it my duty to draw attention , at this point , to the fact that in this town—more especially in the higher portions of it—the drains are all nntrapped , and consequently become ventilators

of nuisance , smells , and disease ; and that the streets , being badly swept , give out a large amount of ammonia , owing to the overfilling of the manure-carts . Go over Northumberlandstreet and neighbourhood any morning before ten o'clock , and you will find litter from stables

spread over a few thousand yards , sufficient to create an epidemic . And when the horse fairs are held in the town , why , it is not only dangerous in more senses than one , but immoral . Open spaces in towns must greatly facilitate ventilation ; and where these are planted with trees ,

shrubs , and flowers , as the squares of London are , they must be of great benefit to the neighbourhoods ; for trees absorb carbonic acid , and give out oxygen . Once upon a time , before Newcastle was deluged with smoke , the green grass and the tall poplars of the Forth were an attraction to the inhabitants .

Now , a large railway station occupies its site . To whom did it belong ? I mean the Forthwith the grass and the trees . It belonged to the people of Newcastle ; and if I am not misinformed , the corporation who sold the people ' s land said , when they did so , that they would provide another place equally useful and equally beautiful ; but have they done so ? Where is it ? Is it on the Leazes or

on the Moor ? No ; and the freemen—unkind both to man and beast—won't allow a tree to be planted or a shrub to be grown there ! They have hundreds of acres , all of which are surrounded with trees—a proof that trees will grow in the vicinity of Newcastle ; and except the water-rush ,

nothing but third-rate grass vegetates on these fine and extensive lands . Professor Johnston says , "Every green leaf that waves on field or tree , sucks in , during the sunshine , carbonic acid from the air . It is as indispensable to the life of a plant as oxygen is to the life of the animal /'

But are there trees within Newcastle to do this ? Once the garden of the north , with its bowing branches falling into the Tyne , it has become a withered Eden . The hawthorn , sturdy plant as it is , cannot produce its "May ; " the poplar withers up like a birch rod ; the Durham birch ,

which will grow anywhere , has ceased to live ; and the American poplar is waned and crusted before it is three years old . Our apple and pear treeswhere are they ? Our corn-fields—what have they become ? With coals , and iron , and salts , and alkalies , we shall have become impoverished in oxygen , health , size , vigour , and strength .

The injury arising from living in atmospheres impregnated with smoke , the products of alkali works , and other manufactures , is probably more than we suspect . I well remember that when the old pit-heap used to burn at Monkwearmouth , when the wind blew from the north or north-westthe

, silver plate of the inhabitants of Bishopwearmouth , in one night , would look like dull aluminium gold ! And only last month I happened to be at St . Helen ' s , in Lancashire , when a wind blew fair from