Ventilation.

harmony with the laws of our constitution . " Nature , " Miss Nightingale says , in her " Notes on Hospitals , " " affords air both to sick and healthy , of varying temperature at different hours of the day , night , and season , always apportioning the quantity of moisture in the temperature . "

It is a pernicious habit , too , to " make the beds , " as it is termed , before being ventilated or aired . Bed curtains should be abandoned ; gas should be sparingly used ; blinds that darken the window should be substituted by light ones ; shuttersof courseare inadmissible ; overcrowding

, , with children or otherwise should not be allowed ; aud plentjr of pure air should always be a guest in your chamber . I am indebted to our local inspector of nuisances for the following : — " On the 29 th of June last , at half-past two p . m ., with fine weather , a moderate

temperature , and very little wind , out of 415 bedroom windows in the neighbourhood of Northumberland-street , only 111 were open , and not one-third of these were open top and bottom . " When her Majesty took up her abode at Windsor Castle , Mr . Rawlinson states , " the whole drainage

of the castle was passed into the cesspools ; upwards of fifty of them permeating the base of that building . There was not a single window in any of the Royal apartments that could be opened from above , all the fresh air being obtained by small casements . The basement of the castle was

rooted up to its foundations . The vile cesspools and abominable drains leading into them were removed . The windows were all made to open by an apparatus ingeniously contrived by which a lady with a key not much larger than a watch-key could open the windows from above . "

Before leaving this portion of my subject I wish briefly to refer to the ventilation of water-closets . 1 erhaps no greater source of disease exists around us than these . Under our staircases , beneath a sleeping-room , almost always within the thick protecting walls of a house , they act as ventilators to

the drains , and vomit forth both day and night a pestilential atmosphere , adulterating , more or less , the whole air of the house . Water-closets should , where possible , be built out , and be shut off by double doors . A small loop-hole of a window is not sufficient to create a draught to off all

carry the impurities that arise . There ought to be two windows , opposite to each other ; and where thorough ventilation cannot be secured , disinfecting ¦ agents ought to be resorted to , such as chloride of lime , or Dr . Bishop ' s sanitary powder . "Many gases , " says a writer in the Medico-Gldrurgical

Review , " pass through fluids and so-called solids . Hydrogen gas and its compounds easily pass through the pores of stucco , so that plastered walls or ceilings are no barriers to the diffusion of cesspool emanations . " I fear I have already exceeded the time I had intended to allow myself , and I shall , therefore , only very briefly refer to one or two other subjects

Ventilation.

before reviewing the several systems of ventilation , and the patents taken out by inventors . I now refer you to our public buildings . Courts of law are notoriously badly ventilated . Very cold looking in the morning ; sweaty about noon ; suffocating at night . Our churches and chapels are now

nearly all pretty well ventilated . Censorious people , when these buildings are overcrowded , always complain of the want of ventilation ; and when not over well filled , complain of the cold and draught . As if an architect , or any other personcouldwith limited meansso arrange the

, , , ingress and egress of air , that as each person entered the building , his share of air shoidd enter also , and an additional opening be made for its exit . Public halls and hospitals , though ventilated iu the present clay on essentially different principles , are nevertheless now found to be both

comfortable and healthy . I regret my time will not allow me to refer to the ventilation of hospitals . I may observe , however , that the best ascertained

mode of ventilating is that by open windows and open fire-places . When you go to Paris again let me advise you , one and all , to visit their magnificent hospitals . Our shops are now ventilated . I can remember the day when aclothier ' s or a draper ' s shop used to be foul up to the entrance door . By

Arnott ' s and Sheringham ' s valves , Watson's and Muir ' s two and four point ventilators , Chownes ' s reversed syphon or Chad wick's archimedean ribbed conductor , shops may now be made as healthy as a well-ventilated office . Our vehicles , however , want attention . First-class carriages I consider

are very well ventilated , but second-class carriages are not ventilated at all ; and it is not very surprising to observe delicate ladies , when travelling in these carriages , sit with their faces to the wind to catch a breath of air . Our cabs are very badly ventilated . Many of them are regularly used by

delicate people , and perhaps these very cabs , not au hour before , had conveyed a person in disease to the infirmary or fever hospital , or a dead child to the cemetery .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

MAS OHIO RING . In a jeweller ' s shop wiudow on Ludgate-hill is a ring with a reddish stone—I suppose a light-coloured cornelian . On the stone is cut a human heart with flames issuing from the centre of the apex . On the heart is a double triangle , in the centre of which is a

Passion cross engrailed . To what degree does it appertain ?—P . M . MASONIC REPRESENTATIONS IN" PICTURES . "What works of great masters give representations of Masonic events ? * * * * * PM —[ We

.. have before declined to answer a similar question in print . The latter portion of the query we decline to insert . Presuming the information sought is really desirable , we shall content ourselves with merely indi-