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indifferent to their wants, and makes many sympathising remarks on their condition; but the new ventilation is a very costly luxury, and therefore the principal object of his work is to recommend the science, both in theory and practice, to those who are able to pay for it--the rich-public bodies-club-houses-and The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Honourable Members of the House of Commons,' to whom he respectfully, and perhaps expectantly, dedicates his volume. As we feel ourselves bound to give a specimen of the scientific diagrams which form so distinguishing a feature of this great work, we shall, in the first instance, select one which represents, we presume, a room in a club, in which the want of ventilation exhibits itself by comatose stupor-the first symptom, as the Doctor states, of the presence of carbonic acid, which, when in excess, produces immediate death.

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The unlearned reader, perhaps, sees no great symptom of death in this diagram: of which, however, no other explanation is given than our being told at the interval of above 200 pages that the air comes in at the door and goes out at the chimney, and that it is the representation ofA SOPORIFIC APARTMENT; but how or why 'soporific' nowhere appears. This apparent omission is, we doubt not, a proof of that personal modesty which always accompanies real genius, Doctor Reid being reluctant to own that the principal figure standing at the end of the table and evidently producing whatever there is of soporific influence, is the Doctor himself addressing a select audience on the advantages of ventilation.

Doctor

Doctor Reid proceeds to make many very judicious and pathetic observations on churches:

'The congregation is not unfrequently placed in an atmosphere of extreme impurity, poisonous in its tendency, arresting or interfering with some of the most important functions of life to such an extent that they are occasionally suspended for a time, when a temporary death-or fainting, takes place.'-p. 44. ·

But even when 'temporary death' does not actually occur, the fatal soporific symptoms are frequent :

In those churches in which I have watched the progress of the influence of vitiated air, as the service proceeded, on individuals, a slight and marked flush in the countenance usually appeared in a short time; this was soon succeeded by a sense of heat and oppression, and a tendency to sleep, more or less marked according to the condition of the atmosphere, and the extent to which the attention was engaged.'—p. 42.

We had ourselves witnessed similar appearances, but had ignorantly attributed them to the somnolent influence of another cause -shall we own it-the sermon. In this indeed we were countenanced by the opinion of that eminent divine, Dean Swift, who, in his own sermon on the accident of Eutychus, Acts xx. 9, says, I have chosen this text with a design to disturb, if possible, some part in this audience of half an hour's sleep, for the convenience and exercise whereof this place, at this season of the day, is very much celebrated.' The gratitude, however, which the whole clerical body owe to Doctor Reid for his refutation of this disparaging opinion will, we fear, be somewhat diminished when they find that the chief merit in his eyes of men's going to church at all, is that churches being, as he hopes to see them, scientifically ventilated, men may receive fifty-two lessons in every year (exclusive of Saints' days, Good Friday, and Christmas Day) in the science of ventilation.

'Were the ventilation of churches placed generally upon a proper footing, this measure would not only be extremely beneficial in the direct results that would be produced, but tend powerfully, by the weekly demonstration which it would present, to extend a knowledge of the practicability and importance of the universal introduction of simple and economical arrangements for ensuring ventilation.'-p. 41.

This is certainly the most scientific reason we ever before met for going to church, and cannot fail additionally to recommend the pious and ingenious author to the patronage of the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual.'

One, we will venture to say, of the very most curious experiments ever made in modern chemistry was conducted by Doctor Reid and his assistants in some of the churches of Edinburgh:On one occasion, fifty specimens of air were taken by my pupils

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and others who took an interest in this question, from different churches in Edinburgh, and when the action which they had on the test employed was shown, by the exhibition of the specimens at the Royal Society, many members, at once, named the churches from which different specimens had been taken, from their knowledge of the state of the atmosphere that generally prevailed there.'-pp. 42, 43.

This, we believe, exceeds all the wonders of modern science, and we heartily wish that Doctor Reid had given us a few more details of so curious an experiment-what test was employed,' and how, exactly, the results exhibited themselves-whether, for example, the Erastian, Freekirk, and Relief Kirk breezes were at once and broadly distinguishable-and then, to descend to minuter points, whether Dr. C's atmosphere appeared superlatively Sour-Mr. G's turbid and nauseous, Dr. M's peculiarly overcharged with opiates, and Dr. G's more than usually like milk and water. We presume a nice chemical analysis might have also afforded traces of the texts of the respective preachers. It would be quite as easy, and not less useful than the other results of Dr. Reid's quinquegesimal experiment.

But if those ecclesiastical results are curious, still more so, as well as more important, are those obtained from a class of observations of a more substantial and every-day nature. The following extracts, long as they are, will we think amply repay the attention of our readers by their felicitous application of medical science to the practical details of social life.

'It appears to be universally admitted, that a low diet diminishes the necessity for much air, and that, on the other hand, where there is little air, there cannot be a great appetite for food.'-p. 180.

This mode of diminishing the human appetite for food' is no doubt very sound in theory, and cannot fail to attract the practical attention of sea-captains on long voyages, guardians of parishes, keepers of tables-d'hôte, masters of cheap boardingschools, and (after the repeal of the Corn Laws) farmers, country gentlemen, and generally all the poorer classes of society; while the converse of the proposition exhibited in the continuation of Dr. Reid's observations deserves, if possible, still more general attention.

'There are no periods accordingly, if we except a period of severe bodily exercise, where the constitution demands such a variety of supply as immediately before and after dinner; and, in the present state of society, a large share of the evil not unfrequently attendant upon a dinner party does not always arise so much from individuals having taken more than their constitution requires, but rather from the vitiated air with which the system is usually surrounded at such periods. Some years ago, about 50 members of one of the Royal Society Clubs at Edinburgh, dined in an apartment I had constructed, where, though illuminated by gas, the products of its combustion were essentially ex

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cluded, as they were all removed by a ventilating tube connected with, but concealed in, the drop of the Gothic pendant in which the central lights were placed. Large quantities of a mild atmosphere were constantly supplied, and passed in quick succession through the apartment throughout the whole evening, the effect being varied from time to time by infusing odoriferous materials, so that the air should imitate successively that of a lavender field, or an orange grove, &c. Nothing very special was noticed during the time of dinner by the members; but Mr. Barry, of the British Hotel, who provided the dinner, and who, from the members of the club being frequently in the habit of dining at his rooms, was familiar with their constitutions, showed the committee that three times the amount of wines had been taken that was usually consumed by the same party in a room lighted by gas, but not ventilated--that he had been surprised to observe that gentlemen whose usual allowance was two glasses, took, without hesitation, as much as half a bottle-that those who were in the habit of taking half a bottle, took a bottle and a half, and that, in short, he had been compelled twice to send hackney-coaches for additional supplies during dinner, though he had provided a larger supply than usual, considering the circumstances under which the members met.'

It is most pleasing, by the way, to find that Dr. Reid has a warm and intelligent convert and coadjutor in the person of this Athenian Boniface-but to proceed :

'Minute inquiries afterwards assured me, that no headache nor other injurious consequence had followed this meeting, nor were any of the members aware, at the moment, that they had partaken more heartily than usual, till Mr. Barry showed them what had taken place. The meeting included individuals of all ages, and of extreme variety of occupations, among whom there were judges and members of Parliament, medical men and members of the bar, naval and military officers, whose different ages varied as much as their very various professional occupations. pp. 180, 181.

Nothing, we think, can give a higher idea of Dr. Reid's candour than his relating this remarkable anecdote; for it may surely excite in many minds doubts and scruples concerning the moral advantages of a system which induced an assembly of judges, members, medical men, &c.-(Dr. Reid, it seems, included)—to drink, without knowing what they were about, three times their usual allowance, and this under the delusion that Mr. Barry's tavern was a lavender field,' or an orange grove!' Blackwood's Noctes Ambrosiana were teetotalism to this! It is now time to exhibit something of the mechanical processes by which Dr. Reid produces these little less than miraculous results. This, however, is not very easy, for though accidental causes and effects, such as those at the F.R.S. E. dinner, are occasionally given, we find no very distinct statements of any general principle. This arises, say Dr. Reid's detractors, from his having no principle to state; but surely this is unfair. They

might as well say that there was no principle to be found in Euclid's Elements, because on the foundation of a few axioms and postulates, the principles develop themselves in a series of propositions. So Dr. Reid, assuming two axioms: 1st, that fresh air is wholesome; 2nd, foul air disagreeable,-and with only three postulates; 1st, of doing as he pleases with all existing edifices; 2nd, of having an unlimited supply of money; and 3rd, that no one be allowed to complain of failures-proceeds in a series of propositions and diagrams to develop a general system, which may be thus stated-viz. that doors, windows, and chimneys are, for all the purposes of ventilation, to be henceforth abol shed: -that the lower story of every building, public or private, is to be appropriated (as is now done in the Houses of Parliament) to ventilating offices-with, as before mentioned, a cold larder for keeping fresh air, and a hot closet for cooking caloric, with separate pipes by which air of all varieties of temperature and odour shall be thrown into each room, and every part of each room, by millions' of perforations or little holes in the floors and ceilings, and even in the sofas and tables;-and finally that this variegated air-in quantity fifty or a hundred times as much as is now supplied by doors and windows-is, after being breathed or burned, to be carried into one great shaft, and thence by artificial means into the upper regions of the atmosphere. This will be made more intelligible by another of Dr. Reid's diagrams :

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The perforated floors and ceilings are marked by the horizontal dotted lines b, b, b and c, c, c, and the mode in which the air is introduced and conducted is marked by the wavy lines and arrow heads. Thus every room in a house will be, as it were, a box sus

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