Sins against the laws of health : illustrated by the vital statistics of the Crosshill District : being a lecture delivered on behalf of the library of the Crosshill Young Men's Christian Association, 29th April, 1880 / by Eben. Duncan.

  • Duncan, Eben.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sins against the laws of health : illustrated by the vital statistics of the Crosshill District : being a lecture delivered on behalf of the library of the Crosshill Young Men's Christian Association, 29th April, 1880 / by Eben. Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    with the prevention of tubercular disease, I shall now explain how you may best securest. There are three common outlets, and inlets for air in every apartment—the door, the window and the fireplace. If you wish to change the air of an over-heated, badly-ventilated room rapidly, a very good plan is to uscjhe door as a fanner, by ' 1/ moving it quickly backwards and forwards upon its hinges. We . may learn a great deal by watching the bees, and among other evidences of their good sense we find that they are quite alive to the value of ventilation. If you could see in.side a hive, you would find twenty bees stationed just inside the door flapping their wings backwards and forwards without a moment’s pause, fanning out the used air and sending in fresh air. As one or two tired insects drop out from the Une of fanners, fresh recruits fall vigorously to work, and so keep up the cheerful humming sound heard at the door of the hive. But the best inlet for fresh air in rooms which have not been fitted up with special ventilating ■ appliances is the window. ^Vlien you draw down the upper sash , the air rushes in, not only at the top, but also between the sashes. To obviate the draught, w-hich is sometimes very disagreeable ^ ‘ and, in cold weather, dangerous to health, a good plan is to fix at ‘ * the top of the window, in the space between the Venetian blind . and the upper sash, a narrow box made of two pieces of perforated zinc, set about an inch apart in a wooden frame. The dimensions of these pieces of perforated zinc in the box which I have fitted up in my own dining-room are 42 inches across by 4 inches deep. The box thus made is filled w’ith tow very loosely packed. This has the effect not only of breaking the current of air, but also of filtering it free from dust and smoke. This appliance was made for me by a joiner for half-a-crowu. In very cold, foggy weather it w’ill also be necessary to filter the air w’hich enters between the *4- sashes. This is very simply managed by means of a gauze or / muslin bag filled with tow or cotton wadding, and made into the form of a long roll. If there are two windows in the room, these ■ appliances should be fixed in the window farthest from the fire- place. Another plan for admitting air is to raise the lower sash of the window two or three inches, and place a piece of wood under ' ' ” , it, so as to fill the opening at the bottom. You then have the air,, . . entering between the two sashes at the middle of the window, and sent up in a stream towards the ceiling. By turning the spokes of the Venetian blind up you have a louvre arrangement, which still further assists to divert the air into an upward current. When there is no fire in the room there is not so much tendency to the ' downward current, but a strong fire has a most powerful effect<^<**^' in drawing air down in the direction of the fireplace. This '* ‘ suction effect of the fire may be entirely prevented by supplying ' air to the fireplace by means of a tube leading dii’ectly out from it'-* to the open air. The last method I shall refer to is the simplest of all. Take a large gimlet and bore a row of holes through the