Page images
PDF
EPUB

pended within the substantial walls and floors of the edifice, with a clear air-passage all round to be supplied with the regulated 'pabulum vitæ from the larder below, as is exhibited in several other diagrams which we have not room to copy. The beautiful simplicity of this system, and the ease and convenience with which it can be introduced into early and general use, are so obvious, that Dr. Reid thinks it superfluous to say much on that head; and we for our parts can say nothing, but that the expense of turning every house into a nest of Chinese boxes, and the loss of size by diminishing each room about two feet every way, are but slight drawbacks when compared to the health and honoured' longevity which they are to produce to the regenerated inmates. We have not heard, however, that this system has been as yet introduced into any private house; but on its application to the Houses of Parliament-the only real experiment, we believe, that has been made-our readers will expect a few observations.

The first and most remarkable power that Dr. Reid seems to have acquired is that of supplying air in given quantities and even of any required odour and temperature, to individual members. Mr. Speaker of course, in consideration of his dignity, has an atmosphere of his own, and is first served :

'Since the alterations were made in 1836, the atmosphere with which the Right Honourable the Speaker is supplied has been placed under special control.'-p. 296.

The Sergeant-at-Arms is similarly provided; and if individual members were, like Mr. Speaker and the Sergeant, always to occupy the same seats, they might be furnished, according to the respective tastes, to almost any extent; for Dr. Reid has given us a catalogue, something in the nature of a bill of fare at a French Restaurant, of the various atmospheres which might be supplied. We once thought Beauvilliers' Carte a great curiosity, but we now think Dr. Reid's as infinitely superior, as science is to cookery, and the fragrance of the ventilated House of Commons to the fumes of an omelette soufflée :—

1. Dry air

2. Dry and hot air
3. Dry and cold air
4. Rapid and hot air
5. Rapid and cold air

6. Moist air

7. Moist and warm

8. Moist and cold

9. Rapid moist and warm

10. Rapid moist and cold

11. Steamed air or steam baths

12. Highly oxygenating
13. Less oxygenating
14. Deoxidating
15. Nitrous oxide
16. Nitrous acid
17. Nitric acid
18. Chlorinated
19. Sulphureous

20. Carbonic

21. Ammoniacal

22. Prussic

23. Acetic

23. Acetic

24. Arsenical 25. Mercurial

26. Alcoholic

27. Etherial

30. Lavender
31. Orange
32. Cinnamon

33. Creosotic

34. Hydrosulphate of ammonia.' pp. 218, 219.

28. Benzoic 29. Camphoric These are not, we presume, actually introduced into the House of Commons; and indeed, though Dr. Reid expatiates on the facility with which they could be introduced in determinate quantities' (§ 519), it is obvious that as long as members will adhere to the practice of changing their seats ad libitum, the application of this great principle must be postponed. What unpleasant scenes might we not have if Mr. O'Connell were by any accident to sit down in the orange atmosphere which had been brewed for Sir Robert Inglis, or Sir Robert in the mercurial one intended for one of the younger members! Sir Charles Napier would dislike Lord Palmerston's lavender as much as his lordship would the admiral's creosotic, or Mr. D'Israeli's nauseous but pungent benzoic-' an acid,' says Knight's Cyclopædia, which takes its name from Benzoin or Benjamin, but is usually prepared from-that substance out of which Vespasian extracted tribute.

But even in the present state of the Parliamentary atmosphere, and without attempting to suit individual tastes, we fear that Dr. Reid's interesting experiments in the Houses of Parliament have not been so approved as might have been hoped. Dr. Reid himself admits he has

' repeatedly, during this very session, been present in the House of Peers, when numbers have left it, some because it was too hot, and some because it was too cold, at the same moment.'-p. 292.

But this was not the fault of Dr. Reid or his apparatus, but, on the contrary, a proof of his success; for he had provided hot and cold currents; but somehow their lordships never could get into the right stream; and, in spite of Dr. Reid's known readiness to oblige, they could not be persuaded to call for the Carte, and order their own atmosphere:

Our great difficulty is, that members of that House do not tell us, so frequently as is desirable, when they find too little air coming in, or too much. . . . . Sometimes for three or four weeks successively no communication is made upon the subject. . . . I also know, that individuals have stated that they have remained for a whole evening uncomfortable, without even telling us, though there was a person stationed in the House for this purpose.'-pp. 292, 293.

This sentence is somewhat obscure, but the grammatical con

struction

struction seems to imply that, agreeably to the privilege of the peerage, a person is stationed in that house to be uncomfortable, as a proxy for any of their lordships who may desire it; a prodigious advantage, which, however their lordships may neglect it, would make ventilation very popular in many private families.

In the other house the result has been, it seems, still more discouraging; and indeed it appears that Dr. Reid has more difficulty in managing the House of Commons than the Minister himself, though he proceeds on the same principle that ministers have been sometimes obliged to adopt, of working by underhand means and blowing hot and cold from the same mouth :

The first remark made after the House of Commons met, subsequent to the alterations, was,—"The temperature is rising, we shall be suffocated immediately." This was addressed to me by a member walking from the bar to the door, and he had no sooner passed than another followed him, hurriedly stating as he passed, "I am shivering with cold; I can bear this house no longer."

In some cases, where the debates in both Houses have continued for a long period, and the fluctuations have been great both in the state of the weather and of the numbers attending, I have occasionally, in studying details as to the action of the ventilation, made, with advantage, from fifty to one hundred variations in the quantity or quality of the air supplied in a single night. . . . .

'Fluctuations, indeed, are sometimes so frequent, and to so great an extent, that the attendants cannot give the average approximation of which the apparatus is susceptible, unless they are perpetually directing their attention to the passing changes in the same manner as a sailor steering a ship.'-pp. 294-296.

We find the present mode of ventilating the House of Commons thus described by an honourable member, who, professing himself favourable to Dr. Reid's system in general, has the candour to admit some small imperfections :

'A strong current of prepared air is now admitted, immediately under the entire surface of the floor, which is pierced with many thousand holes; after passing through these apertures this air is again distributed into many millions of other holes, by means of an haircloth carpet, through which it is drawn up towards the ceiling, where admirable arrangements have been made by Dr. Reid for discharging it through apertures in the edges of the pannels; and thus the foul air is carried rapidly along a tunnel, to feed the great furnace which creates this current of ventilation.

It is obvious that the air so drawn up through the haircloth carpet must be charged with particles of ground-dust, or mud from the members' feet; and that (so impregnated) it must be inhaled by those within its reach. I heard many members complain that it rests upon their faces, and enters their eyes, and nostrils, and mouths; and from

woeful

woeful experience some members know that it can find its way to their lungs.'-Sir F. Trench to Viscount Duncannon, Par. Pap. No. 204, Sess. 1838.

This infliction on the Honourable the House of Commons of the Scripture curse against venomous animals-Thou shalt eat dust all the days of thy life'-would be no doubt a primâ facie objection to the Reid system; but the Doctor in reply observed that he did not find that in practice the members were so very nice as to the purity of the atmosphere in which they lived; but in order to remove even the suspicion' of complaint, Dr. Reid was quite ready-nay, he proposed to turn the whole affair upside down, and like other great Magicians of the North,' to reverse the course of nature, and make the wind to blow-not as it, but as he listeth.

[ocr errors]

'The air may be made to descend from the ceiling and be removed by the floor. I know no method that combines so many and so numerous advantages as this: experience has assured me that there is no method at all comparable to the descending atmosphere for the House of Commons. Even the suspicion of dust would not then annoy the members. The air can be admitted at any temperature, its first impulse being softened by the air on which it falls.'-Dr. Reid's Letter to Visct. Duncannon, Par. Pap. No. 279, Sess. 1836, p. 6.

Upside-down-inside-out-backwards or forwards—air bruising itself soft by falling upon other air-Dr. Reid's universal system is ready for all emergencies, and can accommodate itself to all requirements, with no drawback or difficulty that may not be solved and to Dr. Reid's own feelings most satisfactorily-by the formula before-mentioned, £. s. d.

Dr. Reid, however, admits that there is a strong feeling against this descending atmosphere; partly perhaps from a doubt whether that atmosphere can descend lower and he, therefore, in compliance with those prejudices, adheres (as is usual in that place) to the ascendant party he clings also to the hair-cloth mattressfor which substance, indeed, he is so great an advocate that he seems to suggest that a piece of it might be conveniently worn by such of the members as may dislike the present ventilation, by way of respirator or protective mouth-piece.

'Any one who has not attended to all the peculiar properties of the elastic hair-cloth, when properly made, may easily satisfy himself of its extreme permeability to air, as it neither interrupts breathing nor speaking, even when six folds are applied to the mouth. I have, indeed, to prove this, frequently for a time lectured with a portion held over my mouth.'-Ib. p. 5.

This we think one of the most important practical suggestions in all Dr. Reid's works; and we really think that a system of 'sixfold'

'sixfold' muzzles for lecturers and members of Parliament would, if judiciously applied, promote incalculably the advancement of science, the despatch of business, and the whole circle of national interests. The public would not grudge a large vote to enable Dr. Reid to follow up this idea by experiments on an

extensive scale.

We are glad, though we own a little surprised, to learn that occasionally there are indications of more satisfactory results:

'Members who have come down to the House of Commons unwell, have occasionally been relieved by exposing themselves, for a short time, to a blast of hot, cold, or tempered air in the air channels.'-p. 297.

We were well aware that the air of the House of Commons was remarkable for producing great and rapid changes in what are called people's principles, but we had never witnessed, nor indeed elsewhere heard of, these salutary effects on their persons; on the contrary, we have never known anything more like an approach to unanimity in that House than the general ingratitude with which they concur in complaining of their artificial atmosphere; nor are there wanting some so unjust as to have pronounced the whole system a humbug! This, we need not repeat, is the very reverse of our opinion: we entirely concur with the writer in the Edinburgh Weekly Register'-be it Dr. Reid himself, or one of his disciples-in reprobating the reckless, prejudiced, and malignant attacks on this young science:' and we must add, that it is a crowning proof of the urbanity, placability, and philanthropy of Dr. Reid, that, being so ungratefully treated by many individual members, and having, as we have seen, sulphureous, carbonic, ammoniacal, prussic, and arsenical atmospheres at command, we have not heard his detractors complain of any severer infliction than bad colds, lumbago, rheumatism, and the like.

6

The only other considerable trial of Dr. Reid's system that we know of was in the vessels fitted out in 1841 for the expedition up the Quorra-the name under which it is now the fashion to disguise the ominous and well-deserved designation of the Niger. The Admiralty of the day, remembering the fate of poor Captain Tuckey, and the precept of the Roman Moralisthic Niger est, hunc tu caveto '—took, in addition to all other precautions, that of employing Dr. Reid to fit the ships on his sanatory principle. The Doctor on this important occasion showed even more than his usual judgment and ingenuity-for he did not trust merely to his ventilator-since the ventilator could only supply such air as it found on the coast, which was, in fact, the thing to be guarded against-and he therefore added what he called a medicator, and which in principle was the same as the

chambers

« PreviousContinue »