The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2033, 10 November 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1869.

Laying the foundation stone of a new building, whether for private or public use, is always a matter of public interest. Apart from its being significant of material progress, each structure has influence on society in a variety of ways that bear upon them the impress of the art and science of the age. The buried cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii give a truer picture of the domestic life and manners of the ancient Romans than can be gathered from the literature of the day. They illustrate and explain much that must otherwise have been dimly conceived. The shop signs indicating the various vocations followed, are indices of the wants to be supplied, and, in some instances, even give a clue to the state of morals prevalent. Were Dunedin at this moment to share the fate of ■those cities and lie for centuries buried, to be disinterred by a later race, we do not think that we should reap the admiration that the present age bestows

so freely upon the works of the age of Titus. Nor do we speak now in reference to architectural taste and display. That which is ornamental, is usually the accompaniment of wealth gathered together in the course of many years. The science "of the age demands higher attainments in the arrangement both of public and private dwellings, than the display of taste in decoration. There are many matters that do net appear to enter into architectural calculations, and which are sadly neglected in the construction of our edifices. We cannot suppose that architects do not know them, but everywhere their importance has been strangely and persistently neglected. A new public building is ab«-ut to be erected. Is it in the essential of proper ventilation to be a reproduction of the past, or is it to be fitted with arrangements for securing that important element to health and comfort —a full supply of pure, fresh air 1 ? At the very outset of every public building, architects, who have to deal with Committees and Boards, have prejudices and ignorances to encounter that oftentimes present an insuperable barrier to sanitary arrangements. They cannot understand new-fangled notions, and had rather endure the ills they know, than run the risk of those they know not of. We have seen where very efficient arrangements were made for ventilation, every pains taken to prevent the benefit derivable from it, beeause by the admission of fresh air the temperature was diminished. We were forcibly reminded of this imperative requirement by the condition of the air in the New Post Office Hall last evening. There is not a church in the City that is not a nursery for disease. There is scarcely a private dwelling that has not a tendency to induce disease, especially in the sleeping departments, which of all others should be cool, sweet, and pure. Mention this necessity to nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand and ten to one but you are considered a bore. Yet there was scarcely one in the Post Office Hall last evening who did not exclaim “ Bless me, how close “it is.” We heard that expression from many fair lips who would not have thanked us for the influx of sweet pure air to refresh them with. It would be a curious inquiry if it could be instituted with any prospect of arriving at the truth, how many headaches were felt this morning by those who were at last night’s gathering. It would be still more curious if the exact amount of inattention to the speeches and lectures induced by the discomfort of partial suffocation, could be ascertained. It would add to the interest, so far as the speakers and performers are concerned, if we could know how much better every effort would have been put forth, had there been an ample supply of oxygen. The Post Office Hall is large and lofty, and was not excessively crowded. It, therefore, affords a fair example of the necessity for attention to ventilation. Even where attempts to remedy this dvfect have been made, they are usually so timidly done that they produce the mischief of causing draughts instead of merely supplying fresh air, A calculation was made by the late Dr, Andrew Coombe, which is worthy the attention of the Committee of the Athenaeum, It was founded upon investigations by Mr Finlaison. We will give the passage entire ; In like manner, to use Mr Finlaison’s results, it appears teat in one individual 24 hogsheads of blood are acted upon by 57 hogsheads of air in 24 hours, and that in the course of this action, the air loses 3£B| ounces, or about hogsheads of oxygen, and is further deteriorated by the addition of a corresponding bulk of carbonic acid given out from the lungs. In other words 24 persons inhale 57 hogsheads of air, and deteriorate its composition to the ext- nt stated in one hour. So that, where a hundred people are shut up for an hour in one room, in attending a lecture for example, they breathe in that time upwards of 228 hogsheads of air, consume 45 hogsheads of its oxygen and vitiate it by the addition of a proportionate bulk of carbonic acid, besides the watery vapour which is also thrown out. But as air is capable only of supporting healthy respiration only when it contains its full proportion of oxygen, it is obvious that if the audience continue to breathe the same air for another hour, they must suffer from the improper oxygenation of the blood. Hence, when on such occasions adequate means are not used to renew the air within the room at least as fast as it is vitiated, the oxygen diminishes, and the carbonic acid accumulates in undue proportion, till the air becomes altogether unlit for the complete aeration of the blood, and for the support of life. Hence the languor, exhaustion, and headaches which ensue in churches, theatres, and ball rooms, are just so many warnings that the lungs are insufficiently supplied with oxygen to decarbonise the blood passing through them and that the system is suffering the penalty. We commend these words to the earnest consideration of the Committee of the Athenaeum— Verbum sat sajnenti.