The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1873.

Evening Star, Issue 3329, 21 October 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1873.

Now that we are about to construct a number of new school-rooms, it is of the utmost importance that some plan should be devised for efficient am! thorough ventilation of them. In almost every public building, no matter of what character, the total absence of intelligent arrangement for this mos; important requisite is evident; or if some effort is made to introduce fresh air, it is not based upon the now wellascertained laws of atmospheric pres sure. In proof that we are perfect!} justified in our remarks, we need only refer to every person’s experience, We do not know of a single church in Dunedin that is efficiently ventilated; and although, through their being spacious buildings, only occupied during a few hours weekly, less inconvenience is felt than if they were constantly filled with human beings, a hot summer’s sun during service renders it needful to throw open a door or windows to prevent the congregation fallingasleep, or to save the delicate from fainting. But when this expedient is resorted to, some who are within the rangc of the draught must suffer; and many a face-ache, cold, or rheumatism, laying the foundation of tic-doloreux or consumption, has been the consequence of such ill-directed effort at relief from a prevenlible evil. We do not doubt that our architects have to contend with many prejudices which prevent their adopting efficient means for ventilating buildings. There is almost as much horror of fresh air in the mind', of many persons as a mad dog feels at the sight of water. Everybody who has a cold sets to to discover how ho caught it, and generally contrives to find a reason, sound or unsound. Vei ■/ often a dyspeptic may be seen who hr s arrived at the conclusion he has sufferc I from a draught of cold air ; so to guar I against this he carefully stops up over / hole and cranny in his sitting ari l sleeping rooms, wraps a shawl round hj. , neck to avoid sore throat, and sits over a fire with las hat on to avoid a cold in the head ; not knowing that through breathing air ho himself has poisoned,

lie is adopting the very means to bring l.imself to the grave. We know of no >abject on which more vague and erroneous views exist than on this. But l ist ex-professional utterances should be ( eomed the mere unsupported crotchets rf an unscientific theorist, the following passage bearing immediately upon the ”ontilation of schools should be carefully considered by the Education Board. It is extracted from a work by i.ho late Andrew Combe, M.D., on ‘ The principles of physiology applied o the preservation of health and to .he improvement of physical and menial education Most of our schools arc also extremely defective in this respect. It is now several years since, on the occasion of a visit to one of the classes of a great public seminary, my attention was first strmgly attracted to the injury le,suiting to the mental and bodily functions from the inhalation of impure air. About 150 boys were assembled in one large room, where they had been already confined nearly an hour and a-half, when I'entered. The windows were partly open; but, notwithstanding this, the change from the fresh atmosphere outside to the close contaminated air within, was exceedingly obvious, and most certainly was not without its effect on the mind itself, accompanied as it was with a sensation of fulness in the foiehead, and slight headache. The boys, with every motive to activity that an excellent system and an enthusiastic teacher could bestoy, presented an aspect of weariness and fatigue which the mental stimulus they were under could not overcome, and which recalled forcibly sensations long bygone, which I had experienced to a woful extent when seated on the benches of the same school. These observations stirred up a train of reflections ; and, when I called to mind the freshness and alacrity with which, when at school, our morning operations were carried on, the gradual approach to languor and vawning which took place as the day advanced, and the almost instant resuscitation of the whole energies of mind and body that ensued on our dismissal, I could not help thinking that, even after making every necessary deduction for the mental fatigue of the lessons and the inaction of body, a great deal of the comparative listlessncss and indifference was owing to the continued inhalation of an air too much vitiated to be able to afford the requisite stimulus to the blood, on which last condition the efficiency of the brain so essentially depends. Ibis became the more probable, on recollecting the pleasing excitement occasionally experienced for a few moments, from the rush of fresh air which took place when the door was opened to admit some casual visitor. Indeed, on referring to the symptoms induced by breathing carbonic acid gas or fixed air, it is impossible not to perceive that the headache, languor, and debility consequent on confinement in an ill-ventilated apartment, or in air vitiated by many people, are nothing but minor degrees of the same process of poisoning which ensues on immersion in fixed air. Of this latter state, “ great heaviness in the head, tingling in the ears, troubled sight, a great inclination to sleep, diminution of strength, and fa dug down,” are stated by Oreila as the chief symptoms, and everyone knows how closely these resemble what is felt in crowded halls. Dr Combe’s work was published in 1811, yet so slowly does truth leaven the public mind, that no general improvement has been made in the construction of schools or public buildings, so far as means of ventilation and warming are concerned. We have a good system amongst ns of offering prizes for the most artistic plans for public edifices, and by that means we secure elegance in design and convenience in arrangement. From the nature of the case, these offers ol prizes must be repeated as often as a new public building is needed, because of the differences of situation and intention; but ventilation is needed in every house and room, public and private. Its object is unvarying j for what is needed is to get rid of vitiated air, and replace it with that which is pure : this more important, by far, than external beauty. It is, however, much less understood, and as an inducement to scientific men to suggest means capable of adaptation to varying circumstances, we would urge upon the Education Board that a prize should be offered for tho suggestion of means to secure a full supply of fresh air, without draught, and of warming school buildings, at the least possible expense. The end once gained, no more prizes are needed ; and every one in the community —old and young — will liave reason to bless the day when so important a sanitary aid to body and mind as thorough ventilation of buildings is adopted.