HOUSES IN GREAT CITIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 209, 6 April 1877, Page 13

HOUSES IN GREAT CITIES.

(From the Mail.) Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., on Monday delivered the first of two lectures to the members of the London Institution on " Health Improvements in Great Cities." Later in the evening the subject « Ye , u ™ a i t ? on wa s treated by Mr. Lanyon in a paper read at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Dr. Richardson observed that for purposes of health the houses on this island require to be rebuilt or remodelled from Land's End to the Hebrides. He admitted that there is about some of them a certain element of beauty, but he had not been able to discover one house in the island constructed on a plan perfect for the requirements of the healthy existence of its inmates. We might date all our new knowledge on the subject from the time of Stephen Hales, re £-°v ?u Teddin g fcon » wh <> in 1733 published the first treatise in which the subject of the ventilation of houses is scientifically considered. Tie nature of gases was then not understood, for although the existence of oxygen had been dreamed of as nitro-aerial air, and Boyle had shown that ammonia exposed to the air seized some substance from the atmosphere which gave the new compound additional weight, the nature of "fixed air" was unknown, nor was it suspected to be a product of the human body, breathed out with every human breath. Yet by one of those simple series of observations which the fortunate and honest in science make for themselves, Hales measured the air we breathe, showed that the capacity of the human chest for containing it was 220 cubic inches, and discovered approximately tho loss sustained in the lungs by the absorption of some part of the air, the nature of which he could not analyze. " Two gallons of air," he said, " breathed to and fro for 2£ minutes become unfit for ' respiration/ " This essay of Hales was the birth " 10dern sanitation. Nevertheless, years afterwards Pitt blinded and choked the nation by the window-tax. Sir John Pringle, in hospitals, Howard, in prisons, continued the work of Hales. Then came the chymical discoveries of Priestly and Black, and it was proved that the presence of vegetable existence to reabsorb carbonic acid is a necessity for perfect purification of the air. It was found that oxygen assumed new qualities in the form of ozone, and that the ozonized condition of the air was increased by its contact with vegetation, and by electrical discharges. Thus ventilation by itself was proved insu&cient. The air must also be made active and vitalized. Sir Benjamin Brodie and Mr. Broughton placed living warm-blooded animals in chambers charged with simple oxygen, and arranged an alkaline solution to absorb the carbonic acid given out in breathing. But the animals became languid and drowsy and died in their sleep, Nevertheless, the oxygen supported the combustion of a taper. It was concluded that oxygen undiluted was a narcotic poison, but the lecturer found from some experiments that on using oxygen repurified over and over again warmblooded animals ceased to live in it, though frogs could exist, while fresh supplies of oxygen were attended with no narcotic symptoms, and increased the appetite to voracity if the oxygen was at summer heat. He found after a prolonged inquiry that oxygen gas breathed in contact with oxygen that has been breathed loses soaie quality which destroys its power of sustaining natural life. In this deteriorated oxygen organic substances more rapidly decay. It may be restored by electric discharges. He further learnt that the presence in oxygen of various vapours and products of decomposition interferes with the vital action of oxygen in the same way, and had no doubt that the useful narcotic vapours employed to suspend sensation under operations depend on their faculty of arresting the vital action of oxygen. Air, in short, is rendered dangerous by carbonic acid, restored by plants, loses its active condition in great towns, and is devitalized by contact with oth er gases. For the purification of water society was indebted to Dr. John Snow, who 25 years gone by showed the relation of impure water to cholera, typhoid and certain other spreading diseases. In 10,000 houses supplied by one company in Southwark and Vauxhall there were 97 fatal cases of cholera. In the same number of houses supplied with pure water by the Lambeth Company the fatal cases were five. Then it was discovered that dampness adds rheumatism and neuralgia to the list ot painful and pulmonary consumption to the list of fatal as well as painful maladies. A fourth step related to the value of gi k ™ actimc ra y s in vegetation are perpetual chymists to the world. I hey decompose the carbonic acid in the leaf, fix the carbon for the plant, give up the oxygen for the use of man. But it is not generally understood how refined and potent this influence is and how it is crossed by man. The noxious vapours % yen off from alkali works as chlorine. Hydro-chloric acid, and sulphurous acid reduce the activity of the chymical changes in plants under the action of the sun. Mr. Lockyer, at the lecturer's request, made some experiments, which showed that this was effected by cutting off the rays which produced these changes. An eminent native physician ot oui Indian Empire sent Dr. Richardson some cobra poison fatal to animal life. But some that was exposed to the light became innocuous in a few days, while another portion -*hich was wrapped in paper retained its virulent properties. This was an illustration ot the importance of letting in the sunshine which would destroy the cobra poison, and by anology such poisons as small-pox, scarlet lever, and typhus. The maintenance of an equable temperature is another requisite. The wave of cold that passes from time to time over our houses is so sharply destructive to life in certain ages as to kill by a kind of geometrical progression. If on persons above 30 years of age it produces an increase of mortality, the fatal effect doubles with every nine years of life. If it kill one person who has reached 30, it kills two of 39, four of 48, eight of 57, 16 of 66 32 of tb, and 64 of those who have attained to 84. Pure air, pure water purity from damp, pure daylight, equable temperature, these, said •Richardson, are the five fingers and right hand of health. They arc little known, but the knowledge exceeds the practice of them J. tie lecturer then entered on an interesting review of the difficulties which he in the way of reform, difficulties closely connected with

the social as well as with the physical development of man. He said that the progressive development of practical learning in the building of houses of towns had been much modified and delayed by political causes. But political circumstances in England had now become very favourable to improvement.. (To be continued.)