But how is it in these respects with our schoolhouses gen- of the windows, the maps suspended around the walls, and erally? It would be difficult to classify the prevalent style of the appropriate color of the wood work, must strike every eye building with any of the received orders of architecture. favorably, compared with the dingy, prison-like aspect of most Each building is a class of itself, or rather belongs to what of our district schoolhouses. The area of the floor, including Mr. Mann has happily called, the sixth order of architecture- the recess for the teacher's platform and library, is about 474 the wicker-work order,-summer houses for winter residences. feet, and allows 16 feet for thirty scholars, or 14 feet for thirtyMany of them are so bunglingly constructed, the shingles and six scholars. The additional height of six or seven feet, clapboards are so loose, the floor and ceiling so badly match- given to this room, over the low ceilings so universal elseed, the under pinning so open, that it would seem as if they where, while it adds but a trifle to the expense, gives a symhad come together by a fortuitous concourse" of materials. metry to the proportions of the building, and almost doubles I must except here two venerable structures, which give un- the quantity of air which would otherwise be allowed to each equivocal evidence of design in respect to protection from the individual. That is, it gives 250 cubic feet of air to each cold beneath. They are forlorn specimens at best, of what pupil in a school of thirty, and 209 feet to each in a school of has been called in prose and verse, the "moral beauties" of 36, instead of an allowance of 40 to 60 cubic feet under the Connecticut. Their origin dates back beyond the memory of same circumstances. As will be seen by what I shall soon the oldest inhabitants. The storms of half a century, it say of the philosophy of ventilation, this is a prime considerawould seem, have left their dingy stains on the shingles, and tion. the roof of each is hent down under the weight of years. As Third.-Space and appropriate accommodation for teacher the clapboards near the ground disappeared, either from decay, and scholar are here secured. From this raised platform the or other causes, the districts, although situated thirty miles teacher can survey the whole school at a glance, and conduct apart, have resorted to the same expedient, to supply their the reading and recitations of his classes arranged, either implace. They have banked up the schoolhouse with earth, mediately around him, or which is far more preferable, along until, with the exception of the windows, they are nearly two the opposite end of the room. In the last position, those who thirds under ground, and here the "district school" goes into read or recite must of necessity speak loud and distinct in orwinter quarters. The teacher of one of them said it had the der to be heard, while the attention of the rest of the school, rare merit of being cool in summer and warm in winter. I will be less likely to be disturbed, as the ear only will be atpropose to have a sketch of one of them made and deposited tracted by what is going on. Directly back of the teacher with the Historical Society as a specimen of "the district are cases, for books and apparatus, already to some extent proschoolhouse in 1840." vided, and that indispensable article, a large blackboard, is so arranged with weights, as to be of convenient access, always within sight of the reciting class, and of the whole school, and yet, in the way of no one. Each scholar, young and old, is provided with a seat and desk, of appropriate height, and easy access. Of them and the mode of their arrangement, I will speak presently. Besides the space occupied by the platform of the teacher and the seats and desks of the scholars, there are aisles, conveniently arranged in reference to the doors and the evolutions of the school. The space, especially in the centre and around the sides of the room, can, on occasions like this, or of the visitation or examination of the school, be occupied by chairs, or benches, for the accommodation of parents and friends who may be disposed to come in. I would not be understood to say that Connecticut deserves a bad pre-eminence in this respect. In a neighboring state, an eye witness makes the following statement in print. "I have good reason for remembering one of another class of schoolhouses, where on every cold day the teacher was obliged to compromise between the sufferings of those who were exposed to the cold of the windows, and those who were exposed to the heat of the fire, by not raising the thermometer of the latter above ninety degrees until that of the former fell below thirty. A part of the children suffered the arctic cold of Captains Ross and Parry, and a part the torrid heat of the Landers, without, in either case, winning the honors of a discoverer. It was an excellent place for the teacher to illustrate one of the facts in geography; for five steps would have carried him through the five zones. Just before my present The size of school rooms, in reference not merely to the circuit, I passed a schoolhouse, the roof of which on one side proper seating and necessary evolutions of the scholars, but was trough-like; and down towards the eaves there was a to the cheerfulness, comfort and health of the inmates, has large hole, so that the whole operated like a tunnel to catch been strangely overlooked with us. Districts and committees all the rain, and pour it into the school room. At first I did have acted apparently on the principle of packing away as not know but it might be some apparatus designed to explain much live matter as possible in a given space. They have the deluge. I called and enquired of the mistress if she and thereby saved money in an outlay which is not to be be repeated her little ones were not sometimes drowned out. She said oftener than once in a generation, only to entail upon parents she should be, except that the floor leaked as badly as the roof, and guardians from year to year a much larger expenditure and drained off the water. And yet a healthful, comfortable for ill health, engendered in low, contracted, unventilated schoolhouse can be erected as cheaply as one which, judging school rooms. This subject however is now better understood, from its construction, you would say had been dedicated to and a wiser practice is slowly gaining ground. The building the evil genius of deformity and suffering." committee of this district have only applied the principle laid 3. Size. Most of the considerations which should deter- down by the best authorities on the subject, and introduced, mine the size and internal arrangements generally of a school- not only into structures of this character, but into every hoshouse, have been properly regarded here, although it is to be pital and prison, which has been recently erected. Mr. Lanregretted that the dimensions on the ground were not a little caster, who consulted the most rigid economy in his plans of more liberal, so as to allow more space for the evolutions of schoolhouses for the children of the poor, allowed an area of the school, and a separate room for recitations and other useful nine feet, and 150 to 180 cubic space to each pupil. Dr. Alpurposes, back of the teacher's platform. cott, in his Prize Essay on schoolhouses, recommends a space First. There is a separate entry for boys and girls, by not less than four feet square to each, which with the ordinameans of which much rudeness, confusion and impropriety of ry height of school rooms would make the same allowance of conduct will be avoided. A scraper and mat for the feet, air. Mr. Woodbridge, to whom the cause of education owes hooks and shelves for outer garments, and a wash basin and so much, supposes that 150 cubic feet of space is the smallest towel for dirty hands and faces, (if such things should ever which should be allowed to each individual. Mr. Mann, in be found among pupils so neat and cleanly, as those before me,) his report on schoolhouses, the latest and best exposition of have been or will be provided, and thus the health, manners, the whole subject, without fixing on a minimum of space, as well as proper habits of neatness and order be secured. handles with great severity that miserable economy, or overSecond. The school room is spacious, cheerful and sight, which would stint children in the use of pure air, which healthy. The unusual height of the ceiling and dimensions is poured forty and fifty miles deep all round the globe. The best European writers on hospitals, deem it indispensa "The catastophe apprehended from a leaky roof, threatens to overtake the chil-ble that every patient should have a space, never less than dren in one of the district schools of the first school society in Hartford. To an enquiry whether there was any opening in its ceiling for the impure air which 600 cubic feet, and the best institutions of this kind have had once been breathed to escape, the teacher of the school referred to, remark nearly twice that allowance. In the Lunatic Asylum at ed, "that if such air could get out where water could get in, there were openings Worcester, space equal to 800 cubic feet is allowed to each enough." Those who would see a specimen of the district schoolhouse as it is, patient. Besides this liberal allowance of room, each apart would do well to extend their walks to the schoolhouse referred to.-EDS. ment is furnished with the most perfect system of ventilation, | necessary to our growth, health and comfort, than food or by the introduction of pure warm air, heated by a furnace, and the escape of the air which has once been breathed by means of openings into flues which conduct it into an attic, and hence into the open air. drink, and which our beneficent Father, has furnished pure, without money and without price to our very lips, and so abundantly that we are, or should be if we did not prevent it, literally immersed in it all our lives long. Let me bespeak your particular attention to a familiar exposition of some of the scientific and practical principles connected with this subject, and which have been to some extent regarded in the arrangement of this room. In the Penitentiary of Philadelphia, 1300 cubic feet of air are allowed to every prisoner in solitary confinement. In the State Prisons at Sing Sing, Auburn, Concord, and Wethersfield, each cell contains a space equal to 171 cubic feet besides being ventilated by an opening in most instances, at the top and bottom into a flue which leads out into the open air. In the new county prisons at Hartford and Norwich, each cell has a space of 350 cubic feet, and in addition to an opening of four inches square at the top and bottom of each cell, the whole body of cells is surrounded by a spacious area, well lighted and ventilated. I have no hesitation in saying that there is not a district schoolhouse in the state, not even excepting the new one of which I am speaking, so well ventilated, as either of these County Prisons. No one thinks now-a-days of stinting criminals in the allowance of pure air. No one thinks of compelling them to work in such an atmosphere as nineteen twentieths of all the children and teachers of the state are required to study in. Nature however takes her re-acid, which is deadly hostile to animal life and combustion. venge, and the children do not study, and cannot study to any useful purpose long before muscle, nerve and mind faints and expires under its deleterious influences. In 40 out of 200 schoolhouses of which I have obtained accurate measurements, taken indiscriminately from the whole number, the average space allowed to each scholar is less than 70 cubic feet. 4. Light.-By the arrangements in respect to windows here adopted, large, elevated from the floor, and only on two sides of the building, the north and south,-several desirable objects are attained. An abundance of steady light, in clear weather, is secured from the north, the best possible for a school room, as well as the cheerfulness and warmth of a southern exposure. Any excess of light from the south can be modified or excluded, by blinds or curtains to be provided, or what would be better, softened by passing through ground glass.The danger to the eye sight, and the inconvenience, resulting from windows behind the teacher or the pupils, is here avoided. The attention of a single scholar when in his seat, need not be diverted by any passing object in the street. This last object is secured, by the elevation, and distance of the building from the street, by the arrangement of the seats so as to turn the faces of the scholars in the opposite direction, and by inserting the windows three feet and a half from the floor. 5. Ventilation.-The means of ventilating this school room, and thus renewing the vital portions of the atmosphere which are constantly absorbed, and removing impurities which at the same time are generated by the breathing of teacher and pupils, and by the fire in the stove, are much better than in most structures of this kind. The size of the room more than trebles the usual allowance of pure air to begin with, and which would therefore be kept purer than in most school rooms by the imperfect and irregular supply of fresh air admitted at cracks, crevices, and open doors. The opening near the ceiling into one of the flues, allows of the escape of the impure, overheated air which rises to the top of the room. The open stove with the large pipe, will create a draft all around it to sustain the fire, in which the deadlier and colder impurities near the floor will be carried off. The windows and doors on opposite sides and ends of the room, will further enable a judicious teacher at the recess, and the dismissal of the school at noon or night, to complete the thorough renewal of the atmosphere of the room, in which its proper ventilation con sists. The importance of some such arrangements, more perfect even than these, to effect a constant supply of pure air, not only in school rooms, but in any room where living beings congregate in numbers for business or pleasure, and where fires or lights are kept burning, seems to me to be strangely overlooked, to the inevitable sacrifice of health, comfort, and all cheerful and successful labor. We practically defeat the beautiful arrangements of our Creator by which the purity of the air would otherwise be preserved by its own constant renewal, and the harmonious growth and support of the animal and vegetable world maintained. We voluntarily stint ourselves in the quantity and quality of an article, which is more The atmosphere which surrounds our earth to the height of forty-five miles, and in which we live, and move, and have our being, is composed mainly of two ingredients, oxygen and nitrogen, with a slight admixture of carbonic acid. The first is called the vital principle, the breath of life, because by forming and purifying the blood it alone sustains life, and supports combustion. The fact that we breathe, and that the fire burns, is proof that there is oxygen in the atmosphere of this room, and that we breathe freely, and the fire burns brightly, that it is here now in its due proportion. But to sustain these processes there is a constant consumption of this ingredient going on, and as you will see by the facts in the case, the formation and accumulation of another ingredient, carbonic This gas is sometimes found in wells, and will there extinguish a lighted candle if lowered into it, (and which should always be lowered into a well before any person ventures down) and is not an uncommon cause of death in such places. It is almost always present in deep mines and at the bottom of caverns. Near Naples there is one of this description, called the Grotto del Carne, or the Grotto of the Dog, because the guides who accompany strangers to the interesting spots in the vicinity of Naples, usually take a dog along with them to show the effects of this gas upon animal lite. Being heavier than common air it flows along the bottom of the cavern, and although it does not reach as high as the mouth or nostrils of grown men, no sooner does a dog venture into it, than the animal is seized with convulsions, gasps and would die if not dragged out of it into the pure air. When recovered, the dog shows no more disposition to return to the cavern, though called after his own name, than some children do to go to places called schoolhouses, where experiments almost as cruel are daily and hourly tried. I have seen such houses, where a dog would show very bad taste and very little regard for his own safety, if he manifested any disposition to stay in them any longer than was absolutely necessary, and did not scamper away with the same delight that school children do when disimprisoned. If any of you should ever go to Naples, you will probably think as I did, that there is no occasion to go two or three miles out of your way to see the effects of carbonic acid upon a poor dog, when you can see it tried any day of a long winter on thirty or forty children at a time in almost any one of the district schools of Connecticut, especially if you have been the subjects of such experiments for ten or twelve years yourself. But this gas, bad as it is in reference to animal life and fires, is the essential agent by which our earth is clothed with the beauty of vegetation, foliage and flowers, and in their growth and development, helps to create or rather manufacture the oxygen which every breathing creature and burning fire must consume. The problem to be solved is how shall we least mar the beautiful arrangements of Providence, and appropriate to our own use as little as possible of that, which though death to us, is the breath, and the life blood of vegetation. The air which we breathe, if pure, when taken into the mouth and nostrils, is composed in every one hundred parts, of 21 oxygen, 78 nitrogen, and 1 of carbonic acid. After traversing the innumerable cells into which the lungs are divided and sub-divided, and there coming into close contact with the blood, these proportions are essentially changed, and when breathed out, the same quantity of air contains 9 per cent. less of oxygen, and 8 per cent. more of carbonic acid. If in this condition (without being renewed,) it is breathed again, it is deprived of another quantity of oxygen, and loaded with the same amount of carbonic acid. Each successive act of breathing reduces in this way, and in this proportion, the vital principle of the air, and increases in the same proportion that which destroys life. But in the mean time what has been going on in the lungs with regard to the blood? This fluid, after traversing the whole frame, from the heart to the extremi ties, parting all along with its heat and ministering its nourishing particles to the growth and preservation of the body, returns to the heart changed in color, deprived somewhat of its vitality, and loaded with impurities. In this condition, for the purpose of renewing its color, its vitality and its purity, it makes the circuit of the lungs, where by means of innumerable little vessels, inclosing like a delicate net work each individual air cell, every one of its finest particles comes into close contact with the air which has been breathed. If this air has its due proportion of oxygen, the color of the blood changes from a dark purple to a bright scarlet; its vital warmth is restored, and its impurities, by the union of the oxygen of the air with the carbon of blood, of which these impurities are made up, are thrown off in the form of carbonic acid. Thus vitalized and purified, it enters the heart to be sent out again through the system on its errand of life and beneficence, to build up and repair the solid frame work of the body, give tone and vigor to its muscles and re-string all its nerves to vibrate in unison with the glorious sights and thrilling sounds of nature, and the still sad music of humanity. But in case the air with which the blood comes in contact, through the thin membranes that constitute the cells of the langs, does not contain its due proportion of oxygen, viz. 20 or 21 per cent, as when it has once been breathed, then the blood returns to the heart unendued with newness of life, and loaded with carbon and other impurities which unfit it for the purposes of nourishment, the repair, and maintenance of the vigorous action of all the parts, and especially of the brain, and spinal column, the great fountains of nervous power. If this process is long continued, even though the air be but slightly deteriorated, the effects will be evident in the languid and feeble action of the muscles, the sunken eye, the squalid hue of the skin, the unnatural irritability of the nervous system, a dis-inclination to all mental and bodily exertion, and a tendency to stupor, headache and fainting. If the air is very impure, i. e. has but little or no oxygen and much carbonic acid, then the imperfect and poisoned blood will act with a peculiar and malignant energy on the whole system, and especially on the brain, and convulsions, apoplexy and death must ensue. and this exemption was attributed to their better supply of pure air. Humbolt in his Personal Narrative, mentions the case of a seaman who was at the point of death, and was obliged to be removed from his hammock, which brought his face to within a foot of the deck, into the open air, in order to have the sacrament administered as is the custom on board of Spanish vessels. In this place he was expected to die, but the change from the stagnant, impure atmosphere in which his hammock was hung, to the fresh, purer atmosphere of the deck, enabled the powers of life to rally, and from that moment he began to recover. Even the miserable remnant of the party who were confined in the Black Hole of Calcutta, sick as they were of a malignant, putrid fever, recovered on being admitted to the fresh air of heaven, under proper medical treatment. But the history of this whole affair is a terrible lesson on this subject, which though often repeated, cannot be too often dwelt upon. Most of the children here, I dare say, have heard of the Black Hole of Calcutta. We meet with it in the newspaper and in daily conversation as a comparison, a proverb of terrible significance. This Black Hole is a prison in Calcutta, 18 feet square, into which the Nabob of Bengal after the capture of Fort William from the British in 1756, thrust 146 English prisoners. The only opening to the air, except the door was by two windows on the same side, strongly barred with iron. Immediately on the closing of the door a profuse perspiration burst out on every prisoner. In less than an hour their thirst became intolerable, and their breathing difficult. The cry was universal and incessant for air and water, but the former could only come in from the grated windows, and the latter, when supplied by the guards. without, only aggravated their distress. All struggled to get near the windows, and in this death struggle as it were, many were trampled under foot. In less than three hours several had died, and nearly all the rest were delirious and prayed for death in any form. On the opening of the door at six o'clock in the morning, less than eleven hours after it was closed, death had indeed come to the relief of 123 out of the 146, and the remainder had sunk down on their dead bodies sick with a putrid fever. Now what did all this anguish, and murderous results spring from? From breathing over and over again air which had become vitiated and poisonous by passing repeatedly through the lungs, and by exhalations from the surface of the bodies of the persons confined there. "This terrible example," says Dr. Combe in his Principles of Physiology, "ought not to be lost upon us, and if results so appalling arise from the extreme corruption of the air, results, less obvious and sudden, but no less certain, may be expected from every lesser degree of impurity." Abundant instances of the beneficent effects of pure air, and the injurions and fatal results of breathing that which is impure, might be cited from the history of hospitals and prisons, and writers generally on health and education. In the Dublin Hospital, between the years 1781 and 1785, out of 7650 children, 2944 died within a fortnight of their birththat is more than one in three. Dr. Clark, the physician, suspecting the cause to be an imperfect supply of pure air, caused it to be introduced by means of pipes into all of the apart "In our school rooms," says Dr. Bell, "churches, hospitals ments, and in consequence, during the three following years, and places of public evening amusements, and even in our only 165 out of 4242 died within the two first weeks of their private dormitories, we not unfrequently make near approachbirth-that is less than one in twenty. Dr. Buchan, at a little es to the summary poisoning process of the Black Hole at earlier date, by the same arrangement reduced the mortality of Calcutta." We do not appreciate the magnitude of the evils children in a hospital in Yorkshire, from fifty in one hundred, produced by breathing frequently, even for a short period at to one in fifty. In these two cases there was an immense any one time, a vitiated atmosphere, because the ultimate resaving of human life. But the good done by these intelligent sults are both remote, and the accumulation of repeated exand observing physicians was not confined to these hospitals posures. Besides, the immediate effects may be not only for a few years. The results of their observation and la- slight, but may apparently disappear on our breathing again a bors led to the introduction of more perfect arrangements for free and purer air, so that we forget to appreciate the tempoa supply of pure air in all structures of a similar character rary inconvenience or suffering and to refer them to their true in England and elsewhere. And at this hour there are hos- cause. How often do we retire at night, perfectly well, and pitals in this country and in England, in which there is a rise up in the morning unrefreshed with sleep, with an aching larger number of cubic feet of air, and that kept pure by per- head, a feverish skin, and a sick stomach, without reflecting fect means of ventilation, allowed to each patient than is that these symptoms of a diseased system are the necessary contained in many school rooms in this state occupied by 20, effects of breathing the atmosphere of a chamber, narrow in 30, or 40 children, heated with a close stove, and provided its dimensions, closed against any fresh supply from without, with no means of ventilation except such as time and decay and not unlikely made still more close by a curtained bed, and have made. exhausted of even its small quantity of oxygen, by a burning The diminished mortality of prisons, and the almost entire fire or lamp? These same causes, a little longer in operation, disappearance of that terrible scourge, the jail fever, so fre- or a little more active, would produce death as surely, although quent before the days of Howard, is to be attributed mainly not as suddenly as a pan of ignited charcoal in the room. to the larger allowance and regular supply of pure air secured Who has not noticed that the fainting and sickness which so by improved principles of prison architecture and discipline. often visits persons, and especially females of delicate health There are instances on record, where the inmates of prisons in crowded churches and lecture rooms, only occurs after the have escaped the visitation of some prevalent sickness, solely air has become overheated and vitiated, by having been a long on the ground of their cells being better provided with pure time breathed, and that an exposure to the open air generally air, than the dwelling houses all around them. The prisoners restores the irregular or suspended circulation of the blood? In in the Tolbooth, in Edinburgh, were unaffected by the plague, the relief and newness of life which we experience on emergwhich caused such dreadful mortality in that city, in 1645, ing from such places of crowded resort, we forget that the weariness and languor, both of mind and body which we suffered within, were mainly the depressing effects of the imperfectly vitalized blood, and that the relief is simply the renovated life and vigor, which the same blood, purified of its carbon by coming in contact with the oxygen of the air imparts to the whole system, and especially to the brain. But in spite of our forgetfulness of the cause, or the apparent disappearance of the temporary inconvenience and distress, which should warn us to beware of a repetition of the same offence against the laws of comfort and health, repeated exposures are sure to induce or develop any tendency to disease, especially of a pulmonary or nervous character in our constitutions, and to undermine slowly the firmest health. Who can look round on a workshop of fifteen or twenty females, breathing the same unrenewed atmosphere, and sitting perhaps in a position which constrains the free play of the lungs, and not feel that disease, and in all probability, disease in the form of that fell destroyer of our fair country women, consumption, will select from among those industrious girls, its ill starred victims? The languor, debility, loss of appetite, difficulty of breathing, coughs, distortion of the frame, (fallen away from the roundness natural to youth and health,) nervous irritability, and chronic affections of various kinds, so common among females in factories, even in our own healthy New England, or those who have retired from such factories to their own homes to die, or wear out a dying life all their days, are the natural fruits of an exposure, day after day, to an atmosphere constantly becoming more impure from the vitiated breath of forty or fifty persons, and rendered still more unfit for respiration by dust and minute particles floating in it calculated to irritate the already inflamed and sensitive membrane which encloses the air cells of the lungs. To this exposure in the workroom should be added the want of cheerful exercise, and innocent recreation in the open air, and the custom of herding together at night in the small, unventilated sleeping apartments of our factory boarding houses. and uneasiness manifested, especially by the younger children, The necessity of renewing the atmosphere, does not arise solely from the consumption of the oxygen, and the constant generation of carbonic acid, but from the presence of other destructive agents, and impurities. There is a carburetted hydrogen, which Dr. Dunglison in his Physiology, characterizes, "as very depressing to the vital functions. Even when largely diluted with atmospheric air, it occasions vertigo, sickness, diminution of the force and velocity of the pulse, reduction of muscular vigor and every symptom of diminished power." There is also sulphuretted hydrogen, which the same author says in its pure state kills instantly, and in its diluted state, produces powerful sedative effects on the pulse, muscles and whole nervous system. There are also offensive and destructive impurities arising from the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter in contact with the stove, or dissolved in the evaporating dish. But I have dwelt long enough on the agents which render it absolutely necessary to the health, comfort and cheerful labor of teacher and pupils, that the atmosphere of a school room should be constantly renewed, or ven I should be glad to pursue this subject into its thousand diversified forms of mischief, all more or less extensive, and always insidious, but must return briefly to its connexion with the school room. Here the same poisoning process goes on day after day, and if the work is less summary, it is in the end more extensively fatal, than in the Black Hole of Calcutta. True, we have no school rooms, quite so small, compared with the number they are made to bold, as that prison house, but I can point to many where the allowance of air to each person, is not twice as great. And in more than seven eighths of all the school houses, the children are allowed a less quantity of pure air than the inmates of the State Prison at Wethersfield, or the County Jail, at Norwich and Hartford. I know of but one school room, which can be said to be too large, and that is in the basement room of a church, and is dark, damp, and imperfectly ventilated. Every man and woman, who received any portion of their early education in the com-tilated. mon schools, can testify to the narrow dimensions, and low The objects to be attained are-the removal of such impuceiling of the school rooms, and to the discomfort arising not rities, as I have referred to, and which are constantly generaonly from hard seats, and from frequent and extreme alterna- ted, wherever there is animal life and burning fires, and the tions of heat and cold, but from the close, stagnant, offensive atmosphere, which they are obliged to breathe. Who does not remember the comparative freshness and vigor of mind and body with which the morning's study and recitations were begun, and the languor and weariness of body, the confusion of mind, the dry skin, the flushed cheek, the aching head, the sickening sensations, the unnatural demand for drink, the thousand and one excuses to get out of doors, which came along in succession as the day advanced, and especially in a winter's afternoon, when the overheated and unrenewed atmosphere had become obvious to every sense? These were nature's signals of distress, and who can forget the delicious sensations with which her holy breath, when admitted on the occasional opening of the door, would visit the brow and face, and be felt all along the re-vitalized blood, or the newness of life with which nerve, muscle and mind were endued by free exercise in the open air at the recess, and the close of the school? Let any one who is skeptical on this point visit any one of the 1700 or 1800 district schools in this State-the school of his own district, where his own children perhaps are condemned to a shorter allowance of pure air than the criminals of the State, and he cannot fail to see in the pale and wearied countenances of the pupils, the languor due supply of that vital principle, which is constantly consumed by breathing and combustion. The first can be in no other way effectually secured, but by making provision for its escape into the open air, both at the top and the bottom of the room. By an opening in or near the ceiling, into a flue leading into the open air, the warmer impurities, (and air when warm, and especially when over heated will retain those noxious gases longer) which rise, will pass off. By an opening near the floor into the smoke flue, or even into a flue constructed for the purpose, the colder and deadlier impurities will be drawn in to supply the partial vacuum occasioned by the ascending column of smoke and heated air above. Thus the common fireplace and chimney is an excellent ventilator, for there is a strong current of air near the floor towards the fire to support the combustion, and in this current the carbonic acid, which as soon as it becomes a little cold, settles to the floor, is drawn along into the fire and up the chimney. There is however such an enormous want of heat in these fire places and even when multiplied, they afford so variable a temperature, and cause such an influx of cold air through every crevice to supply the current always ascending the chimney, that I cannot recommend their restoration to the school room, from which they are now universally banished. But the chimney which receives the stove pipe should extend to the floor, and these ignorant se lf destroyers were the identical results a litopen there into the room with some arrangement like the re-tle more remote, which are caused by the atmosphere of our gister of a furnace, and thus all the purposes of the old fash-school rooms, churches, manufactories and other places where ioned fireplace, in reference to ventilation, can be secured. I men, women or children are crowded together. These results hope this will be done with the flue on the north side into are quickened in overheated atmosphere, because such air has which the stove pipe is carried. To supply the oxygen, less oxygen, and retains the impure gases longer. Still the which is withdrawn by combustion and respiration, and also scenes of death and misery in the Black Hole of Calcutta the air which will escape into the chimney, and through the would have taken place if the same prison house had been in openings above described, pure warm air should be constantly Greenland. flowing into the room. For this purpose some of the modes for warming the air before it becomes impure by breathing, and before it enters the room, which I shall soon describe, should be adopted. The common mode of opening a window, or door, is imperfect and objectionable, inasmuch as the cold air falls directly on the head, neck and other exposed and sensitive parts of the body, and thus causes discomfort, catarrh, and other more serious evils, besides reducing the temperature of the room too suddenly and too low. This mode of ventilating a room should not be resorted to except with great precaution and generally only at recess, or intermission; if there is however no other mode of ventilation, the upper sash should be occasionally lowered but not more than one or two inches, and on different sides of the room. 6. Temperature.-The means of producing, diffusing and duly regulating artificial heat in a school room, is, in a clinate like ours, another of the indispensable conditions of health, comfort and successful labor. To effect this, the structure must not be "a summer house for winter residence" but be calculated to keep out the cold wind and especially to prevent its entering at cracks, and defects in the doors, windows, floors, and plastering, so as to fall suddenly and directly only on the feet, neck, or other sensitive and exposed portions of the body. Fuel of the right kind, in the right condition, in suitable quantity and in due season must be provided. The best modes of consuming it so as to extract its heat and diffuse it equally through all parts of the room and retain it as long as is safe, must be resorted to. The means of regulating The ventilation of large factory work rooms in England is it, so as to keep up a uniform temperature in different parts of now effectually secured by a simple contrivance, called the the room, and to graduate it to the varying circumstances of excentric fan, placed at one end of an apartment, and made a school at different periods of the day, and in different states to revolve with great rapidity by being attached to the steam of the weather, must not be overlooked. These objects and engine. The impure air of the room is drawn into the fan to principles are regarded to some extent here. From its posisupply that which is condensed by the revolving wings, and tion, its materials, its workmanlike construction, and the trees forced out through a pipe leading into the open air. When which will ere long temper the heat of summer and break the fan is propelled, so as to revolve with the rapidity of 80 the force of the winter's wind, this house is calculated not onft. per minute, it throws the air so powerfully out, in an apartly to be cool in summer, but warm in winter. There are no ment about 200 feet long, as to create a draft at the other ill matched floors to subject the children to cold feet, and thus end capable of keeping a weighted door six inches ajar. Dr. disturb the circulation of the blood and prevent its regular Ure in his "Philosophy of Manufactures" mentions a curious re-vitalization in the lungs, which operates like a slow poison instance of the consequence of introducing one of these ven- on the system. There are no cracks, no broken panes of glass, tilating fans into a weaving mill near Manchester. The work no loose windows, no shackling doors to admit the cold wind people instead of thanking their employer for his humane at- ou portions, and usually the most exposed portions of the tention to their comfort and health, made a formal complaint body, and thus cause a variety of painful sensations, headto him, that the ventilation had increased their appetites and aches, stiff necks, rheumatism, catarrh and the germs of even therefore entitled them to corresponding increase of wages! more serious diseases. When your wood shed is completed, As their pay was nearly double of that received by laborers and which I hope will be large enough to be a shelter and on the breezy plains of Sussex and Kent, the profits of the place for recreation during the recess and intermission in wet establishment would not admit of any augmentation. But the weather, you will, I doubt not, see that there is a suitable supemployer made a compromise; by stopping the fan during half ply of hickory, hard maple, black birch, &c., early in the seathe day, he adjusted the ventilation and voracity of his estab- son, properly cut, split and housed, and not do as is somelishment to a medium standard, after which he heard no com- times done elsewhere allow each proprietor to bring his proplaint on the score of health or appetite. portion when he pleases, and perhaps not till the school has been suspended for want of it, and then to leave it all about the premises, not cut, split, or housed, but to be incased in ice, or covered up in snow, and not unfrequently so green, and of such poor quality that "lightning itself will scarcely ignite There is a mischievous error prevailing, that if a room is it." Little do parents seem to appreciate the necessary conkept at a low temperature there is no need of ventilation. Dr. sequences of their shameful neglect in this one particularAlcott mentions the case of a teacher, who when asked if she the loss of a considerable portion of the morning session, the did not find it difficult to keep her room ventilated, replied, aching feet and hands, the benumbed faculties, the interrupted "not at all, it is one of the coolest rooms in the city." I have recitations, the harmony, temper, and pleasant associations received the same reply in substance again and again. The with study and the school broken up, and all from the want necessity of ventilation arises from the consumption of the of proper regard for their children and of that prudence and oxygen and the generation and accumulation of carbonic acid forecast which makes their own winter firesides cheerful and principally in breathing, and both of these processes can go happy. The open stove with large pipe, not bending till the on and do go on, in a cold room, as well as a warm one if human horizontal position is carried ten or twelve feet above the beings are collected in it and goes on rapidly and fatally ac- heads of the children, affords as effectual, economical and uncording to the number of persons and the size and closeness objectionable a mode of consuming the fuel and disseminating of the apartment. Dr. Arnott in his work on "warming and the heat as any stove of this kind. It is far superior in point ventilating," mentions a striking instance of popular igno- of economy to the open fire place, as ordinarily constructed in rance with respect to this subject, and of a mischievous prac- which near seven-eights of the heat evolved, ascend the chimtice founded upon that ignorance among some poor girls in ney and only one eighth, or according to Rumford and FrankBuckingham shire, England, who gained their livelihood by lin, only one fifteenth is radiated from the front of the fire into lace making. To save the expense of fire they were wont in the room. It has to some extent the cheerful light of the winter to choose among the rooms belonging to their families open fire, to which habit and association have attached us, and the smallest which would contain to the number of twenty or the advantages of the latter, in opening broadly near the floor, thirty of them, and then to congregate and keep themselves and thus drawing in the colder air with the carbonic acid in warm at their work by breathing. The atmosphere of the the current which goes to sustain the combustion and ascend room, as might have been expected by any one acquainted the large pipe of the stove. Unless the common mode of with its constitution and the process going on, although un- constructing fireplaces and chimneys can be greatly improved, perceived by themselves, soon became exceedingly offensive or the original Franklin fireplace or stove, or the double fireto a stranger entering, as well as highly injurious to them. place be substituted, the waste of heat, and the pressure of The pale faces, broken health and early deaths of many of cold air through every crevice to supply the ascending current The most effectual inode of ventilating or removing the air of any large room, is necessarily connected with the modes of warming, and upon them I will touch lightly in speaking of the temperature of school rooms. |