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his lungs nearly a gallon of air at each inspiration, and he makes about fifteen inspirations in a minute, when at rest. The lungs are a curious and wonderful contrivance, by which the air is exposed to the blood, which has the power of absorbing its purer part and of giving out another kind of air in return, which is unfit to support life. Another admirable provision of the great Author of Nature is visible here, to prevent this exhausted and poisonous air from being breathed a secondic time. By its having received so much heat from the lungs while in » them, as to make it lighter than the pure atmosphere, it rises above our heads during the short pause between the throwing out the breath and the drawing it in again; and thus a pure draught is secured to us. By the care we take to shut out the external air from our houses we prevent the escape of the exhausted air, and thus breathe again and again the same contaminated, unrefreshing atmosphere. Who that has ever felt the reviving influence of the breezes of the morning can wonder at the lassitude and disease that follow the continued breathing of the pestiferous atmosphere of crowded or ill-ventilated apartments. It is only necessary to observe the countenances of those who inhabit close rooms and houses-the squalid hue of their skins their sunk eyes, and their languid motions, to be sensible of the bad effects of shutting out the air. Fevers of the most malignant nature are produced by this cause; mild diseases are made formidable; and curable diseases are rendered mortal.

Besides the contamination which the air gets from being breathed, there are other matters passing off from the body which tend to depreciate it; especially where many persons are crowded together, and when a due attention to cleanliness is neglected. Cleanliness is indeed essentially necessary to preserve the air pure; for if dirty linen, and the putrid contents of chamber utensils, be left in apartments, the air must necessarily become charged with the effluvia constantly arising from such matters.

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It may be taken as a wholesome general rule, that whatever produces a disagreeable impression on the nose is not favourable to health. Doubtless the sense of smelling was given to guard us against the dangers that we are liable to from vitiation of the atmosphere; and if have by the same means a high source of gratification from other ob jects, it ought to excite our admiration of the beneficence of the Deity, in thus making our senses serve the double purpose of pleasure and security; for the latter purpose might just as effectually have been answered by our being only susceptible of painful impressions. On going into a bed-room in a morning, soon after the person occupying it has left his bed, though he shall be in health and habitually cleanly in his person, the nose never fails to be offended with the odour of animal effluvia with which the atmosphere is charged. If under such circumstances the air is vitiated, how much more injuriously must its quality be depreciated when several persons are confined to one room; where there is an utter neglect of every thing like cleanliness; where cooking, washing, and all other domestic affairs, are performed; where

the windows are immoveable, and the door is never opened but for some one to pass in or out.

This is the condition of too many of our poorer neighbours, both in town and country. On entering such a den of filth, the nose is saluted by a stench so horrible as to make any person but the wretched inhabitant pause before he ventures in; but his senses are blunted, and he does not perceive that with every breath he takes he draws in a poison that is sapping the vigour of his body and destroying the energies of his mind. Where is the wonder, that with such absolute neglect all the diseases of persons so situated should be of a dangerous character? or that the mind should be dispirited, and that the man should fly to drams to obtain a relief from the burden which he finds weighing him down?

The importance of cleanliness is not confined to its effect on the health; for if we consider it as connected with morals, I am persuaded that we shall be disposed to inculcate it still more forcibly. The insensibility of mind that exists in those who are devoured by filth is most unfavourable to virtue. If men are once so far overtaken by sloth or poverty as to submit unrepiningly to the utter destitution of comfort that attends excessive dirtiness, all sense of shame will soon be lost, and with it all disposition to exertion. Rouse the man once to a perception of cleanliness, and you will see him exchange his sloth for activity.

It is true that man in his natural state is quite indifferent to those circumstances which constitute dirtiness; but then the nature of his situation exempts him from the bad consequences that attend this neglect in the present condition of society. There he is necessarily almost entirely in the open air-a circumstance which compensates for the deficient shelter afforded by his badly-constructed dwelling, by bracing his nerves and hardening his constitution till he becomes insensible to the inclemencies of the weather and the rigour of the seasons; while here he is so carefully protected from the access of air that an accidental exposure to it is often followed by fatal consequences. Such poor, weak, delicate creatures, do we make ourselves, by our care in shutting out the external air, in heating our rooms, and by our neglect of exercise,-that we cannot encounter the fresh cool breeze without endangering our lives.

All persons who can be induced to reflect for a moment on the importance of the subject, must at once see the necessity of habitual attention to cleanliness of the person, of the clothes, and of the houseof the house se both within and without; for it will be of little avail that all within the house is the very pink of cleanliness, and that it shall be most perfectly ventilated, if a green mantling ditch or pool, or heaps of putrifying vegetables, be so near the door that the poisonous vapours they are continually exhaling must spread through every part of it. All putrid waters should be drained off; heaps of decaying vegetables should be removed to a distance; for in hot seaa never-failing source of fever.

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Neglect of cleanliness, as regards the person, is the occasion of the worst diseases of the skin, and is a most powerful obstacle to their removal. Frequently washing the whole surface of the body will be found as conducive to health as it is necessary to comfort; and if bathing could be used, no mode of washing would be so effectual as that which is attended with the immersion of the whole body in the water. But our climate is not warm enough to admit of cold bathing; and, unfortunately, the means of warm bathing are attainable but to few, and those few have generally so many prejudices as to be deterred from using this best of all possible means of cleansing the obstructed pores of the skin from the grosser parts of the perspiration, which are continually accumulating. If the whole population could have the advantage of using a tepid bath, once a week, the general healthfulness would be incalculably increased; and diseases of the skin, which are now so troublesome, would soon disappear altogether. But though the means of immersing the whole of the body in water are not at the command of all, there are none but have it in their power to wash the whole surface of their bodies with warm or cold water once a week. If they would use soap so much the better; and twice a week is better

than once, and every day is still better. Those who can once be

brought to venture on so unheard-of a thing as to wash the whole of their bodies, will generally be induced to repeat the experiment from the comfort it affords; and to the weakly and delicate, nothing can supply a better preparation against the vicissitudes of temperature to which they are necessarily exposed during the day, than washing the body all over in the morning, on rising, with cold water, and having it well rubbed dry with a coarse cloth.

Another part of the attention necessary to keep the person in a state of cleanliness, is the frequent changing the clothes that are worn next the skin. It is true, I believe, that all Englishmen honour the Sabbath by putting on a clean shirt; but many who would not, on any account, omit that wholesome ceremony, wear a flannel waistcoat under the shirt, which they cannot be induced to change. They put it on when new, and wear it till quite worn out, without washing in fact till quite rotten from the filth it has accumulated.

One would scarcely suppose that argument would be required to induce persons to relinquish a practice so abhorrent; but so powerful is the effect of prejudice, that there is generally great difficulty experienced in introducing the more wholesome course of changing flannel undergarments once or twice a week.

To keep the atmosphere of our houses from contamination, it is necessary to remove all matters that can injure its purity, The linen of beds should not be allowed to remain unchanged till it has lost all appearance of ever having been white, or of having had any acquaintance with the washing-tub. The contents of chamber vessels should not be allowed to remain an instant if it were possible; every moment they remain they fill the air with a filthy odour that is little less than poisonous to all who breathe it. Those who have but one apartment, in which they must, of necessity, perform all their domestic duties,

should be careful to remove all matters that are offensive in smell, as cabbage water, dirty soap suds, &c. ; they should indeed avoid washing in the room they live in, if possible, for the steam arising from the hot water carries with it much of the offensive matter separated from the clothes, and disperses it through the air. Drying clothes in-doors should be avoided for the same reason. Flowers in water, and living plants, in pots, should never be allowed to remain in bed-rooms during the night, for they give out great quantities of an air that is so highly noxious, that persons who have incautiously gone to sleep with them in their rooms have not unfrequently been found dead in the morning. The utmost attention to cleanliness will not preserve the air in our houses pure and fit for respiration, unless we take care that it does not stagnate. A constant renewal of the air is absolutely necessary to its purity, for in all situations it is suffering either by its vital part being absorbed, or by impure vapours being disengaged and dispersed through it. Ventilation, therefore, resolves itself into securing a constant supply of fresh air by keeping up a current. In the construction of houses for the poor, the great object of ventilation has too generally been overlooked; when, by a little contrivance in the arrangement of doors and windows, a current of air might, at any time, be made to pervade every room of a house of any dimensions. Rooms cannot be kept well ventilated that have not an outlet for the air; for this reason, there should be a chimney to every apartment. The windows should also be capable of being opened, and they should be situated, if possible, on the side of the room farthest from the fire-place, that the air may traverse the whole space in its way to the chimney. Fire-places in bed-rooms should not be stopped up with chimney boards. The windows should be thrown open for some hours every day, to carry off the animal effluvia which is necessarily separating from the bed-clothes. No opportunity should be allowed to escape of renewing the air.

Diffusing the steams of vinegar through rooms, by plunging a hot poker into a vessel containing it, is often used for the purpose of correcting disagreeable smells, and for purifying the air; the burning of aromatic vegetables, smoking with tobacco, and exploding gunpowder, have been had recourse to for the same purpose: but they are all entirely useless, excepting inasmuch as they promote a change of the atmosphere, and that they have no power to effect. The explosion of gunpowder may indeed do something, by displacing the air within the reach of its influence; but then unfortunately it furnishes air equally offensive, and as unfit to support life as the one it was used to remove. All these expedients serve but to disguise the really offensive condition of the atmosphere, which they have no power to correct.

Chemistry has furnished the means of purifying the air of chambers, in which persons are confined with contagious diseases, so as to destroy the noxious matter, and prevent its extending: this is accomplished by placing a saucer or two in different parts of the room, containing the following preparation:- Take of common culinary salt (muriate of soda), two ounces; of black oxyd of manganese, one ounce; mix

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them together in a mortar; when it is intended to be used, a table spoonful of this powder is to be put into a saucer, and a sufficient quantity of the oil of vitriol of commerce (sulphuric acid), is to be poured over it to moisten the whole; it should be stirred together with a stick, and left in the room intended to be fumigated. Immediately on mixing these ingredients together they begin to emit a pungent vapour, and continue to do so for some hours; this vapour penetrates every corner of the apartment, and is found to be destroying the matter on which contagion depends. tion will be of any avail in purifying stagnant air, or breathed till it has been deprived of all its vital part. which the air has received by being breathed, being dispersed through the vast expanse, become the food of plants, which, aided by the sun's rays, absorb it, and give to the atmosphere, in its place, pure vital air. This process can only be prevented by shutting the air up in our houses; and that I have endeavoured to show is pregnant with so many evils that it ought, on the principle of self-preservation, to make us never rest satisfied unless every part of our dwelling is effectually ventilated.

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ACCOUNT OF THE EARTHQUAKE AT KUTCH ON JUNE 16, 1819. Drawn up from published and unpublished Letters from India.

(From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.)

THE western coast of India has been visited by an earthquake, which has spread desolation and panic over a great extent of country; and whose destructive effects will be seen and felt for many years to come. This tremendous convulsion of nature was experienced from Bombay to beyond the tropic of Cancer; but the centre of the concussion seems to have been in the province of Kutch, which has severely suffered. In describing this alarming occurrence, we shall select, from a variety of letters which have been received on this subject, the most important particulars.

The first and greatest shock took place on the 16th of June, 1819, a few minutes before seven in the evening. The day had been cool and showery; Fahrenheit's thermometer ranging from 81° to 85°. The monsoon had set in mildly, without much violent thunder and lightning; and there was nothing unusual in the state of the atmosphere at that season that could afford any ground for apprehension. The wind, which had been blowing pleasantly towards evening, at the commencement of the concussion fell into a dead calm, and in a moment all was consternation and horror. The wretched inhabitants of Bhooj were seen flying in all directions to escape from their falling habitations. A heavy appalling noise,-the violent undulatory motion of the ground,-the crash of the buildings,-and the dismay and terror which appeared in every countenance, produced a sensation horrible beyond descrip

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