The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-08-04 00:00:00

I thotiiht it as

got men to bare c

bed of v

into the hole ; but when we got sia or seven inches deeper,
the hole was immediately full of water. I immediately
conceived that 1 saw where the water came from. The
land had never been drained to this depth. Drains had
been made to the surface, but these drains could not take
away the water beneath them ; and as this clay laid upon
a pool of water, it was impossible that the clay could ever
crack, and let the water out. The clay would absorb the
water below, and Ps cracking would thereby be prevented,
and a three feet drain, therefore, could not absorb the
water. I first requested that a drain should be made on
a peculiar plan. I had a outfall of sufficient depth to en-
able me to lay in a drain five feet deep, and I did so.
Then, in order to put the soil as nearly as possible in the
condition in which it naturally was, 1 caused the trench
which had been opened out to receive the pipes to be
plugged up with the original clay, and a second line of
draining laid in the same direction, and determining in
the same outlet, so that there would be water in both,
couid determine the quantity of water conveyed away in
each, separately or in both conjointly.—Dir. Parkes'
Lecture at a Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society
at Newcastle.

DEFECTIVE VENTILATION IN DWELLING-HOUSES,
WORKSHOPS, SCHOOL-ROOMS, AND PUBLIC BUIL-

DINGS, AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE

There is an expression of Hippocrates of great depth
and meaning, and which, like many other short sentences,
contains more than meets the eye. He says, "the whole
body inspires and expires," This is an important truth ;
for it not only describes a condition withont which life
cannot exist, but it also lies at the root of the whole
'bject of ventilation. The vast extent and universal
,ion of the atmosphere around the earth, and the

numberless contrivances whereby r

ire is continually
aiming at preserving it in a state of purity, all go to
prove, that any confinement or stagnation must be inju-
rious to health. It is from the atmosphere that man
" inspires " the vital element, without which be cannot
exist, and it is into the atmosphere that he again
" expires " those various ga'eous matters which, if re-
tained within his frame, would prove equally fatal with
the deprivation of air itself. The chief agency whereby
those gases and vapours are rendered innocuous is,
dilution in the vast mass of the atmosphere, and the
purifying ection of rains, winds, and the leaves of plants,
It is by these means that the atmospheric 'ocean is pre-
served in a state of purity, and fitness for the support of
living beings.

Whenever men depart from the conditions on which
health is granted to them, they must infallibly suffer. If
they shut themselves in narrow confined streets and
courts, which preclude the possibility of a free circulation
of air, their health mnst be sacrificed. And s ill more
will this be the case, if they increase the impurity of the
atmosphere, by having the localities in which they dwell
uncleansed and without adequate drainage. But when
to these causes, which we have already fully discussed,
we add the peculiarly impure air which is allowed to ac-
possibility of renewal,

generally without t

g-house

nd other build

from t

ob liou

power of invent
as a habit of extensive and var

tion.—Slewart,