The Sun. — 1841-06-15 (London, England)

REID'S CONCLUDING ADDRESS. " there perceive the children respiring air that was still When the various subjects had been discussed that worse, end equally injuring their physical censtitution, and preventing them from sustaining any cont humus at.: formed the more specific object of attention in the last tention .to the service in which they are cearagesa lecture, Dr. Reid addressed the audience as to the imBnt • let . 'him look to the schools enacted for poatance of introducing, on an extended scale, instructions in the elements of science in all schools and aca- < the training of youth, and there he 1%-oula, often trace the same effects, while in particular PUicu:,s demies. Next to a.proper attention to the revealed word the severity of the podson occasionally atudashees teda of the Creator, there was nothing that so deeply into- tine forec that the general coaracter of the school is a rested the progress of society generally, or the welfare and comfort of each individual man in particular, as a by the vitiated atmosphere respired, and eas!:s are apt:eh:Ll out, where et en for successive generations tiller! , knowledge of the works of that Creator as manifested in (' hooh has continued to affect the faculties of the materials of which the human frame is composed, and the external agents by whith it is sir- But let • him pass to . tee chamber the dying, rounded. An eialless variety of comfort or discomfort oppressed, d 3; (thcebesick', and m eatai and the disconsolate, the is produced, according -to the extent that he is enabled and there he will tithe, too frequendysn . often e ova_ bodily suffering sometimes produced, Wjalusrw,gl to control their action and render them subservient to Clarke's ted, by a vitiated atniosphaae. his own purposes, or as he becomes the victim of their passage occurs in violent or insidious influence, whether he erishes sad- work, which he had already quot_lend,a 11 1 in low, denly in their tempestuous action, or is consumed silentlyauthor states which, when allnding to arsonsya confined,. and damp situations, the by ti movement so slow and gentle as to be • imperceptible ~ - - . without om formal disease, they aae at first, though death itself might be the bitter portion ' an,; afteia embittertheir life, subjt to Various complaints a' to which it ultimately leads. There were f except me- nable of bodily and. ' 1 hielitl and render them much less c.a. diced men, who had any idea of the few, mi- ' Id if placed in a situation more vast amount of ithey v•ou be exertion taari serf, discomfort, and loss Of life, even in this country, constitution. For his part, ho (Dr. that could be distinctly traced to the neglect of external congenial to theirconeurred in these remarks, but felt Reid) not Daly , agents upon the human frame. In a work lately pub- even suicide itself might occasionally lislied-e(he alluded to the third edition of Sir James satisfied, thait bye' the oppression that so often attends Ciarke's work. on the " Sanative Influence of Climate") be ; pm, acei,n,ii tr influence of a noxious atmosphere. —the following passage occurred, referring more partieu- Pre' Peid then tiaverted to the advantages that would relaxly to the defective 'construction of d6welling houaes suit to the military and naval service were all officers to anti the- inefficient means usually provided for ventilai obian opportunities of becoming practically acquainted lion :---j The' consequence is. that the - occupants are with the influences of external agents, that Might be mobrea t hing vitiated • air during the greater part of the diti(al in their actions on the human frame. in many cases night, that is, during almost one-half of . their lives." in distant countries this was no trifling matter.; caa.,:aniellt This expressed the opinion universally entertained by occur where it might be a matter of life or death to thboe medical men, and he was assured that those who had under their charge, when no medical officer accompanied such opinions were equally satisfied at to the extreme theaa, But it was unnecessary to enter into farther deimportance of providing as pure atmosphere in every tails:- .To any. Who would attentively consider the precase for the, purposes of respiration, but unless people; bent state of society, and the progress of science, it was  _ . . generally were informed on this point=-unless they not only' entertained clear and distinct views aS'tn the' sanative influence of climate, but endeavoured also to make that climate as agreeable to them as pessil4,when they were not in circumstances' to take advantage of another such as might be more congenial to their constitution, they would be continually subjected to evils which might be ,more or less avoided. Look to the weekly bills of mortality in this.metropolis ; observe the large amount of deaths from diseass of the organs of respiration. I Tow many of these might be avoided were a knowledge of, the relations. ,of external agents to our own frame more generally understood ; and even where they could not be averted, still how much might human misery be at times alleviated were those who are the immediate attendants upon the sick more conversant with the nature of that air which actsinuessantly upon the system, and which from the moment of birth till life becomes extinct never ceases to exert • the most powerful influence upon the health ;. and so intianatcly is our own existence in.this. terrestrial globe entiVined with its action, that, day and night, we draw ctph it incessantly, upwards of a thousand times an hour. Some imagined still that chemistry was only intended for medical men, manufacturers, engineers, and men of science. But who was there  evident that the business of education could not be continued longer withmit associating; the study ofsciencc along with it,' even in the humblestsehools,ands.eme experience would be required,to show the extent to Which it ought to he cultivated. He trusted that the illustrations he had given, would assist, however humbly, in this great eanse, which he considered one of the noblest that could engage the at tention of mankind,- as it was' replete on every side with application that tended to increase the comfort and to diminish part of the misery to which mankind is exposed, while it appeared egrally to form the 'basis of Ciose means by which the .power of the press, and of .the steam-engine, had already been extracted from the 'materials with which we are sursounded, and wielded as the most powerful agents vented by than, in affecting all the higher destinies of his nature. Nor was any limit apparent to the forces which man might yet be permitted to employ in gations of science, and the . appluicsaedtinonf facilitating the progress of society by the investiolafteart;earEsvellas tahnele=eaqfpo'4liirtin'httt been nuerreotypic process that thateteenxticioon e eucpoi dr e'" much from dheadserzedarLylocy rattention; while society by SO interesting a discovery, the electric fluid, bad been