But in England, the apartments, with their open chimnies,
may be compared to great aerial funnels, constantly pouring out their
warm air through a large opening, and constantly requiring to be
replenished; and where, from the irregularity of the supply or of the
discharge, the temperature is constantly fluctuating.
By the close stove and apartment fuel is saved to a great extent--they
also produce a uniformity of temperature; first, as regards the
different parts of the room, so that the occupiers may sit anywhere; and
secondly, as regards the different times of the day; for the stove once
heated in the morning, often suffices to maintain a steady warmth until
night; the heat can be carried to any required degree, and ventilation
is easily effected as desired. * * *
Consumption is the disease which carries off a fifth or more of the
persons born in Britain, owing in part, no doubt, to the changeableness
of the climate, but much more to the faulty modes of warming and
ventilating the houses. To judge of the influence of temperature in
producing this disease, we may consider--that miners who live under
ground, and are always, therefore, in the same temperature, are
strangers to it; while their brothers and relations, exposed to the
vicissitudes of the weather above, fall victims--that butchers and
others who live almost constantly in the open air, and are hardened by
the exposure, enjoy nearly equal immunity--that consumption is hardly
known in Russia, where close stoves and houses preserve a uniform
temperature--and that in all countries and situations, whether tropical,
temperate, or polar, the frequency of the disease bears relation to
the frequency of change.
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