through a wet tatty; I believe they might be rendered much less objectionable. The Kyburries supply very good examples in the construction of their houses, which we might imitate, by excavating a chamber in the face of a hill, with only a small opening for ingress, and a hole in the top for light and ventilation.
3. EFFECTS OF CLOSED DOORS.—It is a common custom in the hot weather to shut up every door and window soon after sunrise, and not to open them till an hour or two after sunset; nor is the exclusion of all fresh air thought enough, but every Venetian is also closed, and the darkness is so great, that visitors on first entering a drawing-room cannot see the inmates. In a very large room, where the residents are few, and the consumption of air trifling, this practice may not be very injurious; but where the family is large, the domestics numerous, with, perhaps, two or three dogs requiring their breathing room, the vital air must before night be greatly deteriorated. Inspiration in a hot temparature is more frequent than in a cool one, as are also the,pulsations of the heart:hence more cubic feet of air pass through the lungs in a hot day than in a cold day, and the room is sooner exhausted of its pabulum vitæ. Besides, each inmate may be considered as a living laboratory of heat, and not of heat only, but of carbonic acid gas, which neutralizes all the ad-
