Second report from the Select Committee on Ventilation and Lighting of the House : together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Ventilation of the House.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report from the Select Committee on Ventilation and Lighting of the House : together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    them on Wednesday week. I consider, however, the lighting ^jg]lt Hotl> of the present House is far more agreeable than the lighting The Speaker. of the old House. -— 326. Chairman.'] Did you ever turn your attention to the q™ nature of the light in tne day time from the stained glass windows ?—No. 327. You have not perceived any effect from them '?—No. 328. Mr. Ricardo.] Do you find a great difference in the state of the atmosphere in a full House, and when there are very few Members in it ?~ When there is a very full House the heat is much more oppressive. In the old House there was less change of temperature than in the present House. The ventilation was under better management, and I ex- perienced less discomfort from Members going out of the House. A more equal temperature was preserved throughout the whole evening. This does not seem to be the case in the new House. 329. Do you find that these alterations of warm air and cold air are more frequent when the House is very full than when it is comparatively empty? — No; I have not ex- perienced any difference in that respect. 330. Chairman.'] Were you aware that there was a leakage of gas last night?—No ; I did not perceive it. David Bosivell Reid, m.d., further Examined. S31. Chairman.^] IN the course of your evidence yesterday D. B. Reid, you explained to the Committee more in detail than you have M-D- done in your report, some remedies which you propose to bring into operation for the evils which are now complained of. In reference particularly to the bad smells, do you con- sider that they are attributable solely to the leakage of gas ? —By no means. There are many other sources of bad smells. In the first place, the House was totally unfinished when it was first occupied. I have known the varnishing of a single panel to be the subject of debate in the House of Peers, month after month ; and till the very day that the House was occu- pied, the men were painting right and left, up and down stairs, on every side; so that The House entered into an apartment which may be said to have been newly painted. Secondly, a large number of workmen were engaged there, both on the Sunday and the Saturday previous. I was there on the Sunday myself, as well as Sir Charles Barry, and the number of men working there was so great that many parts of the floor of the House were literally a compound of lime, dust
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