On noxious vapours and town smoke, with suggestions on house warming / by Alfred E. Fletcher ; read before the Society, 25th January, 1888.

  • Fletcher, Alfred E.
Date:
22 cm
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On noxious vapours and town smoke, with suggestions on house warming / by Alfred E. Fletcher ; read before the Society, 25th January, 1888. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    4.12. - ISSS On Noxioit,s Vapours and Toivn Smoke, with Suggestions on House Warming. By Alfred E. Fletcher, F.O.S., F.I.S., H.M. Chief Inspector under the Alkali, &c., Works Regulation Act. [Read before the Society, 25th January, 18S8.] e Yielding in an umvary moment to the seductive invitation of your excellent President, Dr. Russell, I consented to read a paper before you this evening on Noxious Vapours, including Town Smoke, and to touch on a subject that leads natm-ally from this— namely, House Warming. I will do my best now to fulfil the promise, asking your forbearance beforehand should my lecture partake of the dulness inherent in the subject of which I treat. I will not take up your time by dwelling on the necessity of our having a sufficient quantity of air to breathe, remarking only that the air should be unmixed with any foreign gas, whether that gas be one that is actively hurtful to our bodies or whether it is to them inert and serves only to dilute the air we inhale. The air, composed of oxygen and nitrogen with a little carbonic acid and a varying quantity of watery vapour, is not a definite compound of these, but a mixture only, and one that can be modified by diminishing or increasing one or other of its ingredients. The same relative proportions of its constituents is, however, steadily maintained, thanks to the many agencies in nature ever working to this end. The animal breathes the air, and oxygen is absorbed into the blood. There it combines with effete matter, composed chieflj'- of carbon and niti'ogen, forming Avith them carbonic acid and watery vapour. These are exhaled and mix with the atmosphere, which would soon be thus vitiated but for the corrective action of plants which take up the carbonic acid and under the influence of sun-light decompose it, assimilating the carbon into its structure and returning the oxygen to the atmosphere. And lest this action should locally be impeded and air of irregular composition be found lurking in places, the atmosphere moves in mass from place to