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. We may here remark, also, that it is not
consumption alone which springs from changes of temperature, but a great
proportion of acute diseases, and particularly of our common winter
diseases. In how many cases has the invalid to remark, that if he had
not taken cold in such a place, or on such an occasion, he might yet
have been well. * * *

The following considerations present themselves in this place.--Small
rooms in winter are more dangerous to health than large ones, because
the cold air, entering towards the fire by the doors or windows, reaches
persons before it can be tempered by mixing with the warmer air of the
room--Stoves in halls and staircases are useful, because they warm the
air before it enters the rooms; and they prevent the hurtful chills
often felt on passing through a cold staircase from one warm room to
another. It is important to admit no more cold air into the house than
is just required for the fires, and for ventilation; hence there is
great error in the common practice of leaving all the chimneys that are