we have a useful agent, which might with advantage be more generally
employed; but when either it or hot water be used for heating purposes,
special and adequate means of ventilation must be employed. Gas stoves
are made in many forms, and in a few cases can be employed with
advantage; but I believe they are more expensive than a coal fire, and
it is most difficult to prevent the products of combustion finding their
way into the dwellings. Gas is a useful agent in the kitchen for cooking
purposes, but I never remember entering a house where it was so employed
without at once detecting the unpleasant smell resulting. It is rare to
find any special means for carrying off the injurious fumes, and without
such I am sure gas cooking stoves cannot be healthy adjuncts to our
homes.

The next difficulty we have to deal with is artificial lighting.
Whether we employ candle, oil lamp, or gas, we may be certain that the
atmosphere of our rooms will become contaminated by the products of
combustion, and health must suffer. In order that such may be obviated,
it must be an earnest hope that ere long such improvements will be made
in electric lighting, that it may become generally used in our homes as
well as in all public buildings. Gas has certainly proved itself a very
useful and comparatively inexpensive illuminating power, but in many
ways it contaminates the atmosphere, is injurious to health, and
destructive to the furniture and fittings of our homes. Leakages from
the mains impregnate the soil with poisonous matter, and it rarely
happens that throughout a house there are no leakages. However small
they may be, the air becomes tainted. It is almost impossible, at times,
to detect the fault, or if detected, to make good without great injury
to other work, in consequence of the difficulty there is in getting at
the pipes, as they are generally embedded in plaster, etc. All gas pipes
should be laid in positions where they can be easily examined, and, if