In floors next the ground we cannot easily prevent the access of damp, but this should be guarded against as far as possible. All mould should be carefully removed, and, if the situation admits of it, a considerable thickness of dry materials, such as brickbats, dry ashes, broken glass, clean pebbles, concrete, or the refuse of vitriol-works; but no lime (unless unslaked) should be laid under the floor, and over these a coat of smiths’ ashes, or of pyrites, where they can be procured. The timber for the joists should be well seasoned; and it is advisable to cut off all connection between wooden ground floors and the rest of the woodwork of the building. A flue carried up in the wall next the kitchen chimney, commencing under the floor, and terminating at the top of the wall, and covered to prevent the rain entering, would take away the damp under a kitchen floor. In Hamburg it is a common practice to apply mineral asphalte to the basement floors of houses to prevent capillary attraction; and in the towns of the north of France, gas-tar has become of very general use to protect the basement of the houses from the effects of the external damp. Many houses in the suburbs (particularly STUCCONIA) of London are erected by speculating builders. As soon as the carcase of a house is finished (perhaps before) the builder is unable to proceed, for want of money, and the carcase is allowed to stand unfinished for months. Showers of rain saturate the previously unseasoned timbers, and pools of water collect on the basement ground, into which they gradually, but surely, soak. Eventually the houses are finished (probably by half a dozen different tradesmen, employed by a mortgagee); bits of wood, rotten sawdust, shavings, &c., being left under the basement floor. The house when finished, having pretty (!) paper on the walls, plate-glass in the window-sashes, and a bran new brick and stucco portico to the front door, is quickly let. Dry rot soon appears, accompanied with its companions, the many-coloured fungi; and when their presence should be known from their smell, the anxious wife probably exclaims to her husband, “My dear! there is a very strange smell which appears to come from the children’s playroom: had you not better send for Mr. Wideawake, the builder, for I am sure there is _something the matter with the drains_.” Defective ventilation, dry rot, _green_ water thrown down sinks, &c., do not cause smells, it’s _the drains_, of course!