stiff necks, and catarrhs, not to mention more serious diseases, which so frequently follow the exposure. There is an old Spanish proverb, thus translated, If cold wind reach you through a hole, Go make your will, and mind your soul, which is scarcely an exaggeration.” The current of fresh air which enters to feed the fire becomes very remarkable when doors or windows are opened, for the chimney can take much more than it otherwise receives when the doors and windows are shut; and thus the room with its chimney becomes like an open funnel, rapidly discharging its warmed air. 4. _Cold to the feet._--The fresh air which enters in any case to supply the fire, being colder and specifically heavier than the general mass already in the room, lies at the bottom of this as a distinct layer or stratum, demonstrable by a thermometer, and forming a dangerous cold-bath for the feet of the inmates, often compelling delicate persons to keep their feet raised out of it by footstools, or to use unusual covering to protect them. 5. _Bad ventilation._--Notwithstanding the rapid change of air in the room, perfect ventilation is not effected. The breath of the inmates does not tend towards the chimney, but directly to the ceiling; and as it must therefore again descend to come below the level of the mantel-piece before it can reach the chimney, the same air may be breathed over and over again. In a crowded room, with an open fire, the air is for this reason often highly impure. As another source of impure air in a house, it may be noticed that the demand of the chimneys, if not fully supplied by pure air from about the doors and windows, operates through any other apertures. 6. _Smoke and dust._--These are often unavoidable from an open chimney, much affecting the comfort and health of the inhabitants of the house, and destroying the furniture. Householders would make great sacrifices in other respects to be free from the annoyance of smoke. In large mansions, with many fires lighted, if the doors and windows fit closely, and sufficiency of air for so many chimneys cannot therefore enter by them, not only do the unused chimneys become entrances for air, but often the longest and most heated of them in use overpower the shorter and less heated, and cause the shorter chimneys to discharge their smoke into the room. 7. _Loss of time._--During the time every morning while the fires are being lighted, the rooms cannot be used; and there are, besides, the annoyances of smell, smoke, dust, and noise, all of which are again renewed if the fire is allowed to go out and to be relighted in the course of the day. 8. _Danger to person and to property._--How numerous are the losses of property by carelessness as to fires is well known to all, while the loss frequent but more distressing loss of life too well attests the danger to children and to females thinly clad often consequent on an open fire.