From these details it will at once appear, that that part of the builder’s art which relates to the arrangement and building of the fire-place is by no means an unimportant one, since the comfort of the inmates is seriously affected by want of skill on his part. Hence we may also observe, that chimney doctors are liable to the same kind of errors as quack doctors in another sphere; for it is almost as absurd to attempt to cure all smoky chimneys by one course of proceeding, as to cure all kinds of diseases by one medicine. There may be a deficiency of air in the room; the opening of the fire-place maybe too large; the chimney may not have height enough; one chimney may overpower another in its draught; the chimney may be overtopped by higher buildings or by a hill; the door of a room may be badly placed with respect to the window; or, lastly, as in Dr. Franklin’s “puzzling case,” the chimney may be nearly stopped up. All these are sources of the much-dreaded “smoky chimney,” and all require modes of treatment adapted to the nature of the evil. Many of these evils have, to a considerable extent, been remedied by the use of Rumford stoves, and other forms of stove and grate, in which, although retaining all the chief characters of an open fire-place, there is yet a great diminution of the evils to which the latter is liable. There have, however, been marked extensions recently made in the construction of _close stoves_, intended to obviate the ill effects attendant on open fire-places. These must be briefly noticed. Close Stoves. In a close stove, no air is admitted but what passes at once through the fire; and the chimney or funnel is only just large enough to carry off the sulphurous and other vapours, for there is hardly any smoke from a close stove, and, therefore, it is not necessary to make a chimney large enough to admit a climbing-boy.