And even when the stove is constructed of pantiles or pottery-ware, if any part of it in contact with the air of the room is suffered to become very hot, which seldom fails to be the case in German stoves constructed on the common principles, nearly the same effects will be found to be produced on the air as when the stove is made of iron, as I have very frequently had occasion to observe.

Though a room be closed in the most perfect manner possible, yet, as the quantity of air injured and rendered unfit for further use by the respiration of two or three persons in a few hours is very small, compared to the immense volume of air which a room of a moderate size contains; and as a large quantity of fresh air always enters the room, and an equal quantity of the warm air of the room is driven out of it every time the door is opened, there is much less danger of the air of a room becoming unwholesome for the want of ventilation than has been generally imagined; particularly in cold weather, when all the different causes which conspire to change the air of warmed rooms act with increased power and effect.

Those who have any doubts respecting the very great change of air or ventilation which takes place each time the door of a warm room is opened in cold weather, need only set the door of such a room wide open for a moment, and hold two lighted candles in the door-way, one near the top of the door, and the other near the bottom of it; the violence with which the flame of that above will be driven outwards, and that below inwards, by the two strong currents of air which, passing in opposite directions, rush in and out of the room at the same time, will be convinced that the change of air which actually takes place must be very considerable indeed; and these currents will be stronger, and consequently the change of air greater, in proportion as the difference is greater between the temperature of the air within the room and of that without. I have been more particular upon this subject, -- the ventilation of warmed rooms which are constantly inhabited, -- as I know that people in general in this country have great apprehensions of the bad consequences to health of living rooms in which there is not a continual influx of cold air from without. I am as much an advocate for a free circulation of air as any body, and always sleep in a bed without curtains on that account; but I am much inclined to think, that the currents of cold air which never fail to be produced in rooms heated by Fire-places constructed upon the common principle, -- those partial heats on one side of the body, and the cold blasts on the other, so often felt in houses in this country, are infinitely more detrimental to health than the supposed closeness of the air in a room warmed more equally, and by a smaller fire.

All these advantages, attending the introduction of the improvements in Fire-places here recommended, are certainly important, and I do not know that they are counterbalanced by any one disadvantage whatsoever. The only complaints that I had ever heard made against them was, that they made the rooms too warm; but the remedy to this evil is so perfectly simple and obvious, that I should be almost afraid to mention it, less it might be considered as an insult to the understanding of the persons to whom such information should be given; for nothing surely can be conceived more perfectly ridiculous than the embarrassment of a person on account of the too great heat of his room, when it is in his power to diminish at pleasure the fire by which it is warmed; and yet, strange as it may appear, this has sometimes happened!

Before I proceed to give directions for the construction of Fire-places, it will be proper to examine more carefully the Fire-places now in common use; -- to point out their faults; -- and to establish the principles upon which Fire-places ought to be constructed.

The great fault of all the open Fire-places, or Chimnies, for burning wood or coals in an open fire, now in common use, is, that they are much too large; or rather it is the throat of the Chimney, or the lower part of its open canal, in the neighbourhood of the mantle, and immediately over the fire, which is too large. This opening has hitherto been left larger than otherwise it probably would have been made, in order to give a passage to the Chimney-sweeper; but I shall show hereafter how a passage for the Chimney-sweeper may be contrived without leaving the throat of the Chimney of such enormous dimensions as to swallow up and devour all the warm air of the room, instead of merely giving a passage to the smoke and heated vapour which rise from the fire, for which last purpose alone it ought to be destined.