Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/620

602 window was slightly raised the opening would only be where the two sashes overlap, and the admitted air thus thrown upward, originated Mr. Tobin's principle of getting the admitted air diffused in the upper part of the room; and that whoever did this in a room, with apparently no prearranged outlet, first realized the process known by the name of "Tobination."

We believe it was Sydney Smith who declared that if any one in London should stare continuously for a few minutes at the clouds he would be forthwith surrounded by a crowd of gazers, no one knowing why he gazed, intently interested in nothing, and quite unaware that the secret of his sympathy was the inspiration that makes the ploughman whistle—want of thought. For ourselves we do not undervalue this gregarious vacuous tendency. First catch your hare, says good Mrs. Glass, as the initiatory step to cook it. First secure your audience in this matter, as the absolutely necessary preliminary to convince the understanding and stimulate to action. The excitement and satisfaction felt at the recommendation of a mode of ventilation, because perfectly simple and thoroughly efficacious, and yet so obviously similar in its results to window-ventilation, we are disposed to hail as an encouraging symptom, although such satisfaction seems wonderfully like that felt by good King George when he adopted the simple expedient, under advice, of shutting his mouth to keep out the dust and dead flies on a windy day!

If the sanction of royalty helped to promote so proper a mode of excluding dust and insects, so, similarly, a report upon "Tobination," signed by six peers and gentlemen, and published in the Times on May 16th, may help to recommend the admission of fresh air as a useful method of ventilation. The phenomena attested are certainly surprising in their concurrence, and we cannot but regret that these noblemen and others did not simply state their opinion, which every one would respect, without assigning proofs which most persons must question. "Nae plea is best," say the cautious Scotch, and we are further reminded of the dictum of a wise old friend, "My reasons may be all wrong, but I know that my conclusion is quite right." Now, if the report had simply attested the fact that at a certain time the atmospheric condition of the ward was good, this would have been "nae plea," and best; for the raison d'être of the said good atmospheric condition seems to us to be contradictory. What the said six found they thus describe:

 "In the ward of St. George's Hospital ventilated by Mr. Tobin's pipes we found the following phenomena: 1. Pure air agreeable to breathe. 2. Absolute equality of temperature at every level of the room, in which gas had been burnt for some time. 3. Freedom from all draught of air. "With a lighted taper we could detect no current in any portion of the room."