of fire is to be traced to persons
locking their doors, and leaving their houses to the care of children.
I believe one-half of the children whose deaths are occasioned by
accident suffer from this cause alone: indeed, almost every week the
newspapers contain some melancholy confirmation of what I have here
stated. Intoxication is also a disgraceful and frequent cause of fire.
The number of persons burned to death in this way is really
incredible. It is true that it does not always happen that a fire
takes place in the house, in either of the above cases, although the
unfortunate beings whose clothes take fire, rarely escape with their
lives; but the danger to the neighbourhood is at all times
considerable, if persons in a state of inebriety are left in a house
alone. When there is reason to apprehend that any member of a family
will come home at night in that state, some one should always be
appointed to receive him, and on no account to leave him till he is
put to bed, and the light extinguished.

I do not mean to say that people must be actually drunk before danger
is to be apprehended from them. Indeed, a very slight degree of
inebriety is dangerous, as it always tends to blunt the perception,
and to make a person careless and indifferent. I may also add, that no
inconsiderable number of fires are occasioned by the thoughtless
practice of throwing spirits into the fire. The dresses of females
taking fire adds very much to the list of lives lost by fire, if it
does not exceed all the other causes put together.

Another very general cause of fire is that of approaching with lighted
candles too near bed or window curtains; these, being generally quite
dry, are, from the way in which they are hung, easily set on fire,
and, as the flames ascend rapidly, when once touched, they are in a
blaze in a moment.

It is really astonishing to find that, with daily examples before
their eyes, people should persist (whether insured or not seems to
make little difference) in practices which, there is a hundred chances
to one, may involve both themselves and the neighbourhood in one
common ruin. Of this sort are the practices of looking under a bed
with a lighted candle, and placing a screen full of clothes too near
the fire.

Houses not unfrequently take fire from cinders falling between the
joints of the outer and inner hearths. When smoke is observed to arise
from the floor, the cause should be immediately ascertained, and the