opening, into which no mortar is inserted, and by which all
the openings are allowed to communicate with each other. The walls are
in this manner honeycombed, so that there is in them a constant body
of common air let in by side openings in the outer wall, which air
can be changed at pleasure, and, if required, can be heated from the
firegrates of the house. The bricks intended for the inside walls
of the house, those which form the walls of the rooms, are glazed in
different colours, according to the taste of the owner, and are
laid so neatly, that the after adornment of the walls is considered
unnecessary, and, indeed, objectionable. By this means those most
unhealthy parts of household accommodation, layers of mouldy paste and
size, layers of poisonous paper, or layers of absorbing colour stuff
or distemper, are entirely done away with. The walls of the rooms
can be made clean at any time by the simple use of water, and the
ceilings, which are turned in light arches of thinner brick, or tile,
coloured to match the wall, are open to the same cleansing process.
The colour selected for the inner brickwork is grey, as a rule,
that being most agreeable to the sense of sight; but various tastes
prevail, and art so much ministers to taste, that, in the houses of
the wealthy, delightful patterns of work of Pompeian elegance are soon
introduced.

As with the bricks, so with the mortar and the wood employed in
building, they are rendered, as far as possible, free of moisture. Sea
sand containing salt, and wood that has been saturated with sea water,
two common commodities in badly built houses, find no place in our
modern city.

The most radical changes in the houses of our city are in the
chimneys, the roofs, the kitchens, and their adjoining offices. The
chimneys, arranged after the manner proposed by Mr. Spencer Wells, are
all connected with central shafts, into which the smoke is drawn, and,
after being passed through a gas furnace to destroy the free carbon,
is discharged colourless into the open air. The city, therefore, at
the expense of a small smoke rate, is free of raised chimneys and of
the intolerable nuisance of smoke. The roofs of the houses are but
slightly arched, and are indeed all but flat. They are covered either
with asphalte, which experience, out of our supposed city, has proved
to last long and to be easily repaired, or with flat tile. The
roofs, barricaded round with iron palisades, tastefully painted