ve for feeding the fire. The
difference between a furnace and a tight stove or fire-place is this:
The furnace takes the bad air from the basement or cellar, frequently
made still poorer through its passing over red hot iron, which absorbs
part of its oxygen, and fills the room with it. The room being filled
with poor air, none of the pure air outside will enter it, because there
is no vacuum. Thus the bad air introduced into the room, and the bad air
created by the persons in it, will be the only supply for the lungs of
the patients. But should the furnace take its air from outside the
house, as it is the case with some improved kinds, there would still be
no ventilation in the sick-room, except there be a fire-place beside the
register of the furnace. With the stove or fire-place it is different:
The stove continually draws off the lower strata, i. e. the worst part,
of the air to feed the fire, whilst pure air will rush in through every
crevice of the doors and windows to supply every cubic-inch of air
absorbed by the stove. Thus the air in the room is constantly renewed,
the bad air being carried off and good air being introduced. However,
the openings through which the pure air comes in, must be large enough
in proportion to allow a sufficient quantity of air to enter the room to
make fully up for the air absorbed by the stove; for, if not, the air
in the room will become thin and poor, and the patient will suffer from
want of oxygen. An open fire, from the necessity of its burning brighter
and larger to supply sufficient heat, a comparatively large part of
which goes off through the chimney, will require a greater supply of
air, and consequently larger ventilators or openings for the entrance of
the pure air from outside the room. In very cold weather, and in cold
climates in general, stoves are preferable to fire-places, the latter
producing a draught, and not being able to heat a room thoroughly and
equally, causing one side of the persons sitting near them to be almost
roasted by the radiant heat in front, whilst their backs are kept cold
by the air drawing from the openings in the doors and windows towards
the fire to supply the latter. In merely cool weather, and in moderately
cold climates, especially in damp places, I would prefer an open fire to
a stove. In cold climates stoves are decidedly preferable, especially
earthen ones, as they are used in Germany and Russia. Iron stoves must
never be heated too much