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necessarily be inconclusive, merely going to show that at one particular maximum of heat a candle ignites, whereas a candlestick does not. is very important; for whereas the point may be conceded that (ordinary dwelling-houses being in question-edifices where materials of no extraordinary danger are stored) iron, lead, zinc-metals in the aggregate, to generalise-are all fire-proof, yet when bonded warehouses, with all their heterogeneous materials are concerned, no such conclusion is valid. Whether iron and other metals shall be deemed practically combustible or not, will altogether depend upon the energies capable of being brought into operation. Such is the doctrine of the chemist. And here, in pure justice to poor Braidwood, the admission must be made that he, years ago, arrived at the same conclusion. There are no certain means of discovering and noting very high temperatures: wherefore to indicate one known and fixed temperature at which iron begins to burn is pure speculation-no better when it does commence burning, however, it burns with a vengeance; and whereas wood when burning evolves flames, a form of combustion that admits of being controlled by water, iron rolls forth an uncontrollable lava-stream of far-reaching desolation.

Scanning the contributions of poor Braidwood to the "Transactions of the Civil Engineers,"-studying also the little tract which first brought him into notice,—it will be perceived that he strenuously aimed at drawing a marked distinction between ordinary conflagrations and the graver case of fire run wild, as we recently saw evidenced.

Practically, in dwelling-houses, iron is incombustible; yet, contradictory though it should seem, an apartment may be incombustible and still not fire-proof. That is to say, its walls may grow incandescent, thus tending to propagate fire to whatever combustible matter may chance to be in contact with them on the outer side. The profuse employment of iron for building purposes-public, private, or technical-is attended with grave dangers other than combustive. Of all solid bodies, metals expand most when heated; and the force of expansion is indomitable: easier far to restrain the escape of the gases evolved from inflamed gunpowder, than to restrain the expansion of an iron bar under the influence of heat.

Contemplating the labyrinth of iron-bar work to be seen in numerous buildings, one can readily form a notion of the terrific thrusts iron pillars and beams would exert if once brought within the influence of a severe conflagration. No one contingency of a fire is so much dreaded by fireengineers as this. Strictly speaking, no edifice absolutely fire-proof,-in other words, wholly incombustible, has been, or ever can be, built. Even the pyramids of Egypt could be consumed on the ground whereon they stand, if, for some sufficient reason, it should seem fitting to the ruler who watches over them to set philosophers the task. Nevertheless bricks and stone are within the ordinary limits imposed on the term incombustible; and, what is of no less importance, both are composed of materials which expand but slightly under the influence of heat.

Dwelling-houses considered, perhaps more protectiveness may be sought

in improved planning and disposition of parts than in mere incombustibility of material. Fire once broken out, the great aim should be to cut off the supply of supporting air, without which no fire can long maintain itself; to prevent draught, that is to say. Supposing fire to have broken out in some particular room, doors and windows should at once be shut, if possible. Wood-indeed every ordinary combustible—yields a gas as the result of its combustion, in an atmosphere of which gas combustion is no longer possible. If, however, a current of fresh atmospheric air be admitted, and the gaseous products of combustion driven away, then do we have the exact condition of a chimney. Apropos of chimneys, the announcement may as well be made at once, that although chimneys are answerable for many house conflagrations, staircases are answerable for more. A chimney on fire is no very serious matter if it be a well-built chimney; if the ends of joists and beams,-if woodwork of every sort and condition, be absent; but when once flame has welled out into the staircase of an apartment, the culminating point of danger has been achieved. Functionally, the staircase of a house, when flame has reached it, may be regarded as a chimney,-a chimney, too, in the construction of which almost every possible condition of safety has been violated.

A chimney on fire is no very serious matter, provided the chimney be unexceptionably constructed. At the time being, however, no one of those most concerned is very likely to have, or to be able to acquire, sufficient information upon that point; wherefore I would counsel that a chimney on fire, whether well or ill constructed, should be treated with consideration. What, then, should be done? If possible (but it rarely is possible) the very best thing to do would be to get upon the roof with a flat tile or iron plate in hand, and lay it coverwise across the chimneytop. This treatment not being possible,-none being possible at the upper end of the chimney,-let us see what, with propriety, can be done at the lower end. If a fire-arm, gun or pistol, be in the way, to discharge it up the chimney is excellent. Heaps of burning soot will certainly fall, probably dislodging the fire from its seat wholly. The soot down and glowing, or a fire from ordinary fuel remaining on the hearth, a handful of brimstone should be thrown upon it, if possible; and finally a carpet or hearthrug, or a blanket dripping with water, should be promptly nailed before the chimney, with the intent of obviating all further draught. The sulphur treatment is very good practice. Burning, it yields sulphurous acid gas, in an atmosphere of which nothing can burn.

If a chimney or chimney-place be not the fire-focus, if a conflagration have broken out elsewhere in an apartment, then also it is very proper (if possible) to hang a wet blanket in front of the fireplace as before. By proceeding thus, draught will be prevented.

Whilst a fire can be prevented extending to a staircase, a house need not be despaired of; but once the flame tongues playing there, safety of property is next to hopeless. Other circumstances being equal, the dan

ger to be apprehended from conflagration is proportionate to the facility of determining the precise focus of its origin, and the means at hand for getting at that focus. An illustration of this should here be mentioned: the sense of great danger always associated by firemen with the presence of a fire-focus in the space between the ceiling of a room and the overlaying floor. Once present there, and sufficient air admitted, conflagration spreads with alarming rapidity.

Unfortunately, the perils imminent to life and limb, as well as to property, are generally increased by frantic wildness on the part of those whose safety is jeopardised. Instead of calmly reasoning on the case, judging promptly what best to do and doing it, the inmates of a burning house too frequently lose their presence of mind and act inconsiderately. Were the subject one less terrible than "house conflagrations," some amusement might be found in contemplating the freaks of wild unreason that often prompt a thrifty housewife to throw glass and crockery out of a window upon the pavement to the end of saving them. Nevertheless this is one of the most common incidents of house conflagrations.

Having just adverted to the dangerous contingency of the existence of a fire-focus between the ceiling and the floor of a room, I am led to note one of the most usual causes of that form of fire calamity, viz. that most reprehensible act of raking out a fire. This most objectionable practice chiefly obtains with women. They do it under the ostensible plea of safety; but were the faculty given me (I never expect it) to understand a woman's true thoughts and meaning, to read as in a book thrown open the secrets of feminine free-masonry, I should expect to discover some deep cabalistic significance attached to raking out the fire. To argue the matter is useless: I rather think the young ladies have some vague notion that they shall see the lineaments of something to love in the glowing embers; what the old ladies expect to see, I cannot guess; but, old and young, the dogma of raking out the fire is accepted by every Englishwoman. Now raking out a fire may be defined as an act by virtue of which burning embers are removed from a place of considerable safety to one of considerable danger. The ways in which a conflagration may be thus determined are many, but notably this,-around about the hearth-stone are usually chinks and crevices; the room being swept, light combustible materials enter those chinks and crevices, ready to burn on very slight provocation. The merest scintilla of burning coal falling down upon this dust-like combustible matter is enough; a treacherous fire-focus is forthwith established-the more treacherous that it is for a time unknown, and when known not attackable directly. A tumblerful of water might extinguish the fire-focus for the mere size of it, but, being hidden, it is unapproachable.

Next in order to a protest against raking out a fire comes naturally, and connected very closely, another protest against an assumed means of safety adopted by some persons against fire by a metallic plate sheathing. Walking about in winter time, here in this great city of ours, or else

where, in perhaps any British town or city, one may see in the office of almost any man of business one calls upon at random exemplifications of the bad practice here adverted to,—the iron mailed system. Now iron mailplates may or may not be good to keep fire out of a ship-we won't enter upon that topic; but no fireman, no chemist, no engineer who has given the subject due reflection, no iron-safe maker, nobody, in short, who has formed an opinion upon the case, and whose opinion is worth having, will own that sheathing of iron plates is good for preventing the spread of fire.

The business man has a stove; that stove stands out into the room more or less, not upon the bare wooden floor, of course;-upon what then? Sometimes upon a mere iron plate; and if the stove itself, under the auspices of some one more thoughtful than usual, be raised upon a course of bricks, the area immediately in front of it, and upon which glowing cinders fall, that area is assumed to be protected sufficiently when sheathed with an iron plate. If, again, our business friend's gas-flames seem to rise to a dangerous propinquity with the ceiling, protection against this is sought in the universal armour plate. Well (and the dictum is not mine, but poor Braidwood's), this armour plating is no protection at all; on the contrary, it is provocative of combustion. Below, behind, or above the armour plate, as the case may be, wood-work, continually heated, becomes preternaturally dry, ever prone to take fire, and sometimes actually taking fire through a modification of what would be commonly denominated "spontaneous combustion."

If in these passing remarks nothing like a reasonable list of usual causes of house conflagrations has been attempted, that is to be explained as follows the causes are well-nigh infinite as to number and variety. The most prominent amongst them are obvious already, but disregarded; and many of the less prominent, if mentioned, would not be remembered, perhaps not believed. Useless to write a homily against the practice of reading in bed. That it is a dangerous practice I own; yet, reprobating it, I do it. But I never permit lucifer-matches to stray about and get trodden under foot, knowing the treacherous ways of lucifer-matches too well. I have seen them ignite by mere force of falling in hot weather. Nor is my conscience answerable for the dereliction of allowing the wick-end of a coloured wax-taper to remain glowing; well aware that, owing to the metallic colouring matter, it may not only keep glowing on to the very end of the taper, but may actually burst into flame when inmates have gone away, little heeding what might happen. The most careful amongst us are careless sometimes-careless below the need of the occasion. Headstrong and reckless people of either sex will read in bed as heretofore; certain Bohemian outlaws will even smoke there. Housewives, more thrifty than discreet, will go on raking live embers on the hearthstone o' nights, until the time (may I never live to see it) when women, casting away that sweet unreason, their greatest charm, shall grow logical: ladies propounding each her case in syllogisms; female members of society, of presumed philosophic bent, attending the Royal-Institution lectures on Friday nights,

with other ends in view than seeing, to be seen, and showing off new dresses; the dear headstrong "I will and I won't" abandoned by womanhood of all degrees; the lovely sex, having discarded the heart's warm impulsiveness, often so instinctively right, for the head's old reason, often so blunderingly wrong, becoming at last even as the male-the inferior -sex, reasoning creatures.

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House conflagrations will not cease to be, in spite of all precautions. Wherefore, fire having broken out, and all inmates having done their duty so far as in them lies, it remains to be seen how people may get away when their presence can be of no further advantage. Two general suggestions may be offered: either to dash through the flante, or escape by the window. In regard to the first, a wet blanket thrown over the body as an envelope puts the cool-minded wearer in the position to run the gauntlet of considerable flame; to run, however, usually for a distance no greater than can be accomplished whilst holding the original breath. natural and inevitable result of flame is to generate a noxious atmosphere, usually of carbonic acid and carbonic-oxide gas; both so extremely poisonous, that, once breathed, the person falls down insensible, asphyxiated, if not smothered outright, a certain prey to complete asphyxiation or burning eventually. The second alternative-leaping from a window-is indeed easy enough; but to leap from a window without breaking bones or encountering death outright is a different matter. All who would understand the art and science of falling easy should observe-and observing, study the evolutions of Leotard. That most graceful of all gymnasts never fails to convey to lookers-on the most perfect assurance of immunity from danger. And wherefore? Because he conveys the assurance, even to the most sceptical, that, falling from his maximum height, he will always alight on his feet unharmed. Now he or she who would leap from a three-story window into the street unharmed, should remember and carry into execution certain anatomical principles brought to bear for the occasion by M. Leotard. I do not speak of summersaults; they are orna mental, like appogiaturas in music. I speak of the gymnast's presentation of body to mother earth, or rather the thick felt laid upon it. The very gait and aspect of Leotard would testify to the anatomist that he is a falling man. See him standing still, moving, walking: how differently set up is he to most men! Leotard is not straight set up, after the standard so cherished by soldier martinets. His head droops forward, you would say, perhaps, heavily. His spine is moderately curved; ready to double without shock upon the hips. Then, lastly, the nether limbs-observe them; observe the knees especially; they are bent too. From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot all is either curved or angular. What is the practical result of this? Evidently as follows: Leotard, fall he from whatever elevation upon his feet, imparts to his frame upwards no direct shock. He may double up-to some extent he does double up; but that is the worst of it. Were he to fall upon his feet, straight set up as a Guardsman, the shock would be so great that no mortal frame could bear