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it; but, by adopting anatomical principles, and bringing them to bear, he escapes all harm. It is useless, with any rational hope of safety in view, to jump from a bedroom, or even second-story floor, upon the uncovered pavement: but if a heap of soft things-mattresses, feather-beds, pillows, blankets, and so forth-be laid in a heap to break the fall, the result may be different. That expedient, however, should not be trusted to when better can be commanded; and usually one far better-additional and supplementary too-is compatible with the rapid exigencies of such an occasion. If a strong blanket, or bed-coverlid, or, better still, because larger, a carpet, be grasped firmly at either corner, the precipitation may be effected with comparative safety. It must not be headlong precipitation, however: that is always dangerous. If you could dissect for once a human head and neck, and see, and ever after bear in mind, the fragile delicacy of that elaborate work of hinge and pivot which serves to attach head to neck, you, ay, every body who had seen the mechanism, would ever after be more careful to keep both out of danger.

In thus discussing the proper means of escape to be adopted by one subjected to the calamity of being hemmed in by the flames of house conflagration, I have dealt with houses as they are, rather than houses as they might be.

It is sad to reflect on, yet still a fact, that the trivial expedient, ornamental as well as useful, of a continuous balcony from house to house, for every single floor, would permit ready means of escape in the event of a fire. Of course I know the objection already raised, and again possible to be raised. It is alleged that an expedient favourable to escape from flame of fire might lend facilities to the expansion of the flame of love, and gratify the longings of tender hearts for sweet converse not Hymeneal. Censors of proprieties, guardians of young hearts love-stricken or to love inclined, settle it amongst yourselves. I have mine own opinion, and will deliver me of it. Love-making is an old institution, nearly as old as the hills. It was ere balconies had been; it would be were balconies abolished. Better, I say, love-whisperings from house to house the live-long night, than one dread death by fire!

And now of house-burnings enough. I come to speak of fires extraordinary; of fires violating common precepts, and defying common expedients. Between the conflagration of a dwelling-house, and the fire desolation of a bonded warehouse, holding spice, sugar, saltpetre, grease, oil, and fermenting jute, the difference is something more than one of degree. This, be it understood, is a circumstance too little heeded. Whether a thing be fire-proof or not, depends on conditions. Some indications of this have already been given; more will be given presently. And firstly, let the fact be impressed by seizing the most prominent illustration of it. Be that illustration saltpetre. Now saltpetre exploded in Cotton's storehouse, we were told in some of the newspapers,-combustively exploded. It did no such thing,-could do no such thing. Saltpetre, of itself, is absolutely incombustible.

I project a little saltpetre on coal, and there is violent combustion: not, however, of the saltpetre. It is the coal that violently burns, not the saltpetre. Does the air burn? No. Will lamps, candles, fires in our grates, burn without air? No. Then, seeing that the air does not burn, but promotes the burning of other things, we may well call it a supporter of combustion. And yet, not every part of the air supports combustion, only the oxygenous part of it,-only some twenty per cent of it. This brings us to the point. In saltpetre is locked up, under the solid form, vast treasures of oxygen; the very same element that, gaseous in the atmosphere, supports the burning of our ordinary fires. If saltpetre be heated, avoiding contact with any combustible, it yields gas: that gas promoting the combustion of a combustible, but not itself burning. If the combustible be carbonaceous,-wood, for example, then a mixture of it with saltpetre yields the combination of elements necessary for establishing most violent combustion: such a combination will explode. Reflecting on this, it will be evident that when in any building saltpetre is stored in propinquity with combustibles, fire, once generated, has the means of propagation within itself. The presence of atmospheric air is no longer necessary, simply because a material is present yielding the fire-supporting ingredient,-oxygen,-a constituent of atmospheric air. Many bodies known to chemists are in the same category with saltpetre in regard to promoting combustion. To classify these bodies, we may briefly say all the nitrates, chlorates, iodates, bromates, and perchlorates. With the exception of nitre, nitrate of soda is perhaps the only material that need be apprehended as dangerous in the sense of promoting warehouse conflagrations.

Nitre or nitrate of soda being present in any considerable quantity, it is hard to say what is fire-proof. It may not be possible to adopt and carry out a multifarous system of classification of goods in a bonded warehouse; nor, indeed, is this necessary. Assuredly, however, it is not unreasonable to suggest that materials so dangerous as saltpetre and nitrate of soda should be stowed away in specific apartments-magazinesafter the manner of gunpowder. I hold the conclusion to be patent that a warehouse containing such things as saltpetre, sugar, oil, and vegetable fibre, is more dangerously conditioned in many respects than a magazine of gunpowder. Gunpowder, so much maligned, is far safer than the public take it to be. If fire be actually applied to gunpowder, we all know what happens. Short of this gross and material way of soliciting the outbreak of combustion, gunpowder is as safe as its nearest visual similitude-so much onion-seed-would be. Gunpowder manufactories often blow up owing to sparks and other fire-making contingencies; but for a gunpowder-magazine to blow up is most rare.

As oxygen-yielding materials, like saltpetre and nitrate of soda, should be stored separately, or, at any rate, not in proximity with combustibles, so, equal respect should be awarded to vegetable fibres of all sorts, and in every condition. If damp, the chances in favour of their combustion are much increased. If mingled with oil or fat, their combustion at

some time or other is next to certain. Seeing that spontaneous combustion of these things is ever imminent, means should be taken to restrain the combustion within narrow limits. Nor would this be difficult. A vaulted chamber of brick or stone, furnished with a door made of double iron, with fire clay between, would go far to solve the difficulty.

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As regards the means and appliances for controlling and extinguishing fires, little need be said. Diverse as fire from water," is an expression that has passed into the structure of every language to illustrate extreme antagonism. To this antagonism there is a limit, nevertheless. Not under all conditions are fire and water antagonistic. If potassium be dropped into water, oxygen is fixed and hydrogen liberated, the latter taking fire, as is well known. Water is burned, in point of fact, in the same sense as wood thrust into a fire is burned. The very same thing happens if water be directed in a jet against red and à fortiori white-hot iron, under which circumstances each engine-stroke adds fuel to the conflagration. But water, even under the unfavourable condition indicated, would be antagonistic to fire, provided a sufficiency of it could be commanded. Iron, in decomposing water, loses some of its heat, and if cooled below redness there is an end to the evolution of hydrogen. No thoughtful person observing the late great fire, and competent to understand the agencies involved, could have failed one moment to appreciate the utter insufficiency of water-supply by the attendant fire-engines. it not somewhat unreasoned and ill-advised to be pumping water upon a fire from without, when the hydraulic arrangements of London, and indeed most British cities, would permit obvious arrangements being adopted to deluge a warehouse from within? Why in building a bonded store is the plan not adopted of laying on water into every apartment by a pipe connected with high pressure service? Why is not the further expedient adopted of establishing a tank on the summit of the building in communication with a second delivery into each apartment? Under such an arrangement, two taps being turned, two torrents of water would be laid

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The whole building would presently be deluged, and this even though the atmosphere should be such that no one could live in it. A paper like this would not be complete without some notice of Phillips's fire-annihilator, the operation of which consists in controlling fire by fire. To understand the utility of this instrument, the fact should be remembered, that the gaseous results of fire are all non-supporters of combustion. In the fire-annihilator, a sort of slow burning material is stored away in a closed vessel. It can be ignited by the simple device of touching a spring, and so soon as combustion has set in, torrents of smothering gas and vapour are liberated. The fire-annihilator is excellent when brought to bear on conflagrations under certain circumstances. To be efficient, the draught should be none, or inconsiderable; otherwise the smothering gases are wafted away. It is excellent for the holds of ships, excellent for rooms and warehouses of moderate capacity; and when efficient, it has over water the advantage of not damaging goods. Not un

commonly water does as much damage as fire; when sugar is in question, for example. At a certain stage of the late conflagration, the announcement went forth that oil of vitriol was being tried as a means of extinction. Oil of vitriol and chalk, the statement should have been. The suggestion was Mr. Warrington's. That gentleman, on learning that a layer of oil floated on the water, and, floating, burst into flame, suggested the control of carbonic acid. Now a mixture of oil of vitriol and chalk yields carbonic acid, as is well known. The theory was correct, but practice inefficient.

Is it politic that insurance companies should have the supervision and control of the Fire Brigade? It may be doubted. The major interest of fire insurance companies is to perpetuate a succession of moderate fires. Every conflagration is an advertisement to these associations, and something more a power frightening the uninsured to neglect that precaution no longer. Moreover, it is the nature and tendency of fire insurance associations to set immunity of property above the consideration of immunity of life. This may be business policy, but it is not humane compassion. We want a new Building Act, a classification of goods according to their combustive specialties; we want a Fire Brigade educated in the philosophy of their art; and we want the question debated and settled, whether insurance associations ought to retain their present powers.

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VOL. III.

The Death-Wish.

IN the latter part of my life I seem to have been led forward blindfolded by my fate. I have always struggled in vain to form a fixed resolution on any important point. The overpowering tide of Circumstance has borne all obstacles before it, and I am hurried along by a destiny that makes me shudder for the past and tremble for the future. It eases my burning brain and terror-stricken heart to write these lines. Although my expressions may appear overstrained, they are not so; wait until you have heard my story,—the sketch of only a short period of my life,—short with regard to days and hours, but to my own mind an age.

Many years ago, never mind time nor place, I loved and was deceived, cruelly, heartlessly deceived. I resolved then that I would never again suffer from the cruel deception of one whom I loved. One of my many vacillating resolutions was then made. I determined that no woman's charms, no woman's love, should ever again tempt me from the stated routine of my life.

For twenty years from the time I have referred to, until about a year ago, neither woman's smile nor woman's will have ever had any response from me. I am not yet an old man, although these treacherous gray hairs might deceive any one. It is only within the last few months that they have appeared.

I first met Clara Belford in the north of England, at the country house of an old friend, Mr. Attwood. There was a large party of guests assembled, and every one was expected to amuse himself in the way that best suited his own taste. Shortly after being introduced to Clara, I learned that she was engaged to be married to her cousion, Arthur Chetwynd, who was detained in London, but was expected to join the party in about a week. For the reasons I have before stated, this information concerning her engagement did not make any difference in my manner or conversation with her. Clara appeared to me to be a pretty girl, with a bright complexion, a merry laugh, a good seat on horseback, and one who could say something more than "Yes" or "No" in conversation. I consequently enjoyed her company and friendship very much.

I will say more than this. When I first saw Miss Belford, she appeared to me to be totally unlike my ideal of female beauty; for in my self-confidence it was my firm belief that I could study and be surrounded by beauty without feeling its influence, in fact that I could stand in the midst of flames and not be scorched. Clara Belford was rather below the middle height; her head was beautifully shaped, and well set on her shoulders. A luxuriant mass of dark-brown hair, drawn back from a square low forehead, and small but not very regular features, seemed only the framework to the picture of her eyes, which were indeed most beautiful. Can I ever, indeed, forget those deep violet orbs with their mysterious inner

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