Report of discussion on Mr. Shaw's paper, "Ventilation as a dymanical problem", delivered at an ordinary meeting of the Society, on February 6th, 1902, at the Medical Rooms, Chandos Street, W.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of discussion on Mr. Shaw's paper, "Ventilation as a dymanical problem", delivered at an ordinary meeting of the Society, on February 6th, 1902, at the Medical Rooms, Chandos Street, W. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    aptness in Mr. Shaw’s definition, because it is just under tnose con¬ ditions in which we breathe vitiated air that our poisoned nervous system becomes peculiarly susceptible to the sensation of chilliness, and our bodies specially prone to suffer from the effects of chill. He desired to express his great personal indebtedness to Mr. Shaw and other speakers for their remarks that afternoon. The President, in summing up the debate, said they had learnt a great deal that afternoon from Mr. Shaw’s paper, and from the various speeches of the ladies and gentlemen who had favoured them with their views. He was very glad indeed to hear from Mr. Shaw that he gave a certain amount of praise to what is called the “ happy-go-lucky system.” That was practically the only system with which he had any familiar acquaintance. Although it was a very long time ago, he was quite certain that it was the “ happy-go-lucky system ” which was in vogue in the public school he was at, and certainly in that particular sj^stem it acted very well. The health of the boys was exceedingly good, and no doubt the explanation was that given in the debate, that it was new blood. Although he could not tell the exact amount, the allowance of cubic space was excellent, and the consequence was that the boys got along very well. One question of an allied character had not been touched upon. He thought that the great question in regard'to the question of ventilation was that of warmth. If they could get the air sufficiently warm, the draughts would cease to be. Mr. Shaw, in replying to the various points which had been raised, said in reference to Dr. Childs’ suggestion as to cubic space he had already dealt with the matter in a published report on the Ventilation of Poor Law Schools. It seemed to him that the proper way was to treat cubic space from the point of view of ventilation. The ordinary practice was to measure the room, and supposing it contained 1,000 cubic feet, to say that therefore there was accommodation for so many persons ; but they might come across cases of rooms with ample accommodation as estimated by this method where they ought to con¬ clude that there was really no accommodation for anyone at all, because there was no provision for ventilation. The number of persons that could be accommodated in a room of one thousand cubic feet depended entirely on the amount of air which could be supplied continuously to the room and taken out again. It seemed to him the proper way to deal with the question was to go into the room and, supposing there was a provision of 10,000 cubic feet of air per hour, to say that the room would therefore accommodate three persons, assuming that each person took as his allowance about 3,000 cubic feet per hour. If they were to adopt that mode of dealing with the allowance of cubic space they would find the actual cubic space would work out large enough, because it was rather difficult to supply a sufficient amount of air for ventilation on that large scale ; and if they had a provision of 3,000 cubic feet of air per hour for each person they might be quite sure that the dimensions of the room would be considerable. The proper way, then, was to go into the room and measure how much air was supplied, settling for themselves whether they, wished to allow 1,000 or 3,000 cubic feet