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To counteract these palpable and undeniable difficulties, (more urgent in our climate of sudden changes and wide extremes, than in almost any other,) a system of forcible extraction of the foul air of inhabited rooms has become universal, and it is deemed indispensible in the public institutions of Great Britain, from the Houses of Parliament, in arranging which the distinguished Dr. Reid has been engaged for years, down to prisons and houses of correction. This extraction is in all cases maintained by some more or less direct connection of the flues leading from the inhabited apartment with an ascending current of heated air artificially produced.

The modes of carrying this into effect must depend upon the circumstances of the building to be ventilated, a chimney with a powerful draft is essential. The flues are led into a common flue of large size; the current in this sometimes passes down to the ground where it turns its columns of foul air under a grate in a tall smoke flue. Or it may be turned directly into the ash-pit of the same fire which heats the building, or enter a smoke flue and receive its suction or extractive force from that source. A flue from the attic, having a fire at its lower end, occasionally is used to produce the upward current where the original foul air flues ran upward into the attic.

I cannot explain better my views as to the most effectual mode of ventilating an asylum for the insane, than by describing the system I saw at the Kent Lunatic Asylum at Maidstone. It has been in operation since the original buildings were constructed in 1833 and Mr. Poynder, the most intelligent medical head of the establishment who has had much practical experience, having formerly held the same station at the Gloucester Asylum, assured me that it had always been satisfactory in its working, and that it was equal to any mode he was acquainted with. I would premise that I do not think, that the mode of generating the hot air by hot water is sufficiently active for our climate. I believe steam the more eligible mode.

The external air is admitted to the hot air chamber in the cellar, through a flue underground 4 or 5 feet high; this terminates at a distance of a hundred feet in rear of the building, in a tower of moderate elevation crowned with a revolving cowl or cap 5 feet in diameter, having its open side kept to the wind by means of a large vane. The air thus received passes amongst a series of triangular iron pipes connected at the ends, so as to permit the hot water from a neighboring boiler, to circulate through them, and disposed in layers at right angles to each other, from which disposition it was supposed that little air would pass upwards without impinging against a heated surface. The heated air escaped in a large sized flue, at least three feet square, opening separately in each gallery by a still larger aperture at the ceiling, where it was protected by a coarse wire netting. A pretty large sized opening was over every room door and from near the floor in each room, and at various places in the larger rooms and dormitories, flues about two feet in length and six inches wide, protected by a cast iron net work, were carried down in the partition, the angular corners of the room being cut off where necessary, to give space to so large a flue, into a large brick flue in the bottom of the cellar which delivered the foul air under the fire grate, where it supplied the fire. A strong active current was thus produced which had the effect of drawing the warm air into the apartments in addition to its natural ascensive power, distributes it over the whole house and towards the lower parts of the rooms, and extracts the foul air with so much activity, that even if foetid substances were placed in, or at the opening of the flue, no odor would be delivered into the rooms.

Under this exhaustive system, a water closet has a draft directly down, through its seat. Dampers are inserted in the main flues to regulate the admission and exit of air, and the calibres of different smaller flues are filled up experimentally until an equal, or desired draft is left to each.

I found this system to be, under all its modifications, simple, reliable, and effective, and such as must eventually be introduced in all constructions on land or water, designed to accomodate many persons in a small space.

In digesting a plan for the "Butler Hospital" from my somewhat copious supply of materials, (having been so fortunate as to obtain copies of the unpublished plans of a number of the best and most recent institutions,) I have been compelled to adopt the conclusion that for our country and climate, a right line, with projections at right angles and at the centre, is the most convenient form. My opinion formerly was much in favor of separate buildings for the different sexes, and for the officers and offices of the household. There are certainly advantages in such a separation, but overruled by reasons of convenience and economy ; particularly where it is designed to introduce the modern system of heating and ventilation. A most serious objection to the common quadrangular forms that patients from different sides are placed opposite and in view of each other, is obviated by the plan of having the kitchen and its appendages and the chapel over it, project between the two wings.