These Lectures were not originally written with any view to their
publication; but as they were afterwards requested for publication in the
Journal of the Franklin Institute, and there attracted very favorable
notice, I believed the rapidly increasing interest in the subject of
ventilation would enable the publishers to sell a sufficient number
to pay the expense of their publication; and, if so, that this very
spirit of inquiry which would lead to the perusal of even so small a
work, might be one step forward towards that much-needed more general
education on this important subject.
It was not my desire to give an elaborate treatise on the subject of
ventilation. I believed a few general principles, illustrated in a
familiar way, would be much more likely to be read; and, I hoped, would
act as seed-grain in commencing the growth of an inquiry which, when once
started in the right direction, would soon discover the condition of the
air we breathe to be of so much importance that the investigation would
be eagerly pursued.