me is only ungovernable when in its ascent it meets
with combustible materials. Heat, as the principle of expansion,
rarefies and volatilizes all bodies; and then, as the heavier give
place to the lighter, so bodies subject to its action ascend, and
carry up with them the principle, matter, or action of heat. A chief
object therefore of man's policy in economizing fire, in subduing it
to his use, and in governing its decomposing and destructive powers,
should be to prevent its finding fuel in the ascent. No connected
timbers ought therefore to join an inferior floor with a superior, so
that, if one floor were on fire, its feeble lateral combustion might
easily be extinguished with a mop and a pail of water, provided no
train of combustibles were extended to the floor above. Such is the
language of philosophy, and such the slight process of reason, by
attending to which the habitations of men may at all times be secured
against the calamity of fire. How absurd however was the construction
of our houses till within the last twenty or thirty years! Wooden
staircases, exposed wooden balusters, and wainscotted walls, coated
with paints composed of oil and turpentine, and put together more like
a train of combustibles, than the habitations of beings calling
themselves rational! The taste of modern architecture has, however,
corrected the evil; and stone staircases, iron balusters, plastered
walls, and lofty rooms, contribute to cut off the communication,
though a fire may have seized on a flooring, or on any articles of
furniture. This security might however be further increased by more
strictly regarding the principle; by cutting off all contact between
floor and floor, made by wooden pilasters, window-shutters, &c.; by
the more liberal introduction of iron; and by the occasional use of
Hartley's iron or copper sheets.

By analogous reasoning it is suggested to us, that, if those females
whose clothes have taken fire, and whose head, throat, breasts, and
arm-pits, are consequently exposed to the increasing intensity of an
ascending flame, were instantly to throw themselves into an horizontal
position, their vital parts would not only not be affected, but the
lateral flame would be so trifling as to be easily and safely
extinguished. What in human life can exceed in horror, the
circumstance of a woman in full health, often in the middle of her
friends and family, being roasted alive by combustibles fastened to
her person, fr