d
for lath-and-plaster work. The solution of the practical problem which
has to be faced seems to depend upon the prospect of effecting a
compromise between the two systems, introducing thin resisting wire as
the metallic element in such work, but making all other components
from non-conducting material. In the event of any "cut-out" or
"short-circuiting" occurring through accidental injury to the wall, it
would be very inconvenient to be compelled to knock away the plaster.
Moreover, it is not necessary for ordinary warming purposes that the
whole of the wall, up to the ceiling, should be heated.

Accordingly the system which is likely to commend itself is that of
constructing panels on some such principle as the one already
described, and affixing them to the wall, forming a kind of solid dado
from three to four feet from the floor. These can be fastened so as to
facilitate removal for examination and repairs. When the current is
switched on they are slowly warmed up by the heat generated through
the resistance of the wires, and the air in the room is gently heated
without being vitiated or deprived of its oxygen as it is by the
presence of flames, whether of fuel or of gas. Warming footstools will
also be provided, and a room heated in this way will be found
eminently comfortable to live in.

This method of house-warming having once obtained a decided lead
within the cities and other localities where a cheap electric current
is available, somewhat similar systems, adapted for the heating of
walls by hot air in tubes, instead of by resistant wires, will be
largely adopted in the rural districts, more particularly in churches
and other places of public assemblage. The progress made in this
direction during the last few years of the nineteenth century is
already noteworthy, but when electric-heating really gets a good
chance to force the pace of improvement, the day will soon arrive when
it will be regarded as nothing less than barbarous to ask people to
sit during the winter months in places not evenly warmed all through
by methods which result in the distribution of the heat exactly as it
is wanted.

Ventilation is another household reform which will be very greatly
accelerated by the presence of electric power of low cost. The great
majority of civilised people, as yet, have no idea of ventilation
excepting that highly unreasonable kind which depends upon leaving
their houses and other buildings partly open to th