We invite public attention to this
curious but simple invention, of which we shall proceed to present a
few principles from the pamphlet just referred to.
Mr Smyth first speaks of the uselessness of the punkah, and the danger
of the wet mats. 'The wet mats in the windows for the wind to blow
through, cannot be employed but when the air is dry as well as hot,
and even then are most unhealthy, for although the air may feel dry to
the skin, there is generally far more moisture in it than in our own
climate; but the height of the temperature increasing the capacity of
the air for moisture, makes that air at 80 degrees feel very dry,
which at 40 degrees would be very damp. Now, one of the reasons of the
lassitude felt in warm climates is, that the air expanding with the
heat, while the lungs remain of the same capacity, they must take in a
smaller quantity by _weight_, though the same by _measure_, of oxygen,
the supporter of life; but if, in addition to the air being rarefied,
it be also still further distended by the vapour of water being mixed
with it, it is evident that a certain number of cubic inches by
measure, or the lungs full, will contain a less weight of oxygen than
ever; so little, indeed, that life can barely be supported; and we
need not wonder at persons lying down almost powerless in the hot and
damp atmosphere, and gasping for breath.
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