in a most uncandlelike manner—­the flames turning down, as if some one were blowing downward on the wicks; and at the same time the complaints of “Draughts, horrid draughts!” became general, and from every quarter.  Finding that, as the dinner went on, the discomfort became unbearable, even although the doors were shut and screens put before them, I gave up dining, and took to scientific discovery.  The result of a few moments’ observation induced me to order “those gas jets,” which I saw peeping out from among the foliage of the electroliers, to be lighted up.  In two or three minutes the flames of the candles burned upright and steadily, and in less than ten minutes the draughts were no longer felt; in fact, the room became really comfortable.

The reason of the change was simple.  The stratum of air lying up at the ceiling was comparatively cold.  The column of heated air from the bodies of the twenty guests, joined to the heat produced by the movements of themselves and the waiters, together with the steam from the viands and respiration, displaced the colder air at the ceiling, and notably that coldest air lying against the surface of the glass.  This cold air simply dropped straight down, after the manner of a douche, on candles and heads below.  The remedy I advised was the setting up of a current of hotter steam and air from the gas burners, which stopped the cooling effect of the glass, and created a stratum of heated steam and air in slow movement all over the ceiling.  The effect was a comfortable sensation of warmth and entire absence of draught all round the table.  Later on, to avoid the possibility of overheating the room, the gas was put out, and the electric lights left to themselves.  But before we left, the chilliness and draughts began to be again felt.

The incident here narrated occurred at the end of the month of April last, when we might reasonably have hoped to have tolerably warm nights.  It is therefore clear that in this instance neither electricity nor candles could effectually replace gas for lighting purposes.  They both did the lighting, but they utterly failed to keep the currents of air steady.  I have always remarked draughts whenever I have remained any length of time in rooms where the electric light is used.  On a warm evening the electric light and candles would undoubtedly have kept the room cooler than gas, with the same kind of ventilation; I do not think they would have put an end to cold draughts.  This the steam from the gas does in all fairly built rooms.

It is a well-known fact that dry air parts with its relatively small amount of specific heat, in an almost incredibly rapid manner, to anything against which it impinges.  Steam, on the contrary, from its great specific heat, remains in a heated state for a much longer time than air.  It is not so suddenly reduced to a low temperature, and in parting with its own heat it communicates a considerable amount of warmth to those bodies with which it comes in contact.