Cameron's lectures on the preservation of health

Diagram showing cubic feet of air, which according to the Sanitary Act of 1866 could accommodate 5 people sleeping in a cheap lodging-house and a smaller cube representing 14 cubic feet, the amount an adult breathes in and out in a single hour. Taken from: Charles Alexander Cameron. Lectures on the preservation of health. London : Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1868 [KCSMD Historical Coll.ection RA591 CAM]The diagram shown here represents the visual presentation of data the Victorians were so good at.

The man in the box is demonstrating the scale of how much air represents 1500 cubic feet of air, which according to the Sanitary Act of 1866 could accommodate 5 people sleeping in a cheap lodging-house.

The smaller cube represents 14 cubic feet to the same scale, the amount an adult breathes in and out in a single hour.

The argument seems to be that while regulations for minimum cubic air requirements differed between barracks, prisons, workhouses, lodging houses and so on, and between the UK and Ireland, the fresh air requirements of the human lung are fairly constant, and attention should be paid to them, especially if other oxygen-burning articles such as candles and gas-lamps – are occupying the same space.

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