His cell was of an oblong shape, but very long in comparison with
its width. It was just wide enough to permit the arms to be fully
extended with the dumb-bells, which were hung up on the left
wall, very dusty. It was, however, long enough for a man to walk
one thirty-fifth part of a mile if he traversed it entirely. On
the same principle a row of fixed holes, quite close together,
let in to the cells by pipes what was alleged to be the freshest
air. For these great scientific organizers insisted that a man
should be healthy even if he was miserable. They provided a walk
long enough to give him exercise and holes large enough to give
him oxygen. There their interest in human nature suddenly ceased.
It seemed never to have occurred to them that the benefit of
exercise belongs partly to the benefit of liberty. They had not
entertained the suggestion that the open air is only one of the
advantages of the open sky. They administered air in secret, but
in sufficient doses, as if it were a medicine. They suggested
walking, as if no man had ever felt inclined to walk. Above all,
the asylum authorities insisted on their own extraordinary
cleanliness. Every morning, while Turnbull was still half asleep
on his iron bedstead which was lifted half-way up the wall and
clamped to it with iron, four sluices or metal mouths opened
above him at the four corners of the chamber and washed it white
of any defilement. Turnbull's solitary soul surged up against
this sickening daily solemnity.

"I am buried alive!" he cried, bitterly; "they have hidden me
under mountains. I shall be here till I rot. Why the blazes
should it matter to them whether I am dirty or clean."

Every morning and evening an iron hatchway opened in his oblong