Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/116

106 that much of the intemperate drinking in towns results from the depressed feeling which follows work done under similar conditions. We think a great society should be formed to arouse the interest of all classes in this subject, and that inquiries should be made the answers being published as to the provision for fresh air existing in hotels, concert-rooms, theatres, schools, churches, etc. We are, both of us, opposed to action being taken through state inspectors. The present evil will never be really overcome until individual interest is aroused; and the state inspector does not develop individual interest. We shall be glad to communicate with any persons anxious to take steps in the matter, and shall hope to draw up a short! paper containing a few practical suggestions of a simple nature. Meanwhile, without discussing systems of artificial ventilation, we say to everybody: "Live as much as you can with open windows, wearing whatever extra clothes are necessary. In this way you will turn the hours of your work to physical profit instead of to physical loss. If you can not bear an open window, even with an extra coat, and a rug over your knees, when you are sitting in a room, do the next best thing, which is, to throw the windows wide open not a poor six inches whenever you leave it, and thus get rid of the taint of the many dead bodies that we have breathed out from ourselves, and that hang like ghosts about our rooms. Smuts, as we confess, may be bad, but they are white as snow compared with impure air. Pay special attention to the constant exposure to pure air both of clothes and of bedding. Avoid chill, that is one form of poisoning. Avoid impure air, that is another and much more insidious form of poisoning."

Our present addresses are: Harold Wager, Yorkshire College, Leeds; and Auberon Herbert, Larichban, Cladich, Argyllshire.

Several gentlemen have been kind enough to read the foregoing paper, and to express the following opinions upon it. Sir Lyon Playfair writes:

I return your proof with only a few suggestions. The paper is a good exposition of air in its relations to public health, and. is likely to he very useful. You ought to follow it up with another paper on water, and conclude with one on cleanliness. Pure air, pure water, and cleanliness, personal and objective, are the three great factors of public health, provided that people are adequately fed. Napoleon, reciting his long personal experiences at St. Helena, made a wise remark: "Life is a fortress which neither you nor I know anything about. Why throw obstacles in the way of its defense? Water, air, and cleanliness are the chief articles in my pharmacpœia." You and Mr. Wager have made an excellent beginning with air. Follow it up with essays on water and cleanliness, and then, as a veteran sanitary reformer, I will begin to think that my time for preaching is ended. I write this, withholding my judgment on certain special theories you have advanced.