A STUDY OF CALMS. 527 



in following the subject further to papers already published by me on 

 the subject.* 



With these possible exceptions we can say: that during calms those 

 life phenomena which are due to excessive vitality are deficient in num- 

 ber. If these theses have been sufficiently defended, and figures are 

 not in existence with which to refute them, the next logical question 

 would be, 'Why?' 



Two hypotheses may, I believe, be presented in answer. The first 

 is based upon the general facts bearing upon ventilation, and the sec- 

 ond upon those of atmospheric electricity. The first would only be 

 applicable to the conditions of large cities — and I will again call at- 

 tention to the fact that all the data of the present problem were for 

 New York City — while the second would be valid for any spot on the 

 earth's surface. In discussing the first I would call attention to the 

 fact that combustion of any sort, whether within the lungs of animal 

 organisms or in the ordinary processes of burning, depletes the air of 

 its oxygen and surcharges it with carbonic acid gas. If the normal 

 proportions of oxygen are to be maintained in the immediate vicinity 

 of such combustion, fresh air must by some means be brought in to 

 take the place of that, the normal mixture of which has been disturbed. 

 We are quite familiar with these facts in their bearing upon the venti- 

 lation of buildings, but there is no difference except that of magnitude 

 between a building in which the air is being robbed of its oxygen 

 through combustion, and a city in which the same process is going on. 



Three million animal organisms (not all himian) and half as many 

 more fires, all without adequate vegetable organisms to reverse the pro- 

 cess should, we would argue, make tremendous inroads upon the at- 

 mospheric stock of oxygen. That this is true has been demonstrated 

 by Dr. J. B. Cohen in an article appearing in the Smithsonian Reports 

 for 1895, p. 573. He there shows that the proportion of carbonic acid 

 gas varies to a very marked degree in the center of the city of Man- 

 chester, England; that the variation extends from the normal amount 

 at times, to more than four times that amount at others, the average 

 being nearly three times the normal. Although he makes no reference 

 to the fact, it is, I believe, safe to assume that these variations bear a 

 fixed relation to wind movements. Certainly when the wind was very 

 violent, no considerable difference could exist between the composition 

 of the atmosphere in a great center of population and in the surround- 

 ing country where the normal mixture of gases would be found. It is 

 safe also to assume that what was true for Manchester would be for 

 New York City, and to assume at least as a working hypothesis that 



* ' Drunkenness and the Weather,' Annals of the American Society of 

 Political and Social Science, November, 1900; 'Suicide and the Weather,* 

 PoPUTAB Science Monthly, April, 1901. 



