ItJRBANISM — CLERGET. 665 



of open spaces. The coefficient varies from 104 per 10,000 in the 

 crowded quarters to 11 per 10,000 near the Champs Elysees. That 

 is why the English call the parks "the lungs of London." ^ A park 

 that is large enough is a reservoir of pure air, and the trees that 

 encompass and protect it form a very efficient natural filter in stop- 

 ping the clouds of dust from the streets and rendering healthy the 

 ambient air. While London lias 290 parks or squares, whose total 

 area is 752 hectares (1,859 acres), and Berlin 20 parks of 554 hec- 

 tares (1,368 acres), Paris has 46 parks of only 26.3 hectares (649 

 acres). This is not enough, though active steps are being wisely 

 taken to increase the extent of the parks, and with that end in view 

 it is proposed to reserve the space now covered by the fortifications. 

 The movement in favor of open spaces and for plant growth in the 

 cities is manifest in England and the United States in very extensive 

 work for laborers' gardens and in the creation of public gardens, a 

 work which an association has planned to promote in France.^ 



URBAN CIRCULATION. 



M. E. Henard, in his Etudes sur les transportations de Paris, 

 ingeniously distinguishes six kinds of circulation: The household 

 circulation, the professional circulation flowing at the hours of 

 openuig and closing of offices and shops, the economic circulation, 

 the fashionable circulation, the holiday cii'culation, and the popular 

 circulation. You might also add the tourist circulation. These 

 several kinds of circulation present as a whole a series of problems 

 which, according to M. de Foville, constitute "the meclianics of 

 crowds." The encumbering of certain streets goes so far as to 

 obstruct and congest traffic. In Paris, for example, the services 

 rendered by the general transportation companies, exclusive of car- 

 riages and long distance railways, but including suburban service 



I Les espaees libres k Paris. Le Mus6e social. Memoircs et documents, July, 1908. 



* G. Benoit-Levy, Les CiWs-Jardins. Revue Internationale de sociologie, December, 1908. Ch. Gide, 

 Les cit^s-jardins. Revue ^conomique intemationale, October, 1907. H. Baudin, La Maison familiale h 

 bon march<5. Geneva, 1904. L'Association dcs Cites-Jardins de France has for its aim to apply to dwelling 

 places the latest principles of hygiene; to form model industrial centers; to develop city systems of parks, 

 gardens, and playgrounds; to encourage the creation of city gardens. Everywhere, in the factory, in the 

 city, at the fireside, the association seeks to introduce customs of life more healthy and pleasanter. We 

 seek to create model cities or villages in all tliuir parts when that is possible. We seek to develop social 

 institutions which render life more merciful and more cfTicacious. We seek to develop habits which shall 

 better the physique and morals of our race. We seek to make our centers of city life more hospitable and 

 healthier. For this purpose we have contributed to the forni;ition of city gardens, to the promotion of social 

 welfare in factories, to the conservation and e.\tension of open spaces in large cities. How one dreams 

 one minute of the effect that would result in a workshop by the addition of windows to allow the air. the 

 light, and the sun to enter tliroughout the day. How one dreams of the effect it would have on the workmen 

 to place near their work tables some seats adjusted to their shape, where they could be seated without risk 

 of deformity. How one dreams, in another range of ideas, of the results of the conservation of a bunch of 

 shrubbery or trees, or of a park in crowded quarters of the city. The workshop well lighted, the city with 

 great open spaces, would be better able than the sanitariums with their expensive treatment to combat 

 tuberculosis. The -Xssociation of City Gardens has created the social service which gratuitously makes 

 all inquiries and gives advice to all who wish to better the conditions of life in our present cities or to buUd 

 new ones. 



