﻿92 ATMOSPHERE IN RELATION TO HUxMAN LIFE AND HEALTH. 



a short 'time among newcomers from the country. ^' They are perpet- 

 ually on the trudge to the hospitals, and get patched up again and 

 again and live on." ^ Much of this most deplorable state of things may 

 be owing to excess of alcoholic drink, but the excess is in many cases 

 the result of a demand for a stimulant which pure air might have pre- 

 vented. About 1,000,000 out of 4,000,000 persons are treated at London 

 hospitals and dispensaries in a year, and probably this represents fairly 

 well the sickness of great towns in general. A great amount of the 

 lassitude and idleness of the lowest population of cities has been traced 

 by Dr. liichardson to want of ventilation, in their own and former gen- 

 erations. '' Tell them," said Mr. Chadwick, the great sanitary reformer, 

 "that when they hear of that disease called consumx)tion they ought 

 to know that it comes constantly from bad administration, which per- 

 mits dwelling houses to be built on damp and sodden and rotten sites, 

 and which permits industrial workers to breathe, but not to live, in foul 

 airs, gases, vapors, and dusts. Tell them that in model dwellings a 

 death rate of 15 in the 1,000 has replaced one of 30 in the 1,000." Dr. 

 Louis 0. Parkes, medical officer for Chelsea, states that much of the 

 anaimia, the pale faces and disordered digestions, and many of the wast- 

 ing diseases of children in the great towns are to no small extent due 

 to a condition of atmosi)here which prevents the perfect action of the 

 lungs and the complete oxygenation of the blood, and so lowers the tone 

 of the body and the ability to repel disease. These facts ought to be 

 impressed upon the population. In England it has been computed that 

 the amount now annually spent on intoxicating liquors might double 

 the actual house room for every family. 



The causes of physical degradation in towns are no doubt complex, 

 but that bad air and want of light are very powerful factors, is proved 

 by the following considerations: 



Children placed in every respect in equally good conditions in town 

 as they have had in the country, with the exception of the difference 

 of town air, in many cases lose health, grow pale and weak, and in fact 

 do not thrive as they do in the country. Children brought up within 

 the central area of large towns are less robust than children brought 

 up in the country; the children of the poor especially suffer, for though 

 they may have the chance of more flesh meat and often of more food, 

 the air they breathe both without and within doors is inferior, and this 

 affects them not only directly, but indirectly, as through loss of appetite. 

 Very many children in towns have poor and unwholesome appetites. 

 Children in small, crowded towns in various countries, e. g., Italy or 

 Spain, where the streets are narrow and the air foul, often look 

 unhealthy and feeble, and bad air alone, both in town and country, 

 is known to give similar results. Children who are ailing or simply 

 pallid and unhealthy, after the pattern of the alley, very soon gain in 

 health and appearance when moved to country air. The experience of 

 very many adults is similar to that of children, and they rapidly or 



' Evidence of a doctor in the East End of London. 



