742 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



to the spread of typhoid fever. The tenement house with its halls, 

 stairs, and water closets shared by many families becomes a sort of 

 clearing-house of the contagious diseases — scarlet fever, measles, etc. 

 The common water-closet may be the source of spread of venereal 

 disease. The indiscriminate overcrowding of sleeping rooms by both 

 sexes may result in the spread of the same diseases and also in an 

 undermining of the health of adolescents and adults through neu- 

 rasthenia and other diseases which over-stimulation of sexual instinct 

 and its unsatisfactory fulfillment may occasion. 



HOUSING AND PUBLIC SAFETY. 



The safety of an urban population is in many ways affected by 

 housing conditions. The overcrowding of lots with buildings erected 

 of combustible material creates a serious conflagration risk, especially 

 where buildings are of frame exterior or are used both as stores and 

 dwellings, as is common in our large American cities. Fire escapes 

 reduce the danger to tenants from fire, but improperly constructed 

 fire escapes constitute a new risk from accident. The presence of 

 stores, bakeries, and work shops in nonfireproof tenement houses; 

 the storage of combustible materials, such as rags, paints, etc.; the 

 encumbrance of fire escapes; the proximity of railroads, and the 

 manufacture of explosives — all affect in varying degree the safety of 

 the tenant. 



HOUSING AND MORALITY. 



Intimately dependent upon the housing conditions is the morality 

 of the population. The crowding of rooms with three or more 

 members of a family, children of both sexes sleeping together or with 

 parents, and the presence of lodgers within the tenement make im- 

 possible the maintenance of high standards of personal decency. 

 Premature knowledge of sex function by the children is the inevitable 

 result of overcrowding, and often morbid stimulation of sex instincts, 

 sex perversion and vice originate in room congestion. Yet indis- 

 criminate crowding of sleeping rooms prevails very widely within 

 the immigrant population groups of our cities. The dark halls and 

 common toilets add to the menace for the growing children of the 

 tenements; and frequently the presence of commercialized vice within 

 residence quarters familiarizes the child with the worst element of 

 our civilization before the child's mind is far enough developed to 

 resist the superficial allurement. 



HOUSING AND EFFICIENCY. 



A general reduction of vitality, or disease of any sort acquired 

 through residence under conditions above described, results neces- 

 sarily in reduction of industrial efficiency. Disease causes absence 

 from work, which means reduced earnings, increased expenses, and 



