226 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



of young and old town-dwellers, producing 

 deterioration of physique, lowered vitality, and 

 constitutional decay. For over thirty years I 

 have been hammering away at this question of 

 ' bad air ' and ' bad sanitation ' as the prime 

 causes of impairment of health and race, and 

 the more I consider it the more I am con- 

 vinced of the soundness of my conclusions. A 

 great deal has been said on this subject, and it 

 is not difficult to adduce conclusive evidence 

 from a large variety of reliable sources in proof 

 of the deleterious effects of impure air on the 

 animal economy. Consumption is the best 

 type of degenerative action and loss of vital 

 energy. It stands out in bold relief as the 

 disease most rife wherever foul air exists. The 

 significance and value of fresh air were recog- 

 nized by the old fathers of medicine. Hippo- 

 crates was accustomed to advise a walk in fresh 

 air of ten or fifteen miles daily. Aretasus, Cel- 

 sus, and Pliny speak of the good effect of fresh 

 air; and our great English physician, Syden- 

 ham, did the same thing. Dr. Guy found that 

 of 104 compositors who worked in rooms of 

 less than 500 cubic feet of air for each person, 

 12.5 per cent, had had spitting of blood ; of 

 115 in rooms of from 500 to 600 cubic feet, 

 4.35 per cent, showed signs of consumption ; 

 and in 100 who worked in rooms of more than 

 600 cubic feet capacity, less than 2 per cent, 

 had spit blood. Consumption is only one of 



