228 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



dweller begets a condition known to doctors as 

 the uric-acid diathesis, with its many morbid 

 consequences. Pulmonary phthisis and Bright's 

 disease seem Dame Nature's means of weeding 

 out degenerating town-dwellers.' Such are 

 some of the medical aspects of the case." 



Mr. Henry T. Finck, says in his " Roman- 

 tic Love and Personal Beauty " : 



" I am convinced from many experiments that 

 the value of country air lies partly in its tonic 

 fragrance, partly in the absence of depressing 

 foul odors. Now the tonic value of fragrant 

 meadow or forest air lies in this that it causes 

 us involuntarily to breathe deeply, in order 

 to drink in as many mouthfuls of this luscious 

 aerial Tokay as possible ; whereas in the city 

 the air is, well, say unfragrant and uninviting, 

 and the constant fear of gulping down a pint of 

 deadly sewer-gas discourages deep breathing. 

 The general pallor and nervousness of New 

 York people have often been noticed. The 

 cause is obvious. New York has the dirtiest 

 streets of any city in the world, except Con- 

 stantinople and Canton ; and, moreover, it is 

 surrounded by oil-refineries, which sometimes 

 for days poison the whole city with the stifling 

 fumes of petroleum, so that one hardly dares to 

 breathe at all." 



