82 



Public Parks, 



We do not seem to appreciate that the highest degree of health 

 is necessary to insure the most complete success, nor the importance 

 of the maxim '■'•Festina lente." We need not be in such haste. Our 

 climatic, independent of our geographical, position gives us vast 

 advantages over our rivals, and it is a w^ell established fact in 

 European civilization, that cUmate has exercised the greatest influ- 

 ence on the physical and intellectual development of man.* We, 

 perhaps more than any other community, need all the possible safe- 

 guards against over-work to be throw^n around us, and I know 

 of no better way than by the creation of parks, that will be an 

 ornament to the city, and places of resort, where all may enjoy 

 themselves in a rational and healthful manner. We need parks to 

 induce out-door exercise, and for the pleasant influences connected 

 with them, which are so beneficial to our over-worked business men, 

 to dyspeptics, to those afflicted with nervous diseases, and, partic- 

 ularly, to the consumptive.! 



* Buckle's History of Civilization. 



t Contrai-y to the received opinion, I find, upon careful investigation, that the mortality by Con- 

 sumption is not as great here as in nearly all the other large cities of the United States. It has been 

 estimated that about one-sixth of all the deaths among the human race occurs from this disease, and 

 that of 2,771,728 deaths from all diseases, between 1S04 and i86o, 483,728 deaths, or i in 57, were caused 

 by Consumption. [Dr. H. B. Millard.] In Boston the mortality is great, and not much change in the 

 rate has taken place, while in New York the deaths have steadily diminished. Females are more liable 

 than males, no doubt owing to their leading more sedentary lives. It has been found that the disease 

 is less apt to be developed in rural districts, and that the liability to it is increased by want of exercise 

 and confined air. The important part that parks exercise over this disease will, therefore, be appre- 

 ciated, in the inducements they offer to exercise in the open air. The following table will show the 

 mortality of Chicago, and other cities. 



DEATHS BY CONSUMPTION FROM JULY ist, 1S51, TO JANUARY ist, 1869. 



Six Months, 1851. 



Year of lS.i2 



" " 185.3 



1854. 

 1855. 

 1856. 

 18.57. 

 1858. 

 18.50. 

 1860. 

 1861. 

 1862. 

 1863. 

 1864. 

 1865. 

 1866. 

 1867. 

 1808. 



Males. 



23 

 63 



103 

 104 

 91 

 174 

 145 

 196 

 127 

 144 

 196 



>:03 



136 

 216 

 189 

 226 

 223 

 238 



2,797 



Females. 



18 

 49 

 64 

 91 

 63 

 112 

 108 

 133 

 120 

 128 

 120 

 146 

 131 

 195 

 147 

 180 

 181 

 180 



2,166 



Total. 



41 

 112 

 167 

 195 

 154 

 286 

 253 

 329 

 247 

 272 

 316 

 .349 

 267 

 411 

 336 

 406 

 404 

 418 



4,963 



Population. 



39,685 



49,407 



59,130 



09,565 



80,000 



84,113 



92,113 



96,363 



101,780 



109,260 



123,623 



138,186 



153,769 



169,353 



178,492 



200,418 



225,326 



252,054 



One 

 Death in 



First nine years . 

 Last " " 



A verage Excess of Males over Females. 



484 

 'Ml 

 354 

 357 

 519 

 294 

 364 

 293 

 412 

 402 

 .391 

 396 

 576 

 412 

 531 

 493 

 557 

 603 



Excess 

 of Males 



over 

 Females. 



5 

 14 

 39 

 13 

 23 

 62 

 37 

 63 



16 

 76 

 57 

 5 

 31 

 42 

 46 

 42 

 58 



631 



.30 per annum. 

 .40 " 



