84 Public Parks, 



subtle and invisible influence may be wafted to the remotest parts, 

 abated in virulence, but still pestiferous. 



In this connection, we may use the language of Lucretius, in 

 reference to the plague : 



" When first the air, surcharged with poisonous power, 

 Moves far remote, we deem it but a mist. 

 Or floating cloud ; but having reached our midst. 

 Distils throughout its course a fatal dew 

 Which blights and kills." 



During the past season, in July, the south-east wind blew for 

 several days, carrying with it the exhalations of the Calumet swamps 

 and diffusing them over the entire city, causing a marked mortality 

 in the Twelfth ward. The south-west wind is the prevailing one, as 

 we have seen, during the summer and autumn months, and the 

 mortality, for the past year, was greater in the Thirteenth ward 

 than in the Fifth, where, so far as relates to drainage, cleanliness, 

 comforts of living, &c., the conditions are far inferior. 



Regarding, then, this question in a comprehensive view, it maybe 

 affirmed that the benefits to be derived from the location of parks 

 are not of a local, but general character, and such as should enlist, 

 in their establishment, the efforts of every citizen who has the 

 welfare of the city at heart. 



