The Necessity of Pure Air for Health. 26^ 



vastly improved, bedrooms are now made airy, the old 

 four poster bed with its heavy curtains and tester 

 has quite gone. Wide streets have been and are still 

 being made in all the large cities, at what appears to be 

 a ruinous cost, as for instance, London, where houses are 

 sold for enormous sums of money simply to be pulled 

 down so as to widen the streets. Large open spaces are 

 being made into gardens by the governing bodies of all 

 towns, at a heavy expenditure often, so as to give pure 

 air to the inhabitants. Trees are being planted wher- 

 ever possible in the street, so that the carbonic acid gas 

 and organic matter poured into the air may be rapidly 

 consumed and the health of the town increased. Per- 

 haps one of the most hopeful signs for the further reduc- 

 tion of the mortality is to be found in the keen discussion 

 that continually goes on now-a-days as to the mortality 

 statistics of towns. In England there is a sharp competi- 

 tion to stand at the head of the Registrar-General's 

 Quarterly Returns. It is commonly said that we here 

 are much behind the times, yet this is not altogether 

 corre6l. More especially of late years, one has from time 

 to time with pleasure noticed an effort to improve the 

 condition of the environments of the poor people. The 

 aClion of the Children's Prote6lion Society and Mr. 

 Gibson's ere6lion of " Model Dwelling Houses" are 

 both well marked attempts to give the people pure air. 

 In the colony it is curious how it has come about that 

 the mortality should owe its severity to such a disease as 

 phthisis, for in the day time all classes live more or less 

 in the open, few being in offices or houses, and these 

 even are so well ventilated by large windows, with per- 

 haps the exception of some rum and retail provision 



