Mat 27, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



805 



necessary that the rooms shall be ill-venti- 

 lated. It is possible to have large numbers 

 of small rooms, adequately and automat- 

 ically ventilated. The air can be kept 

 free from dust and at suitable tempera- 

 tures, having at the same time the proper 

 amount of humidity. 



The problem of dirt is a similar one. 

 The cleanliness of a room does not depend 

 upon its size. The i-ooms of a tenement 

 may be kept as clean as those in a well-ad- 

 ministered office or even hospital building. 

 It is a problem of adequate care, not a 

 problem of congestion. Because a build- 

 ing is situated in the country is no evidence 

 that it is cleaner than a building situated 

 in the city. 



The same problem presents itself regard- 

 ing darkness. It is true that there are in 

 the city many tenements with dark rooms. 

 It is not true that this condition is neces- 

 sary. Tenements with light rooms are 

 now being built. We do not yet know to 

 any full extent the character and effect of 

 natural and artificial light upon human 

 life. Important and interesting investi- 

 gations have been made with reference to 

 the effect of artificial light upon the 

 growth of plants. We may discover that 

 natural light is not necessary to any such 

 extent as is at present believed. We do 

 not know the possibilities even from the 

 hygienic standpoint of indirect artificial 

 lighting. The problem awaits the investi- 

 gations of the sanitary engineer and physi- 

 cian. 



The problem of privacy is the problem 

 of the expensiveness of space in the city. 

 Because we are dependent upon natural 

 ventilation and natural lighting, and be- 

 cause we have in the main patterned our 

 dwellings after those which evolved under 

 conditions of rural life, all our feelings 

 are to the effect that large rooms are better 

 than small rooms. With the building of 



comparatively large rooms and the influx 

 of larger numbers of inhabitants than was 

 expected, there has developed the vicious 

 habit of having a number of persons in- 

 habit the same room. This condition can 

 be partly met by the use of smaller rooms 

 and forced ventilation. 



The evolution of the city kitchen is one 

 of the straws which shows the direction of 

 present practise. Some years ago in build- 

 ing a house, the plan was altered so as to 

 enable us to have a larger kitchen. We 

 now see that this was due to a mistaken 

 notion which has come down to us from 

 the time when the kitchen was the center 

 of the family life, when food was eaten in 

 the place in which it was cooked, and the 

 partaking of food together was a symbol 

 of friendship. This larger kitchen proved 

 a nuisance, for it involved too much walk- 

 ing from one part of the room to the 

 other. The modern apartment house 

 kitchen, which is exceedingly small, filled 

 with space- and time-saving devices, is 

 easily kept clean, is more convenient, per- 

 mits more rapid operation, and is in every 

 way better than the old style kitchen. 



We do not yet know the feasible and 

 even desirable limitations of space for 

 various social and family uses. The dis- 

 appearance of the trades from the home, 

 the development of outside institutions as 

 places for social life, and other changes 

 have altered the basic space necessities of 

 domestic life; but the traditions of the 

 former conditions remain. 



This whole group of problems needs to 

 be attacked by the social worker who is 

 equipped with the tools of sanitary sci- 

 ence. The great work of constructive 

 medicine or "biological engineering" con- 

 sists not in the futile effort to turn back 

 the hands of the clock which marks human 

 progress, in the attempt to restore rural 

 conditions, but in the study of the specific 



