Mat 27, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



807 



grounds, while Chicago has spent fifteen 

 million dollars on a system of public play- 

 grounds. I am told that the indirect ex- 

 penditiire upon these Chicago playgrounds 

 runs upwards of forty millions. 



These are all problems in community 

 hygiene. Their initiative and direction 

 depend upon the technical expert, who 

 shall be trained in a way that is not yet 

 possible in any school in America. The 

 old forms of athletic exercise are no longer 

 suited to the conditions of large schools 

 with limited playgroimds. We need men 

 who are trained with reference to the 

 needs of the growing organism, who have 

 intimate acquaintance with the nature of 

 boys' instinct feelings, who will devise 

 types and forms of athletics which will 

 embrace the great mass of boys instead of 

 the favored few that are brought forward 

 under the conditions of interscholastic 

 athletics which obtain at present. 



The cities with their elaborate water 

 supply are able to make provision for pub- 

 lic baths in a way impossible in the coun- 

 try. Unlike the great European cities, the 

 municipalities of the United States had 

 done practically nothing for public baths 

 before 1890. Since the agitation started 

 at that time by Dr. Simon Baruch, a great 

 deal has been done, though we are still far 

 behind the other nations, owing in part to 

 the common though quite erroneous im- 

 pression that the majority of people have 

 access to private baths. In 1904 the Na- 

 tional Bureau of Labor published a com- 

 prehensive account of the public baths 

 then existing in the United States, with a 

 showing of thirty-seven municipalities, 

 providing bathing facilities in a wide range 

 of number and efficiency. There is no 

 uniformity in the legal provision for baths. 

 Massachusetts has had a permissive law 

 since 1874, and New York a mandatory 

 law since 1895, for cities of 50,000 and 



over. The control of the baths is variously 

 exercised by the departments of public 

 buildings, of parks, of education, etc. 

 Though school baths are not compulsory, 

 as in many European cities, they are a 

 growing factor in the educational systems. 

 The character of the baths provided is 

 rapidly changing; the floating baths are 

 becoming impracticable on account of the 

 difSculty of keeping the water near large 

 cities uncontaminated ; tub baths are 

 nearly out of use, while shower or rain 

 baths are universal, being superior in 

 cleanliness, ease of administration and 

 economy. A few favored localities have 

 swimming tanks. The baths are mostly 

 free, though a few places charge for soap 

 and towels. 



As in our other public institutions, the 

 psychological and social elements in the 

 public baths are increasingly being recog- 

 nized, so that with their growing attract- 

 iveness in form, there is also development 

 in function. Thus in the latest buildings, 

 gymnasiums, playgrounds and rest rooms 

 are provided for comfort and recreation, 

 while well-equipped laundries shorten the 

 hours of labor for the women and at the 

 same time form a natural social gathering 

 place, like the old time village washing 

 pool. The field houses of Chicago and 

 other places give promise of meeting some 

 such need as was met by the Greek palses- 

 tra and the Roman baths. 



To mention a single instance. New York 

 city at the present time has eight interior 

 baths, and supports fifteen floating baths 

 in summer. In 1902, a committee ap- 

 pointed by the Association for Improving 

 the Condition of the Poor estimated that 

 at least seventeen interior baths were 

 needed in Manhattan alone. The eight 

 baths now in operation vary in capacity 

 and elaborateness from 154 showers and 

 two large swimming tanks to eighty show- 



