189 



Again, the fact that with every respiration of every living heing 

 a quantity is formed of a certain gas, which, if not dissipated, ren- 

 ders the air of any locality at first debilitating, after a time sicken- 

 ing, and at last deadly ; and the fact that this gas is rapidly absorbed, 

 and the atmosphere relieved of it by the action of leaves of trees, 

 grass and herbs, was quite unknown to those who established the 

 models which have been more or less distinctly followed in the pres- 

 ent street arrangements of our great towns. It is most of all im- 

 portant, however, that we should remember that they were not as 

 yet awake to the fact that large towns are a necessary result of an 

 extensive intercourse between people possessing one class of the 

 resources of wealth and prosperity and those possessing other classes, 

 and that with each increase of the field of commerce certain large 

 towns must grow larger, and consequently, that it is the duty of each 

 generation living in these towns to give some consideration, in its 

 plans, to the requirements of a larger body of people than it has 

 itself to deal with directly. 



CHANGE IX THE HABITS OF CITIZENS AFFECTING THE 

 STRUCTURAL REQUIREMENTS OF TOWNS. 



If, again, we consider the changes in the structure of towns which 

 have occurred through the private action of individual citizens we 

 shall find that they indicate the rise of a strong tide of requirements, 

 the drift of which will either have to be fairly recognized in the pub- 

 lic work of the present generation, or it will, at no distant day, surely 

 compel a revision of what is now done that will involve a large sac- 

 rifice of property. 



SEPARATION OF BUSINESS AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



In the last century comparative few towns-people occupied dwel- 

 lings distinctly separate from their place of business. A large ma- 

 jority of the citizens of Paris, London and of New York do so 

 to-day, and the tendency to divisions of the town corresponding to 

 this change of habits must rapidly increase with their further en- 

 largement, because of the greater distance which will exist between 

 their different parts. The reason is obvious : a business man, during 

 his working hours, has no occasion for domestic luxuries, but needs 

 to have access to certain of his co-workers in the shortest practicable 

 time, and with the smallest practicable expenditure of effort. He 

 wants to be near a bank, for instance, or near the Corn Exchange, or 

 near the Stock Exchange, or to shipping, or to a certain class of 

 shops or manufactories. On the other hand, when not engaged in 



