10 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



though not direct sunlight, has a powerful influence in destroying patho- 

 genic bacteria. In addition to that, people who are able to live in well- 

 lighted apartments have a physical resistance which is superior to that of 

 people who live in dark rooms. That has been proved under exact experi- 

 mental conditions in laboratory tests and is a matter of common observa- 

 tion among human beings." In the same connection Dr. Emerson said: 

 " Diminished resistance of humans, as with vegetation, depends upon the 

 artificiality of their environment. You cannot raise babies without light 

 and air any more than you can raise plants, and where you cannot prove 

 that a disease has followed congestion, you can almost always show dimin- 

 ished resistance." 



Health is sometimes regarded as merely the absence of disease, but 

 as has been pointed out by George C. Whipple, Professor of Sanitary 

 Engineering, Harvard University, in a memorandum submitted to the 

 Commission, that is not a complete conception of health. " Health is more 

 than the absence of disease. It is something positive, and involves physique 

 and vitality and it is mental as well as physical. The inherent difficulty at 

 the present time is the absence of scientific methods of measuring this 

 positive element in health. Yet the world knows as a matter of human 

 experience that it is real and vital. The expression ' health and comfort 

 of the people ' is centuries old, and these two ideas are inseparable." Health 

 as a positive concept denoting physical and mental well-being will be 

 promoted in many ways by the districting plan. The public health is the 

 sum total of the health of the constituent individuals. Well ordered city 

 development cannot fail to have a marked effect on the physical fitness and 

 vitality of the city's inhabitants. 



Dr. Gustav F. Boehme, Jr., neurologist, testified to. the rapid increase in 

 nervous disorders and troubles and to the very direct relation between such 

 increase and the present high buildings and haphazard development and 

 the congestion, noise and confusion incident thereto. The necessity for 

 reducing the stress and strain of city life is becoming more and more appar- 

 ent. This is essential if the city is to be a place in which our heritage of 

 health and vitality is to be used, conserved and handed down to succeeding 

 generations instead of being abused and exhausted. 



Congestion of traffic and population and haphazard building make the 

 city's fire fighting problem increasingly serious. It becomes increasingly 

 difficult to move fire apparatus through the congested streets. Streets 

 densely packed with crowds of people that quickly form wherever a fire 

 occurs, interfere with prompt service after the scene of the fire is reached. 

 If a serious fire should break out in lower Manhattan coincident with an 

 explosion or earthquake shock that would cause a general panic and out- 

 pouring into the streets, it might be utterly impossible for the firemen to 

 reach the fire and a terrible conflagration might result. This is the plain 

 truth and it is foolhardy to utterly ignore it and go on piling up buildings 

 and further extending the danger zone. The districting plan will, as to 



