ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. XXIX. 



rectangular streets, were fully discussed. In connection with 

 this last feature the theory of solar shadows was treated, and a 

 diagram, giving their position at any hour of the day and month 

 .n the year, was exhibited. 



The considerations which should regulate the width of streets 

 were sketched, and it was shewn that the interdependence of tho 

 types of occupation and of street, of settlement and of traffic, and 

 the tendency of each to perpetuate itself without regard to the 

 welfare of the city as a whole, involved more than ordinary care 

 in the arrangements of any city that is intended to be ideally 

 beautiful, and that no effort was wasted which has for its object 

 the conservation of the higher interests in such a way as to involve 

 a minimum of alteration with its attendant expense and difficulty. 



In treating of the grade, cross-section, and engineering features 

 of streets, it was stated that if the positions for the mains, conduits, 

 tunnels, etc., required for water, gas, electric, or various forms of 

 power-supply, for sewerage systems, for telephone and telegraphic 

 services, or for underground communication of any sort, wero 

 thoroughly considered at the outset, they could be so located as 

 to involve the minimum disturbance of traffic, and the least 

 expense for maintenance and repair ; and the characteristic break- 

 ing up of, and injury to well-constructed streets, in order to reach 

 such mains and conduits, would then become an unknown element. 

 Gertain suggestions were made as to the sizes of blocks, and 

 height of buildings, and the elements of the theory of aspect were- 

 indicated. 



Touching the aesthetics of design it was said that a study of 

 those examples of architecture which impress the human conscious- 

 ness with a sense of beauty, has revealed the fact that their 

 general proportions, and the mutual relationship of their details,, 

 conform to simple numerical ratios and to an harmonious scheme. 

 Certain geometrical forms constituted, as it were, a skeleton on 

 which architectural features were developed, in symmetrical 

 grouping, with, however, such relief in detail as to obviate too 

 cold and severe an effect, or what may, perhaps, be called an 



