1879.] 
Its Present and its Future . 
55 
information. To the distress of London the world owes 
those great works of the Royal Commissions on Water 
Supply and the Pollution of Rivers, which are the repertory 
of the best knowledge on these topics. The manufactories 
of England have made it necessary for the Government to 
take cognisance of aerial impurities, and much has been 
done in that country towards establishing a chemical clima- 
tology. Similarly the pollution of the Passaic by the manu- 
facturing towns above has caused enquires to be set on foot 
akin to those referring to the pollution of the Thames, and 
has given rise to extended enquiries into the methods and 
aims of water analysis.* An attempt was made to deprive 
the inhabitants of New York of some of their public parks and 
occupy them with buildings devoted to military and other 
purposes. The more public-spirited citizens came to the 
rescue, and, through the influence exerted, a Public Parks 
Association and other means preserved the open squares as 
breathing places and pleasure grounds. The Association 
recognised as its principle of action that to preserve the 
parks they must be improved. The proposition was made 
and eloquently advocated by Dr. Seguin that the physical 
as well as the spiritual well-being of the citizens at large 
would be powerfully augmented by making the public gar- 
dens out-door schools, supplementing the in-door school 
system by that in which they are lamentably deficient — an 
education in the phenomena of plant and animal life. A 
beginning in this direction has been made in the Botanical 
and Zoological Museums of the Central Park of New York, 
and in the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia; but these are 
remote from the centres of population, and the objects of 
study should be placed where they could constantly appeal 
to the eye. The hygienic value of gratifying the sense of 
beauty, as well as satisfying the requirements of use, is 
more and more recognised. The first society on this side of 
the water organised with this objeCt was the so-called 
Laurel LI ill Association, of the village of Stockbridge, in 
Western Massachusetts. After twenty-years of activity, the 
result has been to produce a village of exceeding loveliness. 
Thousands of trees have been planted out along the road- 
* “Report to the Board of Public Works of Jersey City,” Profs. Wurtz 
and Leeds. 
“Analytische Beitriige aus dem Laboratori uni des Stevens Institute of 
Technology, Prof. Leeds : Zeitscnr. lur Anai. Chem., 1878. 
“Recent Progress in Sanitary Science,” Prof. Leeds: Annals of the 
Academy of Science, New York,wol. xi., 1878. 
“ Water Supply of the State of New Jersey,” Prof. Leeds : Journ. Franklin 
Institute, March and April, 1878. 
