ONE RESULT OF THE FOGS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Srit,-7--The Daily Mail on January 13th informed us that elaborate schemes arc in progress in the Zoo to protect tropical birds and snakes from the ravages of our London fogs, and to supply the reptile and bird houses with ultra-violet rays. This laudable project is to go forward at once, it seems, so that our snakes and feathered friends may never again suffer such a dastardly visitation as the last fog, during which " dark patches were found on the lungs of certain victims." I search the daily Press in vain . for reports of " dark patches '7 found on the lungs of any of the thousands of poor and ailing children who, like the snakes and birds, have had to struggle through this unprecedented winter. But we know that the dark patches are there, too many and too terrible to bear report.
The articles published in the Spectator on " The Crime of the Slum," and on " Sunshine and Clean Air " rang out indeed with an insistent elangour upon our gloomy days. - Like the bell of Savonarola, they called us sinners in our millions to repentance. But accompanied even as their message was by an awful warning of darkness and of filth, how many heard it ? How many are now crying out inea culpa ?
It cannot be possible that Londoners are still content to blame natural causes for these repeated and ruinous fogs. Even were ignorance their plea in the past, the splendid campaign for enlightenment with regard to atmospheric pollution which is now being conducted in the Spectator must have driven home to many of them a belated sense of their own guilt. And yet the only tangible result in preventive measures of the recent fogs would seem to be an elaborate scheme for the defence of the lungs of birds and reptiles. The latter, having no -limbs, are at least immune from rickets ! How Margaret McMillan and other gallant workers for 'the children of the East End must rejoice in our social conscience !—I am, Sir, &c.,
KATE O'BRIEN,
Acting Secretary, Sunlight League ; Sub-Editor, Sunlight.
37 Russell Square, London, W.C. 1.
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