SMOKE ABATEMENT [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Prima facie,
one would have thought that, if it were possible, where 'man interfered With Nature he would have done his best to improve upon her'; but one moment's reflec- tion, after a mental glance at the chief towns of this country, will bear in upon us forcibly that man's interference has been all to the bad. As was pointed out last year in the Spectator, our large towns are a disgrace to civilization—dismal, and 'for many days during the winter months quite funereal.
• Yet man (including woman) takes pride in himself, in his person, in his clothes, his house and his furniture. He flies from the darkness of the outside influence, from the dreary streets, from the soot-begrimed walls of public buildings and his neighbour's house, and seeks the cheeriness of his household* surroundings to drown the Memory of the atmosphere without.; He is therefore not unheedful of the Misery and dirty Condition of his town, but is so accustomed to it (since his infancy) that he accepts it as 'an evil necessity; it becomes almost a brain-buried nightmare, and is Only allowed 'to rise to con- sciousness when depression has otherwise overcome his usual complacency.
If every Man and won-fan would be determined that their own town should be: treated with as much care and attention as their own lierson, that cleanliness is as important in a town as in a: house, that brightness and briskness of atmosphere are as obtainable there as in the' country, rapid progress might be made towards the fulfilment of the ideal. While, however, apathy towards this qUestieM dominates' the Mind of the
ordinary citizen improvement cannot take place.
That the smoke of towns is not limited to the town area
itself is well known, and I have personally seen a London fog tVio miles east of Basingstoke, and a country chauffeur smelt it thirtk-six miles from town, while once in the Western . Highlands I saw a Glasgow " particular " calmly settle itself on a loch thirty miles from its starting place.
In addition to these aesthetic disasters due to smoke, there are many others which have been related over and over again, but as a member of the medical profession I cannot refrain from reiterating some harmful results on health . due to its blighting effects. These results are produced in • two ways, firstly by interfering with the passage of the sun's rays to earth, and secondly by the direct action of the solid and liquid (mostly acid) particles of the soots, and I might add thirdly, by discouraging the ventilation of houses, • for a sootladen atmosphere adds much to the labour of house- cleaning. And first as to the cloud effect, the black blanket effect. Nothing is better known among physicists than that • the sun is the ultimate source of all life, and that if it were • blotted out altogether life on this planet would cease, but as plants will grow in the dark so will humans, and their growth will be similar, tall and colourless. Those who are now care- less or unheeding in this matter have but to walk down a slum, glance at the pale, colourless cheeks of the child inhabit- ants to be convinced that those children have been grown like celery under a pot, i.e., for the purpose of keeping them pale. But this pallor means more than the pallor of the celery, for. it is accompanied by an impoverishment of the blood, which lays the human bodies open to the attacks of such dire diseases as tuberculosis and rickets. Both of these (to mention no others) lay a heavy hand on the poor of our towns, at a time when nature is most susceptible of injury— an injury which will leave its mark through life even if it does not quite blot out life.
Secondly, the direct effect of the soot through its tarry and acid compounds. This is produced by the falling of the solid substances on the mucous (covering) membrane which passes right through the body. We are all aware of the soreness thus produced in the eyeball, in the throat, the nose and the consequent" running" and cold, but far more serious is the result on the mucous membrane of the lungs causing bronchitis and lighting up old tuberculosis. These evil effects mostly fall on the elderly, and many are the deaths which can be directly attributed annually to the frequent recurrences of these troubles due to fog, the consequent strain on an old heart and complete failure later on.—I am,
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