IF FOR CHIMPANZEES, WHEN FOR CHILDREN ? [To the Editor
of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In May of 1924, after a•visit to New York, where I saw -infants in glass cubicles opaque to ultra-violet light, I wrote a letter to Nature, asking for a cheap substitute for the costly quartz which_ admits the light of life. That substitute now exists and is called vitaglass.
It has been in use at the Zoo for some time past with con- summate success, as everybody knows, and again I ask the same questions-on the• wireless, " If for chimpanzees, when for children ? " The timer has come. Dr. Bell Ferguson, the School Medical Officer for Smethwick, has provided exact data in his new book which confirm the results already estab- lished at the Zoo.
- It is vitaglass which has glazed the southern aspect of my own house for a long time past, and should be installed at once, on the southern aspect at least, of all sanatoria, hospitals, convalescent homes, schools, nurseries, and indeed alt other
places -inhabited by mankind: - - The time is now when the train of our civilization is entering the-long winter tunnel of darkness and dirt from which, I fear, that not even Mr. Chamberlain's Smoke Abatement Bill will rescue us. The rickets season is about to begin. It might be postponed to the Greek Kalends if we would avail ourselves, as now we might, of ultra-violet light to keep our children going until the spring returns.—I am, Sir, &c., 18 Greville Place, Nil". 6. C. W. SALEEBY.
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