AIR-POLLLTTION AND NATIONAL HEALTH. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sia,—Your correspondent in his interesting and illuminating article on "Air-Pollution and National Health" omitted to call attention to one very disagreeable adjunct which contributes largely to the impurities in the air—in towns large And small—and that is the desiccated horse-dung which blows
so freely about almost the moment rain has ceased falling. It is worst, of course, in towns and cities like London, where woodpaved roads and asphalte quickly dry up and where the dung cannot get trodden in. This desiccated horse-dung has a decided partiality for one's eyes, and doubtless also, to a much greater extent, for one's mouth, though in the latter case it is not perhaps so noticeable. We must swallow and breathe peeks of it! But few people • seem to worry about it. The " toleration "—indeed, I may say " the partiality "—of some people for dirt is phenomenal. It has come across me many times lately what a large field there-is for the useful employment of sonic of those who are out of work in cleaning up roads and public places. Passing through' Edinburgh lately, I was filled with disgust to see the beautiful Prince's Street Gardens littered from end to end with papers. What Goths! What Vandals! I could mention many other places which are a disgrace and eyesore to our so-called civilization. Verily we but slowly emerge from the state of savagedom, or shall I say animalism?—I am, Sir, &c., SCRCTATOR..
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