OXYGENISING A CITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 242, 18 February 1911, Page 9

OXYGENISING A CITY.

AI'TICR KXPKItIMEXTIXO IX TIJK ZOO. i Mow Chicago is being ventilated with frcMtli ii ir is told in Mel'lure's by Burton .7. Hendrick. The story of tnis with foul it ir is something of an epic. The hero is J)r. VVillinm Evans, lie was lirst pathologist to tliii Lincoln Park Zoo 'in Chicago. Idle iilwi of the Superintendent of the Zoo hud lieen to every animal in the temperature ftom which it had tome, und especially ( Q warm up to tropical <-ontUtin,ng tho lairs of the tropica] animals. "Xoverthelcss, tuberculosis simply j|„. Zoo. y Vi i Evans decided on an experiment." A' hatch of twenty flonlthv monkeys arrived ™ u ' « l, ,Ulni«'. I'l'Ksh from the liWicsi. I rhere wen.' live -i';!; monkeys that'had | ;!f\q;elU'ralc(i slilfc their imprisonment in* the Zoo. JJr. Evans persuaded tile Superintendent, while Inking his twenty monkeys inside us usual for the winter, to" allow J)r. Kvans to keep the live, sick monkeys outside. The sick monkevs were provided with no 1 more tlinn a thatched shelter; no artilicial heat was supplied, liefore the winter was over the one-time sick monkeys had all thick brown, furry coats, their muscles had grown large and strong, they ate eagerly, and were extremely pugnacious. Meantime all the twenty monkeys that were admitted in robust health to the steamheated house died.

AX OPEX-Ailt ZOO. So the Superintendent recognised that he must henceforth not make the climate adaptable to your animal, hut make your animal adapt itself to the climate. The Lincoln Park Zoo, winter und slimmer, now became an opeu-air, cold-air zoo. In nearly all the cages the heating apparatus was taken out and the windows opened. All of the- tropical animals, in winter-time formerly kept in a high temperature, now breathe the air precisely as nature supplies it. There are shelters provided for them, of course, but ncahly all of the animals spend the daytime in the open air. The sacred cattle of the East, the antelopes of India, the wild hogs of Mexico—all these, hot-air animals at home, adapt thi'mselves to the natural temperature of Lincoln Park. Probably nowihere else may ostriches be seen ploughing their way through the snow, or the kangaroo* jumping about when the thermometer is below the freezing-point. As a result of this reform, there is no more tuberculosis in the park. In five years there has not been a single death from tihis disease. In every way the animals show an increased vitality.

"OPEN-AIKING" CARS AND SCHOOLS When Mayor Busse came into office in 1907 and. wanted a new Health Commissioner, lie asked the medical profession to select one for him. Their selection fell, on Dr. Evans. Allowing for the difference between human beings and imprisoned animals, Dr. Evans set to work to apply to Chicago the principles he had tested in the Zoo. His inspectors' sampled the air that Chicago was breathing k all kinds of places. It was not before time, for tuberculosis, pneumonia and bronchitis were playing havoc in the town. Dr. Evans set to work to ventilate all the street cars, which had been hotbeds of disease. He caused the fresh air to enter under tjie seats, and the foul air to be drawn out by exhaust appliances. Next he tackled the schools, where teachers were flagging and scholars were dull for want of fresh air. The rooms had been so heated as to reduce the humidity from the normal figure of seventy-two to eighteen. The, schools are now properly "humidified." In many schools the motto has been adopted, "less instruction ami .more oxygen." When the thermometer is ten degrees below zero the children do their work wrapped in warm clothing in cold rooms with windows wide open. Great, progress, has been made, both in health and'education. The United Charities of Chicago have established in one of the Hull House buildings an open-air school for tuberculous children. Fifteen invalids, wrapped in Esquimau suits, carry on their studies on the most freezing winter days, gaining in ■••igiit and color.

A WEARILESS APOSTLE. Dr. Evojis then attacked the underground bakeries, where in heavy rains bakers made bread while standingin two feet of sewage, and compelled the erection of bakeries above ground, with plenty of sunlWhit and air. He also attacked the kitchens of the great hotels, where the heat was so great and the ventilation so bad that the perspiration ran oil' tltoe faces of the cooks into the somas that they were making. , Where the law cannot reach, Dr. Evans sets himself to educate public opinion by lectures, by ciiienintogmph, by sanitary?, talks between the acts at'theatres, by working the Press for all it is worth, and by supplying fresh air bulletin boards, lie also has arranged for free advertisement of fresh air recipes on unused advertisement spaces on the public cars.