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This Diagram Ululate* W hal Happens in New York on a Smoky. Foggy Day.
The Particles of Soot and Smut Cast C|. by .the Chimneys t ollec Eatery Vapor
Thus Forming a Thick Fog. At the Same Time 1 here Is a Constant Fall of thd)
Heavier Irritating Particles of Earth. The Heavier and Poisonous Gases of he
Smoke Sink Also to the Level of the Streets, and Gases and I articles Are lnhaled>
But, Curiously Enough, School Chil
dren Are
Best
Behaved
and
Most
Studious
on
Dark,
Wet, Gloomy
Days.
They Are
Most
Mischievous
and Unruly
When
“Tonic,”
Sunshiny
Weather
Follows a
Period
of Overcast.
The Clear,. Healthy Lungs
All His Life on a Farm,
important, there is also very probably
some stimulating or irritating quality
in clear, dry, sunshiny weather. Dr.
Dexter assumes this, though he does not
ascribe the stimulating quality to th &
dryness, but to the increased electrical
potential of dry air.
Pupils are stimulated on clear, dry.
sunny days, hence they are more active,
aggressive and enterprising, but like
wise more restless, high strung, emo
tionally unstable and therefore also more
mischievous. A superabundance of yen-
ergv and not a state of enervation pre
disposes - to childish pranks and nervous
explosions.
An increase of vitality and nervous
tension upsets the unstaple equilib
rium of the predisposed offender, gives
him a false sense of strength, and
an exaggerated idea of self-importance—
often paranoia-like in its intensity and
hence he becomes more aggressively
criminalistic.
The gloomy days do have a bearing
upon crime and suicide, however, it
would appear that they foster dark
thoughts, ideas of violence, dark pas
sions and despair. The saving clause is
that the same weather which breeds
these evils in the mind is so devitalizing
that the thinker hasn’t energy enough to
carry out the impulses. He simply
broods.
Nevertheless the seeds have beeD
sown. In a normal person the advent of
a vitalizing, clear day clears the dark
thoughts away. But the exhilarating
qualities of the tonic atmosphere gives
the potential suicide just the courage he
needs to take his own life, the courage
which he was unable to muster when the
deep thoughts of self-destruction came to
him. In the same
way the criminal
finds the energy
when the gloomy
time has passed
to put into execu
tion the evil he
has inculcated.
Equally aston
ishing as the con
clusions regarding
the weather are
those concerning
the effect of
smoke in the air
we breathe. The
average adult
consumes about
30 cubic inches
of air in each in
halation, or pos
sibly 864,000,000
cubic inches
every day.
It does not
seem an exagger
ation, therefore,
to say, declares
the report, >that
more persons are
devitalized, dis
abled and pois
oned by the im-
,. ,, .... , . , purities contained
ot a Man Who Lived jn smoke poilut-
Away from Smoke. ed ajr than by
the noxious ingre
dients in food and water. ,
The solid and vaporous ingredients of
smoke-begrimed air — noxious copv
pounds of carbon, sulphur, nitrogen,
chlorine and bisenic—irritate the sens!
tive membranes of eyes, nose, throat
and lungs and thus aggravate or cause
inflammatory diseases of these organs,
. or increase their susceptibility to the
bacilli of bronchitis, pneumonia and sub
acute phthisis.
Irritating, acrid goot particles and
poisonous smoke compounds may become
factors in causing premature decay, un
timely death, exaggerated fatigue, fre-
quent sickness, instability of attention,
malcontent, irritability, lessened self
control and possibly psychic disequilib
rium.
It is also probable, Professor Mallin
finds, that there go§s on a gradual proc
ess of absorption by the human sys
tem of the poisonous products of im
perfect smoke combustion. This insen
sible intake may not give rise to any
definitely recognizable dcute disorder or
specific disability. But the process of
poisoning may insidiously eat away like
a mild canker at the vital tissues and
thus in time deplete our potential re
serve, thereby making it impossible for
body and brain to function at their
points of maximal efficiency. With an
impaired brain the mind cannot reach
its highest levels of creative insight and
constructive achievement.
“It has often been a matter of com
ment.” says Professor Mallin. “that peo
ple who have lived in relatively smoke
free cities after coming to live in a city
like Pittsburgh have experienced a dis
tinct disinclination to w r ork or a source
of chronic ennui.
“A Pittsburgh man writes that people
coming to Pittsburgh to reside notice a
great depression; likewise many resi
dents of Pittsburgh, on visits, find they
feel infinitely better, and business men,
working for periods in cities where there
is not the same smoke, find they can do
twice as much work.
“These are not isolated cases, but the
result of a very genera! inquiry which
I have made for a number of years.
People very frequently remark on the
depressed impression, not only on the
workingmen of Pittsburgh, but they also
observe it in the clubs.
“Is it possible that the low - es
teem in which Pittsburgh is held in the
world of productive scholarship—a mat
ter of qccasional remark among medical
men and other scientists—is due to the
fact that the air which its scientists
must breathe is polluted and poisoned
by smoke?”
The smoke pall causes an increased
use of artificial light and harmful eye-
strain.
Not the least detrimental effect of the
dark smoke strata is the fact that they
intercept the blue and ultra-blue rays of
the sun, w'hich either check the growth
or exterminate harmful bacilli. Fewer
diseases are found during sunshiny than
foggy or cloudy w - eather. The death
rate increases during fogs.
As for the aesthetic effects of smoky
cities, the conclusions are depressing. By
causing decay of interior paintings it
tends to restrict the furnishings to the
more sombre hues—with corresponding
effect upon the mind. Housewives In
smoky cities are inclined to keep doors
and windows shut. This may be aesthet
ically commendable, but is not hygienic.
Moreover, the great amount of extra
labor required to keep the houses clean
robs the women of leisure moments
which might be used for pleasure and im
provement.
Smoke also tends to foster habits of
personal uncleanliness. The children
playing in the streets in grimy cities be
come so used to soot and smut that “they
learn to glory in grime and revel in
grease.”
Finally, says the report, nice people
try to get away as soon as possible from
smoky cities, and won’t visit there un
less they have to.
ehave Better on Cloudy, Smoky Days.
Astonishing Researches Into the
Effects of the Weather and
Smoky Cities Show That Crim
inals Are More Active on
Sunshiny Days and School
Children More Mischievous
VERY mother knows bow she dreadH
dark, rainy day^ when the children
■ J “have to stay in all day," because
she realizes that as the hours wear on
he children will grow more and more un
ruly and boisterous. She excuses their
Conduct on the ground that “it’s the
weather.”
Similarly literature pictures the police
as unusually alert in gloomy, stormy
weather, because tradition has it that
hen criminals an at their worst. There
is hardly a story writer who doesn’t pick
out the dismallest sort of day or night for
the perpetration of his villain’s most
atrocious crimes.
Both these generally accepted Ideas,
among others, are overturned by the re
port. which Professor J. E. Wallace Mal
lin, Director of the Psychological Clinic
of the University of Pittsburgh, has just
trmde to the Mellon Institute of industrial
Research and School of Specified Indus
tries connocted with the university. Pro
fessor Mallin whs assigned to investigate
the influences of smoke, smoke caused
weather, and, incidentally, plain weather,
upon morals, body, mind and conduct.
His astonishing discoveries are set forth
in a monograph “Psychological Aspects
of the Problem of Atmospheric Smoke
Pollution."
From this report it appears that chil
dren are not “had’’ on rainy days be
cause of the weather. Far from it. They
are worst on clear, sparkling, sunshiny
days. Their behavior when skies are
overcast is due solely to the irritating
effects of continued confinement.
Nor are criminals at their worst in at
mospheres of gloom. That, the report
finds, is when they are safest. But when
the sun is shining the air Is full of life
and snap, the little birds are singing and
all the world is glad, then the police
must prepare for business, because it’s
just the kind of day to inspire tho
criminal to assault, robbery, dynamiting
and murder.
Researches by the distinguished psy
chologist, Dr. Edwin Grant Dexter, into
the relation of conduct and the weather
are quoted by the Pittsburgh report to
bolster the assumption that smoke is an
immediate factor In human behavior.
“Because of its sinister influence on the
w - eather, aside from its intrinsically
pernicious qualities.”
Dexter's investigations were made
upon a large number of child and adult
offenders in Denvei and New York City.
The data which he studied included rec
ords of misdemeanors in schools, peni
tentiaries and hospitals for the insane,
arrests for assault and battery, for sui
cide and murder, records of death and
bank errors and strength tests.
The weather
states tend to de
plete vitality, low
er the vital re
serve and aug
ment the death
rate, while the
sunny “Tonic”
tends to stimu-
late, invigorate,
irritate and in
crease the ner
vous tension.
C o nformabl ,v
with this classifi
cation Dr. Dex
ter finds statisti
cally that clear,
tracing conditions
Increase all the
data which are of
the nature of of
fenses.
The traditional
view is that most
suicides occur on
cloudy and not on
clear days. Ville-
amalr claimed that
nine-tenths of all
suicides took
place on rainy
and cloudy days,
while Dickens
L
stage their tragic
climaxes on
cloudy days. Statistical evidence, it seems,
does not support those popular notions.
The records of suicide and attempted
suicide during a period of five years in
New York City indicated that suicides
were 31 per cent more frequent on dry
than on w - et days; 21 per cent more fre
quent on clear than cloudy days.
Likewise, statistics show that clear
and particularly excessively dry days
increase the number of arrests for in
ebriety, although in the international
Journal of Ethics if is said that humid
ity increases drunkenness.
On the other hand, school misde
meanors were reduced on humid, rainy,
snowy and possibly on cloudy days and
days with high temperature.
School misdemeanors in Denver were
increased 200 per cent on fair and
dr.v days, and on days with high winds
Criminals Are Most Active on Clear,
Cool
Sunshiny
Days,
and on
Bright
Days
When There
Are High
Winds.
On Gloomy
Days
They Brood
Over
(’rime, but
Have Not
the
Energy
to Carry
Out
Their Evil
Ideas.
hub uiuneuis, _ .
ytton and Pope ' * 1 ‘‘ Soot-F tiled, Smoke-Stained Lungs of a Man
age their tragic Who Lived Most of His Life in a Smoky City.
in the same city, days with low humid
ities (iu degrees and 30 degrees), they
likewise increased 200 per cent. In New
York City they increased 33 per cent
with a humidity of between 50 and 55
degrees.
Adult assaults, murders and disciplin
ary cases in penitentiaries and institu
tions for the insane were also reduced on
excessively humid days and increased on
clear days.
On foggy days more bank errors were
made in New York City—a finding in
harmony with the practise adopted by
the Bank of England of requiring clerks
to work at less intricate and less im
portant problems on foggy and depress
ing days.
On dry days perspiration is Increased
and therefore there is more demand for
liquid refreshment. But. what is more
The New“Skyscraper Hats” and Other Horrors in Headgear
Paris, Dec. 10.
HE very newest,
weirdest creation In
hats is the “sky
scraper,” the invention of
one of the famous French
millinery ‘ateliers.” The
“skyscraper” gets its
name from its resem
blance to the terraced and
towering buildings that
make New York famous,
but its inspiration was
really in the headgear of
the ladies in Joan of Arc’s
time. These have been
revived in the elaborate
production of “Joan of
Arc” ir London, and the
'skyscraper” pr omptly
followed. Others horrors
from the same source are
in its train, with more, no
doubt, to follow.
, The “skyscraper” at Its
smallest measures fifteeu
inches from base to tip
of feather. Its usual
height, however, is twen
ty-eight inches, and there
are a few creations—
that’s the right word for
it, too—which measure as
much as thirty-six inches.
The usual form is in
terraces, like a pagoda.
Turbans, for instance,
tower in tiers two feet or
more high, and then are
surmounted by an aigrette
and sometimes with a long
black feather. Aigrette
and feather look all the
world like a tower or
skyscraper with a flag
waving from the top.
The social problems
caused by the "skyscrap
ers" are many. For in
stance, the proolem of
what to do with them in
automobiles. The long
feathers of this Fall are
bad enough, but feathers
will bend. The big mass
es of fabric la the hats
won't bend. In a limousine
there isn’t much room be
tween the roof and the
head. It would seem that
the new models would
have to have hatboxes
built into their tops, or
else woman will have to
do all her riding leaning
far forw - ard.
Even the ordinary vehi
cles do not permit the
rider to sit upright ip one
of these enormous hats.
And so it is predicted that
woman will once again
have to “change her fig
ure.” Manifestly a gown
built for sitting uprigln
won’t do if the waist of
the wearer is bent double
a good part of the time.
And so the two and three
foot hat will create a
brand new gown and walk
to match it.
But other horrors are to
follow. There is already-
showing its head a hat
that looks like a skyscra
per split through the mid
die and falling on each
side. If this becomes pop
ular women will not be
able to ride in public con
veyances at all, or else
will have to buy three
seats at once, one for her
self and one for each side
of her hat.
The Whiskers Head Dress, Another
Parisian Honor.
Copyright, 191?- by the Star Company Great Britain I; ,:hts Keser ti
i he New “Skyscraper” Hat: Tier Upon Tier of Fabric
Piled Nearly .1 Feet High.