In his home he may be careful that his windows are open, particularly at night, so that his rooms are well ventilated. But the air which comes in may be contaminated by a neighbor's dirty rubbish-filled court or back yard, just under his windows.

Or smoke from a neighboring factory may come pouring into his home. In such cases he is helpless to protect himself or his family unless the community as a whole, represented by the Board of Health, makes the careless neighbor clean up his yard and dispose of the rubbish, and forces the factory to stop the volume of smoke by using smoke consumers.

Then, even though the conditions in a man's home be healthful, he cannot control the quality of the air that his children

breathe in school, or that he himself breathes while at work, or while he is relaxing from work in a theatre or motion picture house, or in any other place of public gathering.

It is particularly important that school houses be well ventilated. Children of school age especially need plenty of good pure air, for they are growing. The community depends on the Board of Education to secure healthful school rooms, and the Board of Health keeps a supervising eye out to see that it is done.

In the school, the work shop and the factory, as well as in the place of amusement or public gathering, it is not always possible to secure ventilation through open windows, because to do so would put all the people in their vicinity in danger of catching cold. These buildings should have means of ventilation provided in the plans of construction, preferably a large number of small openings or gratings near the ceiling, with inlets for the fresh air and outlets for the bad air. There should be, too, a motive force to keep the currents of bad air going out, and the good air coming in.

For these safeguards the property owner cannot be depended upon. The health authorities of the city must see to it that the citizens are supplied with plenty of pure air. In this responsibility the Board of Health is aided by the Tenement House Department, if there be one, the Building Department, the department that takes care of waste disposal, and the Board of Education. All these departments must work together to secure good ventilation and pure air in the buildings where people live and work and play.

Pure Water. A second good health necessity is plenty of pure water to drink. The purity of the water we drink depends first upon an uncontaminated source, and second upon precautionary steps to purify the water before it is piped into our homes and places of business. Even in the country it is not always possible to secure a safe water supply without the cooperation of others. Wells and streams are often polluted by drainage or by filth from the property of neighbors. The city

dweller far more than the farmer is dependent upon the community to protect his water supply.

A city's water supply must be guarded at the source, which may be miles away from the city, from contamination by drainage or by sewage from houses or villages situated near the reservoirs. The water must be constantly tested to detect disease germs. If they are found to be present, they must be killed by chemical or other means. A polluted water supply results in epidemics of dysentery, typhoid fever, and even cholera. It is obvious that the citizen must depend on his city Department of Water Supply or the Board of Health to protect him from impure water.

Pure Food. Impure food is another source of danger to good health. The city dweller raises nothing that he eats. For every bit of his food he is dependent upon sources outside of his control. He has no way of telling that the food which he buys in shops or in markets is fit for consumption. Spoiled meat or tainted milk may mean serious illness to his whole family. The nation, as well as the state and the city, has passed laws and ordinances to safeguard the food that is put on sale in markets and stores. Inspectors are employed to see that these laws are obeyed.

Healthful Conditions of Work. Our working hours are roughly divided into periods of work and periods of recreation. If we are of school age, our working time is for the most part spent in school buildings. Here we must depend on the Board of Education to furnish us with good lighting, and desks and seats properly adjustable so that we can do school work without muscular strain.

If we are older we go to work in a shop, a factory, a store, or an office. In these places we have little or no control over the conditions under which we work. For many years it was left to the will of the individual employer to regulate the conditions in his own establishment. As a result conditions were good in some factories and very bad in others. Some employers did not bother about sanitation, for they argued it was an unneces

sary expense. The workman could leave and find another job if conditions were not to his liking, these men said. Within recent years the community has interposed its regu

Courtesy Women's Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor

GARMENT WORKERS SEWING BY GASLIGHT IN A TENEMENT ROOM Sweat-shop labor, such as this, means ill health for the maker, and often disease transmitted to the ultimate purchaser of garments so manufactured.

lations to safeguard the health of its millions of workers. Conditions have grown steadily better.

Recreation. When our working hours, whether in school or in the shop or factory, are over, there comes time for recreation, and recreation is an important factor in promoting good health. Even though in school we are provided with the most modern desks and seats, nevertheless in school and in our places of work our muscles get cramped and tired. In our recreation period we need varied exercise to bring into play all the muscles,

and particularly those that are not used during our working hours.

Few individuals can supply themselves with the facilities for the many kinds of exercises that they need. If we are going to obey the rule of hygiene and "exercise daily the important groups of muscles," we must be supplied with playgrounds, or athletic fields, or gymnasiums, which will afford us the needed opportunities for exercise.

Here again we must ask the co-operation of the community. Some may indeed belong to a club or a church or other private organization that offers recreation facilities to its members, but the great majority of citizens must depend upon the public parks, playgrounds, and athletic fields for their recreation. Communities are realizing the value and the necessity of supplying organized recreation to their citizens, and are constantly adding to their park and playground space. One of the first essentials of the city plan for new development is the space that is to be laid out in parks or playgrounds. Some cities have a separate department that takes charge of all public recreation. This is a great step forward in public health promotion.

Cleanliness. Provided he is supplied with sufficient water, every individual can keep his body clean, for this is a wellknown and important health factor. He can also be responsible for cleanliness within his home. Dust and dirt which harbor germs should not be allowed to collect on his walls or floors. The garbage and rubbish should be carefully collected and the former always kept in a covered metal receptacle. The cellar and the attic should be kept clear of rubbish, and the back yard should be without litter, pools of stagnant water, or other fly and mosquito breeding sources.

Health, however, depends not only upon a person's own cleanliness, but on that of his neighbors and even the whole community. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes can breed in stagnant water in a yard down the street. Flies may multiply in a neighbor's open garbage pail. The flat into which we have