IT is clearly indicated at this time that I should add what authority I possess to that of my lifelong friend and co-worker in the cause of public health, Dr. William H. Park, for many years director of the research laboratories in the Department of Health of New York City. My reference is to the recent pronouncement by Dr. Park on the subject of the healthful properties of our city subways. Lest the article in question may have escaped the notice of some of my readers, permit me to quote it in part with one or two added comments of my own.

In the preamble we read the following able outline of the matter.

"Singularly enough, while Mayor Hylan and scores of others have been inveighing against subway congestion as unhygienic, disease breeding, disgusting and indecent, it has remained for a distinguished bacteriologist, an authority in hygiene and sanitation, to declare that the much abused subways—even the congested ones—may be an agency of good health rather than a purveyor of communicable disease.

"A few days ago at a convention of State health officers at Saratoga, Dr. Park suggested that the population of New York City apparently is becoming partially immunized to diphtheria and other diseases through the passage of the germs from person to person in the subways, theaters and other crowded places. He said the virulence of these germs is being decreased by constant attenuation in this manner, so that scarlet fever, for example, now prevails in milder form."

Before going further let me fully corroborate all that Dr. Park says in this important statement. The fact that Mayor Hylan disagrees with him is not surprising. Political rulers are prone to capture publicity by disagreeing with experts, for by so doing they win the applause of lay minds which subconsciously resent being told anything true. I may even venture the statement that the disagreement of Mayor Hylan is tantamount to proof of Dr. Park's contention.

Blessings in Disguise

HOWEVER, let us pass on to the more important consideration of the proposition itself. With what a blaze of illumination it clears up many of the perplexing tendencies of mankind. Herein we see humanity treated as it should be, namely as a mass. Against the verdict of nine tenths of the best medical authority I have always maintained that the study of individual cases with the attendant complications of temperature-charts, life-histories, blood-tests and the like were of no value whatsoever. The conditions surrounding individuals are too varied to permit of any reliable deductions. But in this matter of subways we have the amazing analysis of a master-mind summing up the physical reactions of millions of human beings all at once. This is something to go by.

Incidentally it is difficult to imagine how Dr. Park will collect his professional fees as subway consultant, or on what basis, but that is a matter which need not be discussed at this time.

In the beam of this new medical search-light we see, first of all, what a pitiful injustice has been meted out in the past, not only to subways, but, as Dr. Park points out, to theaters and other crowded places. How clearly, now, we see that the mass mind, left to itself, unconsciously and infallibly seeks the road to well-being and hygienic advancement; convening, congesting, crowding together, even against the advice of medical authority and the laws of the commonwealth. The theater cough, that uncontrollable bronchial outburst which greets the rise of every curtain, what beauty it acquires in relation to this new concept. In place of being a critical or interruptive demonstration it is a magnificent salute to the Goddess Hygiene. Over and above the audience, whirling about the heads of the actors, the trained mind's eye sees the invisible atoms in the friendly process of immunization, Hitting from larynx to larynx, balancing to corners, changing seats regardless of ticket-stubs or ushers. Measured by this new yard-stick we are forced to label the Smith Brothers as enemies of society. It is a complete bouleversement of preconceived ideas.

"Up, Boys and Atom!"

OUR crowded dance halls must also be viewed in a new light. The restricted dancing space, the huddled tables, the absence of ventilation, the compacted performers pressed like sardines in the most complete anatomical liaison, all these envious phenomena of our social instinct acquire a new and beautiful significance. Professor R. B. Benchley, one of my efficient co-workers in the Bacterial Brotherhood, has already pointed out the interesting relation of community singing to the flu outbreak, but I must take direct issue with him in his assumption that the results are to be deplored. A consideration of Dr. Park's findings will, I feel sure, modify my friend's discouraging conclusions.

Certainly I am able fully to confirm Dr. Park's statement regarding the abating of specific ailments, notably scarlet fever, of which he speaks. Observations carried out by me in my private laboratory show that this colorful affliction has faded out until it is hardly distinguishable from pink-eye.

Dr. Park shows a deep and scientific sympathy for the germs themselves which have hitherto been distinctly non grata. Speaking of the importance of the carrier germ he says: "Since we cannot escape accumulating these carrier germs, it is pleasant to know that, byway of partial immunization, they have a certain protective value." This is urbanity itself. Modern science replaces the old mid-Victorian aloofness with a gesture of respect and a word of approbation which says, "Hats off to the germs, men." It is simple justice, no more.

Now that it is pointed out to us it seems self-evident that any organism must lose tremendously in power if compelled to travel incessantly on subway lines. Not only during the rush hours, but at all times of day and night, the friendly little bacteria are jostled and pushed about, constantly changing their habitat, urged on by their inexorable activity. What it is that goads them we do not know, but the thought of it inspires not only pity but a sort of dramatic awe. What is so uncertain as the life of a germ who may be snatched without warning from sphere to sphere, starting the day in a push-cart to end it in a limousine or vice-versa? There is no snobbery among bacilli. The sentiment is manifestly impossible among beings so constantly subject to change without notice and the atomic inhabitant of the fashionable East side meets the humble suburbanite on absolutely equal terms, for, who knows, they may have changed places by tomorrow. By one fundamental tie they are bound, the instinct of unceasing activity expressed in the bug-slogan, "Up, boys and atom!"

This preliminary consideration of the healthful quality of our subways is only the threshold of the subject. To what it may lead we may only imagine, but, obviously, we city-dwellers must not remain smugly satisfied with our immunity, breathing night and morning the ozone of our subterranean tubes without a thought for the millions of our population who live far beyond the last subway station. We must not fail in our duty to them.

Dr. Park says dispassionately, "It is well established that when the flu ravaged our wartime camps several years ago the city boys suffered far less than did the lads from the farms and the great open spaces."

It is pathetic to note, in passing, how many superior folk have derided the farmer for his habit of sleeping with his windows shut. The practice has been held up to scorn and ridicule when all the time he was unconsciously doing the right thing in trying to make his humble abode as much like the subway as possible. In this he was often surprisingly successful but his efforts were woefully inadequate. Despite his best efforts at plugging up broken window panes and door-panels with discarded undershirts or old newspapers the outside air would leak in to his great physical detriment.

Justice for Germs

OBVIOUSLY, then, we must extend our subway system until the entire countryside is a network of joyous, health-bringing tunnels. Even as our water is brought clear and undefiled from reservoir to faucet, so must the stream of life be piped to the future. Let it not be said of any Metropolis that she hogged the hygiene of the nation. Through mountain and valley let our great engines bore their way, leaving here and there glazed openings through which we may gaze upon the beautiful, but dangerous, out-of-doors. The expense will be large, but it must not be considered when opposed to our duty to future generations.

In the city, where we must naturally look for further scientific work on this important problem, there is already talk of establishing definite germ-exchanges or bacteria stations where this important process of immunization can be carried on. By means of a central clearing house various parts of the city can report just which germs show a surplus or shortage, as the case may be, and the proper balance may be maintained. Leading life insurance companies are intensely interested in this new attempt to reduce vital statistics to an exact science.

It would be unfair to an important feature of the subject to close this article without a serious word regarding one of the most usual practices of our people, a practice which has been deplored as injurious to health by many prominent medical men. I refer to the phenomenon of reciprocal interlabial salutation or osculation, known in vulgar parlance as kissing. This popular pastime has had many defamers who would now appear to be completely refuted by the new theories suggested by Dr. Park's research. The advantage of this method as against that of subway construction is obvious. The cost is practically nil, no expert knowledge is necessary, and it has many other qualities to recommend it.

But this is not the place for detailed discussion. I have penned these lines, as I say, to reinforce the importance of the report of a brother practitioner and to bid those who are daily forced to use our underground lines to be of good cheer. It is my secondary hope that readers of this article will join with me in adopting a new attitude toward germs in general, to whom we may pay belated justice and say with perfect confidence, "Welcome to our Systems. "