Transcript
m^rV'W^
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ornia
lal
Hygiene
in
Mexico
A
Study
of
Sanitary
and
Educational
Problems
By
Alberto
J.
Pani,
C.
E.
Member
of
the
Geographical
and
Statistical
Society;
Member
of
the
Engineering
and
Architectuial
Asrcciadon;
£x-Subsecretary
of
the
Department
of
Public
Instruction
end
Fine
Arts;
S?-Diroctor
General
of
Public
Works
in
the
Ciiy
of
Mnzico;
Rectot
acd
Auider
of
the
Mexican
Popular
University;
Professor
of
the
Natioiiat
Fuf^neer-
ingSchool;
Diiector'Gelieral
of
the
Constitutionalist
Rtlilweys;
Executive
President
ql
the
Company
Ferrocarriles
Natiouales
de
Mexico
(National
Railways
of
Mexico)
;
Member
of
the
Board
of
Directors
of
said
Company;
Member
of
the
Mexican
Section
of
the
Jj
r,
r4mc.,*^o6.
Atlantic
City,
N.
J.,'igi6
TraDslated
by
Ernest
L.
de
Gogorza
G.
P.
Putnam's
Sons
New
York
and
London
Zbc
ftnickerboctter
press
1917
6)4
O^IX
Copyright,
1917
BY
.•^^
.AI^B^R-TO
J.
PANI
v/*:
••• •.
Ube
tkniclterboclicr
pcees,
flew
fiottt
NOTE
SINCE
the
sole
purpose
of
the
Author
of
this
work
was
to
expose
one
of
the
least
known,
most
nefarious
and
shameful
inheritances
of
the
past,
in
order
that
it
may
be
uprootedwith
the
most
intense
energy
of
whichGovernment,
as
well
as
Society
in
general,
is
capable,
the
gross
proceeds
of
the
sale
of
the
Spanish
edition
were
placed
at
the
disposal
of
the
People's
University
of
Mexico,
in
order
to
further
its
beneficial
labors
in
favor
of
our
less
cultured
classes,
and
especially
to
promote
the
teachings
of
Hygiene
Salus
Populi
Suprema
Lex.
.1-'/3^I4;:0
FOREWORD
FROM
the
earliest
times,
there
has
been
re-
cognized
the
convenience,
or
rather
the
neces-
sity,
of
having
the
Powers
that
Be
take
actionto
insure
Public
Health.
We
find
an
eloquent
example
of
this
in
the
theocracy
of
Moses,
whose
command-
ments
and
laws
—
which
contain
most
salutary
les-
sons
of
social
hygiene
—
have
explained,
from
a
merely
scientific
point
of
view,
the
astounding
immunity
of
the
Hebrew
people,
during
their
arduous
and
protracted
pilgrimage
through
un-
healthy
regions
to
the
Promised
Land.
At
present
the
great
endeavors
to
adapt
man
to
the
environment
imposed
on
him
by
the
exigen-
cies
of
modern
life,
which
he
must
bear
as
indi-
vidual
or
species,
combined
with
efforts
made
to
discover
the
chief
elements
of
adaptation
—
efforts
resulting
on
the
one
hand
from
the
transformation
effected
in
hygiene
by
the
discoveries
of
Pasteur,
which
have
directed
it
along
a
rational
road,
and
on
the
other,
from
the
abundant
resources
supphed
by
industry
—
ought
to
make
of
the
public
health
one
of
the
most
sacred
and
imperious
duties
of
the
State.
Civilization
beginning
with
a
social
organiza-
VI
Foreword
tion
based
upon
the
recognition
of
the
individual
rights
of
property,
especially
in
what
concerns
the
land,
becomes
developed
and
strengthened
with
the
ulterior
progress
of
the
same
society
that
is,
through
its
growing
heterogeny.
Hence
the
almost
unconquerable
difficulty
of
ap-
praising
with
precision
a
condition
of
advanced
civilization.
Nevertheless,
among
its
numerous
sociological
elements,
intimately
interwoven,
we
find
one
conception
of
basic
importance,
namely,
the
necessity
of
protecting
human
Ufe,
because
without
this
protection
the
existence
and
increase
of
collective
bodies
become
impossible.
This,
in
comparison
w4th
that
of
other
social
aggregates,
can,
therefore,
be
used
as
a
medium
for
approxi-
mate
estimation.
The
State
protects
thehealth
of
the
individual
in
order
to
make
possible
the
progressive
development
of
society,
by
populariz-
ing
theprecepts
of
privatehygiene,
and
practicing
those
of
public
hygiene.
For
the
first
it
has
the
schools,
as
a
most
excellent
medium
of
propaganda
for
the
second,
with
a
more
direct
influence
on
public
welfare,
it
has
recourse
chiefly
to
special
establishments
(of
healing,
of
disinfection,
and
of
prophylaxis),
to
works
of
sanitary
engineer-
ing,
and
to
laws
and
regulations
for
whose
strict
observance
a
trained
technical
personnel
especially
organized
to
police
and
supervise
is
made
responsible.
We
may
state,
therefore,
without
fear
of
exaggeration,
that
thereexists
a
precise
and
direct
proportionbetween
the
sum
of
Foreword
vii
civilization
acquired
by
a
country,
and
the
degree
of
perfection
reached
in
its
administration
and
stewardship
of
the
public
health.
Consequently
I
deem
it
of
the
deepest
importance
to
reveal
the
lamentable
condition
of
civilization
—
as
regards
public
health
—
in
the
Federal
District,
which
tmquestionably
is
that
portion
of
the
country
farthest
advanced
in
material
progress.
In
this
way
we
shall
make
apparent
in
the
clearest
man-
ner
possible
the
sanitary
condition
in
other
parts
of
the
Republic,
which
are
densely
peopled,
and
less
adapted
than
the
former,
from
the
material
point
of
view,
to
sanitary
improvement.
The
analysis
we
intend
to
make
of
the
necessity
for
sanitary
improvement
will
fill
an
inexplicable
hiatus
in
the
revolutionary
literature
of
recent
years,
and
will
serve
to
show
up,
once
more,
the
urgency
of
improving
the
precarious
economical
condition
of
the
popular
classes,
and
will
mark
one
of
the
principal
aspects
—
the
Hygienic
—
^which
the
future
education
of
labor
must
have.
We
know
that,
in
pursuance
with
the
law
of
March
26,
1903,
the
Government
of
the
Federal
District
was,
politically,
administratively,
and
municipally,
placed
in
charge
of
the
Union's
Executive,
and
that
the
administration
has
been
exercised
through
three
functionaries
who
are
directly
subservient
to
theSecretary
of
State
and
Interior:
the
District
Governor,
the
General
Director
of
Public
Works,
and
the
President
of
the
Board
of
Health.
These
three
officials
have
held
viii
Foreword
jurisdiction
over
all
the
area
occupied
by
the
Federal
District,
and
have
fulfilled
their
duties,
either
jointly,
as
Board
of
Health,
or
separately,
in
their
respective
capacities.
It
is
also
known
that
in
all
theother
Federal
States
the
municipal
institution
has
been
likewise
emasculated,
making
it
utterly
subservient
to
the
Executive,
through
the
oppressive
action
of
the
Jeje
politico.
Now,
although
the
Decree
promulgated
on
December
25,
1914,
by
the
Revolution's
First
Chief,
answer-
ing
a
national
aspiration,
has
reestablished
the
autonomy
and
liberty
of
the
municipality,
and
although
the
Revolution
has
swept
away
many
abuses,
still
as
the
inertia
of
institutions
is
such
that
it
remainsapparent
even
aftertheir
annihila-
tion,
it
behooves
us
to
ascertain
thoroughly
the
errors
committed,
and
the
ensuing
damages,
in
order
to
obviate
the
imminent
danger
of
molding
in
harmful
and
discarded
forms
the
future
orga-
nization
of
the
Republic.
Hence
we
consider
it
of
the
greatest
interest,
in
the
case
under
considera-
tion,
to
investigate
the
causes
of
the
disgraceful
state
of
backwardness
in
which
we
findourselves,
as
a
civilized
nation
—
a
condition
due
to
the
in-
significant
protection
which
our
authorities
have
ever
afforded
human
life.
Briefly,
then,
these
are
the
aims
of
this
publica-
tion.
This
studyhas
been
undertaken
by
express
order
of
Citizen
Venustiano
Carranza,
First
Chief
of
the
Constitutionalist
Army,
and
trustee
of
the
Union's
executive
power.
Unquestionably
it
is
Foreword
ix
defaced
by
the
many
blemishes
resulting
from
my
incompetence
and
from
the
pressure
of
extraneous
business
thereto,
due
to
my
official
duties
to
the
State.
Such
as
it
is,
however,
it
contains
data
which
I
consider
valuable,
and
it
is
imbued
with
my
most
earnest
unrelenting
endeavor
toserve
my
country
in
a
broader
field
than
that
covered
by
the
duties
of
my
post
as
servant
of
the
Govern-
ment
of
the
Revolution.
I
dedicate
it,
therefore,
to
those
who
may
find
therein
some
serviceable
matter,
as
a
most
hiimble
offering
to
the
vast
and
urgent
task
of
national
reconstruction.
A.
J.
P.
City
of
Mexico,
April,
191
6.
CONTENTS
Foreword
Public
Health
in
the
Cityof
Mexico
Causes
of
the
Unhealthfulness
Physical
Characteristics
of
the
Medium
Temperature
.....
Humidity,
Rains,
Winds
Geological
Constitution
and
Topography
Principal
Factors
of
the
Urban
Medium
Living
Beings
Nutrition
Dwellings
Houses
of
the
Future
Urban
Transit
General
Recommendations
Efficient
Organization
of
the
Sanitary
Administration
.
Compulsory
Sanitation
The
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
Improvement
of
the
People
.
PAGE
V
15
17
20
24
29
31
40
58
91
114
117
121
128
xii
Contents
PAGB
Appendix
Number
I:
The
Constitutionalist
Government
Con-
fronted
with
the
Sanitary
and
Educa-
tional
Problems
of
Mexico
..
-175
Appendix
Number
II:
Bibliography
Pertaining
to
Mortality
Charts
Nos.
i,
2,
and
3
.
..
.
184
Appendix
Number
III:
Table
Showing
the
Mortality
of
the
pity
of
Mexico
and
its
Causes
from
1904
to
1912
191
Appendix
Number
IV:
Economic
Conditions
of
Some
Families
among
Working
People
.
.
.
200
I
Public
Health
in
the
City
of
Mexico
CHAPTER
I
PUBLIC
HEALTH
IN
THE
CITY
OF
MEXICO
IF
the
Federal
District
is
the
part
of
the
country
showing
the
greatest
culture
and
material
progress,
doubtless
Mexico
City
is
that
part
thereof
where
preferentially
the
efforts
of
our
sanitary
authorities
have
been
concentrated
ever
since
these
have
been
under
the
direct
control
of
the
Union's
Executive.
Consequently,
such
deduc-
tions
as
we
obtain
from
the
examination
of
the
sanitary
condition
of
the
RepubHc's
capital
wiU
acquire
even
greater
force
if
we
apply
them
to
the
municipalities
outside
of
the
Federal
District.
The
best
way
to
secure
a
clear
idea
of
the
state
of
pubHc
health
in
a
city
is
to
compare
its
death
rate
with
that
of
other
cities,
always
provided
that
the
conditions
imder
the
considered
viewpoint
be
comparable.
It
is
well
known
thatthe
essen-
tial
condition
of
comparison,
in
this
case,
is
the
population's
density.
The
dangers
to
public
health
are
usually
in
proportion
with
the
degree
of
density
of
the
social
aggregate.
However,
as
the
guide
given
by
the
average
density
of
popula-
tion
in
a
city
in
the
course
of
formation,
and
there-
3
4
Public
Health
fore
with
a
growth
apparently
abnormal,
is
very
deceptive,
varying
in
Mexico
from
its
maximum
value
in
the
closest
packed
tenements
to
the
scattered
inhabitants
of
thesuburbs,
and
more-
over
as
the
city
imder
discussion
is
the
Republic's
capital,
I
shall
make
the
comparison,
first
with
sundry
cities
having
a
population
about
as
nimier-
ous
as
that
of
our
own
city
—
in
absolute
value
and
then
with
the
capitals
of
other
nations.
If
the
cities
of
the
first
group
have
not
precisely
the
same
density
of
population,
we
must
still
consider
that
nearly
all,
principally
the
European,
and
those
of
the
United
States
of
America,
are
more
densely
peopled
than
even
a
closely
packed
district
of
Mexico
City.
I
have
set
forth
In
the
subjoined
tables
—
num-
bered
I
and
2
—
the
results
of
my
investigations
in
this
respect.
The
first
is
a
comparative
table
of
mortality
in
191
1
in
thirty-one
cities
of
Europe,
America,
Asia,
and
Africa,
each
of
a
population
ranging
from
four
hundred
thousand
to
seven
hundred
thousand
inhabitants.
Mexico's
popula-
tion
barely
reaches
five
hundred
thousand
inhabi-
tants.
The
second
table
compares
the
mortality
of
thirty-three
capitals
of
Europe,
America,
and
Africa.
For
greater
clearness,
I
have
repre-
sented
graphically
in
said
tables
—
by
means
of
proportional
areas
traced
obliquely
the
respective
coefficients
of
mortality
—
that
is,
the
numbers
of
annual
deaths
per
thousand
inhabitants,
corre-
sponding
to
the
various
cities
considered.
In
cunaiiions
oi
companson
—
tnose
reiaiiiig
lu
pupu-
42
40
38
S
34
z
o
32
z
In
the
City
of
Mexico
5
Table
No.
i
1
have
shown,
moreover
—
by
means
of
horizontal
lines
shaded
with
small
vertical
tracings
some
average
coefficients
of
mortality.
With
the
desire
to
proceed
by
the
surest
means
in
order
to
ascertain
the
place
occupied
by
Mexico
City
in
world
civilization,
according
to
thehealth
scale
adopted,
I
utilized
all
available
sources
of
information.
Appendix
No.
II,
is
a
detailed
biblio-
graphic
specificationof
all
these
authorities
and
sources
of
information,
and
of
the
way
of
ascer-
taining
and
reaching
the
figures
which
have
served
to
compile
the
aforesaid
tables.
TABLE
NO.
I
(See
opposite
page)
A
cursory
view
of
this
table
will
suffice
to
show:
I.
That
the
coefficient
of
mortality
of
Mexico
City
(42.3)
is
nearly
treble
of
the
average
mortality
coefficient
of
American
cities
(16.1)
having
similar
population.
II.
That
it
is
nearly
two
and
a
half
times
greater
than
the
average
coefficient
of
mortality
of
the
Euro-
pean
cities
(17.53)
^hich
can
be
compared;
and
III.
That
it
is
even
greater
than
the
mortality
coefficients
of
the
Asiatic
and
African
cities
of
Madras
and
Cairo
(39.51
and
40.15,
respectively),
even
though
in
the
former,
cholera
morbus
is
endemic.
TABLE
NO.
2
{See
opposite
page)
Although,
strictly
speaking,
the
fundamental
conditions
of
comparison
—
those
relating
to
popu-
6
Public
Health
lation
—
are
only
realized,
as
before
mentioned,
by
the
cities
included
in
Table
No.
I,
the
comparison
made
in
Table
No.
2
—
wherein
we
again
find
Mexico
City
with
the
greatest
coefficient
of
mortality,
nearly
three
times
greater,
for
instance,
than
that
of
Constantinople
(15.09),
whose
population
is
double
that
of
our
capital,
and
is
constantlythreatened
by
cholera
morbus
and
bubonic
plague.
I
repeat
that
the
comparison
made
in
said
table
demonstrates,
more
clearly
than
ever,
the
sin
of
inefficiency
which
stains
the
administration
of
our
sanitary
authorities,
GENERAL
CONCLUSIONS
The
obstacles,
which
we
always
find
in
Mexico,
in
the
way
of
obtaining
reliable
data
to
make
up
the
foregoing
tables,
compelled
me
to
omit
some
cities
comparable
with
our
capital
along
the
double
aspect
considered.
These
omissions,
however,
do
not
restrict
the
general
character
of
the
con-
clusions
to
which
the
said
tables
point
out.
Con-
centrating
therefore,
upon
table
No.
I,
which,
as
before
stated,
best
satisfies
the
comparison
factors
exacted,
the
omissions
are:
I.
To
the
South
American
city
of
San
Paolo,
Brazil;
the
European
cities
of
Barcelona,
Spain;
Birmingham,
England;
Kiev,
Russia;
to
the
Asiatic
cities
of
Kioto
(Japan)
and
Hyderabad
(Dominion
of
Nizam,
British
Indies);
and
to
the
Australian
cities
of
Sydney,
New
South
Wales,
and
Mel-
bourne,
Victoria.
Though
I
could
not
state
with
In
the
City
of
Mexico
7
numerical
precision
what
are
the
mortality
co-
efficients
of
these
cities,
I
do
kitow
that
all
of
them
are
lower
than
that
of
Mexico
City;
and
II.
To
the
Chinese
cities
of
Shanghai,
Tout-
cheou,
Tchoung-king,
and
Sou-tcheou,
of
whose
mortality
I
have
no
reliable
data,
nor
of
their
exact
population.
Though
many
statisticians
assignto
said
cities
populations
ranging
from
five
hundred
to
seven
hundred
thousand
inhabit-
ants,
so
much
uncertainty
covers
the
point,
that
some
geographers
and
eminent
travelers
estimate
the
population
of
the
Chinese
Republic
from
two
hundred
and
fifty
to
four
hundred
millions
of
inhabitants.
That
is
to
say,
the
probable
estimate
hardly
reaches
the
rough
approximation
of
nearly
forty
per
cent.
Therefore,
excluding,
for
aforesaid
reasons,
the
said
four
Chinese
cities,
I
think
I
am
warranted
in
formulating
the
following
general
conclusion:
Mexico
City,
capital
of
the
Mexican
Republic,
in
view
of
the
conditions
shown
in
Tables
Nos.
i
and
2,
is,
assuredly,
the
most
unheal
thful
city
of
the
whole
world.
CHAPTER
II
CAUSES
OF
THE
UNHEALTHFULNESS
HAVING
measured
the
degree
of
unhealth-
fulness
in
Mexico
City
through
its
co-
efficient
of
mortality,
it
behooves
us
to
ascertain,
first,
the
number
and
nature
of
the
plagues
and
diseases
affecting
the
said
mortality,
that
we
may
deduce,
from
individual
or
external
conditions
originating
said
illnesses,
or
favoring
their
propaga-
tion
and
development,
what
are
the
causes
of
this
unhealthful
condition.
To
avoid
errors
pro-
ceeding
from
circumstances
accidental
or
tran-
sient,
it
is
necessary
to
seek
an
average
of
the
mortality
rate,
for
each
disease,
within
a
given
space
of
time.
The
variations
of
mortality
in
Mexico
City
during
the
last
eighteen
years
—
represented
geo-
metrically
in
Table
No.
3
—
do
not
show,
in
truth
j
a
marked
tendency
to
descend.
The
two
curves
which
are
observed
in
the
table
include
each
a
period
of
nine
years
—
from
1895
to
1903,
and
from
1904
to
1
912,
respectively
—
producingaverage
partial
coefficients
(48.06
and
44.27)
which
only
differ
from
the
average
total
coefficient
(46.17)
8
TABLE
NO.
Comparison
of
Kegistered
Mortality,
duringTears
pointed
out,
in
CAPITALS
OF
VARIOUSCOUNTRIES
MORTALITY
EUROPE
AMERICA
O
c
Causes
of
the
Unhealthfulness
9
by
less
than
two
deaths
for
each
thousand
inhabit-
ants.
It
is
easy
to
note
that
the
two
curves
are
of
similar
structure,
and
that,
moreover,
the
co-
efficient
minimo
minimorum
does
notcorrespond
to
the
last
year
of
the
total
period
considered
wherein
there
is
already
manifested
a
marked
tendency
to
rise
—
but
to
the
year
of
1904,
the
point
of
demarkation
of
the
two
resulting
periods.
The
space
of
time
which
must
consequently
be
adopted
to
average
the
figures
relative
to
mortal-
ity,
is
that
which
corresponds
to
the
last
period,
that
is,
the
one
included
between
theyears
1904
to
1
912.*
I
have
extracted
for
the
purpose
from
the
Annual
Reports
of
Work
Effected
by
the
Board
of
Health,
the
data
with
which
I
have
compiled
the
tables
of
Appendix
No.
Ill,
showing
the
mortality
of
Mexico
City,
and
setting
forth
the
various
diseases
which
furnished
the
causes
thereof
grouped
in
accordance
with
the
generally
adopted
Bertillon
classification
—
during
the
period
elapsing
from
1904
to
19
12.
In
the
last
column
of
these
tables
I
have
consigned
the
figures
relative
to
the
Annual
average
death
rate
—
that
is,
the
respective
averages
of
the
figures
corresponding
to
the
nine
years
aforesaid.
The
summary,
for
these
nine
years,
of
the
fourteen
general
groups
in
which
the
Bertillon
clas-
sification
divides
all
the
diseases,
is
graphically
represented
in
Table
No.
4,
in
a
manner
similar
'
See
in
Appendix
No.
II
the
paragraph
headed
Board
of
Health
of
Mexico
City.
lo
Causes
of
the
Unhealthfulness
to
that
adopted
in
Tables
Nos.
i
and
2.
The
ill-
nesses
producing
the
greatest
mortality,
as
may
be
seen
in
this
table,
are,
successively,
those
of
the
digestive
apparatus,
those
of
the
respiratory
organs^
and
those
grouped
under
the
appellation
oj
^'general
diseases.
''*
To
the
diseases
of
the
first
group
correspond
nearly
a
third
part
(32.14%),
and
to
those
of
each
one
of
the
other
two
groups,
more
than
a
fifth
(21.72%
and
21.61%,
respectively),
or,
jointly
adding
the
deaths
occasioned
by
the
sicknesses
of
the
three
mentioned
groups,
some-
thing
more
than
three
fourths
(7547%)
of
the
total
mortality.
The
common
character
of
the
illnesses
which
go
to
make
up
each
one
of
these
three
groups,
and
especially
the
particular
etiology
of
the
paramount
affections,
would
suffice
to
cast
some
Hght
upon
the
principal
causes
of
theunhealthfulness
of
Mexico
City.
Thus
for
instance:
the
enormous
figure
representing
deaths
caused
through
affec-
tions
of
the
digestive
organs,
especially
diarrhea
and
enteritis,
which
cause
in
excess
of
four
thou-
sand
three
hundred
deaths,
might
point
to
bad
or
deficient
food,
inclusive
of
water.
The
large
proportion
of
deaths
due
to
tuberculosis,
from
the
group
of
 general
diseases,
might
be
taken
as
a
sure
sign
of
the
sanitary
defects
of
dwellings.
The
number
of
deaths
due
to
affections
of
the
respiratory
organs
might
point
to
unsatisfactory
conditions
of
paving,
inefficient
watering
or
sprinkling,
and
sweeping
of
the
streets,etc.;
i
1
Causes
of
the
Unheal
thfulness
1
and
thus
we
could
go
on
speculating,
with
more
or
less
basis
in
fact,
with
the
other
groups
of
the
Bertillon
classification.
Nevertheless,
in
order
tobetter
localize
and
discern
the
causes
of
theunhealthfulness
under
discussion,
as
I
have
said
before
—
without
regard
for
the
special
form
of
the
aforesaid
classification
—
we
must
ascertain
the
connection
which
must
exist
between
the
occurrence,
propagation,
and
development
of
the
most
deadly
diseases
and
the
conditions
of
Ufe,
individual
and
social,
in
which
the
inhabitants
of
Mexico
find
themselves.
We
may
say,
speaking
generally,
that
the
unhealthfulness
of
a
city
depends
chiefly
on
the
urban
environment
—
that
is,
on
the
sum
of
con-
taminating
influences
which
the
abundant
detriti
of
life
and
of
human
activity
exercise
upon
the
natural
medium.
It
is
well
known
that
when
a
certain
number
of
living
beings
are
grouped
together
and
circumscribed
in
the
field
of
their
activities
by
fixed
Hmits,
there
are
then,
neces-
sarily,
produced,
as
a
result
of
social
life,
factors
of
modification
of
the
medium
—
contaminating
the
atmosphere,
the
soil,
and
the
water,
while
on
the
other
hand
the
said
medium
may
previously
present,
independent
of
effects
resulting
from
these
factors
of
contamination,
certain
physical
condi-
tions
quite
unsatisfactory
for
the
normal
life
of
individuals
making
up
the
social
aggregate.
The
principal
physical
characteristics
of
the
12
Causes
of
the
Unhealthfulness
medium,
with
direct
or
indirect
influence
upon
the
health
of
the
inhabitants
of
a
city,
are:
the
temperature,
the
meteoric
conditions
of
the
atmos-
phere,
wind,
rains,
humidity,
etc.;
the
nature
of
the
soil,
its
geological
constitution,
its
permeability
or
impermeability,
and
its
topographical
configu-
ration.
Having
considered
the
foregoing
physical
char-
acteristics,
we
must
examine
the
various
elements
of
contamination
of
the
natural
medium.
We
know
that
the
general
health
in
every
agglomera-
tion
is
the
result
of
the
state
of
health
of
the
indi-
viduals
of
which
it
is
composed,
and
that
these
work
among
themselves,
upon
one
another,
and
upon
the
medium
in
very
different
ways:
first,
by
direct
or
indirect
contagion,
physical
or
moral;
second,
by
taking
from
the
medium
what
may
be
necessary
for
Hfe
andmaking
restitutionof
the
part
not
utilized
in
the
form
of
detriti.
These
proceed
principally
from
food,
which
has
a
de-
cisive
influence
upon
the
physiological
condition
of
the
individual,
and
the
places
where
these
detriti
are
accumulated
and
disseminated
in
the
greatest
quantity
and
consequently
where
greatest
contaminating
influence
is
exercised
upon
the
medium,
are,
in
the
first
place,
the
dwelling
—
of
as
great,
or
perhaps
greater,
influence
upon
health
as
the
food
itself
—
and
in
the
second
place,
the
highways.
It
would
consequently
seem
logical
to
examine
thevarious
component
factors
of
the
urban
me-
Causes
of
the
Unheal
thfulness
13
dium
in
Mexico,
which
proceed,
as
much
from
the
physical
conditions
as
from
the
social
agglo-
meration,
in
the
order
herewith
Physical
Characters
of
the
Medium
I.
Temperature.
II.
Humidity,
rains,
winds.
III.
Geological
and
topographical
constitution.
Principal
Factors
of
the
Urban
Medium
I.
The
living
beings.
11.
The
food.
III.
Dwellings.
|
I
IV.
Urban
circulation.
Having
studied
the
principal
causes
of
unhealth-
fulness,
and
measured,
up
to
a
certain
point,
their
effects
upon
the
general
morbidity
and
mortality,
it
will
be
easy
to
ascertain
adequate
means
to
improve
the
disgraceful
physical
and
moral
condition
of
the
greater
part
of
the
metro-
politan
population.
Now,
as
the
mentioned
causes
are
manifested,
though
not
with
the
same
intensity,
yet
with
the
same
preponderance
over
all
the
others,
in
the
remaining
cities
of
the
country,
the
relative
conclusions
concerning
the
inhabitants
of
the
capital
of
the
Republic
can
be
generalized,
without
committing
in
so
doing
the
slightest
infraction
against
logic,
so
as
to
apply
14
Causes
of
the
Unhealthfulness
to
the
great
majority
of
the
urban
national
population.
In
the
concluding
portion
of
this
study,
we
shall
make,
therefore,
an
expose
and
condensation
of
the
said
conclusions,
with
the
purpose
of
showing
a
way
which
may
lead
to
improving
the
conditions
of
Hfe
for
the
individual
and
for
society,
referring
to
the
hoi
polloi,
without
which
we
can
obtain
neither
true
independence
nor
prosperity
for
our
fatherland.
II
Physical
Characteristics
of
the
Medium
15
CHAPTER
III
TEMPERATURE
THE
belief
that
temperature
of
itself
can
be
one
of
the
direct
causes
of
unhealthfulness
in
a
city
has
no
basis
in
fact.
Two
facts
catego-
rically
disprove
it.
The
first
is,
that
some
tropical
cities
have
contrived
to
rapidly
improve
their
sanitary
conditions
by
means
of
principles
taught
us
by
hygiene.
For
instance,
Buenos
Ayres
has
reduced
its
annual
mortality,
in
less
than
thirty
years,
from
34
to
16.2
deaths
per
thousand.
Secondly:
cities,
in
certain
instances
close
to
one
another,
and
under
similar
or
equal
climatic
conditions,
find
themselves
in
very
different
sani-
tary
conditions.
For
example,
Chandernager
and
Yanaon,
with
respective
mortalities
of
46.5
and
22.07;
Russia,
with
an
average
mortaHty
of
33.4,
almost
double
that
of
Sweden
and
Norway
(16.3),
etc.^
What
does
have
a
noteworthy
and
direct
influ-
ence
on
pubHc
health,
is,
on
the
one
hand,
heat
associated
with
dampness,
and,
on
the
other,
abrupt
changes
in
temperature.
'
E.
Mac^,
Ed.
Imbeaux,
Albert
Bluzet,
et
Paul
Adam.
Hygi'
ene
Generale
des
Villes
et
des
Agglomerations
Communales,
p.
36.
2
17
1
Temperature
Heat
—
above
all,
damp
heat
—
is
propitious
to
the
action
of
microbes,
which
produce
fermentation
and
putrefaction
of
alimentary
produce.
This
explains
the
great
mortaHty
occasioned
by
dis-
orders
of
the
digestive
organs,
infant
mortality
in
hot
countries
being
chiefly
caused
by
diarrhea
and
enteritis,
and
the
recrudescence
of
these
ills
in
the
temperate
zone
during
the
hot
season.
It
is
also
beUeved
that
heat
and
humidity
favor
the
evolution
of
pathogenic
germs
of
various
infectious
diseases.
Probably
for
this
reason,
tetanus
is
more
grave
in
tropical
countries,
whereas
grippe
and
scar-
let
fever
are
more
often
fatal
in
cool
climates,
etc.
According
to
data
furnished
by
theCentral
Meteorological
Observatory,
we
find
that,
during
the
period
includedbetween
1904
and
1912,
there
were
registered
in
Mexico
City,
in
the
months
of
April
and
May
—
which
are
the
hottest
maxima
absolute
temperatures
fluctuating
between
28.7
and
J
J.
I
degrees
centigrade,
iji
the
shade,
and
between
jj.l
and
36.8
outside.
The
maximum
humidity
of
the
air,
for
the
same
months,
in
hundredths
of
saturation,
varied,
under
cover,
between
81
and
p8,
and,
exposed,
betweeen
83
and
100.
These
figures
help
us
to
imderstand
why
in
the
City
of
Mexico
the
distempers
of
the
digestive
organs
cause
more
than
six
thousand
four
hundred
deaths
per
year.
In
this
number
we
have
included
deaths
caused
by
diarrhea
and
enteritis
which
reach
4591,
of
which
2190
are
produced
among
children
who
are
less
than
two
years
old.
Temperature
19
As
is
well
known,
colds
form
one
of
the
principal
causes
of
diseases
of
the
respiratory
organs.
It
can
be
affirmed
that
Mexico
is
the
classical
city
oj
abrupt
changes
in
temperature,
since,
in
the
period
oJ
nine
years
above
considered,
there
have
been
registered
thermic
oscillations
oJ
daily
maxima
jrom
18.2
to
22.2
degrees
centigrade,
in
the
shade^
and
26.2
to
30.4
out
in
the
open.
The
number
of
deaths
per
year,
on
the
average,
caused
by
affec-
tions
of
the
respiratoryorgans,
is
432g.
It
must
be
noted,
however,
that
the
noxious
effects
of
the
damp
heat,
and
of
the
sudden
changes
of
temperature
upon
the
public
health,
are
greatly
increased
by
thedeplorable
coexistence
of
other
factors,
such
as:
the
physiological
poverty
oJ
the
individuals;
the
wretched
condition
of
their
dwellings;
and
above
all
their
unsanitary
habits
and
dense
ignorance.
This
means
that,
though
it
may
be
impossible
to
work
upon
the
medium
so
as
to
improve
the
natural
conditions
of
temperatiire,
it
is
nevertheless
possible
to
prevent,
or,
in
any
event,
to
greatly
diminish
its
noxiousness
upon
the
human
organism,
by
acting
properly
upon
the
other
factors
noted.
The
frightful
figures
above
given,
having
reference
to
the
rate
of
mortality
will
serve
toset
forth
the
imperious
necessity
of
im-
proving
the
economic
condition
of
the
lower
classes
and
the
sanitary
condition
of
their
dwellings,
and
the
need
of
making
a
vigorous
and
extensive
propa-
ganda
of
the
elemental
principles
of
hygiene.
CHAPTER
IV
HUMIDITY,
RAINS,
WINDS
FROM
the
hygrometric
point
of
view,
an
ideal
atmospheric
state
is
taken
to
be
that
cor-
responding
to
a
saturation
of
50
to
60
hundredths,
and
it
is
accepted
thatthe
range
within
which
this
hygrometric
condition
is
not
materially
pre-
judicial,
extends
from
25
to
80
hxmdredths
of
saturation.
Beyond
these
h'mits,
the
air
becomes
unhealthful,
due
to
extreme
dryness
or
to
extreme
dampness,
respectively,
especially
in
the
latter
case,
if
a
high
temperature
should
happen
to
com-
bine
with
the
dampness.
Cold
itself
ceases
to
be
healthful
and
bracing,
if
it
be
unduly
humid.
In
the
City
of
Mexico,
as
I
have
said
before,
the
maximum
humidity
oj
the
atmosphere,
during
the
hottest
months
of
the
year,
not
only
exceeds
the
highest
admitted
limit
of
80
hundredths,
but
it
reaches
the
grade
of
absolute
saturation
of
100.
Admittedly,
rains
of
themselves
are
beneficial
for
the
public
health,
due
to
their
purifying
action
upon
the
atmosphere.
However,
they
have
direct
influ-
ence
in
maintaining
a
noxious
state
of
dampness,
which
arises
from
the
annual
precipitation,
the
20
Humidity,
Rains,
Winds
21
number
of
rainy
days
and
their
distribution
during
the
year,
and
also
as
a
result
of
stagna-
tion.
In
the
City
of
Mexico
rains
occur
during
almost
all
the
months
of
the
year,
and
the
total
number
of
rainy
days
varied,
during
the
period
under
consideration,
from
the
minimum
of
125
days,
in
igoQ,
to
the
maximum
of
iy8
days,
during
1904.
The
conditions
in
which
the
city
finds
itself
as
regards
stagnation
or
evacuation
of
the
rains,
and
their
connection
with
pubUc
health,
will
be
examined
farther
on,
when
we
deal
with
the
geological
nature
and
the
topographical
configura-
tion
of
the
soil.
Winds
may
be
noxious
or
beneficial.
They
may
serve
to
renovate
the
city's
impure
air,
or,
on
the
contrary,
owing
to
their
force,
they
may
cause
such
dust
and
particles
as
may
be
on
the
ground,
on
the
floors
of
terraces,
or
back-yards,
etc.,
to
rise
up
and
remain
in
the
air.
Or,carry-
ing
them
from
the
neighborhood
of
cities,
they
may
take
wdth
them
pathogenic
germs,
specially
those
of
breaking
out
of
eruptive
fevers,
and
those
of
tuberculosis
from
the
expectorations
of
consumptives.
Moreover,
winds
increase
the
prob-
ability
of
taking
cold,
and
consequently
predis-
pose
people
to
inflammation
of
the
respiratory
organs.
The
dominating
and
prevailing
winds
in
the
City
of
Mexico
are,
generally,
the
northern,
and
the
northwestern,
and
sometimes
those
of
the
northeast.
22
Humidity,
Rains,
Winds
That
is
to
say,
they
proceed
from
the
valley
regions
which
are
most
destitute
of
vegetation.
Its
maximum
velocity
fluctuated
during
the
years
of
1904
to
ipi2,
between
j6.q
kilometers
per
hour
for
the
year
igo8,
and
gs
kilometers
for
iQoy.
The
average
annual
death
rate
caused
by
disease
in
theetiology
of
which
winds
may
play
a
part
—
either
carrying
pathogenic
germs
or
provoking
colds,
or
driving
dust
particles
which
traumatize
the
breathing
apparatus
exceeds
seven
thousand
two
hundred
deaths.
^
'
Average
death
rate
in
Mexico
City
occasioned
by
illnesses
in
whose
etiology
winds
may
play
a
part,
during
the
cycle
from
1904
to
1912.
I.
GENERAL
DISEASES
Sickness
Deaths
Typhus
642,0
Pox
3454
Scarletfever
124.2
Erysipelas
1
12.
1
Chicken
pox
136.8
Diphtheria
and
croup
79.7
Grippe
100.8
Whooping
cough
I33'7
Tetanus
or
lock-jaw
1.7
Lung
tuberculosis
1
170.8
Meninges
50.3
Larynx
18.0
General
67.3
Abdominal
220.2
Acute
miliary
tuberculosis
0.9
Of
other
organs
17.6
Acute
rheumatism
of
the
joints
23.6
3245.1
II.
SICKNESS
OF
THE
NERVOUS
SYSTEM
AND
OF
THE
SENSORY
ORGANS
Tetanus
5-9
5-9
Humidity,
Rains,
Winds
23
From
the
preceding
figures
we
discover
the
expediency,
on
the
one
hand,
of
bringing
about
forestal
development
and
agricultural
activity
along
the
regions
which
surrouftd
the
city,
especially
in
the
regions
of
the
north,
the
northwest,
and
northeast,
and,
on
the
other
hand,
the
imperious
necessity
of
avoiding,
or
at
least
of
diminishing,
the
dissemina-
tion
of
particles
of
dust,
by
causing
them
to
adhere
to
the
soil
as
much
as
possible,
as
theresult
of
proper
paving
and
copious
sprinkling
and
waterings.
III.
SICKNESS
OF
THE
RESPIRATORY
ORGANS
Larynx
affections
69.4
Acute
bronchitis
1
1
15.8
Bronchial-pneumonia
922.3
Pneumonia
1529.9
Pleurisy
78.9
Congestion,
and
lung
apoplexy
215.3
3931-6
IV.
SICKNESS
OF
THE
DIGESTIVE
ORGANS
Angina
pectoris
and
pharynx
affections
14.6
V.
PUERPERAL
CONDITION
Puerperal
septicaemia
82.7
82.7
Total
7279-9
14.6
CHAPTER
V
GEOLOGICAL
CONSTITUTION
AND
TOPOGRAPHY
THOUGH,
as
Bonjean
affirms,
there
may
not
be
such
a
thing
as
strictly
telluric
epi-
demics
—
which
means
that
the
causes
of
a
city's
unhealthfulness
cannot
lie,
wholly
or
partially,
in
the
intrinsic
nature
of
the
land
whereon
it
is
constructed
—
nevertheless
there
is
a
marked
in-
fluence
exerted
upon
thehealth
of
the
inhabitants
by
conditions
of
soil
which
may
favor
the
stagna-
tion
of
water,
or
the
permanent
impregnation
of
the
subjacent
layers
—
that
is
to
say,
by
the
degree
of
permeability
of
the
soil
and
its
topographical
configuration.
Besides
the
influence
which
waters
impregnating
the
superficial
layers
exert
upon
the
hygrometric
condition
of
the
air,
we
must
remem-
ber,
on
the
one
hand,
the
influence
also
exerted
on
the
process
of
putrefaction
of
organic
detriti,
and,
consequently,
the
development
of
many
species
of
pathogenic
germs,
and,
on
theother
hand,
that
from
the
stagnant
waters
are
bred
mosquitoes,
active
agents
in
spreading
disease,
such
as
malaria
and
yellow
fever.
Unquestionably,
in
such
particulars,
the
City
24
Geological
Constitution
25
of
Mexico
could
hardly
find
itself
in
a
much
worse
condition.
In
spite
of
specific
orders
contained
in
the
Spanish
laws,
ordering
the
formation
of
a
City
Coimcil
or
Ayuntamiento
—
prior
to
all
fur-
ther
steps
to
build
a
city
or
town
—
in
order
to
select
the
site
for
the
said
town,
and
with
instruc-
tions
to
see
to
it
that
it
be
^^
wholesome,
convenient^
well
aired,
and
supplied
with
potable
water
and
building
material,
and
with
adjacent
fields
and
pastures
for
cattle ;
notwithstanding
likewise
that
the
said
City
Council
was
duly
appointed
and
convoked,
and
thatnearly
all
its
component
members
and
the
greater
part
of
the
Conguista-
dores
voted
in
the
negative,
Hernan
Cortes
opposed
his
over-ruling
will
to
the
opinions
of
the
other
functionaries
of
the
Crown,
and
forth-
with
decided
that
the
future
capital
of
New
Spain
should
be
erected
upon
the
ruins
of
ancient
Tenoch-
titlan.
And
the
new
city
rose,
even
as
the
former,
from
the
waters
of
the
lake,
being
the
very
worst
site
which
could
have
been
chosen,
and
most
fraught
with
untoward
hazard. *
The
fact
that
the
City
of
Tenochtitlan
had
been
founded
on
an
islet
upon
the
shores
of
a
lake
—
states
Don
Jose
M.
Marroqui^
—
was
the
reason
that
in
the
days
of
the
Aztecs
there
were
three
differentstyles
of
streets:
some
on
terra
firman
'
Letter
from
the
Viceroy
Don
Luis
de
Velasco,
dated
May
20,
1556,
addressed
to
King
Philip
IL,
concerning
the
floods
which
had
afflicted
the
region
during
his
administration.
*
Mexico
City,
vol.
i.,
pp.
24
and
25.
26
Geological
Constitution
flat,
made
by
hand;
others
really
waterways,
that
is,
canals
on
whose
shores
the
very
doors
of
the
houses
would
open;
andsome
thoroughfares,
partly
land
ways
and
partly
waterways,
as
they
had
longitudinally
throughout
the
center
a
canal,
and
along
either
side
long
strips
of
land
which
per-
mitted
the
houses
to
intercommunicate.
Hence,
the
groups
of
houses,
near
the
center,
which
were
separated
by
the
canals,
and
formed
small
islets.
Cortes,
in
order
to
trace
the
plans
of
his
new
City,
seized
the
center
and
drew
a
square
bounded
as
follows:
East,
by
the
Street
which
we
call
Santisima
and
the
following,
along
the
same
direction
;
South
that
of
San
Geronimo;
West,
that
of
Santa
Isabel;
North,
that
of
Cocheras.
The
space
included
within
this
square,
which
was
the
best
and
most
healthful
due
to
the
fact
that
it
was
least
damp,
he
devoted
to
the
habitations
of
the
Spaniards,
and
the
irregular
outlying
strips,
some
of
which
were
islets,
he
set
apart
for
the
homes
of
the
Indians
...
The
present
soil
of
the
City
of
Mexico
is
the
result
of
the
artificial
formations
produced
by
the
detriti
of
urban
life,
and
the
diversified
and
multi-
farious
activities,
dining
nearly
four
hundred
years,
upon
the
primitive
soil
described
in
the
preceding
lines
—
that
is
to
say,
filling
up
gradually
the
bottom
of
the
original
lake.
Moreover,
as
all
this
was
the
lowest,
or
one
of
the
lowest
sec-
tions
of
the
Valley
of
Mexico
—
which
is
closed
there
resulted
from
all
these
artificial
formations
Geological
Constitution
2^
as
the
city's
foundation,
a
thin
waterproof
layer
of
nearly
horizontal
surface
—
mar^^elously
favor-
able
for
the
stagnation
of
detriti
liquids
and
atmos-
pheric
precipitations
resting
upon
water-soaked
lands
and
destitute
of
natural
topographic
condi-
tions
for
its
drainage,
since
the
whole
valley
is
enclosed,
or
walled
in,
soto
speak.
It
would
consequently
be
hard
to
find
a
loca-
tion
more
disadvantageous
than
this,
from
the
point
of
view
of
sanitation
and
drainage.
Since,
however,
as
regards
these,
sanitary
engineering
knows
no
Hmits
to
its
skill
and
powers,
we
must
own
that,
despite
the
sums
of
money
and
energy
displayed,
first,
to
solve
the
problem
of
the
valley's
drainage,
and
later
that
of
the
city
itself,
all
that
could
and
should
have
been
done
was
not
effected,
considering
the
city's
crying
needs,
and
the
ma-
terial
and
technical
means
of
satisfying
them.
We
all
w^ell
know
that
some
of
the
city's
quartersare
still
preserved
in
a
truly
swampy
condition
during
the
greater
part
of
the
year.
Although
it
may
not
be
possible
to
ascertain
with
precision
what
is
the
coefficient
of
unhealth-
fulness
corresponding
to
the
natural
conditions
geologically
and
topographically
considered,
it
is
meet
that
we
should
sum
up
all
that
precedes
in
these
conclusions:
I.
The
error
made
by
the
city*
s
founder
in
select-
ing
the
capital's
site,
gave
the
maximum
value
possible
to
the
coefficient
of
unhealthfidness
aforesaid;
II.
The
value
of
this
coefficient
is
always
in
28
Geological
Constitution
inverse
ratio
with
the
degree
of
efficiency
oj
the
required
works
of
urbanization;
and
lastly,
III.
//
is
possible,
and
of
urgent
expediency,
to
nullify
said
coefficient
of
unhealthfulness,
correcting,
improving,
and
completing
the
works
of
urbanization
upon
which
it
depends.
Ill
Principal
Factors
of
the
Urban
Medium
29
CHAPTER
VI
LIVING
BEINGS
THE
noxious
action
of
each
man
upon
his
fel-
lows,
in
every
society,
may
operate
in
two
ways:
physical
or
moral.
The
first
is
the
result,
as
I
have
said
before,
of
the
modifications
brought
to
the
media
by
the
concourse
of
activities
of
all
the
men
who,
for
the
gratification
of
their
needs,
both
individual
and
collective,
make
up
the
social
agglomeration.
These
modes
of
action,
which
are
of
great
importance
in
regard
to
the
general
health,
will
be
studied
in
special
chapters.
Again,
we
must
considerthe
noxious
condition
which
proceeds
from
the
transmission
of
morbid
elements,
through
direct
or
indirect
contact,
of
a
man
with
his
fellows.
This
mode
of
action
produces
what
we
term
moral
diseases,
in
which
development
and
extension
take
an
effective
part,
combined
with
the
force
of
example,
imitation,
suggestion,
etc.
in
a
word,
the
undoubted
and
powerful
influence
of
the
ambient
medium
upon
education.
Transmission,
through
contagion,
of
certain
diseases
may
be
the
cause
of
real
epidemics.
There
are
diseases
which,
for
their
propagation,
31
32
Living
Beings
do
not
necessitate
that
their
transmitting
agent
be
the
patient
himself:
diphtheria,
for
instance,
can
be
transmitted
by
any
onehaving
in
his
buccal
mucosity
Loeffler's
bacillus,
in
a
virulent
state,
though
the
transmitting
agent
may
not
present
the
slightest
symptom
of
the
disease.
The
same
may
be
said
of
many
illnesses;
the
pathogenic
germs
which
produce
them
may
be
conveyed
by
healthy
subjects,
or
patients,
or
convalescents.
Hence,
the
frequent
opportunities
for
contagion
which
may
occur
in
a
city,
increasing
of
course
in
proportion
to
its
density,
and
the
extent
of
its
social
activities.
The
action
of
domestic
animals
upon
general
health,
though
of
lesser
importance,
hasa
similar
character.
They
tend
to
contaminate
the
ambient
medium,
by
disseminating
decomposing
detriti
in
dwellings
and
upon
the
highways
and
all
public
thoroughfares,
besides
being
singularly
effective
transmitters
of
multitudinous
contagious
diseases.
Among
the
illnesses
in
whose
etiology
living
beingsintervene
directly
or
indirectly,
thereare
some
which,
owing
to
their
closely
interwoven
relations
with
the
present
social
state,
have
re-
ceived
the
name
of
social
diseases.
A
list
of
these
should
be
headed
by
hunger.
Not
considering
the
most
acute
form,
which
causes
death
in
a
limited
space
of
time,
we
mean
chronic
hunger,
slow
in-
sufficient
nutrition,
which
affects
so
direfully
a
great
portion
of
the
socially
lower
strata,
keeping
our
common
people,
as
is
well
known,
in
a
pitiful
Living
Beings
33
condition
of
physiological
misery,
and
servingas
one
of
the
most
deadly
agents
of
our
general
morbidity
and
mortality.
In
the
second
place
Iwill
note
infant
mortality.
In
the
City
of
Mexico
we
have
to
record
the
awful
fact
that
eight
thousand
one
hundred
children
less
than
five
years
old
die
annually.
In
this
frightful
toll
of
human
life,
more
than
forty
per
cent,
of
the
total,
we
must
recognize
surely,
besides
the
physical
causes
of
contagion,
of
defective
feeding,
and
imhealthful
habitation,
this
other
vital
cause
of
a
moral
order:
crass
ignorance
and
lack
of
motherly
care.
Then
we
must
enumerate
among
the
serious
menaces
for
our
society:
Tuherculosis
and
pneu-
monia,
which
produce
each
more
than
fifteen
hundred
deathsper
year;
acute
bronchitis,
11
15
deaths;
broncho-pneumonia,
922;
typhus,
642;
simple
meningitis,
542;
alcoholism,
390;
black
and
small
pox,
345;
syphilis,
148,
etc.,
and
lastly,
since
after
all
they
result
generally
from
social
causes,
insanity
and
criminality,in
whose
produc-
tion
and
propagation
the
ambient
medium,
pov-
erty,
and
alcohoUsm
play
important
parts.
The
greater
number
of
the
diseases
under
dis-
cussion,
as
previously
stated,
are
transmissible
through
direct
or
indirect
contagion.
Through
the
wonderful
discoveries
of
Pasteur
we
know
much
of
the
mechanical
transmission
of
contagions,
and
it
has
been
possible
to
find
media
—
already
sanctioned
by
biological
experience
—
to
effica-
34
Living
Beings
ciously
combat
the
pathogenic
germs
which
pro-
duce
the
illnesses,
and
to
give
the
latter
the
character
of
being
decidedly
avoidable.
We
can
do
this,
even
if
we
include
in
the
mortality
oc-
casioned
by
contagious
disease,
such
illnesses,
on
the
one
hand,
as
progressive
locomotorataxia
and
general
paralysis
—
which
usually
are
the
conse-
quence
.of
syphilis,
and,
on
theother
hand,
peri-
carditis,
acute
endocarditis,
and
organic
affections
of
the
heart,
which,
though
not
idiopathic,
proceed
almost
always,
from
other
transmissible
affec-
tions.
We
can
then
state,
with
assurance
that
in
the
City
of
Mexico
the
avoidable
diseases,
a
term
of
expression
which
sounds
decidedly
ironical
here,
kill,
each
year^
more
than
eleven
thousand
five
hundred
persons.
^
'
Average
death
rate,
caused
through
transmissible
diseases,
during
the
cycle
1904-19
12:
I.
GENERAL
DISEASES
Illnesses
Deaths
Tjrphus
642.0
Typhoid
fever
32.4
Idem
intermittent,
and
palustric
cachexias.
35.7
Small
and
black
pox
3454
Scarlet
fever
124.2
Erysipelas
112.
Measles
136.8
Diphtheria
and
croup
79.7
Grippe
100.8
Whooping
cough
133-7
Cholera
morbus
18.3
Purulent
infection,
and
septicaemia
55.0
Rabies
2.7
Living
Beings
35
In
order
that
measures
taken
to
prevent
the
spread
of
contagious
disease
may
give
efficient
results,
it
is
necessary
that
they
be
applied
promptly
and
efficaciously.
Excluding
the
portion
which,
Dysentery
48.7
Tetanus
1.7
Lung
tuberculosis
1
170.8
Meninges
50.3
Larynx
18.0
General
67.3
Syphilis
148.4
Abdominal
tuberculosis
220.2
Acute
miliary
tuberculosis
.9
Other
organs
—
tuberculosis
17.6
Cancer
of
the
peritoneum,
intestine,
rectum.
.
.
15.3
White
tumors
7.0
Malignant
pustule
0.2
Pott's
disease
8.0
Acute
articular
rheumatism
23.6
Leprosy
5.9
Abscess,
and
congestive
idem
0.5
Other
epidemical
diseases
2.6
3625.6
n.
DISEASES
OF
THENERVOUS
SYSTEM
AND
SENSORY
ORGANS
Simple
meningitis
542.2
Idem
cerebro-spinal
25.9
Progressive
locomotor
ataxia
8.6
General
paralysis
18.2
Tetanus
5.9
598.8
III.
DISEASES
OF
THE
CIRCULATORY
ORGANS
Pericarditis
21.7
Acute
endocarditis
38.6
Organic
cardiac
affections
735-6
Lymphangitis,
etc
3.7
799.6
36
Living
Beings
owing
to
ignorance
or
negligence,
belongs
to
the
public,
we
can
divide
the
enormous
responsibiHty
for
many
avoidable
deaths
between
two
culprits:
the
physicians
who
are
entrusted
with
the
duty
of
reporting
all
cases,
and
the
sanitary
authority
—
the
Board
of
Health
—
which
is
entrusted
with
the
duty
of
efficiently
applying
remedies
and
means
to
prevent
the
propagation
of
disease.
As
a
matter
of
fact,
the
Board
of
Health,
in
spite
of
the
fact
that
the
Law
of
Political
and
Municipal
Organization
of
1903
did
actually
concentrate
the
powers
and
attributes
of
this
body
in
the
President,
has
continued,
up
to
the
IV.
DISEASES
OF
THE
RESPIRATORY
ORGANS
Larynx
affections
69.4
Acute
bronchitis
1
15-8
Broncho-pneumonia
922.3
Pneumonia
1529.9
Pleurisy
78.9
Congestion
and
pulmonary
apoplexy
215.3
3931.6
V.
DISEASES
OF
THE
DIGESTIVE
ORGANS
Anginas
and
larynx
affections
14.6
Chronic
diarrhea
270.7
and
enteritis
(two
years
and
more)
2130.3
Simple
peritonitis
(except
puerperal)
112.1
2527.7
VI.
PUERPERAL
CONDITION
Puerperal
septicasmia
82.7
82.7
Total
1
1,566.6
Living
Beings
37
present,
to
act
in
accordance
with
the
Sanitary
Code
issued
December
30,
1902.
It
has
endeav-
ored
by
virtue
of
authority
to
prevent
the
propa-
gation
of
avoidable
diseases,
and
the
transmission
of
contagion
and
infection,
and
to
repress
trans-
gressions
againstpublic
health,
which
are
specified
in
the
aforesaid
Sanitary
and
PenalCode.
The
Board
governs
itself
by
means
of
the
parliamentary
system,
in
sessions
which
are
held
at
stated
periods,
twice
a
week,
in
which
twelve
directors
or
mem-
bers
and
the
President
take
part.
This
system
is
particularly
adapted
to
procrastination,
and
to
the
weakening
of
responsibiUty.
The
effective
individual
responsibility
is
merged
into
the
fictitious
responsibility
of
an
abstract
entity.
The
rulings
thus
taken,
in
order
to
be
put
into
execution,
are
distributed
among
five
sections,
according
to
a
classification
which
—
according
to
Doctor
Rafael
Norma,
ex-secretary
of
the
Board
—
is
utterly
illogical.
On
the
other
hand,
the
sanitary
inspec-
tion,
whose
cooperation
is
necessary
to
any
resolu-
tion,
no
matter
how
sensible
or
well
timed,
could
hardly
be
more
singularly
deficient.
The
task
entrusted
to
the
twenty-two
sanitary
inspectors
of
the
Federal
District
is
humanly
impossible.
It
is
their
duty
to
prevent
the
formation
of
sinks
of
infection
in
individuals
and
dwellings,
a
task
for
a
physician
and
an
engineer;
to
secure
the
immediate
destruction
of
those
already
in
exist-
ence,
and
to
conduct
an
active
propaganda
in
favor
of
scientific
hygiene,
combining
the
duties
38
Living
Beings
of
master
and
apostle.
Their
sphere
of
influence
and
action
is
a
conglomeration
of
districts
containing
more
than
seven
hundred
and
twenty
thousand
in-
habitants,
amo7ig
the
largest
part
of
whom
are
found
the
direst
ignorance
and
economic
and
physiological
wretchedness.
This
population
is
scattered
over
an
area
of
nearly
one
thousand
five
hundred
square
kilometers.
The
following
synoptic
table
—
based
on
the
Census
of
1910
as
regards
population,
and
with
datasubmitted
by
the
same
sanitary
inspectors,
corresponding
to
191
1,
as
regards
mortaHty
—
shows
in
an
irrefutable
manner
how
impossible
said
inspection
is
from
the
viewpoint
of
efficie?tcy:
If
we
add
thatthe
inspectors
are
not
properly
backed
by
authority,
and
become
merely
a
source
of
information,
we
can
easily
see
that,
even
in
the
very
restricted
cases
where
their
efforts
might
prove
serviceable,
whatever
measures
their
observa-
tion
and
experience
may
have
caused
them
to
suggest
become,
as
it
were,
stillborn,
subject
to
unpractical
red-tape
and
woful
procrastination.
Nothing
canbe
more
forcible
than
the
mere
enunciation
of
the
horrible
fact,
that
eleven
thou-
sand
five
hundred
preventable
deaths
occur
each
year.
This
must
serve
to
drive
home
the
urgent
need
of
instantly
improving
the
regidation
and
organizatiofi
of
the
corresponding
services,
and
of
ensuring
primarily
the
immediate
reporting
of
all
dangerous
cases,
and
then
the
prompt
applica-
tionof
necessary
measures,
such
as
marking
o
MUNICIPALITIES
Living
Beings
39
infected
dwellings
by
means
of
posters
or
placards
{Vaffichage)
so
that
the
pubUc
may
have
the
precaution
not
to
enter
therein,
making
careful
research
to
ascertain
the
causes
of
the
contagion,
conveniently
isolating
the
patient,
disinfecting
every-
thing
which
he
may
have
contaminated,
and
sup-
plying
and
imposing,
according
to
the
cases,
such
means
of
prevention
as
vaccination
for
pox^
and
immunization
for
diphtheria,
rabies,
tetanus,
dys-
entery,
cerebro-spinal
meningitis,
etc.
To
ensure
more
thoroughly
the
efficacy
of
the
preceding
sanitary
measures,
we
again
emphasize
the
necessity
of
these
two
things:
the
economic
improvement
of
the
masses
of
the
people,
and
their
hygienic
education.
^
No
preventive
is
so
simple
in
its
application,
and
sure
in
its
results,
as
antivariolous
vaccine;
hence
the
fact
that
civilized
coun-
tries
have
been
able
to
completely
destroy
the
morbidity
of
small
and
black
pox.
Therefore
the
345
deaths
caused
yearly
by
these
infections
in
Mexico
City
are
a
most
shameful
stigma
on
the
good
name
of
our
sanitary
authorities.
CHAPTER
VII
NUTRITION
TO
maintain
the
physiological
eqmlibrium
of
the
living
organism
—
that
is,
to
repair
the
losses
of
the
tissue
constituents,
and
to
supply
the
necessary
energy
fortheir
functional
activity,
are
the
requirements
of
nutrition.
Hence
every
com-
munity
needs,
in
order
to
be
fit,
an
adequate
provision
of
pure
potable
water
and
proper
food.
I
shall
endeavor
to
study,
in
thecourse
of
this
chapter,
the
nutritive
value
of
water
aswell
as
offood,
properly
so
called,
so
as
to
ascertain
the
conditions
under
which
the
inhabitants
of
Mexico
City
are
placed
in
these
respects.
Water
Water
enters
into
the
constituency
of
the
tissues
in
such
quantity,that
it
makes
of
them
a
truly
aqueous
mass
in
whose
bosom
is
enacted
the
bio-
logical
phenomena
of
living
organisms
.
The
human
body
contains,
on
the
average,
650
grams
per
kilogram
of
living
weight;
in
an
individual
of
65
kilograms
of
weight,
the
water
making
up
his
40
Nutrition
41
tissues
would
weigh,consequently,
something
more
than
42
kilos.
Variations
in
the
proportion
of
water
in
the
organism
produce
pathological
dislocations
or
disturbances
proportional
to
the
gravity
of
the
said
variations.
The
diminution
of
water
in
the
blood
occasions
a
diminution
twice
as
great
of
the
water
in
the
muscles,
and
these
pathological
consequences
are
exteriorized,
when
this
diminu-
tion
is
very
small,
by
means
of
simple
pains.
But
let
thedecrease
reach
only
three
per
cent,
of
the
normal
proportion
of
water,
and
behold
the
kidneyscan
no
longer
eliminate
the
insoluble
cellular
detriti,
and
death
results
through
auto-
intoxication.
^
When
on
the
contrary
there
is
an
excess
of
water
in
the
organism,
the
elimination
through
the
kidneys
and
skin
carries
organic
and
mineral
compounds,
and
produces
an
exaggeration
of
dissimilation.
^
A
man
at
rest
eliminates
daily
through
the
kidneys,
intestines,
lungs,
something
more
than
twenty-four
cubic
centimeters
of
water
for
each
kilogram
of
living
weight.
Energetic
work,
upon
increasing
piilmonary
evaporation
and
provoking
with
activity
the
cutaneous
evaporation,
causes
a
considerable
rise
in
the
daily
elimination
of
water
by
the
human
organism.
Now,
as
a
part
of
the
water
eliminated
proceeds
—
according
to
Voit
from
the
oxidation
of
the
hydrogen
of
the
hydro-
'
J.
Ogier
et
Ed.
Bonjeau,
Le
Sol
et
I'Eau,
pp.
202
and
204.
42
Nutrition
carbon
compounds,
and
of
the
chemical
reactions,
the
minimum
quantities
required
per
day,
for
a
man
weighing
sixty-five
kilograms,
were
he
at
rest
or
at
work,
would
be,
respectively,
one
liter
and
three
quarters,
and
two
liters
and
a
half.'
We
can
therefore
state,
in
view
of
the
preced-
ing,
that
the
real
function
of
water,
or
at
least
its
most
important
duty
from
the
point
of
view
of
nutrition,
consists
in
supplying
the
said
losses
of
liquid,
inherent
to
the
functional
activity
of
the
organism.
Now,
says
Pouchet,^'
the
propor-
tion
of
mineral
salts
and
dissolved
gases
hardly
preoccupies
the
hygienist
any
more.
..
.
Long
distance
navigation,
and
the
impossibility
of
con-
serving
water
sweet
for
long
spaces
of
time
in
tropical
cHmates
(aiding
nutrition
with
distilled
water),
greatly
modified
the
old
ways
of
apprais-
ing
the
qualities
of
the
water.
.
.
.
The
organolep-
tical
qualities^
to
which
formerly
such
important
attributes
were
ascribed,
nowadays
offer
but
mediocre
interest,
and
can
assuredly
be
presented
as
secondary
qualities.''
What
is
unquestioned
is
the
powerful
influence
—
the
effects
of
which
are
manifested
under
the
form
of
endemics,
epidemics,
or
increase
in
mortal-
ity
—
exerted
by
the
water
consumed,
upon
the
general
health
of
the
community,
whenever
it
happens
to
be
contaminated.
To
satisfy
the
numerous
individual
and
collective
requirements
'
J.
Ogier
et
Ed.
Bonjeau,
Le
Sol
et
I'Eau,
pp.
202
and
203.
'
Annales
d'hygine
et
de
medicine
legale,
vol.
xxv.,
April,
1891.
Nutrition
43
of
a
community,
water
acts
on
the
public
health,
both
directly
and
indirectly:
as
food,
as
cleansing
agent
of
the
human
body,
of
linen
and
clothes,
of
dwellings,
of
the
city;
and
in
a
thousand
differ-
ent
ways,
corresponding
to
the
different
ways
of
utilizing
water
for
economic
and
industrial
uses.
Limiting
my
remarks,
for
the
present,
to
the
application
or
use
of
water
as
food,
we
can
say
that
water
acts
directly
upon
the
health
of
indi-
viduals
through
its
temperature,
and
especially
through
its
degree
of
impurity.
Hence
the
reason
that
all
modern
hygienists
are
completely
agreed
in
considering
the
freshness,
and
above
all
the
chemical,
biological,
and
bacteriological
purity
—
understanding
as
such
the
absence
of
all
noxious
substance,
and
of
all
living
organism,
plant
oranimal,
of
deleterious
effect
—
as
being
the
sole
essential
characteristic
conditions
of
drinking
water.
After
mentioning
thehygienic
drawbacks
of
overcharged
waters,
which,
surcharged
with
in-
offensive
or
toxic
mineral
substances,
with
organic
matter,
as
well
as
with
the
products
of
decomposi-
tion
of
such
substances,
bring
on
diarrhea
and
predispose
to
infection
—
a
wonderful
preparation
for
thegeneration
of
pathogenic
germs;
—
after
noting,
that
many
parasites
conveyed
by
water
can
seriously
affect
animal
organism,
and
that
dysentery,
cholera,
and
typhoid
fever
are
the
three
hydric
illnesses
par
excellence
—
/
must
reiterate
44
Nutrition
what
is
but
too
well
known,
that
the
water
con-
sumed
by
the
inhabitatits
of
the
metropolis
has,
until
very
recently,
prese?ited,
owing
to
its
defective
conduits
and
distribution,
all
the
characters
of
chemical,
biological,
and
bacteriological
impurity,
rendering
it
one
of
the
determining
causes
of
the
mortality
and,
above
all,
of
the
extreme
morbidity
of
Mexico
City.
It
is
fair
to
assert
thatthe
conditions
affecting
the
drinking
water
have
been
lately
improved
to
a
remarkable
degree.
The
water
coming
from
the
springs
of
thesoutherly
part
of
the
valley
Noria,
Quetzalapa,
Nativitas,
etc.
—
taken
up
at
its
point
of
issue,
carried
in
an
enclosed
aqueduct,
and
distributed
by
means
of
a
most
modem
pipe
system,reaches
the
houses,
and
we
may
say
the
very
Hps
of
the
consumers,
in
a
remarkable
con-
dition
of
freshness.
Such
are
its
conditions
of
purity,
that
from
December,
IQ12,
and
during
the
whole
of
igij
there
were
carried
on
monthly
ex-
aminations
of
the
water,
taking
samples
analyzed
from
scattered
houses
throughout
the
city,
and
the
residts
ascertained
proved
that
the
average
number
of
aerobic
bacteria
per
cubic
centimeter
barely
reached
eight
—
withextreme
fluctuations
from
three
to
seventee?i
—
these
figures
corresponding,
accord-
ing
to
Miguel's
classification,
to
the
category
of
exceedingly
pure
water.*'
^
Drs.
Francisco
Paz
and
O.
Gonzdlez
Fabela.
Bacteriological
Analysis
of
Xochimilco
Waters,
practiced
at
the
laboratory
of
the
Board
of
Health
of
Mexico,
January,
1914.
Nutrition
45
But
as
the
general
sanitary
condition
of
a
city-
is
the
result
of
the
complete
and
simultaneous
satisfaction
of
all
fundamental
hygienic
needs
of
individuals
and
of
the
community,
it
may
be
stated
—
without
the
faintest
intention
of
exagger-
ating
that
the
isolated
satisjactiori
of
only
one
of
the
sad
requirements,
in
view
of
the
frightful
in-
fractions
of
elemental
hygiene
depicted
in
the
pages
of
this
treatise,
has
about
the
same
effect
as
that
of
a
weak
ray
of
light
projected
into
a
pitch
dark
abyss.
Foods,
Properly
So-
Called
In
order
to
reaUze
the
physiological
object
of
feeding,
it
is
necessary
that
the
constituent
sub-
stances
of
the
daily
normal
ration
measure
up
to
a
certain
condition
of
quality
and
quantity.
These
substances
—
taken
by
man
from
the
three
kingdoms
of
nature
—
are
of
complex
make-up,
but
they
may
be
decomposed
into
simple
organic
principles,
among
which
albuminoids,
fats,
and
carbohydrates
are
of
preponderant
and
decisive
importance.
We
must
therefore
have
a
mixed
regimen
made
up
of
these
nutritive
elements,
whose
adequate
proportion
—
from
the
double
physiological
and
economic
point
of
view
—
has
been
approximately
calculated,
by
means
of
experiments
in
feeding
with
rations
artificially
compounded
so
asto
realize
the
equilibrium
of
nutrition
(Pettenkofer
and
Voit,
Ranke,
Beneke,
46
Nutrition
etc.),
and
by
tabulating
the
general
averages
of
rations
freely
selected
for
communities
in
good
health,
strength,
and
physical
and
cerebral
ac-
tivity
(Forster,
Hock,
Voit,
Atwater,
A.
Gautier,
Lapicque).^
As
regards
the
normal
daily
proportion
of
al-
bumina
for
an
adult,
while
Voit
and
Pettenkofer
fix
it
at
1.69
grms.
for
each
kilogram
of
Uving
weight
—
the
figure
accepted
by
nearly
all
physi-
ologists
—
Lapicque
estimates
it
at
only
one
gram.
These
values
would
correspond,
for
an
individual
of
sixty-fivekilos
in
weight,
to
no
and
65
grams
respectively.
On
the
other
hand,
Gautier
has
found
that
in
Paris
an
adult
of
average
weight,
in
good
health
and
at
rest,
consumes,
approxi-
mately,
107
grams
of
albumina
per
day.
Noting
that
populations
or
social
categories
which
have
the
weakest
ration
of
nitrogen
are
usually
the
most
wretched
and
least
resisting,
whereas,
on
the
other
hand,
strong,
prosperous
communities
use
in
their
regimen
a
quantity
of
albumina
ever
larger
than
the
share
considered
normal
by
physiologists,
and
considering
the
fact
that
a
small
excess
over
the
normal
theoretical
proportion,
without
provoking
the
drawbacks
of
an
excessive
nitrogen
nutrition,
strengthens
the
resistance
of
the
organism
in
case
of
certain
in-
fections,
notably
that
of
tuberculosis,
Rouget
and
Dopter
give
the
preference
to
the
high
figures
of
Voit
and
Pettenkofer,
of
Forster
and
Gautier,
'
J.
Rcniget
et
Ch.
Dopter,
Hygiine
A
limentaire,
p.
126.
Nutrition
47
and
conclude
that
the
quantity
of
alhumina
re-
quired
per
day
for
an
adult
at
rest
must
oscillate
between
loy
and
118
grams,
which
gives
an
average
value
of
112
to
iij
grams.
'
Fats
and
carbohydrates,
upon
oxygenating
into
the
tissues
as
in
a
calorimeter,
generate
heat,
and
produce,
as
an
ultimate
result,
water
vapor
and
carbonic
acid.
The
required
proportions
of
these
substances,
in
order
to
complete,
with
the
prescribed
quantity
of
albumina,
a
normal
nutri-
tive
ration,
may
be
ascertained,
as
Rouget
and
Dopter
have
ascertained
it,
by
taking
into
con-
sideration
the
essentially
dynamogenic
character
of
the
aforesaid
substances.
In
truth,
in
accordancewith
Riibner,
the
energy
suppHed
by
the
three
fundamental
feeding
prin-
ciples
can
be
expressed
in
calories,
in
the
following
manner
I
gram
of
albumina
generates
4.1
calories
I
of
carbohydrate
(starch).
.
.4.1
I
fat
.'
9.3
'
Now,
as
the
number
of
calories
usually
required
for
the
conservation
of
life
varies
between
2500
to
3000
for
an
adult
at
rest,
or,
an
average
value
of
2750
calories
per
day,
and
as
the
albuminoid
substances
supply
112
X
4.1=559.2
calories,
'
Work
previously
quoted,
p.
128.
48
Nutrition
the
difference
2750—559.2
=
2290.8
calories,
must
be
supplied
by
the
ternary
foods.
Supposing
thatthe
only
source
to
fill
this
deficit
of
energy
be
supplied
by
the
hydrocarbonate
foods,
the
required
sum
of
these
should
be:
2290,8
=
558.73
grams.
4.1
Of
fatty
substances
there
would
be
required
to
supply
the
same
sum
of
force
2290.8
=
235-57
grams.
9.3
Physiologically,
itis
indispensable
to
associate
albumina,
fats,
and
carbohydrates.
The
best
economical
combination
of
these
feeding
principles
is
that
resulting
from
utilizing
them
in
the
fol-
lowing
respective
proportions:
I
:o.5
:4.
Following
the
numerical
data
above
referred
to,
the
formula
for
normal
daily
ration,
for
an
adult
of
medium
weight,
in
good
health
and
repose,
would
be^:
'J.
Rouget
et
Ch.
Dopter,
Hygiine
AUmentaire,
pp.
129
and
130.
Nutrition
49
Grams
Calories
Albummoids
112
459-2
Fat
56
520.8
Carbohydrates
448
1836.8
2816.8
Naturally,
this
result
cannot
be
said
to
have
an
absolute
character.
It
is
possible
to
preserve
the
equilibrium
of
the
organism
by
combining
the
three
principles
of
nutrition
in
the
proper
proportion,
provided
the
formulabe
modified
in
keeping
with
the
isodynamic
or
isoglycosic
equiva-
lentsof
the
foods,
whether
we
adopt
respectively
the
theory
of
Riibner,
or
that
of
Chauveau.
Muscular
work,
necessarily,
provokes
a
greater
consumption
of
fuel,
and
consequently
the
con-
servation
of
organic
equilibrium
demands
a
stronger
and
richer
feeding
ration.
According
to
Herve-Mangon,
this
must
be
capable
of
pro-
ducing
the
following
sums
of
energy:
For
moderate
work
4200
calories
ordinary
4800
heavy
6000
The
preceding
theoretical
considerations
hav-
ing
fixed
the
daily
normal
nutritive
ration
for
an
adult
of
average
weight,
in
repose
as
well
as
in
various
states
of
muscular
activity,
it
is
neces-
sary
to
apply
these
considerations
to
certain
special
cases,
in
order
to
ascertain
the
true
condition
of
the
popular
classes,
from
the
point
of
view
of
3
50
Nutrition
nutrition,
in
the
City
of
Mexico.
With
this
object
in
view
I
have
made
numerous
observations
of
individuals
and
families
belonging
to
various
social
scales.
However,
I
think
that
for
the
purposes
of
this
chapter,
it
willsuffice
to
study
a
single
family
whose
social
and
economic
condition
ap-
proaches,
or
excels,
that
of
the
majority
of
fami-
lies
in
the
town.
In
theseconditions
are
to
be
found
the
four
examples
whichform
Appendix
No.
IV,
the
first
of
which
will
serve
to
make
the
hy-
gienic
analysis
of
the
popular
nutritive
regimen.
The
said
example
refers
to
a
laborer,
named
Ag-
ustin
Lopez,
a
man
of
temperate
habits,
who
has
a
small
family,
composed
of
himself,
his
mother,
and
hiswife.
The
smallness
ofhis
family
gives
it
a
noteworthyeconomic
advantage
over
the
gener-
ality
of
families
of
the
same
social
standing.
He
works
continually,
excepting
neither
Sundays
nor
holidays,
in
gardening
and
leveling
the
city's
parks,
for
which
he
receives
$0.75
per
day.
With
the
data
furnished
by
the
family
itself
in
the
month
of
October,
1914
—
which
data
were
duly
checked
and
proven
by
me
—
I
was
able
to
draw
up
his
weekly
budget,
correspondijig
to
the
time
when
these
data
were
compiled,
and
it
reads
as
follows:
Expenditure
Nutrition:
8
cuartillos '
of
corn
$1,04
2
of
beans
.48
'
N.
of
the
T.
Mexican
measure
equivalent
to
about
2
liters.
$3-63
Nutrition
51
2
kilos
of
meat
$
.70
Peppers
.16
Salt
II
Sugar
.11
Coal
and
wood
.60
Pulque
42
Clothes:
2
meters
of
manta '
or
percale
.62
Washing
clothes:
Soap
.25
Rent:
' •'','*
*''
,
•.
•
He
pays
weekly
for
a
nanpw
ap^
d^mp
lodm
'
,'
U/
,
>
•
in
the
5th
Street
of
Chil&^O*
19
Colonia
'
,^
Santa
Julia
<•'.•;;
-5^
Hair
cutting:
He
has
his
hair
cut
every
three
.weefe'
e.t
a,
;^
'. /''.'
cost
of
$0.20,
making
the
weekly
•ail9tr}iexi1;
,'/..b^,
'
'
...
-^^
Total
$5.06
Income
He
earns
weekly,
at
the
rate
of
$0.75
daily
5.25
.87
Weekly
balance
in
his
favor
$0.19
The
perfect
balance
of
this
budget
yielding
a
balance
in
his
favor
of
barely
nineteen
cents
per
week
—
is
appalling
in
its
significance.
Any
untoward
happening,
which
would
prevent
the
head
of
the
family
from
working
for
a
single
day,
or
which
'
Coarse
cotton
cloth.
52
Nutrition
might
give
rise
to
an
increase
in
household
expen-
diture,
or
an
increase
in
the
prices
of
articles
of
first
necessity
—
at
present
such
are
four
times
higher
than
those
stipulated;
—
in
short,
any
dis-
turbing
cause,
however
small,
whichmight
un-
balance
so
close
an
estimate,
would
cause
imtold
suffering
to
the
small
family.
Let
us
now
see,
whether
the
salary
or
wage,
of
the
day
laborer
in
question
can,
under
normal
physiological
conditions,
suffice
to
keep
together
body
and
soul
for
the
worker
and
for
those
depen-
dent-en
him'/
'
,
:i'Owe
to
my
wortfiy
friend,
Don
Jose
Terres,
'M.D.,
Director
of
the
iNladonal
Medical
Institute,
the
following
analysis
of
the
three
essential
sub-
stances,
which,
make
up
the
food
of
the
masses:
Nutrition
53
54
Nutrition
duringseven
days.
The
energy
supplied
per
person
and
per
day
is
consequently:
59,074.62
„
,
.
/,
—
=
2813.07
calories,
3X7
a
figure
which
barely
equals
that
representing
the
energy
consumed
by
an
iiidividtial
at
absolute
rest.
Now,
as
the
three
persons
of
the
example
con-
sidered
do
work
more
or
less
of
a
rough
nature,
the
man
laboring
as
a
peon
in
the
public
gardens
and
parks,
and
the
women
in
such
occupations
as
grinding
maize,
rolling
^'tortillas
sweeping,
washing,
ironing,
etc.,
the
ration
of
nutrition
is
most
deficient.
It
is
so
even
if
we
accept
the
hypothesis
that
the
work
carried
on
by
these
people
is
of
the
kind
that
Herve
Mangon
styles
ordinary
—
which
consumes
4800
calories
—
and
it
would
be
necessary
to
increase
the
said
ration
at
least
seventy
per
cent.,
in
order
even
to
return
to
the
organism
the
wastage
caused
by
the
muscular
effort
expended.
In
other
terms:
the
item
of
the
weekly
budget
relative
to
the
feeding
of
the
family
($3.62)
would
have
to
be
increased
seventy
per
cent,
or
by
$2.53,
or
$0.36
daily,
almost
fifty
per
cent,
of
the
daily
wage.
It
would
have
to
be
raised
from
$0.75
to
$1.11,
in
order
merely
to
conserve
the
life
of
the
laborer
and
that
of
the
other
two
persons
who
are
under
his
immediate
economic
care.
This
deficit
in
the
laborer's
budget
—
a
repre-
Nutrition
55
sentative
example
of
what
occurs
among
the
lower
classes
of
the
nation
—
which
leaves
without
repair
a
goodly
portion
of
the
energies
spent
in
daily
labor,
must
fatally
lead,
through
a
pro-
longed
and
painful
agony,
to
the
complete
annihila-
tion
of
our
race.
In
the
face
of
evils
of
so
grave
a
nature
and
of
calamities
so
imminent
and
direful,
the
indifference,
or
abstention
of
the
state
—
the
only
power
capable
of
remedying
them
would
appear
a
criminal
monstrosity.
Therefore
it
becomes
imperative
to
prevent
—
by
means
of
un-
avoidable
legal
regulations—
//je
salary
from
falling
lower
than
the
limit
imposed
hy
the
complete
satis-
faction
of
the
material
necessaries
of
life.
But
modem
legislation
goes
farther
still.
Be-
sides
including
as
compulsory
the
precept
of
minimum
salary,
it
fixes
the
amount
in
such
a
manner
that
it
permits
not
only
the
satisfaction
of
the
bare
necessities
of
life
of
an
average
family,
but
also
such
requirements
as
may
result
from
the
position
of
the
members
of
this
family
as
human
beings
living
in
a
civilized
community.
Compared
with
this
dignified
and
dignifying
status,
humane
and
just
—
which
no
one
could
gainsay
nor
challenge
—
the
daily
wage
of
the
great
majority
of
our
workmen
is
becoming
more
miserable
and
paltry.
In
the
special
case
under
consideration,
let
us
suppose
that
the
insignificant
increase
of
$0.89
daily
would
suffice
to
supply
all
other
necessities
of
a
decorous
life
—
improvement
of
dwelling,
clothing,
etc.,
for
a
family
made
up
56
Nutrition
of
three
persons.
Then
a
minimum
salary
of
$2.00
daily
would
be
required
—
in
other
words,
nearly
three
times
that
received
by
the
laborer
whose
condition
we
have
been
studying.
Before
closing,
I
shall
call
to
mind
that
since
October,
19
14
—
the
time
at
which
the
foregoing
data
were
taken
—
the
economical
conditions
of
the
country
have
grown
worse
so
rapidly,
as
a
con-
sequence
of
the
internecine
strife,
that
on
the
one
hand
the
cost
of
articles
of
first
necessity
has
increased
fourfold,
and
on
the
other,
many
sources
of
employment
have
ceased
to
exist.
Moreover,
as
a
natural
sequence
of
the
present
phase
of
the
Revolution,
we
are
yet
far
from
the
magnificent
...
he
despoiled
the
mighty
and
tiplifted
the
humble;
to
those
in
need
he
vouchsafed
plenty,
and
the
rich
he
stripped
of
all
they
had
amassed.
...
Excluding
the
restricted
miHtary
class,
which
monopolizes
all
the
privileges
of
the
bureaucratic
—
much
more
reduced
than
the
former
and
which
lives
within
the
official
budget
—
and
of
the
con-
temptible
group
of
merchants
and
traders
destitute
of
all
scruples
and
morality,
who
prey
pitilessly
on
human
wants
and
misery,
it
can
be
said
that
in
the
great
mass
of
the
national
population,
wealth
has
turned
to
poverty,
and
there
exists
the
peril
of
there
arising,
from
the
depths
of
former
wretchedness,
a
new
disgrace
for
civilization.
There
may
appear
a
new
heading,
in
the
already
horrible
table
of
our
national
mortality,
covering
deaths
through
starvation.
Nutrition
57
This
chapter
was
written
in
Vera
Cruz,
in
the
beginning
of
July,
1915,
while
the
City
of
Mexico
was
occupied
by
the
Zapatista
forces.
During
the
period
of
siege
and
final
occupation
by
the
forces
of
the
Constitution
—
July
and
August
the
privations
undergone
by
the
inhabitants
of
the
metropoHs
were
such
that
the
fateful
prophecy
ofdeaths
through
starvation
became
a
horrible
fact.
Subsequently,
the
prices
of
many
articles
of
jfirst
necessity
not
only
increased
fourfold,
as
stated,
but
rose
tenfold
as
a
consequence
of
the
depreciation
in
value
of
the
circulating
medium.
Unquestionably,
the
physiological
misery
oc-
casioned
among
the
masses
by
such
precarious
conditions
of
existence
has
been
the
pregnant
field
for
the
development,
with
intense
energy,
of
the
recent
epidemic
of
typhus.
CHAPTER
VIII
DWELLINGS
THE
great
influence
of
the
dwelling
upon
indi-
vidual
and
collective
physical
well-being
is
self-evident.
The
unhealthful
habitation
acts
directly
upon
the
individual,
transmitting
con-
tagion,
or
submitting
him
to
the
action
of
some
given
cause,
generalor
permanent,
which
may
favor
the
breaking
out
of
some
disease,
such
as
rheumatism,
which
may
be
caused
through
damp-
ness.
Or
it
may
act
indirectly
upon
the
human
system,
producing
anemia,
which
predisposes
to
tuberculosis
and
other
affections
which
would
not
attack
a
stronger
organism.
Calling
to
mind,
on
the
other
hand,
the
relation
of
living
beings,
from
the
point
of
view
of
morbidity,
with
urban
conditions,
it
is
easy
to
conceive
that
just
one
infected
house
may
be
the
origin
of
a
devastating
epidemic.
Hence
the
fact,
that
putting
houses
in
a
healthful
condition,
hy
general
overhauling
or
other
means,
becomes
the
most
important
part
of
urban
hygiene.
Every
house
in
order
to
be
conducive
to
health
must
fulfill
certain
conditions
of
cleanlinesSy
58
Dwellings
59
drainage,
supply
and
quality
of
water,
humidityj
ventilation,
thermality,
light,
architectural
distribu-
tion,
structure,
and
dimensions.
I
shall
review
these
necessary
conditions,
with
the
purpose
of
summarizing,
so
far
as
possible,
their
relations
to
the
state
of
health
in
the
City
of
Mexico.
CLEANLINESS,
DRAINS
OF
DETRITI,
AND
DRINKING
WATER
SUPPLY
Filth
is
a
heinous
sin,
whether
individual,
house,
or
town
be
considered.
Cleanliness,
by
preventing
the
permanent
presence
of
all
kinds
of
residue
and
detriti
in
the
house
or
street,
eliminates
one
of
the
most
important
causes
of
contagion,
and
prevents,
on
the
one
hand,
thegeneration
of
putrid
and
unwholesome
odors,
which
result
from
the
decom-
position
of
said
detriti,
and
which
exert
a
positive
harmful
action
upon
human
organism,
weakening
it
and
predisposing
it
to
all
infections.
On
the
other
hand,
it
prevents
the
breeding
of
parasites
such
as
bedbugs,
lice,
fleas,
etc.,
the
last
of
which,
according
to
investigations
made
in
our
hospitals
by
Ricketts
and
Goldberger,
seem
to
play
an
important
part
in
the
propagation
of
typhus.
We
may
say
in
a
few
words,
that
all
hygienists
are
agreed
in
considering
scnipidous
and
intelligent
cleanliness
as
the
first
preventive
against
contagious
disease.
It
will
suffice
to
observe
the
filthy
condition
6o
Dwellings
of
our
apartment
houses
and
tenements,
in
order
to
state
that
lack
of
cleanliness
is
one
of
the
principal
causes
of
the
642
yearly
deaths
through
typhus,
and
a
general
cause
of
all
the
contagious
diseases,
which
result
in
11,500
deaths
an?iually.
Absolute
cleanliness
of
the
house
depends
not
only
upon
the
clean
and
orderl}^
habits
of
the
tenants,
but
also
upon
certain
building
and
sani-
tary
provisions
which
facilitate
or
render
possible
such
a
condition^
of
cleanliness.
Therefore
as
regards
the
house
itself
we
must,
on
the
one
hand,
eschew
in
its
construction
such
materials
and
shapes
as
cannotbe
easily
cleaned,
preferably
washed,
and,
on
theother
hand,
we
must
supply
it
with
means
for
causing
the
rapid
evacuation
of
all
detritus
and
defecation.
To
secure
the
former,
it
can
be
specified,
for
instance,
among
many
other
stipulations,
that
the
distribution
and
size
of
apertures
be
adequate
to
provide
satisfactory
lighting;
that
connections
of
walls,
witheach
other
and
with
roofs
shall
be
replaced
by
curved
surfaces,
thus
doing
away
with
ensconcements
and
anfractuosities;
that
walls
be
built
so
asto
avoid
dampness
;
that
walls,
floors,
and
roofs
be
perfectly
smooth,
to
prevent
the
accumulation
of
dust,
and
to
facilitate
wash-
ing;
that
the
floors
be
resisting,
waterproof,
not
subject
to
rot;
that
they
shall
not
be
cold,
hard,
creaking,
etc.
Hygiene
does
not
stop
here,
but
likewise
pre-
scribes,
as
an
indispensable
complement
of
sani-
Dwellings
6i
tary
habitation,
the
conditions
governing
the
classof
furniture
to
be
used,
the
best
systems
of
cleansing
and
scrubbing,
etc.
Among
the
latter,
for
example,
it
recommends
for
re-
moving
dust
from
carpets
and
porous
furni-
ture,
vacuum
cleansing
methods,
which
have
become
so
popular
in
American
and
Euro-
pean
cities,
and
which
methods
are
utterly
unknown
in
Mexico,
even
among
the
families
of
wealth.
If
we
acknowledge
the
unquestionable
fact
that
only
the
palaces
of
some
magnates
in
Mexico
could
satisfy
the
hygienic
prescriptions
aheady
mentioned,
and
that
the
immense
majority,
or
totaHty,
of
the
houses
inhabited
by
our
middle
and
lower
classes
are
but
a
heap
of
infractions
of
the
said
precepts;
if
we
recall
the
asphyxiating
cloud
of
dust
always
raised
upon
sweeping
either
the
streets
or
the
floors
of
all
homes,
rich
and
poor,
we
must
confess
that
the
usual
methods
of
sweep-
ing
and
cleaning
run
counter
to
the
mandates
of
hygiene,
and
we
shall
have
proven
our
contention
that
the
lack
of
intelligent
and
scrupidous
cleanli-
nessin
Mexico
is
one
of
the
determining
causes,
as
aforesaid,
of
the
heavy
mortality
caused
by
contagious
disease.
Health
demands,
as
is
well
known,
that
all
detriti
and
sweepings,
once
picked
up,
be
promptly
removed
from
home
and
city
before
they
have
the
opportunity
of
giving
forth
putrid
emanations,
or
of
disseminating
pathogenic
germs
which
might
62
Dwellings
contaminate
the
air,
the
soil,
or
the
water.
The
detriti
under
consideration
comprise:
I.
Human
Excrements.
The
following
table
—
due
to
Heiden
—
makes
known
the
average
weight
of
fecal
matter
and
of
urine
per
day
per
inhabitant,
and
the
quantities
of
some
substances
which
act
as
constituents:
CHEMICAL
COMPOSITION
Dwellings
63
ready
to
increase
ad
infinitumin
the
semi-liquid
defecations.
Urine
suffers
a
rapid
ammoniac
fermentation,
and
can
also
contain
pathogenic
germs,
especially
the
typhus
bacillus,
and
that
of
tuberculosis.
This
shows
the
danger
of
the
in-
veterate
use
of
the
chamber
pot
in
dwellings,
even
among
the
higher
classes.
Probably
this
use
was
caused
by
defective
architectural
distri-
bution.
Also
itis
necessary
to
combat
the
per-
nicious
habit
of
the
lower
classes
to
urinate
in
any
street
comer,
by
means
of
rigorous
punishments,
andby
the
establishment
of
all
the
urinals
and
pubHc
water-closets
which
the
population
may
require.
We
thus
see
the
great
need
of
rapidly
removing
from
houses
and
city
all
detriti
and
defecations.
It
is
true
that
our
capital
possesses,
for
the
piirpose
of
removing
excremental
matter,
residue
and
cleansing
waters,
and
rain
precipitations,
a
network
of
draining
vaults
and
pipes
connected
with
the
sanitary
installations
of
the
homes,
and
that
this
installation
is
devised
and
constructed
according
to
approved
modem
methods;
but
unfortunately
this
network
does
not
extend
over
the
entire
city,
nor
do
the
sanitary
installations
work
smoothly.
There
still
remain
to
be
built
about
sixty
kilometers
of
piping,
and
more
than
five
and
a
half
kilometers
of
collectors,
in
some
suburbs
and
neighboring
colonies,
where
the
evacuation
is
still
carried
on
by
means
of
the
most
defective
ancient
canalization,
or
by
the
primitive
and
dangerous
system
of
collec-
64
Dwellings
tion
through
casks,
which
method
has
been
utterly
discarded
and
condemned
by
hygiene.
As
regards
private
installations,
suffice
it
to
say
that
last
year
there
were
about
fourteen
thousand
houses
with
pending
cases
before
the
Board
of
Health,
for
infractions
of
extant
sanitary
precepts,
and
that
among
such
houses
there
were
cases
such
as
that
of
the
home
 which
had
been
visited
seventy-one
times
by
the
inspection
officials,
without
having
secured
any
material
improvement
in
conditions
of
sanitation. ^
The
cursory
report
of
the
conditions
governing
evacuation
of
detriti
and
defecations
given
in
the
foregoing
lines,
warrants
the
assertion
that
among
the
principal
causes
of
disease
in
Mexico
City
must
be
reckoned
the
bad
habits
of
the
population,
defi-
ciency
in
works
of
sanitation,
and
the
inefficiency
of
official
sanitary
inspection.
2
.
A
nimal
Excrements.
These
generate
dangers
similar
to
those
which
we
have
enumerated,
with
one
addition.
Dung,
when
not
kept
in
closed
receptacles,
presents
a
favorable
condition
for
the
breeding
of
flies,
and
these
flies
on
account
of
their
relation
with
the
equine
species
aid
in
the
propagation
of
tetanus.
These
insects
carrythe
small
fecal
particles
adhering
to
their
legs,
and
deposit
them
everywhere,
on
the
furniture,
on
our
food,
on
ourselves,
and
thus
constitute
a
serious
cause
of
infection.
^
Dr.
Rafael
Norma,
ex-Secretary
of
the
Board
of
Health
of
Mexico.
Dwellings
65
If
the
other
reqmrements
of
the
public
health
are
so
deficiently
provided
for
in
Mexico,
although
the
sanitary
authorities
possess
facilities
for
that
purpose,
what
shall
be
said
of
the
constant
col-
lection
of
dung
in
closedboxes,
and
of
its
rapid
removal
from
the
vicinity
of
houses,
when
these
operations
have
always
been
left
to
the
exclusive
concern
of
the
parties
interested?^
3.
Refuse
and
Residue
Waters.
Under
this
heading
are
included:
(a)
those
from
the
kitchen,
which
served
to
wash
vegetables,
meats,
china,
and
which
convey
fermentable
residue
of
foods,
greases,
etc.;
{h)
waters
used
for
personal
clean-
liness
and
which
contain
epidermical
particles
with
pathogenic
germs;
(c)
washing
waters,
similar
to
the
preceding,
but
which
may
wash
beside
some
fecal
particles
;
{d)
lastly,
those
used
to
cleanse
floors
of
dwelUngs,
frequently
pervaded
with
noxious
dust.
The
volume
of
these
waters
generally
depends
upon
the
habits
of
cleanliness
among
the
popula-
tion,
and
upon
the
quantity
of
water
at
the
city's
'In
191
1,
I
visited
the
National
Veterinary
and
Agricultural
School,
to
investigate
its
sanitary
condition,
and
found
among
many
infractions
of
hygiene,
the
following:
one
of
the
dormitories
lay
above
the
stable
for
diseased
horses,
in
such
way
as
to
be
sepa-
rated
only
by
means
of
a
floor
formed
with
boards,
in
a
vile
state
of
preservation,
nailed
over
wooden
beams.
The
emana-
tions
produced
by
the
decomposition
of
dungand
liquid
dejecta
of
diseased
animals,
upon
a
stone
and
undrained
floor,
could
pass
freely
through
the
gaping
interstices
between
the
boards
of
the
floor,
to
invade
a
dormitory
where
twenty-seven
beds
were
prepared
for
the
students.
s
66
Dwellings'
disposal.
They
are
always
highlyfermentable,
and
as
such
decidedly
noxious.
To
corroborate
the
conclusions
concerning
the
defective
manner
in
which
the
evacuation
of
excremental
matter
in
our
capital
is
carried
on
—
since
the
waste
waters
must
^be
evacuated
through
the
same
ca-
nalization
—
I
shall
mention
two
causes
of
pubHc
disease,
resulting
from
the
frequencywith
which
dwellers
throw
into
the
yards
of
many
tenements
the
whole
or
most
of
the
waste
waters,
and
from
the
custom
of
washing
clothes,
even
those
of
the
sick,
without
previous
disinfection,
in
the
common
wash
sinks
of
these
yards.
4.
Sweepings.
The
principal
constituents
of
sweepings
are:
{a)
vegetable
and
animal
residue,
highly
putrescent,
proceeding
from
the
kitchen;
{b)
ashes,
other
residues
of
furnaces,
stoves,
pieces
of
china,
etc.
;
(c)
sweepings
from
dwellings,
which
may
contain,
especially
if
inhabited
by
some
patient
suffering
from
some
infection,
patho-
genic
germs;
{d)
combustible
substances
such
as
paper,
corks,
pieces
of
wood,
etc.
;
{e)
lastly,
metallic
objects,
such
as
tin
cans,
nails,etc.
The
propor-
tions
in
which
such
elements
find
themselves
mixed
vary
in
different
cities;
they
varyeven
in
the
same
city,
according
to
the
time
of
the
year.
However,
what
does
characterize
the
assortment,
at
all
times
and
places,
is
its
extreme
putrescence.
Lacking
precise
data
regarding
the
special
composition
of
sweepings
and
filth
of
Mexico
City,
I
shall
mention
as
an
example,
in
order
to
Dwellings
67
give
an
idea
of
the
general
character
of
the
said
detriti,
the
result
of
the
analysis
made
by
Ladureau
and
Violette,
of
the
sweepings
of
Lille
City:
CHEMICAL
COMPOSITION
Water
proportion
Organic
nitrogen
matter,
and
ammo
niac
salts
Non-nitrogenic
organic
matter
....
Lime
phosphate
Potassium
and
soda
(soluble)
salts.
,
Carbonate
and
sulphate
of
lime
..
.
,
Iron
oxide,
silica,
and
silicates
sol
uble
Magnesia
Totals
Value
in
francs
of
the
ton
as
fertilizer.
Recent
Sweepings
%
30.50
2.07
16.43
0.88
0.67
1.24
46.57
1.64
71
Old
Sweepings
%
34-25
1.82
16.93
1.06
0.64
5-35
39-03
0.92
6.25
The
production
of
sweepings
in
a
city
varies
generally
from
0.5
kilos
to
one
kilo
per
head
per
day.
Taking
the
average
of
o.^S
kilos
for
Mexico
City,
this
would
produce
daily
353.3
tons,
or,
since
the
average
density
of
these
detriti
is
estimated
at
0.600
approximately,
588.8
cubic
meters
of
sweepings,
which
are,
the
same
as
excre-
mental
matter,
putrescent
and
ill-smelling.
Precisely
because
of
this
character
of
putres-
cence,
all
agree
in
demanding
that
the
operation
of
withdrawing
filth
and
sweepings
from
houses
68
Dwellings
and
streets
be
effected
daily;
that
it
be
carried
out
during
the
night
or
during
the
first
hours
of
the
morning,
and
in
a
manner
to
safeguard
it
from
the
effects
of
sun
and
wind,
so
that
organic
matter
contained
in
these
sweepings
shall
not
be
decom-
posed
and
scattered.
That
is
to
say,
that
the
collection
and
transportation
be
effected
in
her-
metically
sealed
metal
receptacles.
This
will
not
suffice.
Once
the
sweepings
have
been
collected
and
carried
away
from
the
city,
it
is
necessary
to
destroy
them,
in
order
not
to
constitute,
by
their
simple
deposit,
a
new
danger.
This
may
be
done
by
means
of
their
industrial
utilization^
or
by
their
incineration.
Since
Mexico
City
is
far
from
fulfilling
such
requisites,
with
its
primitive
''Rahones
and
Guayines
Cars,
permeable
and
imcovered,
which
circulate
along
streets
and
highways
at
all
hours
of
the
day,
collecting,
in
old
wooden
packing
cases,
sweepings
deposited
at
street
corners,
or
near
yards
or
hallways
of
houses,
which
later
are
to
be
thrown
in
the
waste
fields
of
Peiion
and
Niiio
Perdido,
in
the
suburbs
of
the
city
itself,
we
must
recognize
in
the
notorious
deficiency
of
this
service
another
cause
of
contamination
oj
the
urban
ambient,
eminently
suited
to
the
propagation
of
cofitagious
disease.
5.
Corpses.
Man
and
animals
extend
their
noxious
influence
over
the
ambient,
even
after
death.
However
great
may
be
the
respect
that
we
may
feel
for
oiur
dead,
we
are
bound
to
consider
Dwellings
69
them,
from
a
hygienic
viewpoint,
as
detriti,
whose
permanence
in
the
dwelling
engenders
great
danger
to
thehealth
of
the
living,
especially
if
the
death
has
been
caused
by
contagious
disease.
Hence
the
expediency
of
removing
them
from
home
and
city
just
as
quickly
as
possible.
The
corpses
of
small
animals,
such
as
dogs
and
cats,
etc.,
are
usually
thrown
out
on
the
high-
way,
whence
they
are
taken
up
in
the
same
way
as
the
sweepings,
and
dealt
with
in
the
same
manner.
Himian
corpses,
and
those
of
large
animals
such
as
horses,
mules,
etc.,
are
buried
or
incinerated.
Regarding
the
former,
though
it
may
be
con-
venient
for
reasons
of
health
to
remove
them
as
quickly
as
possible,
since
putrescence
begins
two
or
three
days
after
the
demise,
they
are
nevertheless
kept
the
time
required
to
discern
cases
and
symptoms
of
latent
life,
which
frequently
may
occur
inspite
of
the
appearance
of
death.
I
must
here
call
particular
attention
to
the
dan-
gers
proceeding
from
keeping
in
tenements,
where
villainous
sanitary
conditions
prevail,
bodies
of
those
deceased.
Such
dangers
justify
a
prohibi-
tionto
keep
the
dead
in
such
dwellings,
and
point
out
the
expediency
of
establishing
in
each
city
ward
adequate
depositories
for
such
purpose.
On
theother
hand,
though
the
city
cemeteries
and
burial
places
of
Mexico
are,
generally
speak-
ing,
in
satisfactory
hygienic
condition,
still
the
system
of
cremation,
so
little
used
among
us,
70
Dwellings
presents,
from
the
viewpoint
of
the
community*s
health,
great
advantages
over
inhumation.
If
all
that
precedes
did
not
suffice
to
show
the
great
influence
of
defective
evacuation
of
detriti
and
lack
of
cleanliness,
upon
morbidity
and
mortal-
ity
in
Mexico
City,
I
could
quote
very
eloquent
figures
relative
to
the
variations
in
mortality
in
some
foreign
cities,
concomitant
with
the
succes-
sive
progress
realized
intheir
sanitation.
For
instance,
Vienna,
whose
mortality
was
80
per
100
in
1800,40.1
for
the
period
from
1851
to
i860,
and
lastly
only
164
in
191
1.
 Brussels,
where
the
water
distribution
dates
from
1855,
and
the
network
of
vaulted
distributors
dates
only
from
1875,
the
mortality
of
which
keeps
around
30
per
thousand
up
to
this
last
year
and
has
been
reduced
to
nearly
half
since
then
(31.
from
1864
to
1868,
29.1
from
1869
to
1873,
25.7
from
1874
to
1878,
25.3
from
1879
to
1883,
23.9
from
1884
to
1888,
22.0
from
1889
to
1893,
19.4
from
1894
to
1900,
16.6
from
1901
to
1906,
and
only
15.3
in
1907).
The
abruptdrop
since
the
period
1
874-1
878
will
be
noted. '
As
regardsthe
provision
of
drinking
water,
since
its
relation
with
public
health
had
been
already
studied
in
the
chapter
on
^^
Nutrition,''*
I
shall
here
limit
myself
to
emphasizing
its
impor-
tance
in
the
dwelling,
stating
simply
that
without
water
there
can
he
no
cleanliness,
hygiene,
or
health.
'
E.
Macd,
Ed.
Imbeaux,
Albert
Bluzet,
et
Paul
Adam,
Hygiine
Generate
des
Villes
et
des
Agglomeralions
Cotnmunales,
p.
138.
Dwellings
71
DAMPNESS
Humidity
in
the
dwelling
may
proceed
from
the
atmosphere
or
from
the
soil.
In
the
chapter
on
^'Physical
Characteristics
of
the
Medium,'
I
stated,
in
general
terms,
the
disadvantageous
meteorological,
geological,
and
topographic
condi-
tions
of
Mexico
City,
from
the
viewpoint
of
public
health,
and
I
arrived
at
some
general
conclusions
in
regard
to
the
means
of
improvement
advised,
in
such
circumstances,
by
urban
hygiene.
In
the
following
lines
I
shall
try
to
restrict
my
remarks
to
the
special
case
of
the
dwelling.
Though
the
hygrometric
oscillation
of
airtole-
rated
by
man,
without
appreciable
detriment
to
his
health,
ranges,as
previously
stated,
between
25
and
80
hundredths
of
saturation,
the
grade
of
humidity
most
favorable
for
organic
functions
of
pulmonary
and
cutaneous
evaporation
fluctuates
between
narrower
limits
and
is
principally
subject
to
the
rise
in
temperature.
According
to
Rubner,
still
air
with
80
to
90
per
cent,
ofrelative
humidity,
is
almost
unbear-
able
at
25
degrees.
It
accelerates
the
breathing,
elevates
thetemperature,
and
provokes
panting
thirst,
more
from
the
need
of
cooling
the
body
than
from
the
necessity
of
replacing
the
eliminated
water,
of
which
there
is
little.
For
instance,
 at
23
deg.
a
man
58
kilos
in
weight
and
at
rest,
who
eliminated
per
hour
72.82
grams
of
water
steam
in
dry
air,
of
7
per
cent,
himiidity,
could
eliminate
72
Dwellings
only
18.7
grams
in
air
of
84
per
cent. ^
One
lives
and
feels
better
in
deserts
with
45
to
50
degrees
of
dry
heat,
than
at
25
or
30
degrees
with
the
humid
heat
oftropical
countries.
In
short,
humid
heat
prevents
cutaneous
and
pulmonary
evaporation
of
the
human
organism^
and
Jor
this
reason,
if
its
persistencebe
prolonged^
may
easily
lead
to
anemia.
Be
it
remembered
in
this
connection
that,
during
the
period
from
1904
to
1
912,
there
were
registered
in
Mexico
City,
for
the
hottest
months
of
the
year,
maximum
hu-
midities
from
81
to
98
hundredths
of
saturation,
in
the
shade,
with
absolute
maximum
tempera-
tures
of
28°.
7
to
33°.
I,
conditions
which
coincide
with
those
which
Rubner
considers
as
almost
unbearable.
On
the
other
hand,
the
humidity
of
the
ambient
air
favors
the
loss
of
bodily
heat
through
irradi-
ation
and
conveyance.
This
loss
is
appreciable
below
the
temperature
of
15°,
the
variation
of
which
Rubner
estimates
at
0.32
per
cent,
for
each
hygrometric
degree,positive
or
negative.
In
the
City
of
Mexico,
the
average
humidities
in
the
shade
in
the
winter
season,
during
the
period
1904-1912,
fluctuated
between
47
and
59
hun-
dredths
of
saturation,
and
the
maximtmi
between
80
and
100,
with
minimum
absolute
temperatures,
of
2°.6
below
zero
to
2°.^
above
zero.
Consequently,
the
ambient
humidity
in
Mexico,
during
prolonged
spaces
of
time
—
several
months
*
Rubner
and
Lewaschew.
Dwellings
73
per
year
is
notoriously
prejudicial
to
healthy
because
it
is
associated
with
temperatures
which,
when
high,
hinder
the
functions
of
breathing
and
cutaneous
perspiration,
and
when
low,
provoke
in
the
organism
considerable
losses
of
heat.
Moreover,
dampness
always
favors
the
breeding
of
microbes.
If
we
add
that
nearly
all
the
old
houses
of
Mexico,
as
well
as
the
greater
part
of
the
new
tenements
—
where
the
rapacity
of
owners
seeks
only
scandalous
gain
—
and
many
basements
of
wealthy
modern
homes,
where
servants
and
de-
pendents
are
inhumanely
lodged,are
not
designed
to
improve
inwardly
the
outward
conditions,
but
rather
perpetuate
or
exaggerate
the
defects,
we
shall
have
strengthened
the
conclusions
of
our
study
of
physical
characteristics
of
the
medium,
in
connection
with
the
study
of
insalubrity
in
Mexico
City.
We
shall
also
have
made
patent
the
ur-
gency
of
formulating
and
plachig
in
execution
a
code
of
edification,
such
as
exists
in
some
American
cities,
and
of
prescribing
not
only
the
conditions
of
stability
and
strength
of
buildings,
but
also
their
hygienic
conditions.
VENTILATION,
THERMALITY,
LIGHT,
ARCHITECTURAL
COMPOSITION,
AND
DIMENSIONS
In
truth,
these
five
conditions
tend,
concur-
rently,
to
insure
in
the
dwelling:
the
air
composi-
tion,
adequate
temperature,
and
the
easy
access
of
solar
rays.
74
Dwellings
Air
Composition
The
chemical
composition
of
exterior
dry
air
is
as
follows:
Oxygen
20.94
Nitrogen
78.09
Argon
0.94
Carbonic
acid
0.03
Total
100.00
and
in
addition
traces
of
hydrogen
and
other
substances.
Limg
breathing,
cutaneous
perspiration,
and
mephitic
emanations
of
the
digestive
tube
are
very
efficient
causes
of
contamination
of
unven-
tilated
air.
The
most
important
of
these
is
breathing,
the
process
whereby
the
organism
takes
from
the
atmosphere
the
necessary
oxygen
for
the
combustions
which
uphold
life,
and
expels
the
products
of
the
said
combustions:
carbonic
acid
and
water
steam.
The
noxiousness
of
confined
air
proceeds
chiefly
from
the
quantity
of
carbonic
acid
which
it
con-
tains.
The
smaller
the
difference
between
the
tension
of
this
gas
in
the
atmosphere
and
in
vein-
blood,
the
greater
will
be
the
gaseous
interchange
in
the
lungs,
and
asphyxia
may
result,
not
from
the
lack
of
oxygen,
but
as
a
consequence
—
as
Beaunis
states
—
of
the
paralysis
of
the
respiratory
nervous
centers,
resulting
from
fatigue
consequent
to
the
exaggerated
excitation
of
these
centers
by
the
carbonic
acid.
Dwellings
75
Though
the
quantity
of
gas
contained
in
the
air
may
not
be
capable
of
producing
acute
acci-
dents,
it
can
nevertheless
upon
exceeding
certain
limits,
render
difficult
the
hematosis
or
conversion
of
venous
into
arterial
blood,
and
can
weaken
the
organism's
resistance
to
infectious
disease,
notably
tuberculosis,
the
germs
of
which
are
so
abundant
in
dwellings.
It
is
generally
conceded
that
o.ooi
of
carbonic
acid
is
the
highest
limit
admissible
in
confined
air
for
breathing
purposes,
A
man,
at
rest,
emits
about
twenty
Hters
of
carbonic
acid
per
hour
;
muscular
efforts
accelerate
the
activity
of
organic
combustion,
and
double
and
even
treble
the
volume
emitted.
The
alteration,
in
this
respect,
which
the
air
of
a
large
hermeti-
cally
sealed
room
of
about
fifty
cubic
meters
would
undergo,
as
the
result
of
a
person
at
rest
remaining
therein
during
ten
hours,
would
be
sufficient
to
increase
the
original
proportion
of
carbonic
acid
(0.0003)
to
0.0043,
or
more
than
four
times
the
conceded
maximum
of
respirability
of
confined
air.
If
the
said
person,
instead
of
being
at
rest,
should
be
working
muscularly,
or
if
there
should
be
two
or
three
inactive
personswithin
the
room,
in
either
case
the
resulting
proportion
of
carbonic
acid
would
be,
respectively,
more
than
eight
or
more
than
twelve
times
greater
than
the
admitted
limit
quoted.
Nor
is
this
all
:
man
exhales
also,
through
breath-
ing,
as
well
as
through
pulmonary
evaporation,
and
through
cutaneous
eliminations,
other
un-
76
Dwellings
known
volatile
gases
and
steam.
If
we
suppose,
also,
that
within
the
enclosed
room
there
burns,
for
some
hours,
a
candle
or
petroleum
lamp,
^
whose
combustion
not
only
engenders
carbonic
acid,
but
also
carbon
oxide,
which
is
much
more
poi-
sonous
—
and
can
be
tolerated
in
breathing
air
only
at
o.OQOOi,
or
a
hundred
times
lesser
quan-
tity
than
carbonic
acid;
if
we
suppose
that
the
room,
with
its
only
door,
lacks
ventilation,
that
there
be
still
preserveda
part
of
the
two
carbonous
gases
which
I
have
mentioned,
proceeding
from
the
previous
combustion
of
some
logs
used
for
heating,
or
cooking;
if
we
add
the
smoke
of
two
orthree
cigars,
the
decomposition
in
a
place
always
damp,
of
putrescent
sweepings,
of
urine
and
defe-
cations,
the
mephitic
emanations
of
dirty
wash-
ing,
of
sebaceous
secretions,
and
of
gases
from
the
digestive
tube,
and
finally
if
we
imagine
that
the
three
or
four
persons
enclosed
in
the
room
only
wash
and
bathe
a
few
times
a
year,
we
shall
have
drawn
in
words
a
fairly
accurate
picture
of
the
noxious
atmosphere
breathed
at
the
hour
of
rising
in
the
dens
inhabited
by
the
great
majority
of
our
lower
classes.
These
poor
people,
far
from
restoring
through
hygienic
sleep,
the
forces
wasted
'Albert
Levy
and
Pecoul,
experimentingwith
the
air
con-
tained
in
a
cylinder
of
1.60
meters
in
height,
and
0.55
meters
in
diameter,
found
that
a
stearic
candle
consuming
37
grams
per
hour
produced,
after
five
hours,
0.005
of
carbonic
acid,
and
vestiges
of
carbon
oxide,
and
a
petroleum
lamp
consuming
25
grams
per
hour
produces,
in
the
same
five
hours,
0.0234
of
the
first,
and
traces
of
the
second.
Dwellings
'j'j
by
the
arduous
labors
of
the
day,
absorb
the
poisons
contaminating
the
confined
air
of
their
sleeping
rooms,
which
also
serve
for
all
the
other
intimate
purposes
of
life
and
weaken
still
further
their
poorly
fed
organisms,
becoming,
as
the
result
of
anemia
due
to
such
deplorable
conditions,
a
most
fertile
field
for
the
development
and
pro-
pagation
of
all
contagious
disease,
especially
of
tuberculosis,
which
is
preeminently
the
poor
man*s
plague.
Those
who
know
only
our
capital
and
the
pleasing
lies
bubbling
to
the
surface
of
our
compHcated
me-
tropoHtan
life,
which
unctuously
orcriminally
hide
the
sad
truths
to
be
seen
through
the
thin
veneer,
may
consider
all
that
precedes
as
sensational
exaggeration.
To
probe
to
the
truth,
however,
will
not
even
necessitate
visiting
some
tenement
of
an
outlying
district,
but
simply
an
apart-
ment
house
{viviendas)
of
some
centric
quarter,
occupied
by
families
in
easycircumstances
be-
longing
to
the
middle
classes.
Let
him
who
doubts
look
and
smell
into
the
den
under
the
flight
of
stairs,
or
the
basement
under
the
hall,
let
him
see
the
disgusting
aspect,
and
encounter
the
fetid
stench
proceeding
from
the
porter's
family
reeking
in
filth
and
squalor.
This
simple
visit
will
be
sufficient
to
dispel
any
suspicion
of
exaggera-
tion
which
this
writing
may
have
engendered.
To
prove
that
I
have
proceeded
in
this
work
with
the
impartiahty
required,
eschewing
all
that
might
smack
of
sensationalism,
I
emphasize
the
fact
that
78
Dwellings
I
have
restricted
my
expose
to
the
mere
physical
ambient.
The
moral
and
mental
influence
a
fortiori
must
be
most
deplorable,
as
a
resultof
this
frightful
animal
promiscuity
of
persons
of
different
sexes,
and
ages,
so
common
among
the
lower
classes,
which,
unfortunately,
is
many
times
more
pernicious
than
the
mere
physical
condition.
Even
the
hypothesis
of
having
the
place
hermeti-
cally
sealed
—
the
only
object
of
which
was
to
render
the
calculation
more
easy,
and
bring
out
the
contamination
produced
by
breathing
in
con-
fined
air
—
does
not
constitute,
from
the
technical
viewpoint,
an
appreciable
alteration
of
the
true
condition
of
the
problem.
Besides
the
fact
that
the
small
quantity
of
air
which
might
filter
through
the
cracks
of
the
door,
might
be
more
harmful
than
beneficial,
through
its
very
fitfulness,
as
a
cause
of
colds
—
since
it
would
be
governed
exclusively
by
the
variable
difference
in
temperature,
exte-
rior
and
interior,
it
is
easy
to
demonstrate
through
a
simple
mathematical
calculation,
that
such
natural
ventilation
could
not
materially
modify
the
results
obtained
from
the
foregoing
hypothesis.
Let
us
again
imagine
four
persons
at
rest,
within
the
same
room
of
fifty
cubic
meters'
capacity
which
we
shall
no
longer
consider
as
hermetically
sealed.
The
relative
formula
is':
^Lederc
de
Pulligny,
Bouling,
Courtois-SuflBt,
Ley-Sirugne,
and
J.
Courmont.
Hygiene
Industrielle,
p.
145.
The
formula
is
thus:
Let
there
be
a
man
emitting
0.02
c.
m.
carbonic
acid
per
hour
Dwellings
79
C
,
200
in
which:
C
=
individual
capacity
=
—
=
12.5
cubic
meters.
V
=
volume
of
air
entering
from
outside
in
cubic
meters
per
head
and
per
hour.
n
=
proportion
in
thousandths
of
the
carbonic
acid
contained
in
the
external
air
=
3.
N
=
proportion
of
the
same
carbonic
gas,
in
thou-
sandths,
after
t
hours.
Solving
the
preceding
formula
for
the
case
in
which
the
value
of
N
is
equal
to
10
—
that
is,
to
the
maximum
admissible
limit
of
contamination
oj
and
dispose
of
a
capacity
of
3
cub.
mts.
with
a
ventilation
of
V
cub.
mts.
of
air
per
hour,
containing
n
1
0000
of
carbonic
acid.
Let
R
mts.
cubic
be
the
quantity
of
this
gas
contained
in
capacity
C
at
end
of
time
t,
the
consequent
result
being,
R
N
C
I
0000
the
degree
of
contamination
in
that
time.
During
the
fraction
of
an
hour
dt
following,
R
will
increase
with
the
carbonic
acid
brought
by
ventilation
V:
-^
Vdt;
1
0000
plus
the
carbonic
add
emitted
by
man:
0.02
dt;
less
the
carbonic
add
carried
by
ventilation:
-5
^^'-
and
we
have:
dR
=
(o.o2+—
^—
V-^
R)
dt.
loooo
C
8o
Dwellings
the
breathed
air,
and
for
various
values
of
V,
we
shall
obtainthe
following
conclusion:
that
for
renovations
of
air
per
head,
and
per
hour
of
5,
10,
75,
and
20
cubic
meters
—
difficult
to
reach
iji
a
regidar
and
constant
manner,
through
natural
ventilation
afforded
by
thecracks
of
an
only
door
we
would
reach
the
maximum
possible
contamination
of
con-
fined
air,
by
carbonic
acid
(o.ooi),
respectively,
at
the
end
of:
28
minutes
Dwellings
8i
that
is,
very
small
fractions
of
the
time
usually
devoted
to
night
rest.
But
if
the
preceding
did
not
suffice,
we
could,
for
instance,
still
employing
the
same
formula,
reckon
capacities
per
head
(C)
which
would
require
that
the
contamination
of
the
confined
air
through
carbo7iicacid,
should
not
exceed
the
maximum
admissible
limit
of
o.ooi,
at
the
end
of
ten
hours,
with
the
samll
renovations
of
air
considered
above
5,
10,
15,
and
20
cubic
meters,
per
head
and
per
hour.
We
should
then
find,
thatthe
individual
capacities
of
room
required
would
be,
respectively
263.160
cubic
meters
232.560
200.000
166.666
considerablyhigher
than
that
of
12.5
cubic
meters
per
head,given
in
our
example.
The
figures
given
not
only
prove
irrefutably,
the
vile
condition
of
room
and
ventilation,
in
relation
to
the
number
of
individuals,
in
the
houses
of
the
lower
classes
of
Mexico,
as
well
as
many
inhabited
by
the
middle
classes;
but
also
prove
the
guilty
tolerance
of
oiir
Sanitary
Code,
Article
68
of
which
reads
as
follows:
''In
tenement
houses
to
be
built
or
rebuilt,
in
hotels,
inns,
boarding
houses,
and
public
dormitories,
all
rooms
will
have
at
least
twenty
meters'
cubic
capacity
and
a
door
or
window
communicating
with
the
outside
air,
and
if
this
he
impossible,
then
the
ventilating
apertures
which
82
Dwellings
may
be
necessary
to
ensure
the
easy
renovation
of
the
air.
...
And
Article
70,
that
:
''
In
hotels,
boarding
houses,
inns,
and
public
dormitories
it
shall
be
forbidden
to
house
a
greater
number
of
persons
than
that
permitted
by
the
capacity
of
the
rooms,
so
that
each
individual
may
have
at
his
disposal,
during
sleep,
the
space
of
at
least
twenty
cubic
meters.
Our
Sanitary
Code
falls
into
the
double
error
of
believing
that
a
door,
or
window,
or
aperture,
habitually
closed
when
the
room
is
used
as
dormi-
tory,
can
ensure
the
easy
renovation
of
the
air,
and
that
twenty
cubic
meters
per
head
suffices
—
without
adequate
means
of
ventilation
—
for
a
prolonged
physiological
sleep.
Besides
it
exempts
the
tenement
houses,
the
houses
which
most
need
it,
from
such
provisions
as
are
found
in
the
very
weak
Article
70,
against
unlimited
confinement
in
dwellings,
one
of
the
principal
causes,
as
has
been
shown,
of
the
increasing
mortality
in
Mexico
City.
But
after
all,
of
what
importance
is
the
laxness
or
the
insufficiency,
however
great,
of
these
pre-
scriptions,
in
view
of
the
fact,
generally
acknow-
ledged,
that
the
Board
of
Health,
at
times
through
excessive
indulgence,
or
through
negligence,
and
nearly
always
through
lack
of
funds,
does
not
comply
with
nor
enforce
the
regulations?
It
is
necessary,
therefore,
to
reform
and
amend
the
Sanitary
Code,
prescribing
better
conditions
of
ventilation
for
all
dwellings,
and
limiting
the
number
of
persons
living
therein,
using
as
a
basis
the
Dwellings
83
cubic
capacity
of
the
sleeping
rooms
and
their
facili-
ties
for
air
renovation.
It
is
even
more
urgent,
whether
the
preceding
suggestion
is
carried
out
or
not,
to
endow
the
sanitary
authorities
with
the
apti-
tude
and
power
needed
to
prevefit
effectively
all
in-
fractions
of
extant
hygienic
precepts.
Inthe
United
States
and
in
many
European
countries,
the
sani-
tation
of
dwellings
is
backed
by
modus
operandi
of
a
most
energetic
nature.
It
has
been
objected
that
among
us
the
sanitary
intervention
of
the
authorities
in
the
matter
of
tenement
houses
is
extremely
difficult,
because
confinement
therein
depends,
chiefly,
on
economic
conditions
of
the
medium
which
could
not
be
modified
by
all
the
sanitary
codes
in
the
world.
I
affirm,
however,
with
a
conviction
based
on
facts,
that
from
the
days
of
the
Conquest
up
to
the
present
time
many
of
the
difficulties
which
have
beenopposed
to
the
moral
and
material
improve-
ment
of
the
lower
classes
have
proceeded
from
the
special
protectionthat
the
upper
classes
have
always
found
in
these
same
laws
and
government
regulations.
Thus,
we
could
cite
cases
of
num-
berless
tenement
houses,
horribly
unhealthful,
from
which
their
owners
derive
enormous
gains.
Can
we
not
see
in
the
very
omission
of
the
said
houses
from
Article
70
of
our
Sanitary
Code,
even
though
we
may
be
reluctant
to
admit
it,
an
iniquitous
official
protection
of
the
material
interests
of
the
rich,
at
the
expense
of
the
moral
and
physical
health
of
the
poor?
84
Dwellings
Temperature
If
we
consider
that
the
great
majority
of
Mexi-
can
houses
lack
adequate
means
of
ventilation,
of
artificial
heating,
and
of
refrigerating,
and
if
we
take
into
consideration
the
noteworthy
influ-
ence
that
temperature
combined
with
hmnidity
has
on
pubHc
health,
we
must
here
acknowledge
the
justness
of
the
conclusions
contained
in
Physi-
cal
Characteristics
oj
the
Medium
and
Humidity.
I
shall
Hmit
myself
to
setting
forth
in
a
few
lines
the
noxious
influenceof
abrupt
changes
of
temperature
aggravated
by
deficiencies
of
construc-
tion.
The
Mexican
dwelling
lacks
those
 transi-
tion
compartments
such
as
halls,
vestibules,
etc.,
so
noteworthy
in
American
and
European
homes,
which
are
so
useful
in
avoiding
the
sudden
change
from
a
warm
sleeping
room
to
a
cold
and
windy
yard.
The
necessity
of
these
abrupt
changes,
resulting
from
the
structure
of
our
houses,
is
the
reason
for
our
frequent,
and
at
times
fatal
colds.
Sun-rays
The
beneficial
influence
of
sunlight
on
the
health-
fulness
of
dwellings
is
admirably
expressed
in
the
old
proverb,
where
the
sun
goes
in
the
doctor
keeps
out.
Science
has
fully
corroborated
this
through
recent
discoveries
proving
the
microbe-killing
action
of
direct
sun-rays,
and
of
even
diffused
sunlight.
We
well
know
the
persistence
of
patho-
Dwellings
85
genie
germs,
principally
those
of
tuberculosis,
in
obscure
and
ill-lighted
places.
Light
hasun-
explainable
but
sure
beneficial
effects
upon
the
organism
and
morale
of
mankind,
and
is
one
of
the
conditions
necessary
to
cleanliness
in
dwellings.
Hence
the
necessity
of
insuring,
during
the
whole
year,
direct
sunlight
to
all
habitations.
Besides
thenatural
and
artificial
atmospheric
conditions,
such
as
clouds,
smoke,
etc.,
another
factor
influencing
the
entrance
of
sun-rays
is
the
architectural
arrangement
—
that
is
to
say,
the
situation,
number,
disposition,
and
size
of
the
apertures,
the
situation
and
size
of
the
court-
yards,
etc.,
and
also
the
relative
situation
and
elevation
of
neighboring
houses,
and
the
width
of
the
streets.
The
natural
conditions
of
light
in
Mexico
City
are
expressed
in
this
fact:
dining
the
period
from
1904
to
19
2,
the
annual
number
ofclear
days
varied
between
90
in
1906,
and
157
in
1908.
The
annual
average
for
the
nine
years,
was
126,
or
a
Httle
over
a
third
of
the
total
number
of
days.
On
the
other
hand,
industry,
due
to
its
scant
development,
and
also
to
the
excessive
prices
of
land,
has
been
expelled
beyond
city
limits,
and
fortunately
does
not
produce
appreciable
defects
in
light.
For
a
house
to
be
well
oriented,
it
is
necessary
that
the
inhabited
rooms,
throughout
the
year,
particularly
during
the
morning
hours,
shall
be
directly
accessible
to
the
action
of
the
sun-rays,
86
Dwellings
in
order
to
secure
the
benefits
of
their
microbicidal
activity.
The
only
orientations
which,
in
Mexico
City,
satisfy
this
condition
are,
the
east
and
the
south.
The
west
only
partially
satisfies
this
condition,
and
renders
the
dormitories
besides
excessively
warm
during
the
spring
andsummer.
The
north
must
be
proscribed
absolutely
because
it
does
not
fulfill
in
any
way
the
condition
enun-
ciated.
The
arrangement
of
the
streets
should
be
that
which
would
produce
the
best
distribution
of
the
solar
rays
in
all
dwellings.
Our
capital,
however,
with
its
streets
in
north-south
and
east-
west
directions,
must
suffer
from
the
original
sin
of
its
foundation,and,
which
is
worse,
from
the
inefficiency
of
our
sanitary
authorities,
especially
culpable
during
the
recent
epoch
of
our
great
expansion.
Independent
of
the
width
of
the
streets,
or
the
depth
of
the
courtyards,
the
quantity
and
quality
of
the
sunlight
penetrating
into
a
room
depend
upon
the
size,
locality,
and
shape
of
the
windows.
Experience
has
shown,
according
to
Emile
Trelat,
^
that,
in
order
to
havegood
conditions
of
lighting,
the
window
opening
must
take
up
a
fourth
of
the
wall's
surface.
Its
lower
part
must
be
as
high
as
possible,
at
least
at
two
thirds
of
the
depth
of
the
room.
For
a
determined
area
of
opening,
it
is
better
to
develop
it
in
height
rather
than
in
width.
The
only
prescriptions
contained
in
our
Sanitary
Code
in
regard
to
this
are
these:
Articles
*
Emile
Trelat,
La
Salubrite,
pp.
59
and
60.
Dwellings
87
68
and
69
exact
that
 there
be
in
all
tenement
houses
to
be
built
or
rebuilt,
in
hotels,
inns,
board-
ing
houses,
and
public
dormitories,
at
least
a
door,
window,
or
opening,
communicating
with
the
outside
air,
and
with
an
area
equal
to
the
tenth
part
of
the
floor
of
the
room,
but
never
of
area
less
than
a
square
meter.
Therefore,
the
extant
regulations,
besides
not
including
all
the
city's
dwellings,
are
really
insufficient
in
the
face
of
what
Trelat
counsels
as
the
result
of
experience.
The
maximum
height
permissible
depends
upon
the
size
of
the
court
yards
and
the
width
of
the
streets.
As
to
the
first,
not
to
be
too
profuse,
I
shall
simply
cite
the
case
of
Cologne
City,
in
Germany,
the
municipal
regulations
of
which,
regarding
hygienicrequirements,
may
be
adopted,
as
an
average,
for
the
regulations
of
European
cities
of
about
the
same
population
as
that
of
our
own
city.
The
said
city
is
considered
as
divided
into
four
zones.
In
the
first,
only
four-story
buildings
are
allowed,
with
twenty
meters
as
the
maximum
height,
leaving
free
from
construction
a
tract
varying
between
20
and
35
per
cent,
of
the
total
area
of
the
land.
In
the
second
zone
there
can
be
only
three-story
buildings,
with
a
maximum
height
of
fifteen
meters,
leaving
free
an
area
from
35
to
50
per
cent,
of
the
total.
Lastly,
in
the
third
and
fourth
zones
the
number
of
stories
must
not
exceed
two,
and
the
maximum
height
of
the
buildings
eleven
meters,leaving
without
occupancy
50
to
60
per
cent,
of
the
total
area
of
88
Dwellings
the
land.
In
the
fourth
zone
besides,
itis
pre-
scribed
that
two
contiguous
buildings
must
be
separated
by
a
free
space
of
at
least
ten
meters
in
width.
Article
63
of
our
Sanitary
Code
states:
 The
site
of
the
yards
and
the
disposition
of
the
pas-
sages
shall
be
such
that
ventilation
and
light
be
afforded
to
all
dwellings,
in
keeping
with
the
pre-
scriptionsof
the
respective
regulations.
But
up
to
date,
fourteen
years
after
the
enactment
of
the
said
code,
the
foregoing
regidations
have
not
yet
been
issued
7tor
framed.
We
can
all
prove
that
the
building
in
Mexico
of
many
rentable
houses
has
been
controlled
not
by
hygienic
considerations,
which
have
been
utterly
ignored
or
forgotten,
but
by
an
inordinate
desire
for
gain.
Let
any
one
visit
the
cheap
houses
of
the
well-to-do
colonies,
and
he
will
see
how
the
ingeniousness
of
the
build-
ers,
spurred
by
the
avarice
of
owners,
has
per-
formed
miracles
of
architectural
distribution,
taking
advantage
of
the
last
cubic
centimeter
of
space
occupied
by
the
buildings.
If
we
visit
some
of
the
tenements
of
the
lower
classes,
in
the
narrow
yards
of
which
have
been
erected
new
and
astonishing
shanties,
we
shall
recognize
the
inevi-
table
and
criminal
coexistence
of
two
facts
:
a
con-
siderable
increase
of
rents
for
the
owners,
and
a
serious
increase
of
unhealthfulness
for
the
tenants.
Finally,
the
relation
between
the
width
of
the
streets
and
the
height
of
the
buildings,
which
will
ensure
for
the
latter
the
benefit
ofsolar
irradiations
Dwellings
89
to
the
extent
of
their
height,
is
obtained
theoreti-
cally
according
to
Vogt's
formula^:
|j
=
sen.
(30°
+6)
cot.
oc,
in
which
L=
the
street's
width;
H
=
the
height
of
the
buildings,
oc
=
an
angle
formed
by
the
street's
direction
with
the
meridian,
and
tf
=
latitude
or
angle
of
incidentalism
of
the
solar
rays.
Calculating
the
relation
tt
for
the
values
6
of
8°
and
98°
—
oriental
declines
approximately
of
the
streets
N.
S.
and
E.
W.
of
the
City
of
Mexico
respectively
—
and
taking
for
cc
the
value
of
19°
26',
we
get:
for
the
first,
that
is
for
the
N.
S.,
we
would
require
a
width
of
street
equal
to
once
and
three
quarters
the
maximum
height
of
the
buildings;
and
for
the
second,
that
is
for
the
streets
running
E.W.,
there
woidd
he
needed
a
width
nearly
twice
and
a
quarter
the
maximum
height
of
the
dwellings.
Article
62
of
our
Sanitary
Code
prescribes
that
'
'
The
height
of
the
dwellings
shall
be
proportioned
to
the
width
of
the
streets,
so
that
light
may
enter
into
all
the
floors,
in
accordance
with
the
provi-
sions
of
a
special
regulation.
There
has
been
no
regulation
subsequent
to
this
article
other
than
the
following
ruling
passed
at
the
meeting
of
May
*
Emile
Tr^lat,
La
Salubriie,
p.
122.
90
Dwellings
29,
1903:
Subject
to
what
may
hereafter
be
enacted
in
the
Regulations
provided
for
in
the
Sanitary
Code
regarding
the
height
of
buildings,
it
is
forthwith
forbidden
to
erect
constructions
in
Mexico
City,
on
private
property,
of
a
height
exceeding
22
meters,
to
be
measured
from
the
level
of
the
sidewalk
to
the
top
cornice,
and
this
maximum
height
must
correspond
to
streets
of
more
than
18
meters
in
width;
in
streets
of
lesser
width
it
will
be
necessary
to
abide
by
the
de-
cision
of
the
Director
of
Public
Works.
In
keep-
ing
with
the
rule
theoretically
obtained
from
Vogt's
formula,
this
height
of
22
meters
for
the
buildings
could
only
be
allowed
in
N.-S.
streets
of
38.50
meters,
and
E.-W.
of
49.50
meters,
which
do
not
exist
in
Mexico
City.
But
if
the
legal
precept
is
far
removed
from
the
theoretic,
practice
is
still
more
distant
from
the
former.
The
greater
part
of
the
large
buildings
recently
constructed
—
like
that
of
La
Mexicana,
25.50
meters
in
height,
and
situated
on
the
comer
of
Francisco
I.
Madero
Avenue,
13.09
meters,
and
Jose
Maria
Pino
Suarez
Street,
13.94
nieters,
in
width;
or
house
No.
85
Flamencos
Street,
22.60
meters
in
height,
in
a
street
only
12.93
meters,
etc.,
etc.,
are
irrefutable
proofs
of
the
ease
and
fre-
quency
with
which
the
rulings
of
authority
are
disregarded
in
Mexico.
CHAPTER
IX
HOUSES
OF
THE
FUTURE
WE
can
affirm
thatthe
tenements
and
lodg-
ing
houses
of
Mexico,
homes
of
the
great
majority
of
the
metropohtan
population,
are
indeed
sinks
of
physical
and
moral
infection.
If
the
preceding
pages,
which
show
innumerable
in-
fractions
of
the
most
elementary
laws
of
hygiene,
were
followed
with
a
recital
of
the
scandalous
scenes
of
popular
Hfe,
pictured
daily
by
the
news-
papers
as
taking
place
in
such
dwellings,
we
should
have
to
own
that
these
houses
are,
besides,
the
theater
of
all
vices
and
all
crimes.
In
face
of
the
powerful
atavic
influence,
and
the
still
stronger
influence
of
the
unhealthful
and
immoral
ambient
of
the
tenements,
to
which
the
children
of
the
lower
classes
are
at
all
times
and
from
earliest
childhood
exposed,
we
may
well
ask:
what
can
be
the
influence
of
a
school,
as
a
rule,
poorly
endowed
with
technical
and
material
facilities,
with
a
curriculum
of
doubtful
efficiency,
provided
with
incompetent
teachers,
to
which
the
children
are
compidsorily
sent
for
a
few
hours
daily,
during
the
so-called
school
years?
Peda-
91
92
Houses
of
the
Future
gogy
must
inevitably
fail
in
its
noble
purpose
of
rescuing
our
people
from
perdition
and
utter
degeneracy,
if
it
does
not
strive
to
modify
the
first
environment
of
the
child,
extending
its
bene-
ficial
action
to
the
house
or
home.
The
problem
concerned
with
the
salubrity
of
the
lodging
and
tenement
is
not
therefore
a
mere
question
of
Sanitary
Engineering,
but
likewise
includes
all
questions
connected
with
the
health
of
the
dwell-
ers
therein,
both
of
soul
and
of
body.
Having
thus
stated
the
dwelling
problem
for
the
poor
in
Mexico,
we
must
also
consider
it
in
order
to
ensure
its
technical
solution,
from
the
financial
point
of
view.
The
first
obstacleto
its
solution
is
the
money
lust
of
owners.
We
must
therefore
depend,
for
the
initial
effort,
upon
phil-
anthropists
or
high-minded
capitalists.
Follow-
ing
them
economic
competence
will
undertake
to
realize
the
miracle.
Imbued
with
this
idea,
about
two
years
ago
I
formed
the
plan
for
a
tenement
house,
striving
to
harmonize
the
architectural
arrangement
with
the
three
necessary
conditions
—
sanitary,
peda-
gogic,
and
financial
—
in
order
that
I
might
propose
it
to
the
administrator
of
a
large
estate
devoted
to
works
of
philanthropic
intent.
I
cannot
here
insert
the
project,
having
retained
no
copy
thereof,
and
shall
limit
myself
to
transcribing
a
sort
of
letter-monograph
connected
with
this
project.
Upon
publishing
it
here
I
have
stripped
it
of
the
personal
character
which
it
possessed,
addressing
Houses
of
the
Future
93
it
as
an
open
letter
to
all
philanthropic
institutions
—
which
in
Mexico
handle
many
millions
of
dollars
—
and
to
every
owner
who
may
care
to
forget
his
selfish
past
and
in
the
future
fulfill
his
duties
to
the
race.
The
letter
follows:
My
dear
Sir:
After
our
last
conversation,
during
which
I
took
the
libertyof
presenting
to
yousome
general
ideas
uponwhat
were
in
my
opinion
the
best
methods
of
utilizing
the
funds
bequeathed
for
works
of
philanthropy,
by
the
benefactor
Mr.
,
I
had
the
good
fortune
to
run
across,
while
reading
a
book
of
the
famous
Italian
educator,
Maria
Montessori,
the
description
of
the
Roman
Institute
of
the
Beni
Stabili
which
confirmed
almost
literally
the
ideas
discussed
in
our
conver-
sation.
So
fortimate
a
coincidence
gives
my
ideas
the
theoretic
and
practical
sanction
of
an
acknowledged
authority
in
the
matter,
whose
con-
clusions
are
based
upon
theexperience
of
many
years.
As
the
need
among
us
is
even
more
crying
than
at
Rome,
in
view
of
the
great
moral
and
material
backwardness
of
the
awful
Colonia
de
la
Bolsa
in
Mexico
City,
much
worse
than
the
San
Lo-
renzo
quarter
in
the
Italian
capital,
I
shall
limit
myself
in
thecourse
of
this
letter
to
the
transla-
tion
of
paragraphs
relative
to
the
book
mentioned,
and
shall
urge
only
that
if
this
institution
has
in
94
Houses
of
the
Future
Rome
fidfilled
a
great
mission,
then
its
establish-
ment
in
our
midst
becomes
most
imperative.
Signorina
Montessori
goes
on
to
say:
'The
great
idea
of
Talamo
was
to
pick
up
all
the
children
from
three
to
seven
years
old,
Hving
in
the
tenements
of
a
great
building,
and
to
group
them
in
a
hall,
under
the
care
or
vigilanceof
a
female
teacher
livingin
the
same
building.
'Thus
each
one
of
these
huge
tenements
had
its
private
school.
The
Beni
Stahili
Institute
found
itself
in
possession
of
four
hundred
old
Roman
palaces:
the
work
possessed
marvelous
possibilities
of
development.
The
first
school
was
to
be
founded
in
1907,
in
a
great
tenement
building
of
the
San
Lorenzo
quarter,
containing
nearly
one
thousand
persons.
In
this
very
quar-
ter
the
Institute
already
owned
fifty-eight
buildings
and
according
to
Talamo
could
soon
count
sixteen
schools
in
these
buildings.
'This
particular
school
was
named
by
Signora
Olga
Lodi,
a
common
friend
of
Talamo
and
mine,
with
the
charming
appellation
of
Casa
dei
Bambini
(Babies'
Home)
.
The
first
school
was
inaugurated
under
this
name,
on
the
6th
day
of
January,
1907,
in
the
Via
dei
Marsi
58,
and
entrusted
at
my
re-
commendation
and
on
my
responsibility
to
Signo-
rina
Candita
Nuccitelli.
I
did
not
overlook
the
social
and
pedagogic
importance
of
such
an
institu-
tion.
I
understood
at
once
all
its
magnitude,
and
I
may
then
have
seemed
oversanguine
in
my
Houses
of
the
Future
95
great
expectations
of
a
triumphant
future.
Now,
my
hopes
are
being
fulfilled.
' On
the
7th
of
April,
1907,
there
was
opened
another
Casa
dei
Bambini
in
this
same
quarter
of
San
Lorenzo.
On
the
i8th
of
October,
1908,
we
estabHshed
the
Humanitario
in
the
working
district
of
Milan,
while
the
Casa
di
Lavoro
of
the
same
society
undertook
to
manufacture
the
teach-
ing
material.
On
the
4th
of
the
following
Novem-
ber
there
was
opened
at
Rome
another
Casa
dei
Bambini,
no
longer
in
the
poorest
districts,
but
in
a
great
apartment
house
of
the
middle
class
in
Tamagosta
Street,
and
in
January,
1909,
while
I
am
writing
thesepages,
in
Italian,
Switzerland
has
begun
to
transform
its
asylums
for
children,
organized
formerly
according
to
the
Froebel
method,
into
Casa
dei
Bambini.
The
Casa
dei
Bambini
has
a
double
importance,
a
social
impor-
tance,
due
to
its
form
of
house
school,
and
a
pedagogic
importance
because
of
the
methods
of
education
inaugurated
by
me.
'
As
a
direct
civilizing
influence
upon
the
people
the
Casa
dei
Bambini
would
deserve
a
special
volume.
It
solves,
as
a
m.atter
of
fact,
more
than
one
social
and
pedagogic
problem,
the
solution
of
which
seemed
Utopian,
and
has
been
an
agent
in
the
modem
transformation
of
the
home.
'The
San
Lorenzo
quarter
is
famous;
all
the
newspapers
of
the
capital
speak
of
it
daily;
it
is
par
excellence
the
poor
man^s
quarter;
the
home
of
96
Houses
of
the
Future
the
honest
and
ill-paid
workman,
often
of
those
unemployed
as
the
resultof
ill-luck
or
laziness,
of
the
delinquent
or
those
who
have
transgressed
because
of
lack
of
opportunity
or
preparedness.
Â
'The
San
Lorenzo
quarter
dates
from
1884
to
1888,
when
the
building
boom
reached
a
kind
of
paroxysm
along
the
banks
of
the
Tiber.
The
speculators
were
certainly
not
guided
by
hygienic
or
social
preoccupations.
Their
purpose
was
to
cover
with
walls
the
greatest
possible
area
of
land,
so
as
to
receive
coveted
subsidies
from
banks
and
from
the
State.
As
these
buildings
were
never
intended
to
be
used
by
those
who
built
them,
their
future
was
bound
to
be
disastrous.
' After
the
crisis,
these
houses
remained
unin-
habited
for
a
long
time.
Then,
little
by
little,
they
began
to
fill
up
with
tenants,
and
as
the
own-
ers
of
the
properties
were
loath
to
add
new
capital
to
whathad
already
been
lost,
these
buildings,
which
were
deplorably
anti-hygienic
and
most
hastily
put
together,
did
not
undergo
the
slightest
repair,
housing
inthis
condition
as
many
families
as
it
was
possibleto
huddle
into
them.
The
apartments
or
tenements
not
having
been
built
for
the
lower
classes,
were
too
large;
it
became
necessary
to
sub-rent
in
order
to
live.
The
tenant
who
has
an
apartment
of
six
rooms
for
a
monthly
rent
of
eighty
liras,
sublets
a
room
for
ten
liras
per
month
to
thosethat
can
pay,
or
a
corner
of
a
room,
perhaps
the
dining-room,
to
the
less
for-
tunate.
In
this
way,
thanks
to
the
subletting,
Houses
of
the
Future
97
the
tenant
can
make
forty
liras
per
month,
and
get
his
rent
free.
This
is
usury;the
tenant
thrives
on
his
neighbor's
wretchedness.
To
this
evil
we
must
add
those
which
are
caused
by
ag-
glomeration,
promiscuity,
immorality,
and
crime.
The
newspapers
make
daily
word
pictures
of
such
dens,
where
a
numerous
family
Hves
in
the
same
room,
boys
and
girls
together,
while
some
woman
not
belonging
to
the
family,
shamelessly
and
in
presence
of
these
children,
receives
some
lover
or
lovers
in
a
comer
of
the
same
room.
Quarrels
of
sexual
jealousy
break
out,
and
opprobrious
epithets
are
bandied
from
bed
to
bed,
leading
to
blows,
bloodshed,
and
the
intervention
of
the
police.
*
If
one
penetrates
into
any
of
these
dwellings,
a
feeling
of
repulsion
and
hopelessness
takes
pos-
session
of
him.
The
wretchedness
which
one
sees
is
not
that
of
one's
imagination,
or
as
it
is
seen
in
the
theater.
It
is
a
black
abyss.
What
is
most
depressing
is
the
utter
darkness.
Finally,
when
the
sight
can
discern
something
one
sees
a
cot
containing
a
sick
person.
If
one
comes
to
minister
to
the
needy,
in
behalf
of
some
philan-
thropic
society,
and
it
is
necessary
that
some
receipt
be
signed,
a
candle
must
first
be
lighted.
Often
we
speak
of
the
great
social
questions
while
neverhaving
observed
the
evils
through
personal
investigation.
We
talk
of
having
the
pupils
write
and
prepare
some
oftheir
tasks
at
home,
utterly
oblivious
of
the
fact
that
in
that
case
they
would
98
Houses
of
the
Future
have
to
write
on
the
floor.
Without
really
know-
ing
their
needs,
we
wish
to
establish
circulating
libraries,
to
distribute
among
the
poorest,
educa-
tional
and
hygienic
pamphlets
of
propaganda.
The
greater
part
of
them
have
no
light
whereby
to
read.
For
the
proletariat
there
is
one
awful
gripping
need,
coming
before
all
else:
the
problem
of
existence.
The
children
bom
in
such
circum-
stances
do
not
come
to
light
but
to
pitch
dark-
ness.
They
are
brought
up
there,
breathing,
mentally
and
physically,
the
poisons
inherent
to
human
herding.
They
are
raised
in
filth
and
squalor,
because
the
water
available
for
an
apart-
ment
suitable
for
three
or
four
persons,
wherein
ten
or
more
have
been
crowded,
scarcely
suffices
to
allay
the
tenants'
thirst.
'Nothing
is
more
sacred
than
the
English
home;
it
is
the
enclosed
temple
of
intimacy;
in
it
all
the
most
refined
and
elevating
sentiments
uplift
souls
who
there
find
solace
and
refreshing
peace.
If
we
reflect
upon
the
chasm
existing
between
such
homes,
and
so
many
others,
it
seems
cruel
to
demand
of
all
the
same
love
for
home.
How
many
wretches
do
not
know
even
the
meaning
of
the
word
home.
What
they
have
seen
is
the
enclosure
formed
by
four
walls
reeking
with
filth,
where
the
highest
intimacy
must
perforce
be
absent,
where
everything
is
performed
in
the
presence
of
everybody
else;
a
place
destitute
of
air,
light,
and
water.
Therefore
we
see
why
this
term
home
is
but
an
abstract
entity.
Before
Houses
of
the
Future
99
we
can
strengthen
family
ties,
the
greatest
basis
of
human
society,
we
must
first
create
the
home.
*
For
those
who
inhabit
such
squaHd
surround-
ings,
the
street
becomes
the
parlor,
and
into
it
swarm
the
children.
And
how
often
is
the
street
the
theater
of
crimes,
fights,
brawls,
and
all
manner
of
vile
exhibitions
The
newspapers
tell
us
of
women
pursued
by
drunken
husbands
armed
with
knives
;
of
young
girls
trembling
from
fear,
chased
by
young
ruffians,
who
throw
stones
at
them,
or
worse.
There
are
deeds
even
more
dastardly
committed,
over
which
decency
compels
that
a
veil
be
cast.
We
know
of
miserable
women,
stupefied
by
drink,
assaulted
by
hoodlums,
who
after
throwing
them
prone
into
the
gutter,
leave
them
to
be
found
in
a
shocking
state
of
nudity
by
a
band
of
street
arabs,
who
pull
them
about,
and
mock
them
with
much
show
of
ribaldry
and
vileness.
'Spectacles
so
disgusting
that
men
in
a
savage
state
were
ignorant
of
them
happen
daily
at
the
doors
of
the
cosmopolitan
city,
the
mother
of
civilization,
the
queen
of
fine
arts,
the
Eternal
City
This
is
possible,
because
of
a
new
fact,
unknown
in
former
ages:
the
segregation
and
removal
of
the
poor
classes.
'During
the
Middle
Ages
the
lepers
were
iso-
lated
;
the
Jews
locked
up
by
the
Catholics.
How-
ever
poverty
was
not
considered
as
a
danger,
and
an
infamy
which
it
became
necessary
to
consider
from
afar.
The
poor
lived
near
the
rich.
This
100
Houses
of
the
Future
contrast,
with
thepalace
robbing
the
light
of
the
hut,
between
the
bloody
drama
taking
place
in
the
garret,
while
fashionable
dancing
graces
the
brilUant
hall,
has
inspired
the
genius
of
many
a
great
writer,
among
others
Victor
Hugo.
Popular
romance,
to
point
a
moral
and
adorn
a
tale,
was
pleased
to
show
the
princess
sending
substantial
help
to
the
neighboring
hut,
or
depicting
the
daugh-
ters
of
the
rich
giving
of
their
surplus
to
the
wretch
in
the
garret.
Now
the
poor
can
hope
for
practi-
cally
nothing
from
the
rich.
Even
the
few
crumbs
of
other
days
have
been
taken
from
them;
they
have
been
herded
as
far
away
from
us
as
possible,
outside
the
city
walls;
outcasts
left
to
grovel
in
despair
among
the
frightful
schools
of
brutality
and
sin.
Thus
have
been
formed
sinks
of
iniquity,
a
cankerous
growth
threatening
the
city,
which
has
attempted
to
clean
its
interior
streetsof
all
that
was
ugly,
but
which
has
fostered
venomous
growths
to
rankle
and
fester
it,
in
spite
of
the
blindly
selfish
efforts
of
an
aristocracy
enamored
of
beauty
and
the
ideal.
When
I
journeyed
for
the
first
time
in
these
new
quarters,
I
felt
as
if
I
were
in
a
city
which
had
undergone
some
ter-
rible
catastrophe.
They
look
like
the
remnant
of
a
city,
with
streets
bordered
by
immense
edi-
fices,
isolated,
in
spite
of
their
nearness
to
the
capital.
It
seemed
to
me
as
though
some
great
bereavement
afflicted
these
people
who
went
about
sullen,
downcast,
and
silent.
The
silence
mighthave
meant
the
interruption
of
some
col-
VI
^nl
Houses
of
the
Future
loi
lective
life.
Not
a
carriage
went
by,
no
voice
was
heard,
not
even
the
jarring
tones
of
some
discord-
ant
barrel
organ
trying
to
worm
a
few
cents
from
the
dejected
herds.
These
things,
forbidden
within
Rome,
as
being
signs
of
shiftlessness,
and
stunted
civilization,
did
not
even
wander
here
to
solace
the
reigning
overwhelming
misery.
'Seeing
the
streets
so
unevenly
paved
with
huge
stones
jutting
out
irregularly,
one
might
have
thought
that
some
flood
had
washed
away
the
earth.
Upon
seeing
the
houses
dismantled
with
uneven
walls,
one
might
ratherconjecture
that
some
earthquake
had
ravaged
the
land.
'When
we
note
that
there
is
,not
a
single
shop
in
these
quarters,
not
one
oi
thosv?,
minute
^mijc-
riums
where
we
can
find
for
a
low
price
articles
of
first
necessity,
but
orxly
unclean
cafes
and
saloons,
opening
upon
the
street
their
reeking
maws,
then
we
realize
that
the,
only
.compelling
disaster
is
mental,
and
that
it
is
poverty'ahd
vice.
'Such
an
awful
state
ofthings,
daily
feeding
the
catalogue
of
recorded
crime,
has
excited
the
finer
feelings
of
noble
souls,
since
fortunately
it
is
the
redeeming
characteristic
of
human
nature,
that
sometime,
somewhere,
it
seeks
to
remedy
existing
evil.
And
thus
we
have
seen
that
asy-
lums
of
all
kinds
have
been
established,
free
din-
ing-rooms,
and
hospitals
by
which
commissions
of
public
health
have
striven
to
combat
the
unhygienic
condition
of
the
dens.
'This
of
course
is
only
a
slight
paUiating
r-^
•
-.
-
It''
102
Houses
of
the
Future
beneficence.
The
magnitude
of
the
evil
would
require
some
redeeming
work
on
the
part
of
the
community.
Only
some
great
social
work,
which
through
the
good
done
to
others
might
be
strength-
ened
and
enriched
by
the
very
well-being
which
it
generates,
could,
taking
up
its
quarters
in
this
district,
realize
a
truly
redeeming
action.
'Such
is
the
great
work
of
the
Roman
Institute
of
Beni
Stahili,
inspired
by
the
most
modem
social
principles,
directed
by
Engineer
Eduardo
Talamo,
and
which
owing
to
the
wealth
at
its
disposal
has
no
equal
in
Italy,
nor
in
foreign
parts.
It
is
three
years
since
this
Institute
was
founded
at
Rome;
its
prog^an^
was
to
acquire
real
estate
in
the
city,
irriprave
it,
and
paternally
administer
the
'buildings.
'*
'The
first
acquisitions
comprised
a
large
part
of
the
San
Lorenzo
quarter,
where
the
Institute
possesses
at
present
fifty-eight
houses,
occupying
an
area
of
nearly'
30,000
square
meters,
compris-
ing,
besides,
the
ground
for
1600
dwellings,
capable
of
housing
a
large
number
of
families.
Thus
the
reforms
attempted
through
the
Beni
Stabili
can
be
carried
on
in
a
much
larger
way.
'The
Institute
understanding
that
it
could
not
keep
up
these
old
houses,
badly
built,
and
anti-
hygienic,
decided
to
transform
them
gradually.
The
architect
was
to
give
a
new
value
to
the
real
estate,
and
its
hygienic
and
moral
transformation,
improving
the
conditions
of
existence
of
the
occu-
pants,
would
surely
ensure
the
increase
in
the
Houses
of
the
Future
103
number
of
tenants.
The
Institute
established
a
system
which
permitted
it
to
evacuate,
gradually,
such
houses
as
were
to
be
repaired,
so
as
not
to
turn
into
the
streets
at
one
and
the
same
time
the
whole
population
of
the
quarter.
The
redeeming
work
could
hardly
proceed
more
swiftly.
In
this
way,
the
Institute
has,
up
to
the
present,
been
able
to
overhaul
only
three
of
the
huge
buildings,
in
accordance
with
the
basis
of
its
program,
which
is
as
follows:
*
(a)
To
demolish
in
the
building
all
invading
appurtenances
which
take
up
room
in
the
yards,
and
which
render
the
dwellings
unhealthful
by
robbing
them
of
air
and
light.
The
skylights
and
all
narrow
light
apertures
were
abolished;
in
their
stead
have
been
created
long
and
roomy
courtyards,
to
which
all
the
rooms
have
access.
*
Â
(5)
To
bmld
new
stairs,
and
distribute
the
dwellings
in
a
better
fashion,
restricting
them
to
one,
two,or
three
rooms
at
most,
with
kitchen.
' The
importance
of
such
transformations
is
of
course
immense,
notonly
for
the
gain
of
the
own-
ers,
but
for
the
material
and
moral
well-being
of
the
tenants.
To
increase
the
number
of
stairs
means
to
facilitate
circulation,
and
reduce
the
damage
to
propertycaused
by
the
constant
pas-
sage
of
masses
of
human
beings,
with
no
respect
or
care
for
property
belonging
to
others,
and
little
addicted
to
order
and
cleanliness.
It
also
tends
to
reduce
the
personal
contact
among
the
tenants,
104
Houses
of
the
Future
especially
during
the
night,
and
this
has
a
very
great
moral
value.
*
Subdivision,
or
the
transformation
of
the
large
apartments
into
small
ones,
completes
the
work,
isolating
each
family,
and
suppressing
sublettings
and
their
host
of
untoward
consequences.
It
also
eliminates
usury
and
speculation,
with
which
the
old
system
was
so
fraught,
and
at
the
same
time
it
increases
the
proprietor's
profit.
When
an
owner
rented
in
the
old
days
an
apartment
of
six
rooms
for
eighty
liras
per
month,
he
could
greatlyincrease
his
income
if
this
amount
of
space
were
subdivided
into
three
small
apartments,
clean
and
attractive,
each
one
comprising
a
kitchen
and
a
bedroom.
'Another
great
moral
advantage
secured
from
such
reforms
is
the
awakening,
in
the
hearts
of
all
these
poor
outcasts,
the
sweet
sentiment
for
a
sheltered
home,
removed
from
the
violation
of
outsiders.
'But
the
purpose
of
the
Institute
is
notonly
to
obtain
a
home
for
each
family;
it
wishes
besides
that
such
a
home
be
kept
clean.
Naturally
to
attain
such
a
result
it
is
all-important
to
secure
the
cooperation
of
the
tenant.
The
most
careful
tenant
receives
a
prize.
By
this
means
is
assured
the
competition
of
all
the
tenants
of
the
building
to
secure
the
greatest
cleanliness,
comfort,
and
the
best
hygiene.
Previous
to
the
present
time
such
a
system
had
never
beenput
in
operation.
Nevertheless,
we
see
it
in
Rome
yielding
most
Houses
of
the
Future
105
astounding
results.
The
building
where
the
second
Casa
dei
Bambini
was
inaugurated,
after
having
been
for
two
years
under
the
exclusive
protection
of
the
tenants,
could
as
far
as
conserva-
tion
be
concerned,
serve
as
example
for
more
than
one
family
of
the
middle
class.
'Thus,
besides
the
sentiment
for
home,
the
people
are
unconsciously
taught
the
love
of
clean-
liness,
which
forms
part
of
the
esthetic
comprehen-
sion.
This
latter
is
increased
by
means
of
natural
decorations
costing
Uttle,
such
as
plants
and
flowers
for
the
windows,
and
trees
for
the
yards.
Thence
springs
a
new
source
of
pride
for
the
tenants;
the
creation
of
the
esthetic
instinct;
not
only
do
they
have
a
home,
but
they
know
how
to
live
therein,
and
to
make
it
respectable.
'Cleanliness
of
the
home
will
of
course
produce
cleanliness
of
the
person.
How
could
a
dirty
piece
of
furniture
be
tolerated
in
an
otherwise
clean
house
?
Where
all
is
a
feast
for
the
eyes,
there
springs
up
the
wish
for
scrupulous
personal
cleanliness.
'The
establishment
of
baths
has
been
a
very
great
reform.
Cleanliness
is
next
to
godliness.
Each
building
possesses
a
special
department,
with
bath,
and
hot
and
cold
showers,
where
all
tenants
may
bathe
in
turn.
Who
will
deny
the
great
advantage
of
the
warm
bath
at
home,
and
its
superiority
over
public
baths,
nearly
always
in
a
doubtful
hygienic
condition?
Thus
the
old
dens
of
squalor
are
opened,
materially
and
morally,
to
the
benefits
of
civilization
and
hygiene.
io6
'Houses
of
the
Future
'However,
in
the
realization
of
its
noble
task,
the
Institute
found
a
serious
obstacle
in
the
chil-
dren
too
small
to
go
to
school,
and
always
little
looked
after
by
their
fathers
and
mothers.
They
became
in
consequence
rather
destructive
to
property
as
a
result
of
their
childish
and
irrespon-
sible
activity,
an
activity
provided
by
nature
to
ensure
their
development.
Then
a
new
reform
arose,
the
most
brilliant,
the
most
serious,
the
most
pregnant
with
result:
The
creation
of
the
Casa
del
Bambini.
'Mothers
can
send
there
all
childreii
under
usual
school
age.
Watched
and
well
taught,
these
little
ones
will
remain
in
the
Casa
dei
Bambini,
saving
the
mother
the
work
of
looking
after
them.
Still
this
work
cannot
be
realized
without
the
coopera-
tion
of
the
parents.
The
Regulations
on
the
wall
show
the
conditions
necessary
for
entrance
into
the
Casa
dei
Bambini:
'Mothers
must
send
their
children
here
in
a
con-
ditionoj
cleanliness,
and
cooperate
by
all
means
in
their
power
in
the
work
oj
redemption
by
the
Lady
Director.
'In
this
there
is
a
double
duty:
the
physical
and
moral
care
of
the
child.
If,
through
his
acts
or
words,
a
child
endangered
or
harmed
the
work
of
the
school,
through
the
evil
influence
exercised
upon
him
by
his
family,
he
would
be
expelled
and
would
fall
back
to
the
care
of
the
parents.
The
oaths,
the
disputes,
and
the
brutal
acts
of
the
fathers
would
force
these
to
feel
at
once
the
weight
of
all
Houses
of
the
Future
107
these
small
lives,
so
tenderly
beloved,
which
would
be
deprived
of
all
the
moral
care
of
which
they
stood
in
such
dire
necessity.
It
is
necessary,
therefore,
to
learn
to
deservethe
boon
of
having
a
school
at
home.
'The
mothers
must
visit
the
Lady
Director
once
a
week
to
report
concerning
their
children.
These
talks
can
have
a
double
advantage,
because
the
teacher,
counseled
by
the
doctor
always
in
attendance
at
the
school,
is
enabled
to
give
the
mothers,
notonly
advice
of
educational
value,
but
even
hygienic
and
practical
suggestions.
'The
management
is
always
at
the
disposal
of
the
parents.
The
teacher,
who,
according
to
the
Regulations,
is
compelled
to
live
in
the
same
building
as
the
pupils,
being
a
person
of
higher
education
and
culture,
is
necessarily
capable
of
exerting
a
deep
influence
over
all
the
tenants
of
the
building.
A
true
missionary
among
all
these
people
in
a
semi-savage
stage,
the
teacher,
if
possessed
of
tact
and
good
judgment,
will
reap
most
unexpected
fruits
from
this
admirable
social
duty.
'Philanthropists
and
idealists
had
striven
before
to
live
among
the
poor
with
the
idea
of
helping
to
better
them,
but
the
trial
had
ever
failed.
To
reach
such
ends
in
a
practical
manner
it
is
necessary
to
make
the
habitation
of
the
poor
cleaner,
more
hygienic,
better
ventilated.
As
at
Rome,
such
ends
can
be
reached
only
through
moral
competition,
and
the
awarding
of
prizes.
io8
,
Houses
of
the
Future
There
is
no
other
way
of
making
the
poor
accept
the
yoke
of
civilization.
'
The
Casa
dei
Bambini
is
not
an
asylum.
//
is
a
school
whose
methods
are
inspired
by
the
rational
principles
of
scientific
pedagogy.
To
the
school,
properly
so
called,
it
is
intended,
so
far
as
possible,
to
add
baths
and
toilets,
and
a
stretch
of
land
which
the
children
may
cultivate.
What
it
is
important
to
show,
is
the
pedagogic
progress
realized
by
the
Casa
dei
Bambini.
No
educator
is
blind
to
the
fact
that
it
is
of
the
greatest
importance
to
har-
monize
the
school's
influence
with
that
of
the
home.
It
is
not
possible
to
always
depend
upon
the
latter.
Here
for
the
first
time
we
see
our
ideal
realized,
because
of
the
school
in
the
home^
which
becomes
little
by
little
the
collective
prop-
erty
of
the
parents.
The
sentiment
of
collec-
tive
property
is
always
sweet
to
the
heart.
'Mothers
who
can
constantly
observe
what
is
going
on
in
the
Casa
dei
Bambini
soon
end
by
fairly
worshiping
the
school
and
the
Directress.
How
often
does
the
latter
find
at
her
window
sweets
and
flowers
as
tokens
of
heartfelt
gratitude
from
fond
mothers
And
when
after
three
years
in
such
a
school,
the
children
then
have
to
enter
the
establishments
of
primary
education,
their
mothers,
hitherto
accustomed
to
exercising
a
physical
and
moral
inspection,
must
perforce
continue
such
overseeing
which
has
become
second
nature
to
them.
**
'Another
progress
realized
by
the
Casa
dei
Houses
of
the
Future
109
Bambini
is
along
the
lines
of
scientific
pedagogy.
Since
man
is
not
only
a
biological
product,
but
also
a
social
being
whose
first
ambient
is
the
family,
scientific
pedagogy
will
strive
in
vain
to
improve
coming
generations
if
it
does
not
find
a
way
to
act
upon
the
very
medium
wherein
children
are
growing.
All
application
of
scientific
hygiene
would
prove
worthless
if
the
home
were
to
remain
sealed
to
progress.
To
open
up
to
moral
and
material
light,
the
old
building,
badly
built
and
full
of
blemishes
is
in
my
philosophy
the
true
starting
point
of
scientific
pedagogy.
'Moreover
the
home
thus
transformed
has
another
quality:
it
has
been
socialized,
that
is
to
say,
all
the
mothers
can
enjoy
equal
advantages
and
feel
their
children
upon
a
footing
of
equality.
'Until
now,
only
great
ladies
had
been
able
to
entrust
their
children
to
the
care
of
a
governess
or
children's
maid.
To-day
the
women
of
the
people
are
in
an
analogous
situation
;
as
in
the
most
princely
dwellings
the
home
doctor
looks
after
all
these
little
ones
and
observes
their
develop-
ment.
The
ladies
of
the
English
aristocracy
and
gentry
possess
a
mother's
book
wherein
they
jot
down
from
time
to
time
the
principal
measure-
ments
of
the
child;
in
Rome,
the
workmen
have
the
biographic
certificate
of
their
children,
compiled
by
the
teacher
and
the
doctor.
'We
already
well
know
the
advantages
secured
from
the
socialization
of
certain
objects:
the
carriage
transformed
into
tramway,
the
candle
no
Houses
of
the
Future
into
a
lamp,
or
gas
jet.
Never
had
persons
been
socialized:
the
governess
and
the
children's
maid.
'
'
'
The
Case
del
Bambini
have
given
this
example.
It
fills
up
a
long
felt
want.
It
cannot
be
asserted
that
it
is
the
wish
for
comfort
and
ease
which
induces
mothers
to
give
up
caring
for
and
washing
their
little
ones.
Economic
and
social
evolu-
tion
obliges
the
working-woman
to
leave
her
home
in
order
to
earn
the
bread
necessary
for
her
little
ones,
and
to
waive
the
privilege
of
fulfilling
duties
which
would
be
sweet.
It
is
a
great
solace
for
her
to
know
that
her
children
are
well
looked
after.
This
work
is
not
restricted
to
the
children
of
the
working
classes:
itis
extended
also
to
the
middle
class,
where
the
mothers
are
also
workers
in
thought.
The
women
teachers
of
every
kind,
professors,
etc.,
who
besides
their
official
courses
give
private
lessons,
are
frequently
compelled
to
leave
their
children
in
the
hands
of
a
rough,
benighted,
utterly
incompetent
servant.
Hence
the
fact
that
after
the
inauguration
of
the
first
Casa
dei
Bambini,
the
Beni
Stabili
were
invited
repeatedly
to
organize
similar
schools
in
other
parts
of
the
city.
'Upon
seeing
socialized
in
this
manner
a
mater-
nal
function,
some
mayhap
will
ask:
what
is
to
become
of
the
home
if
the
mistress
of
the
house
no
longer
gives
it
the
same
care
as
formerly?
But
the
home
is
also
transformed
accepting
these
new
functions.
'
Later,
other
improvements
will
also
be
made.
Houses
of
the
Future
iii
Among
these
we
must
propose
the
dispensary
in
the
home,
permitting
thevarious
members
of
the
family
to
go
about
their
business,
while
their
patient
is
well
looked
afterin
the
home.
Hygiene
and
prophylaxis
will
gain
in
any
event,
and
there
will
no
longer
be
reason
to
distrust
those
disin-
fections,
perfunctorily
gone
through,
after
cases
of
diphtheria
or
typhus.
'In
the
United
States
of
North
America,
even
the
kitchen
has
been
socialized;
the
food
is
sent
up
to
each
apartment
or
tenement
by
the
dumb-
waiter.
This
is
a
most
valuable
modem
improve-
ment
for
the
families
of
the
middle
class,
where
a
shiftless
cook
can
spoil
the
meals
time
and
again.
'The
home
thus
transformed,
will
become
school,
bathing
establishment,
and
infirmary.
It
would
also
be
highly
desirable
that
a
reading
room
might
be
connected
therewith
furnishing
a
place
where
the
male
members
of
the
families
might
go
to
improve
their
minds,
instead
of
letting
their
leisure
cause
them
to
drift
to
far
less
desir-
able
places.
Then
would
the
gaming
houses
and
drinking
booths
close
up
their
dens,
because
their
former
patrons
would
no
longer
find
them
the
one
and
only
panacea
'There
is
tangible
reason
for
dire
forebodings
of
the
breaking
up
of
the
home,
if
the
woman
should
work
outside
of
it.
In
its
evolution,
the
home
tends
to
assume
a
higher,
more
serviceable
mission
than
the
comfortable,
cosy
home
of
the
English
days
that
were.
The
home
is
no
longer
112
Houses
of
the
Future
a
putting
together
of
clean,
attractive,
well
painted
walls,
behind
which
the
family
shelters
its
sorrows
and
its
joys;
it
has
become
a
living
thing,
the
soul
of
a
woman
—
of
an
educator.
It
gives
forth
life
and
well-being;
it
educates
the
children,
brings
rest
to
the
weary
toiler,
and
a
feeling
of
happiness
which
is
a
joy
forever
to
all.
It
is
a
soother,
and
a
comforter
through
the
strenuous
vale
of
life.
'The
new
woman
will
free
herself
of
all
that
dreary
petty
host
of
trivialities
which
caused
her
to
be
desired
by
man,
that
he
might
shift
onerous
burdens
upon
her
patient
shoulders.
After
she
becomes
a
worker
in
the
social
beehive,
she,
as
much
as
her
husband,
will
needa
home
wherein
she
may
find
comfort
and
solace.
She
will
yearn
to
be
loved
for
herself,
and
not
for
the
sum
of
drudg-
ery
which
she
may
be
able
to
wade
through.
Human
love
is
not
made
merely
to
beget
physical
comforts,
but
to
fecundate
the
forces
of
the
spirit,
rendering
it
almost
divine.
'Friedrich
Nietzsche
has
embodied
the
quint-
essence
of
true
love
in
the
mate
of
Zarathoustra
who,
yearning
to
have
a
child
superior
to
herself,
asked
of
the
male:
*
Wherefore
dost
thou
desire
me?
Mayhap
because
of
the
dread
of
solitude?
...
as
a
pro-
tection
against
the
tedium
vitce
...
?
'
If
so,
go
I
hunger
for
a
man
who
may
have
overcome
self,
and
who
may
have
wrought
out
from
such
beginnings
as
were
vouchsafed
to
Houses
of
the
Future
113
him
a
truly
great
soul.I
shall
love
the
man
who
has
preserved
his
body
in
beauteous
strength.
I
shall
love
the
man
who
will
blend
his
soul
and
his
body
with
mine,
that
we
may
bring
forth
a
son,
more
perfect,
stronger
than
those
who
gave
itUfe.
'To
consciously
improve
the
species,
cultivat-
ing
its
health
and
its
virtue,
such
is
the
task.
This
is
the
subHme
idea
which
in
our
earthiness
we
overlook,or
perhaps
sneer
at.
Â
*
The
house
of
the
future,
sociaHzed,
a
living
thing,
sweet,
educating,
and
consoling,
shall
be
the
true
nest
of
human
couples
who
may
wish
therein
to
improve
the
species,
and
launch
it
triumphantly
forth
down
the
ringing
grooves
of
time.'
CHAPTER
X
URBAN
TRANSIT
THE
transit
of
people
and
animals
through
the
streets,
pubUc
places,
etc.,
produces
num-
berless
occasions
for
contagion,
direct
or
indirect,
through
contact,
or
through
pathological
prO'
ducts
—
saliva,
scales,
etc.
—
of
the
sick
or
con-^
valescent,
or
through
the
intermediary
of
certain
insects
and
parasites,
such
as
flies
and
fleas.
As
the
principal
sources
of
contamination
have
al-
ready
been
examined
in
some
of
the
preceding
chapters
Winds,
Living
Beings,
The
Dwelling
—
I
shall
Hmit
myself
in
closing
the
study
of
the
component
factors
of
the
urban
medium
in
Mexico
to
ciirsorily
setting
forth
some
special
considera-
tions
relative
to
the
most
frequent
and
most
important
causes
of
contamination
in
the
streets,
and
their
effect
upon
public
health.
The
street,
well
do
we
know
it,
is
a
constant
receptacle
of
animal
detriti,
of
sweepings
of
all
kinds,
—
containing
fermentable
organic
matter,
and
of
various
objects,
more
or
less
pulverized
by
traffic
and
circulation,
andmixed
with
the
product
of
the
pavement's
wastage,
thus
forming
mud
114
Urban
Transit
115
and
dust,
as
it
may
be
wet
or
dry,
the
whole
being
ground
into
small
particles.
The
pathogenic
germs
proceeding
from
animal
detriti
contained
in
the
mud
or
dust
may
be
of
intestinal
or
urinary
source,
due
to
the
frequency
with
which
the
street
and
highway
receive
urine
and
fecal
matter
from
animals,
children,
and
indi-
viduals
of
the
lower
social
strata.
These
germs
include
the
coli
bacillus,
the
Eberth
bacillus,
the
Koch
bacillus,
the
cholera
bacillus,
the
dysentery
bacillus,
that
of
infantile
diarrhoea,
etc.
They
may
also
proceed
from
the
mouth,
or
from
the
lungs,
and
may
be
thrown
on
the
street
with
the
expectora-
tions
of
the
wayfarers.
These
are
the
tuberculosis
bacillus,
the
pneumococcus,
the
germs
of
scarlet
fever
of
diphtheria,
etc.
They
may
also
proceed
from
the
skin,
contained
in
the
epitheHal
particles
shed
from
the
sick
afflicted
with
scarlet
fever,
pox,
etc.,
during
theperiod
of
desquamation.
Mud
and
dust
—
the
accumulation
of
which
grows
in
proportion
with
the
traffic
and
the
lack
of
resistance
of
the
pavement
—
moved
continually
about
through
the
transitof
carriages,
pedestrians,
animals,
etc.,
and
by
the
action
of
the
winds,
can
therefore
extend
everywhere
their
contaminating
influence,
infinitely
spreading
the
dangers
of
contagion.
We
must
remember
that
only
a
fifth
part
of
Mexico's
streets
is
asphalted
or
paved
with
stones
in
the
proper
way.
The
rest
is
protected
most
inadequately,
or
destitute
of
all
resisting
protec-
tion,
and
the
public
service
of
watering
and
sweeping
ii6
Urban
Transit
the
streets
is
restricted
to
those
which
are
asphalted.
The
rest
are
left
to
shift
as
best
they
may,
and
their
cleanliness
is
such
as
they
may
receive
from
the
tender
mercies
of
the
proverbially
lazy
neighbors.
Remember
also
the
notorious
habits
of
uncleanliness
of
our
lower
social
strata
—
who
rarely
bathe,
wash,
or
change
their
clothes
and
underclothes;
who
expec-
torate,
urinate,
and
dump
refuse
anywhere
—
and
we
shall
be
compelled
to
recognize
that
the
bad
class
of
paving,
the
manifest
deficiencies
in
street
cleaning
service,
and
the
total
lack
of
hygienic
education
among
the
people,
make
of
the
urban
circulation
and
traffic
in
Mexico
—
though
it
is
impossible
to
exactly
ap-
praise
their
effects
one
of
the
principal
causes
of
its
morbidity,
and
mortality.
IV
General
Recommendations
117
CHAPTER
XI
GENERAL
RECOMMENDATIONS
READING
the
preceding
chapters
must
impress
upon
the
mind
of
any
one
who
has
some
knowledge
of
the
country,
the
conviction
that
the
component
factors
of
the
urban
medium
of
each
one
of
our
cities
are
of
great
importance
—
espe-
cially
such
as
proceed
from
the
social
agglomera-
tions,
that
is
to
say
those
which
exert
the
greatest
influences
upon
public
health.
These
are,
with
very
slight
differences,
the
same
as
those
analyzed
when
we
studied
the
particular
case
of
the
City
of
Mexico.
It
is
inevitable
that
the
same
causes
of
insalubrity
will
be
discovered.
Their
relative
intensity
may
vary
somewhat,
but
they
will
alwaysappear
in
such
preponderance,
that
one
may
safely
conclude
that
the
immense
majority
of
thenational
urban
population
is
similarly
affected.
The
mere
enumeration
of
these
recommenda-
tions,
counsels
a
classification
in
three
distinct
groups,
and
the
condensation
of
each
one
of
these,
in
the
threefollowing
General
Recommenda-
tions
'
'
119
120
General
Recommendations
I.
To
organize
efficiently
the
sanitary
administra-
tion
of
the
Republic.
II.
To
decree:
Compulsory
sanitation
for
every
city
the
mortality
of
which
exceeds
the
maximum
limit
of
tolerated
contamination,
and
III.
To
elevate
the
moral
level,
as
well
as
the
economic
and
intellectual
levels
of
the
popular
classes.
Facing
the
impossibility
of
enclosing
within
the
narrow
Hmits
which
this
publication
must
observe,
the
detailed
and
complete
development
of
the
vast
questions
which
I
have
enunciated,
I
shall
content
myself
in
order
to
close,
with
stating
briefly
in
the
following
pages,
the
funda-
mental
considerations
which,
in
my
opinion,
might
serve
as
basis
for
the
rational
solution
of
these
questions.
CHAPTER
XII
EFFICIENT
ORGANIZATION
OF
THE
SANITARY
ADMINISTRATION
THE
Executive
Power,
in
order
that
it
may
dtdy
fulfill
the
political
and
administrative
func-
tions
with
which
it
may
be
entrusted,
must
of
course
develop
its
activity
in
several,
very
clearly
defined
directions,
through
appropriate
and
special
departments.
For
the
proper
carrying
on
of
its
affairs
with
the
other
countries
of
the
globe
it
has
the
Department,
Secretary,
or
Ministry
oj
Foreign
Affairs.
For
its
defense
against
possible
attacks
from
the
same,
or
against
internal
troubles,
it
has
the
Department
oj
War.
In
order
to
establish
tribunals
adequate
to
fulfill
their
task,
it
has
the
Department
oJ
Justice.
For
the
proper
manage-
ment
of
its
finances
it
has
the
Department
oj
Fin-
ance,
and
finally
for
the
purpose
of
improving
and
fostering
thephysical
and
intellectual
well-being
of
its
citizens,
it
has
the
Department
oj
the
Interior.
This
classification
includes
logically,
all
forms
of
theexecutive
activity
of
the
administration.
In
practice,
however,
the
reigning
political
and
social
tendencies,
giving
a
character
of
absolute
121
122
Efficient
Organization
of
the
preponderance
to
certain
necessities
and
social
or
national
aspirations,
produce
new
differentia-
tions,
especially,
in
the
matters
comprised
in
the
last
group.
Thus
specialized,
these
departments
determine
the
birth,
by
an
almost
biological
pro-
cess,
of
other
independent
organs.
Thus,
prob-
ably,
sprung
up
among
us,
the
_
departments
of
Interior
Development,
Colonization,
and
In-
dustry,
that
of
Communications
and
Public
Works,
and
that
of
Public
Instruction
and
Fine
Arts,
though
the
latter
has
never
yet
been
able
to
extend,
in
an
effective
manner,
its
jurisdiction
outside
of
the
federal
district,
and
the
territories.
Moreover,
due
to
the
country's
crying
need
of
Agrarian
Re-
forms,
the
regime
of
the
Huertian
Usurpation
masquerading
as
a
liberal
government
—
subdivided
the
first
of
the
departments
aforesaid,
into
a
Department
of
Commerce
and
Industry,
and
a
Department
of
Agriculture.
This
last
organ
was
doomed
from
its
birth
—
notwithstanding
its
perfect
theoretical
justification.
An
illegal,
short-lived,
so-called
government
had
brought
it
forth,
and
it
was
destined
to
be
but
a
tool
for
the
designs
of
capitalism.
But
assuredl}''
such
a
department
could
justify
its
creation,
and
thrive
in
the
atmos-
phere
of
justice
which
we
hope
for,
as
a
result
of
the
triumphant
revolution.
When
we
consider
that
the
first
factor
necessary
for
the
realization
of
the
high
aims
of
the
admin-
istration,
is
no
other
than
a
condition
of
healthful-
ness
among
the
masses,
what
must
we
add
to
the
Sanitary
Administration
123
evils
described
in
each
page
of
this
book,
to
de-
monstrate
the
imperious
need
of
a
special
govern-
mental
department,
which
shall
have
the
power
and
the
spirit
to
eradicate
these
evils,
or
at
least
to
lessen
them.
Then
at
last
we
may
hope
for
industrial
prosperity,
for
commercial
and
agri-
cultural
activity,
for
an
effective
army,
and,
in
a
word,
for
national
autonomy.
The
federation
of
certain
sanitary
services,
says
Doctor
Rafael
Norma,
ex-Secretary
of
the
Board
of
Health
of
Mexico
City,
is
practically
inevitable.
The
state
has
the
right,
andmust
protect
the
confederate,
securing
the
extinction
and
avoiding
the
propagation
of
epidemic
disease,
or
of
endemo-epidemic
illnesses
which
may
be
ravaging
one
of
the
states
of
the
Union.
These
have
banded
together
for
mutual
help
and
benefit,
to
ensure
their
integrity
and
facilitate
their
de-
velopment,
and
as
soon
as
there
springs
up
in
one
or
more
contiguous
states
or
territories
some
plague
threatening
to
spread
beyond
its
limits,
if
neither
the
state
or
states
affected,
nor
those
threatened,
have
thenecessary
resources
and
are
unable
to
exercise
coordinate
action
for
circum-
scribing
the
danger,
then
upon
the
Executive
Power
of
the
Union,
with
its
more
ample
and
strategic
jurisdiction,
will
devolve
the
duty
of
going
to
the
rescue.
In
the
same
way
the
state
or
states
menaced
or
plague-stricken,
have
the
right
to
request
the
same
assistance
and
to
have
it
imparted
to
them.
124
Efficient
Organization
of
the
Unless
we
can
find
the
way
to
federalize
the
service
of
public
health
and
sanitation,
we
shall
not
be
able
to
touch
upon
even
slightly
the
medical
geography
of
infectious
diseases,
which
is
requisite
to
the
establishing
of
a
knowledge
of
the
geo-
graphical
distribution
of
the
flora
and
fauna
of
microbes
and
parasites
;
orto
institute
a
record
of
national
medical
statistics,
which
is,
of
necessity,
the
beginning
of
any
and
every
measure
to
remove
the
causes
(ethnic,
social,
moral,
material,
eco-
nomic,
etc.)
which
determine
avoidable
diseases,
and
which
cast
races
into
physical
and
intellec-
tual
depression;
orto
acquire
even
the
rudiments
of
mesology,
that
inevitable
forerunner
of
every
precept
which
tends
to
lessen
the
pernicious
effects
of
the
cosmic
medium
upon
the
human
being.
Sanitary
measures
affect,
or
are
so
intimately
connected
with
the
other
branches
of
public
ad-
ministration,
that
many
of
them
cannot
be
placed
in
practice
without
the
concurrence
of
one,
or
of
all
the
departments
of
state,
whose
jurisdictions
must
frequently
be
invaded
by
the
rulings
of
the
sanitary
authorities.
The
latter
cannot
proceed
with
the
efficacy
and
diligence
necessary,
without
the
acquiescence
of
the
former,
therefore
it
becomes
imperative
that
the
representative
of
said
author-
ity
be
in
intimate
and
frequent
contact
with
the
other
functionaries
of
the
government,
in
order
that
they
may
proceed
in
each
case
with
the
required
promptness,
energy,
and
decision.
All
this
constitutes
an
additional
reason
for
uphold-
Sanitary
Administration
125
ing
in
Mexico
the
expediency
of
creating
a
special
Department
of
PublicHealth,
which
would
assume
the
duty
of
watching
and
enforcing
the
laws
and
regulations
for
the
protection
of
public
health.
In
this
case
the
council
of
ministers,
which
con-
venes
as
often
as
necessary
to
study
and
pass
upon
matters
of
the
greatest
importance,
and
upon
all
projects
of
special
legislation,
would
fulfill,
when
necessary,
the
functions
of
the
Board
of
Public
Health.
The
example
of
the
Republic
of
Cuba,
in
this
respect,
is
most
eloquent.
Upon
constituting
its
own
independent
government
—
after
the
Span-
ish-American
War
—
there
was
formed
the
Depart-
ment
of
Sanitation
and
Beneficence,
and
no
one
can
possibly
doubt
or
question
that
the
awful
conditions
of
health
and
sanitation
which
obtained
in
the
Island
of
Cuba
and
Havana
have
been
enormously
improved
in
a
very
brief
space
of
time.
^
Moreover
the
remedy
contained
in
the
second
of
the
General
Recommendations
which
I
am
ana-
lyzing
—
and
which
will
be
the
object
of
the
fol-
lowing
chapter
—
will
prove
of
much
easier
and
surer
application,
under
the
form
of
organization
proposed.
The
fulfillment
of
the
decree
of
com-
pulsory
sanitation
for
every
city
the
mortality
of
'
It
having
been
consideredunnecessary,the
English
edition
doesnot
include
Annex
No.
4
of
the
Spanish
edition,
containing
the
part
referring
to
said
Department
in
the
Organic
Law
of
the
Executive
Power,
and
Regulations
for
the
Government
of
the
Departments
of
State
of
Cuba,
January
26,
1909.
126
Efficient
Organization
of
the
which
exceeds
the
maximum
limit
of
tolerable
con-
tamination,
will
give
rise
to
two
principal
forms
of
activity;
first,
the
collecting
and
studying
of
statistical
data
upon
which
decisions
are
to
be
based
—
very
numerous
and
of
very
variable
character
—
which
must
be
noted
by
the
Sanitary
Authority,
in
each
case,
for
the
better
protec-
tion
of
thehealth
of
the
inhabitants;
second,
the
execution
or
inspection
of
the
required
works
of
urbanization.
Assuredly
such
activities,
of
so
complex
a
character,
and
extending
over
so
vast
a
field
as
that
offered
by
almost
all
the
cities
of
the
Republic,could
not
be
carried
on
satisfactorily
save
through
an
administrative
organism
the
importance
of
which
would
equal,
or
perhaps
exceed
that
of
some
of
the
present
departments
of
state.
Whether
the
sanitary
administration
of
the
republic
be
raised
to
the
rank
of
a
state
depart-
ment
or
not,
the
need
is
most
obvious
of
estab-
lishing
radical
reforms
in
its
present
status,
in
order
to
render
it
an
efficient
instrument.
We
must
forthwith
proscribe,
unconditionally,
the
collegiate
or
corporative
system
Board
of
Health,
and
Superior
Government
Board^
—
and
adopt
the
system
of
unipersonal
authority,
since
the
former
if
applicable
only
to
the
consideration
of
matters
in
which
a
controversy
among
individuals
is
to
be
»
See
pp.
V,
35,
36,
37,
38,
64,
65,
and
82
of
this
book
and
that
part
of
Appendix
No.
2
which
refers
to
the
Board
of
Health
of
Mexico
City.
Sanitary
Administration
127
decided,
may
involve
for
instance,
a
point
of
law,
and
may
consequently
require
scrupulous
deliber-
ation.
On
the
other
hand
the
unipersonal
form
is
the
best
for
the
most
efficient
use
of
forces
and
functions
demanding
energy
and
quickness
of
action,
and
respecting
which
it
may
be
expe-
dient
to
exact
a
determined
and
well-defined
responsibility.
For
the
rest,
efficiency
in
all
manifestations
of
administrative
activity,
means
economy
—
in
the
precise
signification
and
acceptance
of
the
word
—
involving
the
moralization
of
the
official
ambi-
ency,
and
constituting
in
this
way,
one
of
the
most
important
factors
in
the
moral
education
of
the
popular
classes.
CHAPTER
XIII
COMPULSORY
SANITATION
HAVING
established
compulsory
sanitation
in
every
city
having
a
mortality
exceeding
the
max-
imum
limit
of
tolerable
contamination,
the
first
ques-
tion
which
arises
is
this
:
how
can
we
fix
this
limit
of
contamination?R.
Mace
and
Ed.
Imbeaux
hygienists
of
world-wide
authority
—
affirm
that
the
coefficient
of
mortality
corresponding
to
a
model
city
must
not
exceed
seventeen
deaths
per
year
for
each
thousand
inhabitants.
French
legislation
causes
the
value
of
the
maximum
toler-
able
limit
to
vary,
by
fixing
each
time,
the
average
of
the
coefficients
given
out
by
all
the
urban
ag-
glomerations.
This
is
equivalent
to
imposing
on
all
those
cities
whose
mortality
exceeds
the
total
average
indicated,
the
obligation
of
submitting
to
compulsory
sanitation.
In
the
message
which
the
chief
of
the
executive
power
of
the
Republic
of
Uruguay
sent,
in
December,
191
1,
to
the
general
congress
of
Montevideo,
submitting
a
project
of
law
to
be
executed
by
the
state
concerning
works
of
sanitation
and
the
provision
of
drinking
water
in
the
cities
and
villas
of
Campafia,
the
admissible
128
Compulsory
Sanitation
129
maximum
of
contamination
was
fixed
at
nineteen
deaths
per
year
for
each
thousand
inhabitants.
If
we
accepted
for
our
cities
an
even
higher
co-
efficient,
say
twenty,
and
were
assured
that
the
sanitary
authority,
by
means
of
strenuous
action,
would
reduce
the
urban
mortahty
to'
the
said
proportion,
then
in
the
City
of
Mexico
alone
there
would
be
saved
yearly
more
tJian
ten
thousand
deaths^
and
a
much
higher
number
of
illnesses
would
be
prevented
—
we
completely
lack
statistical
data
on
morbiditywhich
detract
much
energy
from
the
national
effort,
and
considerably
increase
the
unpro-
ductive
consumption.
Can
a
better
field
be
found
for
the
fruitful
employment
of
government
energy
in
behalf
of
the
future
development
and
prosperity
of
the
Nation
?
For
the
proper
application
of
the
law
of
com-
pulsory
sanitation
we
must
urge
the
very
great
importance
of
the
speedy
construction
of
the
works
of
urbanization
required
in
nearly
all
the
cities
of
the
Republic.
Article
289
of
the
Cuban
Law
on
the
subject
states:
Whenever
a
provincial
or
municipal
authority
should
neglectto
carry
on
the
works
or
services
required
by
the
Secretary
of
Sanitation
and
Beneficence,
In
accordance
with
the
law
and
the
regulations,
after
the
termwhich
the
Secretary
of
the
Department
may
have
set,
the
latter
shall
have
the
right
to
order
that
the
said
works
be
undertaken
and
carried
out
charging
the
same
to
the
corresponding
credit,
or
to
that
of
epidemics,
130
Compulsory
Sanitation
or
to
be
apportioned
between
both,
but
the
pro-
vince
or
municipality
causing
the
outlay
shall
be
liable
for
the
disbursement.
The
secretary,
re-
presenting
the
State,
shall
be
authorized
to
claim
before
the
competent
tribunal
the
said
reimburse-
ment
and
when
this
shall
have
been
realized,
the
amount
will
be
paid
into
the
National
Treasury.
Therefore,
as
soon
as
the
need
for
the
construction
of
works
of
urbanization,
or
for
establishing
any
kind
of
public
sanitation,
be
ascertained
as
exist-
ing
in
any
one
of
our
cities,
in
case
the
municipal
authority
should
fail
to
satisfy
the
said
need
within
a
reasonable
term
imposed
by
the
supreme
sanitary
authority
Ministry,
General
Board
of
Public
Health,or
whatever
it
may
be
termed
the
latter
shall
be
empowered
to
satisfy
the
said
need,
charging
it
to
the
account
of
the
local
author-
ity
mentioned.
The
resulting
invasions
into
a
sphere
of
action
clearly
municipal,
limited
as
already
stated
to
the
sole
exercise
of
a
supplemen-
tary
function
exacted
by
public
health,
would
most
assuredly
not
lack
justification.
Now
we
come
to
a
great
stumbling-block.
Where
can
we
get
the
money
to
carry
on
works
of
such
magnitude
?
This
depends
upon
the
earnest-
ness
with
which
we
attack
the
problem
of
raising
ourselves
to
the
level
of
a
civilized
community.
It
is
a
simple
problem
of
taxes.
The
circum-
stance
that
various
families
have
settled
in
a
given
place,
adds
to
the
noxious
influences
of
the
surrounding
medium
upon
the
human
organism,
Compulsory
Sanitation
131
those
derived
from
physical
and
moral
relations
inherent
to
social
life,
influences
whichhave
been
studied
in
detail
in
thecourse
of
this
book,
and
against
which
the
urban
agglomerate
must
ever
defend
itself,
as
an
indispensable
condition
for
its
subsistence,
its
growth,
and
prosperity.
The
chief
means
of
defense
rests
in
house
building
to
protect
the
inhabitants,
and
in
the
works
of
urbanization
destined
to
fill
the
community's
needs
for
sanitation.
Now,
as
construction
signi-
fies
a
productive
investment
of
capital,
itis
the
owners,
in
consequence,
who
must
subscribe
or
withstand,
through
the
payment
of
taxes,
the
load
corresponding
to
the
execution
of
exterior
works
of
urbanization.
The
functions
belonging
to
authority,
and
which
the
latter
cannot
evade
with-
out
Jailing
to
fulfil
its
great
duty
of
protecting
the
life
and
well-being
of
the
governed
are:
to
affix
the
total
amount
of
taxes
to
be
paid
so
as
to
make
possible
the
disbursements
required
by
the
construction,
con-
servation,
and
ulterior
enlargement
of
the
urbaniza-
tion
works;
to
distribute
equitably
all
the
taxes
among
the
tax-payers;
to
collect
the
same,
and
to
see
to
the
execution
of
the
aforesaid
works.
We
must
not
take
in
consideration
the
possibil-
ity
that
the
owners
might
shift
the
load
of
the
new
taxes
on
to
the
tenants,
raising
proportionately
the
price
of
the
rent,
because
sooner
or
later,
the
house
occupants
are
those
who
receive
the
benefits
of
the
sanitary
work
done,
and
besides
these
works
naturally
increase
the
value
of
the
property.
132
Compulsory
Sanitation
Besides
the
taxes
would
not
be
onerous.
In
the
villageof
Mixcoac,
federal
district,
for
instance,
no
special
tax
is
paid
for
the
service
of
public
sanitation,
and
there
are
nearly
two
thousand
lots
of
improved
and
unimproved
property,
within
urban
limits.
If
these
parcels
of
property
were
taxed
on
the
average
about
four
pesos
per
month
naturally
the
taxation
would
have
to
be
appor-
tioned
equitably
—
then
there
would
be
taken
in
a
sum
sufficient
to
pay
interest
and
accumulate
a
sinking
fund
to
meet
a
loan
of
nearly
one
million
of
pesos,
a
sum
with
which
assuredly,
it
would
be
possible
to
execute
the
works
of
paving,
sanitation,
and
provision
of
drinking
water
which
the
town
may
need.
In
short,
in
order
to
efficaciously
apply
the
law
of
compulsory
sanitation,
and
create
an
inexhaust-
ible
fount
of
benefits
for
the
people,
such
as
the
prevention
of
premature
deaths,
the
prevention
of
many
illnesses,
and
of
suffering
untold,
on
the
one
hand,
and
on
the
other
hand
the
giving
of
employment
to
hundreds
of
thousands,
to-day
unemployed,
in
the
works
to
be
undertaken
in
all
the
cities
of
the
Republic,
it
is
only
required
that
the
government
have
a
true
consciousness
of
its
duties,
and
sufficient
energy
to
fulfill
them.
CHAPTER
XIV
THE
INTELLECTUAL,
MORAL,
AND
ECONOMIC
IMPROVEMENT
OF
THE
PEOPLE
WHOEVER
knows
something
of
our
history,
and
is
able
to
view
with
impartiality
the
long
and
complicated
process
of
the
formation
of
our
nationality,
extending
from
the
pre-Cortes
period,
through
the
troublous
time
of
the
Con-
quest,
the
colonial
days
under
the
viceroys,
the
wars
of
independence,
the
convulsions
of
nearly
one
century
of
autonomous
existence,
calmed
only
by
the
iron
hand
of
Diaz,
until
our
own
time,
will
be
bound
to
discover,
in
the
salient
manifesta-
tions
of
the
Hfe
of
the
national
organism,
the
un-
equivocal
symptoms
and
stigmata
of
a
serious
pathological
state,
brought
about
by
two
principal
agents
:
the
loathsome
corruption
of
the
upper
classes
and
the
inconscience
and
wretchedness
of
the
lower.
The
iniquitous
means
employed
by
Don
Porfirio
Diaz,
during
more
than
thirty
years,
for
imposing
peace,
not
only
nullified
all
efforts
tending
to
remedy
the
evils
discussed,
but
in
addition
served
to
intensify
them.
As
a
matter
of
fact,
he
satis-
fied
the
omnivorous
appetites
of
his
friends
and
133
134
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
satellites;
he
crushed
and
by
criminal
means
caused
the
disappearance
of
whoever
failed
to
render
tribute
or
bow
to
his
will;
he
fostered
cowards
and
sycophants,
repressing
systematically,
with
an
iron
hand,
every
impulse
of
manliness
and
truth.
He
placed
the
administration
of
justice
at
the
unconditional
disposal
of
the
rich,
paying
not
the
slightest
heed
to
the
lamentations
of
the
poor.
In
a
word,
he
increased
the
immorality
and
corruption
of
the
small
and
privileged
ruHng
class,
and
increased,
in
consequence,
the
sufferings
of
the
immense
majority,
grovelling
in
ignorance
and
hunger.
Therefore
the
thirty
or
more
years
of
praetorian
peace
but
served
to
deepen
still
fur-
ther
the
chasm
of
hatred
and
rancor
separating
the
two
mentioned
classes,
and
to
necessarily
and
fatally
provoke
the
social
convulsion,
begun
in
191
o,
which
has
shaken
the
whole
coimtry.
The
three
aspects
of
the
problemwhich
I
have
presented
—
the
economic,
the
intellectual,
and
the
moral
—
coincide
with
the
purposes
of
education
through
the
schools
,
as
ideally
dreamed
of
by
think-
ers.
They
have
been
conceived
as
^^institutions
the
object
of
which
is
to
guide
and
control
the
forma-
tion
of
habits
in
order
to
realize
the
highest
social
goody
'^
But
our
schools,
unfortunately,
have
not
yet
acquired
the
necessary
strength
to
counter-
act
to
an
appreciable
degree,
the
horrible
environ-
'
William
Henry
Pyle,
Ph.D.
Quotation
of
Ezequiel
A.
Chdvez
in
his
notes
on
my
booklet,
Rtidimentary
Instruction
in
the
Republic.
Improvement
of
the
People
135
ment
of
immorality,
or
to
counterbalance
its
inevitable
influence
toward
social
dissolution.
The
work
and
tendencies
of
the
Department
of
Public
Instruction
and
Fine
Arts
have
in
truth
oscillated
between
two
extremes.
On
the
one
hand,
we
find
the
costly,
Utopian,
and
beautiful
formula
of
integral
educatioji,
imposed
and
upheld
by
D.
Justo
Sierra
in
the
federal
district
and
the
territories
for
many
years,
and
on
the
other
the
grotesque
and
pauperizing
plan
of
rudimentary
instruction
proposed
by
D.
Jorge
Vera
Estaflol,
at
the
end
of
the
Diaz
regime,
and
at
the
beginn-
ing
of
the
Huerta
period,
with
the
object
of
extend-
ing
its
sphere
of
action
over
the
whole
national
territory.
The
moral
failure
of
the
official
effort
toward
integral
education
—
though
it
produced
some
beau-
tiful
examples
of
kindergartens
and
elemental
and
superior
schools
—
was
proved
by
the
intense
cor-
ruption
shown
by
the
ruling
classes
of
the
capital,
in
the
face
of
the
terrible
political
happenings
of
the
past
years.
Its
intellectual
failure
may
be
proven
by
the
following
statistics:
Out
of
the
720,753
inhabitants
of
the
federal
district,
the
census
of
igio
registered
only
j6i,poi
individuals
who
knei'
how
to
read
and
write
—
that
is,
scarcely
fifty
per
cent,
of
the
total
popidation.'^
In
this
connection
it
is
»
For
the
whole
population
of
the
Republic,
the
proportion
of
literacy
is
even
more
reduced,
as
it
barely
reaches
thirty
per
cent.
(4,394,311
out
of
a
total
of
15,139,855
inhabitants).—
Census
19
10.
136
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
well
to
note
thata
goodly
portion
of
the
individuals
comprised
in
this
figure
received
their
instruction
in
private
schools.
It
is
easy
to
ascertain
thecauses
of
the
failure
of
our
schools
to
produce
results.
In
the
first
place,
a
fitful
influence
upon
the
pupils^
of
only
a
few
hours
a
day,
during
the
so-called
school-period,
could
never
of
itself
realize
the
work
of
integral
educa-
tion.
As
is
well
known,
results
can
be
obtained
only
from
the
combined
action
of
the
schools
and
the
physical
and
moral
media,
the
latter
being
principally
formed
by
the
convergence
of
condi-
tions
which
prevail
in
the
cosmic,
domestic,
official,
and
social
ambients.
Let
us
call
to
mind
in
this
connection
our
apartment
and
tenement
blocks
—
dens
of
all
wretchedness
and
vice
—
and
our
public
administration,
and
our
society,
absolutely
permeated
with
immoraHty.
In
the
second
place,
the
official
educational
effort
has
failed
because
the
department
has
striven
solely
to
satisfy
the
minutest
theoretical,
material,
and
technical
requi-
sites,
imitating
fine
foreign
models,
and
producing
some
noteworthy
establishments
as
fine
as
any
in
the
United
States
or
Switzerland;
but
their
cost,
in
relation
to
the
scant
funds
available,
permitted
the
establishment
only
of
a
number
much
smaller
than
that
required
by
the
enormous
illiterate
mass
of
the
metropolitan
population.
The
system
of
rudimentary
instruction
served
to
extend
the
movement
throughout
the
Republic,
»
See
pages
91-95
and
106-109
of
this
book.
Improvement
of
the
People
137
simplifying
the
school
programand
reducing,
correspondingly,
the
cost
of
foundation
and
up-
keep
of
the
schools.
Unfortunately,
the
simplifi-
cation
was
carried
too
far,
and
a
ridiculously
small
sum
was
set
aside
for
the
purpose,
whereas
the
sum
reqmred
would
have
amounted
to
many
millions
of
pesos.
The
Decree
on
the
subject
promiilgated
by
the
President
of
the
Republic
on
June
I,
191
1,
states:
Art.
1st.
The
Union's
Executive
is
hereby
authorized
to
establish
throughout
the
whole
Republic
schools
for
rudimentary
instruction,
independent
of
the
primary
schools
already
inexistence,
or
which
may
be
founded
hereafter.
Art.
2d.
The
principal
object
of
the
schools
of
rudimentary
instruction
will
be
to
teach
the
natives
to
speak,
read,
and
write
Spanish;
and
to
impart
to
them
elementary
arithmetic.
Art.
3d.
The
rudimentary
instruction
will
extend
over
the
space
of
two
years
at
most.
Art.
4th.
These
schools
will
be
established
and
increased
as
the
funds
of
the
Executive
may
permit.
Art.
5th.
The
Executive
is
likewise
author-
ized
to
foster
the
establishment
of
rudimentary
private
schools.
Art.
6th.
The
teaching
to
be
imparted
in
keeping
with
the
recent
law,
shall
not
be
compul-
sory:
it
shall
be
imparted
to
all
the
illiterate
who
may
apply
to
the
schools,
without
regard
to
sex
or
age.
Art.
7th.
The
Executive
will
stimulate
at-
138
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
tendance
at
the
schools,
distributing
food
and
clothing
for
the
pupils^
according
to
their
circum-
stances.
Art.
8th.
This
law
does
not
affect
theob-
servance
of
those
laws
relating
to
compulsory-
education
which
are
extant,
or
may
be
enacted
in
the
states,
the
federal
district,
or
in
the
territories.
Art.
9th.
To
initiate
this
system
of
teaching,
the
Executive
will
have
placed
at
his
disposal
the
sum
of
three
hundred
thousand
pesos,
during
the
next
fiscal
year.
'Art.
loth.
The
Executive
will
regulate
this
law
wdthin
his
constitutional
rights.
Art.
I
ith.
At
each
session
period,
the
Union's
Executive
will
be
in
duty
bound
to
render
a
report
to
the
Chamber
of
Deputies,
regarding
the
application
and
progress
of
this
law,
and
also
as
regardsthe
use
made
of
the
fund
devoted
to
the
purpose.
I
believe
I
have
shown
the
utterimpossibility
of
applying
this
law,
in
the
pamphlet
entitled
Rudimentary
Instruction
in
the
Republic,
which
I
published
in
June,
191
2,
during
my
tenure
of
office
as
Assistant
Secretary
of
Public
Instruction
and
Fine
Arts,
with
the
purpose
of
having
an
in-
vestigation
made
which
would
satisfactorily
solve
a
problem
involving
so
much
responsibility
for
the
government
and
of
so
great
importance
for
the
country.
Here
are
some
extracts
from
the
aforesaid
booklet,
in
regard
to
the
technical
defects
of
the
school
program
under
discussion:
Improvement
of
the
People
139
The
law
prescribes
in
its
third
article
that
rudimentary
instruction
extend,
at
most,
over
two
annual
coiirses.
Consider
the
relative
facility
of
operation
of
the
primary
schools
of
the
Federal
District,
served
by
a
staff
specially
prepared
to
teach,
with
pro-
grams,
texts,
and
school
matteradequate
to
the
purpose,
and
all
moving
under
the
efficacious
vigilance
of
an
active
and
intelligent
technical
inspection.
Then
compare
theseconditions
with
the
necessarily
narrow
and
difficult
situation
in
which
the
rudimentar}''
schools
would
have
to
work,
owing
to
the
restricted
means
at
their
dis-
posal,
with
an
organization
made
up
of
teachers
recruited
in
the
same
places
where
the
schools
w^ould
be
established,
these
places
having
been
selected
as
being
'the
most
baclovard
in
the
country.'
These
teachers
follow
methods
and
texts
in
keeping
-^dth
their
own
lack
of
instruction
and
preparation,
a
circumstance
which
has
al-
ready
brought
forth
from
well-deserved
oblivion,
such
pedagogic
antiquities
as
the
'San
Miguel'
Primer.
The
whole
scheme
would
perforce
be
abandoned
to
its
fate
because
of
the
practical
impossibility
of
establishing
an
effective
inspec-
tion.
Remember,
also,
that
in
the
primary
schools
of
the
Federal
District,
despite
its
almost
splendid
endowment
of
technical
elements
and
materials,
the
pupils
read
and
write
at
the
end
of
the
second
year,
only
with
considerable
difficulty.
Then
you
will
reaUze
how
absurd
it
is
to
expect
that
the
140
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
utterly
illiterate
pupils
of
the
rudimentary
school,
who
are
mostly
Indians
who
know
only
their
indigenous
dialects,
can
learn
to
speak,
read,
and
write
Castilian
in
a
space
of
time
no
longer
than
two
years,
the
time
prescribed
by
law.
Â
However
let
us
accept
for
the
time
being
the
possibility
of
the
textual
application
of
Article
3d
of
the
law.
Fault
has
been
found
with
the
institution
of
the
rudimentary
schools
because
of
its
scant
value
as
a
plan
of
integral
education.
On
the
one
hand,
reading,
writing,
and
the
basic
operations
of
arithmetic,
though
they
do
not
lack,
owing
to
the
exercises
of
mental
analysis
which
their
teaching
promotes,
certain
valuable
educational
importance,
are
properly
speaking
only
means
to
acquire
other
human
knowledge,
and
are
not
sufficient
of
themselves,
speaking
pedagogically,
to
produce
the
required
correlation
of
studies.
On
the
other
hand,
the
scantiness
of
the
available
funds
for
the
teaching
staff,
schools,
furniture,
and
school
supplies,results
in
a
combin-
ation
of
conditions
hardly
adequate
to
ensure
the
harmonious
development
of
all
of
the
child's
faculties.
Of
the
two
ends
attained
by
this
result,
instruction
and
discipline,
the
second
is
consid-
ered
of
greater
importance,
as
its
object
is
'to
accustom
the
pupil
to
observe,
to
reason,
and
to
express
his
ideas;
to
moderate
and
control
his
pas-
sions,
to
respect
the
rights
of
others,
and
to
acquire
habits
of
cleanliness,
order,
and
method,
which
are
of
so
great
a
value
later
inhis
life
insociety.*
Improvement
of
the
People
141
Yet
this
spirit
of
discipline,
as
a
matter
of
fact,
is
precisely
the
result
least
favored
by
the
program
of
rudimentary
education.
Conclusions
based
on
these
considerations
and
exaggerating
perhaps
the
dangers
of
not
adhering
strictly
to
the
modern
pedagogic
canons,
have
caused
some
educators
to
stigmatize
the
said
schoolsas
being
excellent
breeding
grounds
for
^
Zapatistas^
(banditti
mas-
querading
as
political
agitators).
I
do
not
consider
such
opinion
well
founded.
It
attributes
to
the
school,
in
an
exclusive
manner,
all
educational
power
over
individuals,
and
it
for-
gets
many
other
factors
of
as
great
if
not
greater
influence
than
the
school,
such
as
atavic
tenden-
cies,
the
ambient,
the
struggle
for
life,
etc.
I
am
sufficiently
hereticto
believe
that,
were
it
possible
to
make
the
quantitative
analysis
of
all
these
influences
in
the
final
work
of
education,
probably
the
school
would
not
have
the
greatest
share
of
influence.
I
appeal
to
all
my
fellow
citizens
who
know
how
to
speak,
read,
and
write
Spanish,
and
to
perform
the
operations
of
elementary
arithmetic,
and
who,
nevertheless,are
not
'
Zapatistas^
though
they
have
studied
in
the
primary
schools
of
the
country,
which
have
been,
until
very
recently,
such
as
are
advocated
by
the
promoters
of
rudi-
mentary
schools.
Still
the
danger
pointed
out
is
not
chimerical;
the
foregoing
pessimistic
conclusion
has
its
basis
in
fact.
This
is
especially
the
case
owing
to
the
weak
educational
action
of
the
rudimentary
142
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
schools,
so
restricted
in
their
field,
and
because
of
the
purely
abstract
character
of
the
teaching
which
these
schools
are
designed
to
impart,
which
is
liable
to
render
them
useless
or
noxious.
I
refer
to
the
'most
backward
regions
of
the
country,*
where,
owing
to
their
aloofness
from
all
centers
of
progress
and
activity,
their
distance
from
means
of
communication,
and
the
special
conditions
of
life
of
their
inhabitants,
the
abstract
rudimentary
knowledge
there
diffused
cannot
have
an
immedi-
ate
practical
application,
such
knowledge
being
forgotten
with
a
promptness
in
direct
ratio
to
the
deficiency
of
the
teaching,
rendering
all
schooling
quite
useless.
Moreover,
in
cases
where
exactly
the
precedingdoes
not
happen,
the
uplift
pro-
duced
by
the
schools
of
the
intellectual
level
of
the
people
is
not
accompanied,
owing
to
the
schools
themselves
or
to
outside
causes,
by
an
increase
of
material
well-being.
The
school
work
in
all
cases
where
the
balance
between
the
mental
and
economical
levels
of
the
people
was
disturbed,
would
create
a
permanent
condition
of
discontent,
and
an
admirable
field
for
the
pernicious
activity
of
conscienceless
and
unscrupulous
demagogues
giving
voice
to
agrarian
socialism
of
the'Oroz-
quista*
and
'Zapatista'
brand,
advocating
the
instant
and
absolute
despoliation
of
all
landowners.
This
wouldhappen
even
if
we
substituted
the
integral
for
the
rudimentary
instruction.
How-
ever
much
the
school
influence
may
improve
man,
he
remains
human,
and
it
is
natural
that
his
un-
Improvement
of
the
People
.
143
satisfied
material
needs
exert
a
greater
influence
on
his
acts
than
his
will
power.
To
analyze
misery
is
to
increase
it
a
hundredfold.
To
project
light
into
consciences
by
means
of
abstract
teachings,
in
order
to
bring
outonly
wretchedness,
at
the
same
time
leaving
in
the
dark
such
ways
as
might
lead
to
economic
improvement,
is
therefore
a
most
cruel
irony
for
the
people,
and
a
menace
for
our
social
regime.
Considering
thatthe
State
must
preferentially
impart
elementary
teaching
to
individuals
of
school
age,
and
only
exceptionally
to
adults,
and
thatthe
corresponding
restriction
of
attendance
at
schools
increases
fourfold
the
impossibility
of
applying
the
law
(since
the
population
of
school
age
which
at
present
does
not
receive
instruc-
tion
is
equivalent
to
the
fourth
part
of
the
total
number
of
illiterates),
we
find
justified
the
economic
convenience
of
modifying
in
the
sense
indicated
Articles
6th
and
7th
of
the
said
law.
The
latter
of
these
articles
might
be
advantageously
sup-
pressed,
for
until
the
Union
Congress
shall
author-
ize
in
the
budget
the
entry
required
to
realize
the
principal
object
of
the
decree
—
the
complete
diffusion
of
teaching
—
it
becomes
ridiculous,
or
at
least
useless,
aside
from
the
immorality
of
extending
it
to
adults,
to
likewise
empower
the
Executive
to
feed
and
clothe
the
pupils.
I
have
shown
thatthe
program
of
rudimentary
education,
in
spite
of
its
meagemess
could
not
144
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
possibly
be
completed
within
theperiod
of
two
years,
which
thedecree
fixes
as
the
limit.
The
inevitable
necessity
appreciably
of
increasing
this
term
in
order
to
be
able
to
apply
the
law
with
efficiency
is
apparent.
This
extension
of
time
can
also
be
made
use
of
by
adding
to
the
scanti-
ness
of
the
educational
fare,
and
thereby
increasing
and
guaranteeing
the
practical
utility
of
the
teaching.
 It
is
not
sufficient
that
the
subjects
of
the
program
enable
the
pupil,
later
on,
to
acquire
further
useful
knowledge
for
the
battles
of
life.
We
must
give
him
the
assurance,
or
at
least
assure
the
probability,
that
the
labor
started
in
the
school
will
be
extended,
by
means
of
the
very
best
modern
founts
of
information:
the
book
and
the
news-
paper.
The
demand
for
this
information
by
those
who
are
being
educated,
is
doubtless
the
only
possible
guarantee
that
education
will
continue
after
school
days.
This
interest
cannot
exist
if
the
pupils
are
incapable
of
understanding
books
and
newspapers;
if
they
have
not
been
given
some
knowledge
concerning
thepeoples
of
the
world.
They
should
be
taught
the
situation
of
the
various
countries,
and
the
habits
of
the
different
peoples;
they
should
know
something
of
foreign
institu-
tions,
and
should
have
some
idea
of
the
natural
products,
commerce,
and
industry
of
other
coun-
tries.
In
short,
they
should
he
taught
the
elements
oj
geography.
Moreover,
the
characteristic
aspect
of
this
subject
is
that
it
harbors
and
welcomes
the
Improvement
of
the
People
145
general
principles
of
other
physical
and
natural
sciences.
The
study
thereof
places
the
pupils
in
closer
contact
with
nature
—
our
great
fount
of
teaching
—
and
has
besides,
owing
to
that
great
variety
of
knowledge
on
meteorology,
astronomy,
mineralogy,
botany,
zoology,
etc.,
which
go
to
make
it
up,
a
remarkable
educational
value.
Ifthe
law
seeks
to
establish
the
imiformity
of
language
throughout
the
commonwealth
—
a
power-
ful
stimulus
of
patriotism
—
with
the
diffusion
or
propagation
of
Spanish
among
the
natives,
and
if
the
teaching
of
geography,
wiping
out
the
narrow
limits
of
parochialism,
renders
possible
the
uplifting
of
provincialism
into
a
wider
and
nobler
patriotism,
then
surely
some
knowledge
of
history
would
have
to
be
added.
Emile
Faguet
has
told
usthat
:
'
The
fatherland
is
its
history.
Consequently
the
study
of
the
nation's
history,
while
imbuing
the
pupils
with
the
love
and
honor
of
coimtry,
brings
forth
in
the
citizen
a
feeling
of
responsibility
towards
the
commonwealth,
and
this
is
of
transcendental
importance.
Finally,
what
would
indeed
round
up
the
practical
side
of
the
program
of
elemental
in-
struction
or
education,
would
be
the
addition
of
drawing,
singing,
andmanual
arts,
for
the
purpose
of
bringing
out
the
latent
esthetic
sense
and
de-
veloping
technical
efficiency,
constituting
an
admirable
preparation
for
industrial
life.
The
teaching
of
these
subjects
should
be
in
perfect
harmony
with
the
predominant
industrial
pro-
146
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
duction,
or
with
the
industry
most
susceptible
of
flourishingin
the
locality.
The
teaching
of
manual
arts
has
moreover
a
very
important
moral
influence,
because
it
adds
dignity
to
manual
labor,
lifting
it
towards
the
sphere
of
the
mind.
Surely
three
years
would
be
sufficient,
that
is
to
say
one
more
than
the
time
appointed
by
the
extant
law,
to
develop
the
curriculum
as
here
proposed,while
retaining
of
course
the
elemental
character
to
the
whole
of
the
instruction.
This
is
the
duration
of
instruction
in
Porto
Rico's
rural
schools.
And
to
crown
the
work
begun
by
the
elemen-
tary
schools,
directed
in
a
technological
sense,
let
the
law
authorizethe
Executive,
finally,
to
establish
in
each
region,
and
in
keeping
with
its
necessities,
one
or
several
practical
industrial
or
agricultural
schools.
The
principal
object
of
these
schools
would
be
to
perfect
the
usual
methods
of
pro-
duction
soas
to
increase
and
improve
theoutput,
and
to
enable,
through
the
propagation
of
the
most
modern
methodsand
teachings,
persons
of
enterprise
and
thrift
to
establish
new
industries:
by-products
of
the
natural
output,
or
of
the
special
aptness
of
the
inhabitants.
The
value
of
new
methods
and
influence
would
be
beyond
computa-
tion
in
the
industry
and
pursuits
of
many
of
our
natives,
such
as
the
ceramic
art
and
pottery
in
Guadalajara;
the
manufacture,
as
at
Olinala
(Guerrero)
and
Uruapan
(Michoacan),
of
vases
and
trunks
decorated
with
most
original
drawings
Improvement
of
the
People
147
by
means
of
a
certain
paint
similar
to
the
best
Japanese
enamel;
of
the
laces
and
embroideries
of
Aguascalientes
;
of
the
shawls
of
Santa
Maria
(San
Luis
Potosi)
and
of
Tenancingo
(Mexico)
of
the
hats
(imitations
of
Jipijapa
or
Panama
hats)
of
some
parts
of
Yucatan,
for
the
making
of
which
they
carry
the
palm
and
fiber
from
the
department
of
Peten
(Guatemala),
though
it
exists
in
a
wild
state
in
the
valley
of
the
San
Pedro
River,
an
affluent
of
the
Usumacinta,
at
Tabasco;
and
of
the
Mexican
hats
of
western
Tabasco
;
of
the
Oaxaca
mattings
and
those
made
by
the
Chamula
Indians
of
Chiapas.
Finally,
in
a
very
great
number
of
smaller
industries,
such
as
cloth
mak-
ing,
pottery,
basketweaving,
carried
on
by
all
the
surviving
autochthonous
tribes,
who
still
use
most
cumbersome
and
laborious
primitive
methods,
the
production
coiild,
by
means
of
schoolteach-
ing,
ingenuity,
and
adaptabiUty,
be
so
increased
that
substantial
markets
in
foreign
parts
could
be
created,
and
nevertheless
the
characteristic
native
effect
be
retained.
Let
us
recall
inthis
connection,
the
weavings
of
Pamachic,
of
local
fame,
for
the
making
of
which
the
Tarahumar
women
use
so
primitive
an
apparatus
that
—
accord-
ing
to
Carl
Lumholtz
—
a
scarf
means
the
work
of
four
days,
and
a
blanket
the
labor
of
a
whole
year.
Let
us
consider,
moreover,
the
influence
which
would
be
exercised
by
the
popularization
in
every
locality
of
the
most
effective
and
rapid
methods
of
cultivation,
by
the
industrial
transformation
of
148
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
the
products
of
the
soil,
to-day
not
utilized,
and
by
the
utilization
of
numberless
founts
of
production
to-day
untouched,
and
we
shall
reach
the
conclu-
sion
that
the
people
through
such
means,
would
not
only
acquire
most
valuable
and
steadying
knowledge,
but
would
beget
the
means
of
econo-
mical
improvement
which
they
need
so
sorely
and
would
bring
up
to
an
adequate
level
the
wealth,
industry,
and
welfare
of
the
whole
country.
 But
if
the
essential
condition
for
satisfactorily
bringing
into
being
social
facts
derived
from
the
various
technical
professions,
is
the
efficiency
of
the
staff,
this
requirement
becomes
even
more
imperious
when
we
think
of
the
teaching
staff
which
relies
upon
a
science
whose
mysteries
are
just
beginning
to
be
known:
Psychology.
This
is
all
the
more
important
when
the
curriculum
is
not
too
rigidly
defined,
and
necessarily
cannot
be
so,
as
elasticity
and
latitude
must
be
allowed
for
the
exercise
of
good
judgmentand
discern-
ment,
according
to
the
race
and
the
environment.
A
great
educator
tells
us
:
'
The
professor
and
the
pupil
must
possess
the
same
intimate,
inward
sense
:
a
mutual
affinity,
as
condition
of
dual
moral
and
intellectual
development.
The
professor
must
embody
in
his
personality
the
characteristic
phases
and
periods
of
development
shown
in
the
pupil,
so
that
the
intellectual
forces
of
the
child
may
be
enveloped
in
that
atmosphere
of
sympathy
and
esteem
which
is
necessary
for
a
wholesome
activity.
If
the
teaching
is
to
be
efficacious,
and
Improvement
of
the
People
149
the
development
natural,
there
must
be
in
both
teacher
and
pupil
certain
intuitive
elements
as
a
result
of
the
same
ethnical
phases.'
Hence,
so
that
the
popular
instruction
may
be
truly
frmt-
ful,
it
must
be
entrusted
to
a
staff
proceeding
from
the
same
locality
as
the
pupils;
and
therefore
we
must
proceed,
before
anything
else,
and
above
everything
else,
to
form
this
great
staff
by
means
of
the
previous
estabhshment
of
regional
normal
schools.
In
short,
it
may
be
said
that
the
proposed
modifications
to
the
extant
law
on
elemental
education,
would
consist
in:
restricting
the
school
attendance
permitted
by
Article
6th;in
suppressing
Article
yth,
which
recommends
the
free
distribu-
tion
of
food
and
clothing
among
the
pupils
so
as
to
stimulate
their
attendance
at
school;
in
extend-
ing
the
term
of
education
soasto
comprise
three
years,
instead
of
the
two
hitherto
allowed
as
maximum
by
Article
jd;
to
extend
also
the
pro-
gram
of
studies
prescribed
in
Article
2d,
adding
thereto
elemental
notio?is
of
geography,
history,
drawing,
and
the
manual
arts;
and
lastly,
in
author-
izing
the
creation
of
practical
agricultural
and
industrial
schools^
and
also
the
establishment
oj
regional
normal
schools
In
order
to
be
consistent
with
the
contents
of
this
book
—
without
forgetting
the
clear-cut
con-
clusions
arising
from
almost
every
page
—
I
shall
now
have
to
add
to
the
program
of
popular
150
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
instruction,
the
teaching
of
the
elementary
principles
djhygiene.
^
The
investigation
brought
about
by
my
pam-
phlet
could
hardly
have
been
more
fruitful.
It
brought
forth,
gratuitously
and
spontaneously,
many
new
ideas
contained
in
numberless
letters,
and
in
seventy
odd
serious
studies
and
reports
confirming
in
substance
those
ideas
which
I
have
just
set
forth,
and
diametrically
opposed
to
official
ideas.
To
better
vouch
for
the
matter,
I
shall
transcribe
herewith
some
of
the
opinions,
begin-
ning
w4th
the
very
interesting
letter,
given
in
full,
written
me
under
date
of
August
30,
1912,
by
Mr.
Carlos
Prieto,
a
distinguished
student,
at
that
time
in
the
last
year
of
the
civil
engineering
course,
and
later
on
one
of
the
bravest,
most
talented,
and
most
honest
soldiers
of
the
revolution:
Dear
Master
and
Friend:
Ihave
read
carefully
your
interesting
pam-
phlet
regarding
rudimentary
instruction
in
the
Republic.
I
congratulate
you
upon
the
dispas-
sionate
expose
of
the
arduous
problem,
examined
always
with
the
earnest
desire
toget
at
the
truth,
and
throughout
appraising
factors
at
their
just
value.
The
matter
of
itself
is
apt
to
lead
us
to
obvious,
and
most
sterile
platitudes
unless
handled
with
the
utmost
discernment.
^
It
is
proper
to
call
to
mind
inthis
connection,
that
Dr.
Eve-
rardo
Landa,
in
his
collaboratingreport
dated
July
25,
1912,
called
attention
to
the
need
of
making
the
said
addition
to
the
program
of
popular
instruction.
Improvement
of
the
People
151
You
point
out,
as
the
threesources
of
greatest
difficulty:
the
mental
level
of
the
people
and
the
nature
of
the
population
;
the
meagemess
of
funds
available;
and
the
law's
shortcomings
and
delay.
That
is
to
say,
you
cite
the
general
condition
of
the
great
mass
of
the
people
(a
passive,
even
negative
element),
and
the
active
economical
and
technical
factors.
The
mathematical,
or
rather
dynamic,
setting
of
the
question
which
you
place
before
us
is
strictly
true:
the
resultant
of
all
available
active
media
should
be
equal
to
the
sum
of
resistances
which
the
medium
may
oppose
to
the
application
of
the
law.
Among
^sher-^sistances
which
the
medium
may
opposer^to
such
a
purpose,
thete
is
one
very
powerlul,
perhaps
the
most
powerful,
resulting
from
the
economic
state
of
our
illite-
rate
mass.
-
It
is
evident
that
the
social
strata
;which
would
be
affected
by
the
rudimentary
instruction
would
be
in
great
partthe
rural
population
of
school
age,
living
in
haciendas
or
on
estates
and
ranches,
and
in
the
small
villages
ofagricultural
regions.
This
agricultural
population
of
Mexico
makes
up
almost
the
whole
of
our
national
proletariat,
and
its
economic
condition
is
such,
that
it
seems
im-
possible
to
set
down
the
lines
on
which
to
educate
them,
before
attending
to
the
problem
of
feeding
them.
Our
country
laborer's
work,
besides
being
miserably
paid,
is
in
demand
only
at
certain
per-
iods
of
the
year
(during
sowing
and
reaping),
and
152
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
with
such
earnings
which
are
obtained
only
at
certain
periods
of
the
year
he
must
needs
attend
to
the
requirements
of
his
family
—
frequently
a
mostnumerous
one.
With
such
a
precarious
income
the
feeding
problem
is
of
course
unsatis-
factory;
clothing
is
most
primitive;
and
instruc-
tion
and
morals,
which
are
not
indispensable
to
the
problem
of
sheer
existence,
are
accounted
as
of
no
value
in
a
medium
where
the
individual
physi-
ological
functions
of
assimilation
reach
limits
of
squalor
and
want.
Let
us
assume,
the
operation
of
the
wisest
law
of
primary
instructior..,
favored
by
the
most
liberal
budgets,
Cc:nied
cut
b}-'^
i:he
best
technical
ele-
ments,
with
the
schools
distiibuted
among
the
agriciiltural
population
in
such
a
way
asto
permit
easy
access
on
the
part
of
the
pupils.
The
child
will
attend
school,
a^^ofy^.
provided
that
his
family
can
feed
and
cloth-e
him,
without
having
to
use
him
as
a
factor
in
the
problem
of
food
and
clothing
supply.
Now
in
our
agricultural
regions
gene-
rally,
owing
to
the
rapaciousness
and
indifference
of
the
owner,
and
the
venality
of
the
political
chief,
the
laborer
is
kept
down
in
such
a
condition
of
poverty
that
he
finds
himself
compelled
to
send
his
son
or
daughter
of
school
age
to
work
in
the
fields
so
as
to
secure
the
child's
living,
and
even
to
have
him
contribute
to
the
generalsup-
port.
On
the
estates
we
see
children
doing
nothing
whatever
to
improve
their
minds.
Little
ones
from
six
to
twelve
years
of
age
take
the
cattle
Improvement
of
the
People
153
and
sheep
to
pastme,
frighten
away
seed
hunting
birds,
and,
in
a
word,
carry
onwhatever
tasks
are
compatible
with
their
physical
weakness,
and
because
of
the
scantiness
of
the
wage
they
receive
the
owners
prefer
them
for
the
work.
With
such
conditions,
I
infer
that,
were
the
law
not
to
compulsorily
enforce
attendance,
no
one
would
go
to
school.
However,
should
the
law,
notwithstanding
the
conditions,
and
regardless
of
justice,
compel
the
pupils
to
attend
school,
then
would
the
government
act
as
a
powerful
agent
to
lower
further
the
degraded
status
of
the
common
people,
contributing
to
their
further
physiological
degeneration.
You
also
point
out
as
an
interesting
factor
in
the
diffusion
of
instruction
'
the
emulation
brought
out
by
the
examples
of
individual
economical
improvement
caused
by
instruction'
recognizing
the
enormous
importance
of
the
factor
'self-
interest.'
But
in
our
country
at
present,
such
examples
are
really
too
rare,
to
the
degree
of
not
producingemulation
among
our
illiterate
mass.
In
our
lower
strata
all
are
treated
alike,
save
that
those
less
ignorant
suffer
more,
for
to
their
lament-
able
condition
they
have
to
add
greater
conscious-
ness,
and
consequently
discontent.
I
consider
that
the
economic
condition
of
the
rural
population
is
an
artificial
resultant
of
the
most
unsatisfactory
distribution
of
property;
of
the
selfishness
of
the
o^Aoier;
and
of
the
complicity
of
the
political
and
judicial
authorities
(who
154
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
frequently
depend
on
the
proprietor
and
are
in
his
pay).
In
these
conditions
it
is
very
difficult
to
instruct
or
teach
the
country
laborer,
and
even
should
it
be
done,
he
is
not
empowered
tostruggle
against
poverty,
because
the
land-owner
will
continue
to
pay
his
miserable
upkeep,
and
the
laborer
will
be
still
more
discontented
therewith.
'It
is
impossible
to
expect
moral
education
where
the
economic
ambient
does
not
permit
it.
Those
who
preach
the
necessity
of
educating
the
masses
in
order
to
better
their
economic
conditions
state
only
half
truths.
The
diffusion
of
instruction
benefits
in
so
far
only
as
it
makes
men
discontented
with
their
lot,
and
prompts
them
to
discard
certain
vices
which
sap
their
vitality
and
efficiency,
and
thus
enables
them
to
better
master
their
destiny,
or
to
rebel
against
it.
And
in
this
way
the
public
schools
become
'breeding
grounds
for
discord
and
revolution'
(Zoydes,Poverty
and
Discontent),
and
become
*
Zapatista
factories.
As
long
as
the
political
action
of
a
government
does
not
show
tendencies
towards
improving
the
economic
welfare
of
the
masses
of
the
people,
all
the
methods
of
intellectual
and
moral
improve-
ment
must
perforce
be
Utopian.
While
our
proletariat
continues
in
the
present
economic
condition,
it
will
ever
be
ready
to
follow
the
dema-
gogical
preachings
of
any
agrarian
fallacy
or
injustice
promising
relief,
and
only
fear
and
the
instinct
of
self-preservation
will
control
it.
We
Improvement
of
the
People
155
must
admit
that
the
enforced
peace
(in
Mexico
ever
since
the
Conquest
we
never
have
had
organic
peace)
has
produced
gratifying
profits
to
land-
owners
and
merchants,
and
in
a
lesser
degree
to
the
middle
class,
professional
men,
employees,
etc.,
all
of
whom
constitute
the
great
minority
of
the
population.
The
immense
majority
has
been
grovelling
in
poverty
which
is
really
worse
than
legalized
slavery.
Revolutionary
conditions
bring,
as
a
rule,
con-
trary
consequences.
The
proletarian
who
rushes
into
the
fray,
in
spite
of
the
struggle,
enjoys
a
certain
amount
of
freedom
and
well-being,
since
he
gratifies
his
needs
and
even
hiscaprices,
gives
way
to
his
revenge,
always
a
sweet
pleasure
for
a
primitive
brain,
becoming
almost
an
esthetic
emotion,
and
enjoys
a
carnival
of
spoliation,
assas-
sination,
and
arson.
On
the
other
hand,
dema-
gogical
pratings
and
exhortations
to
sacking,
have
but
faint
echo
among
the
educated
who
enjoy
a
certain
amount
of
physical
and
moral
well-being,
as
they
are
reluctant
to
forsake
such
benefits
as
they
have,
to
fly
to
others
that
they
know
not
of.
In
the
first
case,
whoever
promises
is
blindly
followed.
The
more
he
promises
the
better.
To
pacific
misery,
almost
elbowingdeath
from
ina-
nition,
promises
of
pillage
are
most
alluring,
even
though
they
may
imply
wading
through
blood
and
violence.
The
present
condition
of
the
masses
could
not
be
worse;
they
have
nothing
to
lose.
'Zapatism'
will
continue
to
exist
so
long
as
we
156
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
have
land
monopoly;
and
it
is
idle
to
seek
its
origin
in
illiteracy.
Stalking
starvation
is
the
cause.
But
if
it
be
resolved
to
teach
the
ignorant,
without
previously
improving
his
miserable
eco-
nomical
condition,
nor
compelling
him
to
go
to
school,
it
might
be
done
(I
speak
of
abstract
possi-
biHties)
by
feeding
the
child
at
the
expense
of
the
government,
as
is
done
in
some
cases
in
this
district.
This
would
increase
the
expenses
of
elementary
education
from
$40,500,000
to
$121-
000,000,
supposing
a
minimum
expense
of
ten
cents
per
day
for
the
feeding
of
each
pupil
during
three
hundred
days
of
the
year.
It
is
impossible
to
have
such
a
sum
available
for
elementary
educa-
tion,
notonly
in
these
days
of
revolutionary
pil-
lage,
but
even
in
the
quiet
days
of
land
spoliation,
since
the
amount
of
itself
exceeds
the
Republic's
whole
budget.
Even
were
some
such
sum
avail-
able,
it
would
be
better
to
spend
it
in
improving
the
economic
condition
of
the
mass
through
special
channels
to
be
devised,
and
then
toface
the
prob-
lem
of
decreasing
illiteracy.
Retiiming
to
the
mechanicalstatement
of
the
case,
the
sum
of
re-
sistances
would
have
greatly
diminished,
and
con-
sequently
the
equiHbrium
sought
would
be
attained
with
less
active
elements.
The
solution
which
you
propose
approaches
to
a
great
degree
the
educational
ideal
desired,
and
might
be
reached
after
some
years,since
to
establish
it
we
should
first
have
to
form
a
com-
Improvement
of
the
People
157
petent
teaching
staff,
practically
capable
of
teaching
children
who
do
not
speak
Spanish.
Regarding
the
assertion
that
a
common
speech
is
one
of
the
most
powerful
factors
for
instilling
the
notion
of
love
of
country,
I
think
it
must
of
course
be
so
in
some
countries
of
homogeneous
population,
whose
traditions
have
been
handed
down
from
father
to
son,
from
the
remotest
generations,
in
the
common
speech,
vivid
and
enfolding.
But
in
Mexico
it
has
undoubtedly
a
lesser
importance,
since
a
great
mass
of
the
popula-
tion
is
aboriginal,
and
Spanish
is
the
language
of
the
conquerors.
We
must
not
overlook
the
fact
that
the
Conquest
may
have
brought
the
Indian
the
new
faith
and
a
questionable
civilization,
but
it
also
brought
him
more
misfortunes
than
benefits.
The
conquered
race
lost
the
lands
it
had
freely
cultivated,
and
its
sapient
agricultural
communism.
From
my
point
of
view
patriotism
has
two
deep
roots,
nourished
in
a
more
or
less
homogeneous
collectivity,
and
in
the
land
enjoying
such
aggrega-
tion.
For
the
first
we
have
the
factors
of
race,
tradition,
customs,
language,
religion,
etc.
Patri-
otism
will
be
all
the
more
intense
when
with
such
individual
attributes
a
more
homogeneous
col-
lectivity
is
formed.
The
land
owned
(directly
or
indirectly)
is
the
principal
factor.
Of
course
there
are
lands
and
nations
of
recent
inception
where
the
constituentelements,
ethnical,
religious,
linguistic,
etc.,
form
a
heterogeneous
mass,
but
158
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
where
there
is
an
equitable
direct
or
indirect
apportionment
of
the
land.
The
natives
who
are
ready
to
sacrifice
their
Uves
in
their
country's
defense
and
to
repel
foreign
invasion
must
be
impelled
by
some
powerful
motive.
What
is
it?
For
the
'
right
of
dying
of
starvation
'
?
Of
having
no
land?
For
tradition?
For
the
mother
tongue?
For
rehgion?
In
countries
such
as
ours,
foreign
invasions
are
repelled
as
the
result
of
the
chivalrous
spirit
of
a
few,
through
'virility,'
through
themale's
instinct
spurred
by
the
officer,
which
appears
after
the
man
has
been
forcibly
impressed
into
service,
the
only
method
of
raising
an
army
which
has
given
concrete
results.
Ever
since
the
Conquest
we
have
been
infamously
exploiting
the
common
illiterate
people.
The
peon
has
been
made
to
fight
for
and
against
countless
revolutions,
and
never
has
he
had
any
benefit
therefrom,
either
for
himself
or
his
kind.
His
bloodhas
been
shed,
to
no
purpose
whatever
as
regards
his
material
and
moral
uplift.
He
has
rather
receded
than
advanced.
What
has
the
great
mass
of
the
com-
mon
illiterates
gained
from
the
wars
of
Independ-
ence,
from
the
Reforma,
or
from
the
Maderista
upheaval?
We
have
allowed
to
ferment
within
the
race,
the
righteous
land
hunger,
which
has
broken
out
at
times
for
the
benefit
of
others.
Now
it
breaks
out
in
savage
manifestations,
wherein
it
docs^but
copy
the
models
of
morality
within
reach.
We
Improvement
of
the
People
159
must
avoid
this
by
doing
something
tangible
to
improve
the
material
condition
of
the
proletariat.
'Thus'
(says
Count
de
Zoydes)
'in
the
order
of
human
desires,
the
necessities
come
first,
and
are
of
wider
importance.
The
desires
above
the
animal
scale
may
originate
and
seek
gratification,
only
when
our
common
desires,
common
to
the
animal
kingdom,
have
been
satisfied.
And
those
who
imagine
that
the
branch
of
philosophy
com-
prising
the
gratification
of
animal
desires,
and
especially
the
manner
of
providing
man's
food,
raiment,
and
habitation,
is
a
rather
low
and
ignoble
science,
are
like
a
general
engrossed
in
the
moving
of
his
forces,
and
recking
not
the
matter
of
food
supply,
clothing,
or
rest,
for
his
armies
.
.
.
'
I
have
unwittingly
exceeded
bounds
in
exam-
ining
one
of
the
attributes
of
the
passive
factor
of
the
problem
of
education,
but
I
think
I
have
demonstrated
its
enormous
resistance,
so
long
as
the
present
abject
conditions
of
poverty
are
allowed
to
persist.
Hence
my
conviction
thatthe
active
factors
(technical
and
economic)
would
not
be
able
of
themselves
to
solve
the
problem.
Even
with
such
factors,
and
that
of
'com-
pulsion'
to
oblige
the
young
illiterate
to
receive
education,
it
would
be
a
costly
immoral
act
to
educate
him
so
as
to
bring
home
to
him
with
greater
force
the
hopelessness
of
his
condition.
Poverty
breeds
ignorance,
not
the
reverse.
A
community
which
does
not
suffer
from
poverty
seeks
culture
spontaneously,
from
self-interest
i6o
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
and
vanity.
But
only
when
the
animal
wants
have
been
provided
for
can
we
feel
this
human
vanity,
which,
however
misguided
at
times,
is
yet
the
secret
motive
power
of
emulations.
Self-
love
is
necessary
to
urge,
and
reason
to
restrain.
Such
a
combination
would
of
course
offer
the
minimum
of
resistance
to
thereduction
of
na-
tional
illiteracy,
following
your
general
scheme.
Then
it
would
be
possibleto
bring
into
play
the
active
factors,
since
the
economic
factor,
which
is
so
essential,
could
be
obtained
by
means
of
indirect
equitable
contribution,
which
the
community
would
pay
into
the
state
and
which
the
state
fails
to
receive
at
present,
because
the
great
landowner
is
personally
diverting
all
to
his
own
profit.
I
consider
your
work
most
able
to
demonstrate
the
great
difficulties
which
surround
the
problem
of
extirpating
ilUteracy,
showing
how
ridiculous
is
the
sum
set
aside
by
Congress,
striving
with
so
miserable
a
sop
to
solve
a
problem
of
proportions
so
transcendental.
This
crucial
question,
more-
over,
had
never
been
before
brought
to
public
notice
with
a
view
of
dealing
with
it
practically.
It
had
been
at
times
felt
as
the
result
of
romanti-
cism
or
amateurish
sentimentality,
used
as
a
shibboleth
by
superficial
souls
during
ephemeral
spells
of
democratic
fanaticism.
In
your
modifications
to
some
articles
of
the
law,
you
present
a
conscientious
project
for
elemen-
tary
teaching,
extending
it
to
three
years,
restrict-
ing
it
to
the
illiterates
of
school
age,
and
including
Improvement
of
the
People
i6i
indispensable
and
not
abstract
matters,
in
order
to
positively
initiate
theevolution
of
individual
faculties,
to
improve
industrial
regional
activity,
and
to
prepare
the
way
for
ulterior
mental
acqui-
sitions.
You
do
not
overlook
the
industries
which
remain
to
us,
and
by
removing
their
primi-
tive
methods,
but
not
the
national
seal
and
char-
acteristics,
you
unfold
withadmirable
perception
the
practical
tendencies
of
the
scheme.
 Such
parts
of
your
plan
as
I
fail
to
specially
mention
are
in
thorough
accord
with
the
results
of
my
observation.
If
I
have
spoken
so
much
of
the
frightful
economic
condition
of
our
agricul-
tural
mass,
it
has
been
simply
because,
in
my
opinion,
it
is
the
greatest
stumbling
block
to
education,
and
because
it
is
the
cause
of
our
great
national
calamities.
If
you
did
not
especially
dweU
on
this
all-important
factor,
I
fancy
it
must
have
been
due
to
your
desire
to
keep
within
the
province
of
the
Department
of
Education
and
Fine
Arts.
Presumably
as
Assistant
Secretary
of
Education
you
did
not
deem
it
proper
to
give
out
an
official
opinion
which,
owing
to
its
source,
would
serve
to
increasefurther
the
well
founded
discontent
of
the
agricultural
population,
since
the
Chief
Magistrate
does
not
seem
to
wish
to
solve
the
problem
of
starvation
through
its
natural
channel.
He
appears
to
trust
to
the
success
of
military
operations
which,
if
successful,
would
destroy
only
the
symptom,
without
modifying
the
serious
distemper
of
the
social
organism,
due
i62
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
to
the
enormous
economic
dislocation
caused
by
land
monopoly.
Please
overlook
whatever
is
faulty
in
the
style
of
this
letter.
I
have
but
wished
to
utter
a
plain
unvarnished
tale,
and
to
contribute
my
mite
to
your
effort.
Accept
my
heartiest
congratulations
for
your
earnest
endeavors
in
the
cause
of
generaleducation,
and
for
having
resigned
your
office
as
Assistant
Secretary
in
view
of
obstacles
of
a
nature
to
render
your
labors
less
purposeful.
Your
affectionate
friend,
C.
Prieto
R.
From
Attomey-at-law
Rafael
del
Alba's
com-
munication
I
extract:
Among
current
nonsense
we
find
the
theory
that
a
nation's
advance
is
measured
by
the
number
of
people
therein
knowing
how
to
read
and
write.
It
is
irrelevant
that
what
is
read
may
be
most
harmful,
and
that
the
writings
consist
mostly
of
blasphemy
and
turpitudes
plastered
over
public
places
by
the
hoi
polloi
advertising
its
knowledge.
The
lower
classes
read,
that
seems
to
be
the
de-
sideratum
;
they
read
salacious
novels,
newspapers
inciting
to
crime,
and
leave
on
walls
and
public
places
scribblingsairing
their
degradation
and
filthy-mindedness.
It
seems
to
have
no
import-
ance
thatthe
said
classes
are
poorly
fed,
that
they
never
wash,
that
they
fail
to
work.
It
will
appear
odd
that
some
other
people
not
knowing
Improvement
of
the
People
163
perhaps
how
to
read
or
write,
listen
with
interest
and
discernment
to
descriptions
of
journeys,
reports
on
improvement
of
cultivations,
on
the
works
of
the
region,
and
that
they
may
dictate
to
the
school
teacher
or
the
priest
letters
in
which
are
revealed
honest
sentiments
and
high
thoughts.
 An
author
of
works
of
scientific
generalization,
who
thinks
and
speaks
clearly,
says
in
this
regard
'Regarding
primary
education
the
author
is
not
in
accord
with
the
significance
usually
attributed
to
the
figures.
It
is
not
possible
to
measure
the
culture
of
a
country
by
the
number
of
individuals
who
know
how
to
read
and
write.
It
is
of
no
importance
if
you
know
how
to
read
and
write,
if
you
do
not
read
and
write,
or
if
what
you
read
lacks
all
intellectual
value.
Let
us
imagine
two
countries,
each
one
with
the
same
number
of
inhabitants
:
in
the
first
one,
all
know
how
to
read
and
write,
but
the
books
sold
at
the
end
of
the
year
amount
to
five
thousand
indecent
novels
and
twohundred
scientific
works;
in
the
second
one,
half
of
the
population
is
illiterate,
but
the
other
half
buys
yearly
five
thousand
scientific
works
and
two
hundred
indecent
novels.
Doubt-
less,
in
these
two
countries,
the
one
possessing
the
greatest
number
of
illiterates
has
nevertheless
the
highest
culture.
The
number
of
public
libra-
ries
in
a
place
is
not
a
siire
sign
of
culture.
In
most
of
them
are
many
dead
works.
We
may
say
the
same
of
a
great
mass
of
newspapers
and
i64
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
periodicals,
honey-combed
with
dry
rot.
A
single
scientific
review
shows
the
existence
of
more
real
cultiire
than
fifty
magazines
devoted
to
bloody
and
sensational
narrations.'
(Emilio
del
Villar,
The
Spanish-American
Republics.)
It
is
true
that
del
Villar,
following
the
doc-
trines
of
Cordelier,
scoffs
at
the
famous
coef-
ficients
of
marriage,
legitimacy
in
births,
etc.,
on
which
the
framers
of
statistics
lay
so
much
stress.
I
remember,
in
connection
with
this
cult
for
the
sublime
science
of
interpreting
printed
signs,
what
Mr.
Vigil
used
to
say
to
me.
Mr.
Vigil,
during
the
last
years
of
his
life,
possessed
a
per^
fectly
clear
intelligence;
he
never
showed
the
faintest
kind
of
decadence,
having
a
most
serene
judgment,
seeing
all
as
though
from
some
emi-
nence;
he
was
cautious
of
pitfalls
and
snares,
and
public
shibboleths,
knowing
that
he
would
soon
forsake
for
ever
all
things
of
the
earth;
in
short
he
was
endowed
with
an
Augustan
serenity
and
clearness
of
vision
remindingone
of
the
highest
examples
of
the
Greek
philosophers.
Mr.
Vigil,
without
attributing
to
the
almost
diabolical
art
of
reading
and
that
of
writing,
a
very
great
influ-
ence
in
the
daily
increasing
unhappiness,
under-
stood
that
this
misery
proceeds
perhaps
from
the
fact
that
all
in
our
sordid
life
is
conventional,
and
is
based
on
the
lies
and
prejudices
which
our
reason
and
our
conscience
reject,
but
which
through
habit
of
cowardice
we
still
revere.
He
did
not
believe
in
the
value
of
merely
knowing
the
signi-
Improvement
of
the
People
165
ficance
of
letters
as
an
element
of
the
progress
and
culture
of
a
people,
nor
did
he
attribute
to
the
numbers
of
knowers
of
the
alphabet
the
importance
which
they
are
apt
to
receive
..
.
Lawyer
Ezequiel
A.
Chavez,
Assistant
Secre-
tary
of
PubHc
Instruction
and
Fine
Arts,
since
the
creation
ofthis
State
Department,
up
to
a
few
months
before
the
fall
of
General
Diaz's
govern-
ment,
in
his
Notes
makes
some
noteworthy
remarks
on
my
pamphlet,
as
follows:
John
Dewey,
the
eminent
educationist
of
the
University
of
Chicago,
sums
up
the
central
idea
as
to
what
education
really
is,
considering
it
as
'the
sum
total
of
processes
through
which
a
community
or
a
social
group,small
or
large,
transmits
its
acquired
power
and
purpose,
in
order
to
ensure
its
own
existence
and
development.'
'To
make
clear
the
need
of
education,'
he
says,
'all
the
members
already
composing
society
must
die,
and
consequently
the
conservation
of
the
same
society
depends
upon
the
education
of
its
new
members,
so
that
they
may
assume
the
functions
of
this
society,
and
uphold
what
it
may
have
of
value.
Therefore,
to
prepare
the
new
generations
that
they
may
adapt
themselves
to
social
Hfe;
to
place
them
in
possession
of
the
inheritance
of
progress,
organization,
and
Hfe,
which
the
cen-
turies
have
been
accumulating;
to
render
them
capable
of
utiHzing
well
the
said
inheritance,
of
i66
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
preserving
it
intact,
and
of
increasing
and
improv-
ing
it,
is
the
most
important
question.
It
is
what
we
must
do,
if
we
do
not
wish
to
see
our
organization
annihilated
by
the
new
members
and
cause
the
destruction
of
the
very
germs
of
collective
life.
The
most
important
problem
for
every
people,
not
only
for
the
Mexican
people,
consists,
therefore,
and
will
always
consist,
not
in
establishing
ele-
mentary
schools,
but
in
imparting
to
all
the
chil-
dren
of
that
people
such
an
education
that
through
it
they
may
be
really
placed
in
possession
of
the
inheritance
of
culture
and
advancement
be-
queathed
by
predecessors;
so
that
the
children
in
turn
may
bequeath
it
to
their
descendants,
improved
as
far
as
possible.
Only
in
this
way
do
the
people
thrive
on
the
roll
of
nations;
and
only
thus
do
they
constantly
progress.
There
is
nothing
therefore
more
important,
nor
more
difficult,
nor
of
greater
urgency.
But
if
the
elementary
or
rudimentary
schools,
such
as
were
prescribed
by
the
law
of
June
i,
191
1
,
do
not
place
the
people
in
possession
of
their
inheritance
of
culture,
becausethey
do
not
educate
them,
nor
think
of
educating
them;
if
they
are
schools
of
simple
instruction
—
that
is,
of
mere
transmission
of
subjects,
such
as
speaking,
reading,
and
reckoning,
or
what
Elliott
calls
the
simple
tools
of
education,
but
not
education
itself
—
then
we
find
that
the
elementary
schools
are
not
calcu-
latedto
transmit
to
future
generations,
the
power
Improvement
of
the
People
167
acquired
by
the
Republic
in
order
to
live,
nor
its
purposes;
neither
can
they
ensure
autonomic
exist-
ence,
and
the
development
of
Mexican
society.
It
is
only
too
true
that
nowhere
are
schools
the
sole
agents
of
education;
but
it
is
also
true
that
they
must
be
the
most
important
agents
of
education
in
a
society
such
as
ours,
where
the
social
medium
is
poisoned
by
secular
envy
and
hatred,
by
the
contempt
and
contumely
of
genera-
tions;
a
society
wherein
demagogues
can
from
time
to
time
by
fanning
rancor
and
envy
among
the
lower
strata
cause
them
to
assail
the
upper
classes;
where
these
assume
aloofness
and
a
de-
tached
contempt
and
the
chasms
widen
with
time
a
society
where
humble
homes
go
to
pieces
under
poverty,
vice,
the
bitterness
of
misfortune
and
the
general
shiftiness
of
conditions;
where
left
to
itself,
without
educators,
it
is
in
peril
of
falling
deeper
in
the
slough
of
dissolution,
and
of
finally
perishing
in
horrible
convulsions,
Hke
those
mon-
strous
beings,
planaria
torva
bicephalos
of
the
laboratory,
which
when
developed
artificially,
as
was
done
by
Dr.
Van
Duyne,
and
placed
with
their
heads
in
opposite
directions,
exercised
such
a
strain
with
each
head
thatthe
animal
ended
by
tearing
up
its
own
body.
The
school
has,
therefore,
in
societies
such
as
ours,
the
most
difficult
mission.
It
must
teach
the
powerful
to
understand
and
love
and
serve
the
humble;
it
must
teach
the
humble
to
under-
stand,
love,
and
serve
the
powerful.
i68
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
But
Mr.
Chavez
goes
farther
still.
In
the
pamphlet
which
brought
out
the
preceding
re-
marks
I
stated
that
the
teaching
given
out
by
the
schools
in
question,
because
of
its
rudimentary
and
abstract
character,
might
be
useless
or
harmful.
Mr.
Chavez
comes
out
clearly,
and
affirms
that
the
said
teaching
must
necessarily
he
useless
and
noxious:
It
will
not
be
noxious
for
those
who
live
in
the
small
isles
of
wholesome
ambient
me-
dium,
which
fortunately
exist
in
the
country;
it
will
not
be
uselessfor
the
few
individuals
who
can
practice
it;
but
this
will
not
easily
happen,
since,
as
Mr.
Pani
affirms,
it
is
absurd
to
imagine
that
such
schools
can
develop
their
program
in
two
years,
since
the
majority
of
the
other
schools,
though
some
of
them
are
excellent
in
many
respects,
cannot
teach
correctly,
nor
ensure
theulterior
practice
of
the
most
useful
art
of
reading,save
in
a
period
exceeding
two
yearsT
And
after
commenting
on
other
portions
of
my
pamphlet,
Mr.
Chavez
concludes:
...
For
the
good
of
the
Republic
it
must
be
hoped
that,
as
soon
as
possible,
the
law
es-
tablishing
rudimentary
schools
be
adequately
amended.
From
a
conscientious
study
made
by
Architect
Federico
Mariscal
—
commissioned
to
do
so
by
the
Athenaeum
of
Mexico
—
I
extract
the
following
significant
passage:
For
further
proof,
we
could
cite
what
happened
Improvement
of
the
People
169
In
Italy.
In
Calabria,
schools
of
the
rudimentary
type
were
established,
of
the
very
kind
which
you
so
wisely
condemn,
and,
as
a
consequence,
after
a
certain
time,
there
was
a
great
increase
in
criminality.
This
work
would
have
no
end
if
I
tried
to
include
therein
all
the
opinions
against
the
wild
plan
of
rudimentary
schools,
which
were
made
a
part
of
our
institutions
by
decree
of
June
i,
191
1,
and
w^hich
can
only
be
explained
away
by
the
haste
with
which
the
tottering
government
of
Don
Porfirio
was
compelled
to
throw
sand
in
the
eyes
of
the
people,
pretending
to
have,
in
its
agonizing
efforts
at
self-preservation,
the
same
aspirations
as
had
been
proclaimed
by
the
revolution
which
overthrew
it
after
a
few
days.
But
what
is
more
difficult
to
understand
is
why
the
following
chiefs
of
education,
Messrs.
Pino
Suarez,
and
Diaz
Lombardo,
should
have
fatheredthe
project
with
greatconcern.
They
almost
consumed
the
allotments
assigned
by
Congress,
in
organizing
the
Ministerial
Section
which
had
to
direct
and
manage
the
correspond-
ing
service
—
which
did
not
exist,
—
in
journeys
of
the
so-called
installators
of
the
schools
throughout
the
wildest
and
most
remote
regions
of
the
coun-
try,
and
in
school
furniture.
However,
only
a
few
schools
were
finally
organized
and
operated,
and
under
most
scanty
and
inadequate
conditions.
And,
what
is
even
more
astonishing
—
since
by
170
Intellectual,
Moral,
and
Economic
that
time
the
adverse
opinions
were
many
and
weighty
—
as
soon
as
Lawyer
Vera
Estanol
re-
turned
to
the
Department
of
Public
Education,
through
the
overthrow
of
the
legal
government,
Congress
was
required
to
authorizethe
increase
of
the
number
of
rudimentary
schools
to
five
thousand,
with
an
allotment
of
four
and
one
half
millions
of
pesos
per
year.
By
establishing
many
schools,
says
the
Law-Project,
in
the
greatest
possible
number
of
places
where
ignorance
has
hitherto
been
densest,
and
organizing
them
with
programs
of
elementary
studies,
just
sufficient
to
awaken
by
the
light
of
the
alphabet
and
numbers
the
millions
of
souls
who
sleep
in
the
darkness
of
rankest
ignorance,
the
Minister
felt
certain
that
he
could
guarantee
the
future
redemption
of
the
nation,
preparing
the
children
for
their
subse-
quent
duties
in
a
nation
such
as
ours
which
has
such
marked
democratic
aspirations,
and
placing
the
adults
in
condition
to
cast
their
votes
at
the
ballots
with
the
required
conditions
of
under-
standing
and
altruism.
Many
were
the
cynics
—
of
whom
our
corrupt
environment
breeds
an
abundant
crop
—
who
ascribed
this
absurd
pertinacity
to
the
political
interest
of
controlling
the
votes
of
the
new
teachers
at
the
next
presidential
elections.
I
will
stoop
to
no
further
comments.
A
few
more
words
before
closing.
The
mere
expression
of
ideas
generated
by
the
Improvement
of
the
People
171
study
of
the
conditions
of
the
Hfe
of
our
people
was
a
sort
of
materialization
which
carried
them,
through
their
own
weight
and
almost
without
effort,
to
a
condensation
in
the
various
partial
conclusions
which
I
have
pointed
out
in
each
of
the
chapters
which
make
up
this
vast
exposition.
In
the
same
way,
if
we
glance
through
such
an
exposition
of
facts,
of
ideas,
and
of
conclusions
—
though
they
may
not
be
conserved
in
the
memory
—
it
will
not
be
possible
to
resist
the
na-
tural
impulse,
of
almost
unconscious
reflection,
of
grouping
it
all,
and
of
concentrating
it
in
one
channel,
so
asto
decide,
before
closing
this
book,
that:
The
true
problem
of
Mexico
consists,
therefore,
in
hygienizing
the
population,
physically
and
morally
,
and
in
endeavoring,
by
all
available
means,
to
im-
prove
the
precarious
economical
situation
oj
our
proletariat.
It
must
be
fully
realized
that
the
solution
of
the
part
of
this
problem
which
concerns
the
De-
partment
of
Education
and
the
municipalities
lies
in
establishing
and
maintaining
the
greatest
possible
number
of
schools;
to
do
which
their
cost
must
be
reduced
bymeans
of
a
rational
simplifica-
tion
of
the
organization
and
of
the
school
curriculum.
This
must
be
done
without
reaching
the
pedagogic
poverty
of
rudimentary
instrtiction,
and
without
losing
sight
of
the
fact
that
the
essential
requirements
are:
technological
teaching
to
co-operate,
with
all
the
other
organs
of
the
government,
in
the
work
172
Moral
Improvement
of
the
People
of
economic
improvement
of
the
masses,
and,
diffusion
of
the
elemental
principles
oj
hygiene,
as
an
efficient
protection
for
the
race.
And,
finally,
as
the
medium
constitutes
an
educational
factor
more
powerful
than
the
schools
themselves,
the
country
must,
before
and
above
all,
organize
its
public
administration
upon
a
basis
of
absolute
morality.
Appendices
173
NO.
I
THE
CONSTITUTIONALIST
GOVERNMENT
CONFRONTED
WITH
THE
SANITARY
AND
EDUCATIONAL
PROBLEMS
OF
MEXICO
Address
Delivered
by
Alberto
J.
Pani,
C.E.,
to
the
Mem-
bers
of
the
American
Academy
oj
Political
and
Social
Science
and
of
the
Pennsylvania
Arbitration
and
Peace
Society,
in
''Wither
spoon
Hall,'*
Philadelphia,
Penn.,
U.
S.A.,on
Friday
Evening,
November
lo,
igi6.
Mr.
Chairman,
Members
of
the
Academy
and
of
the
Penn-
sylvania
Arbitration
and
Peace
Society,
Ladies
and
Gentlemen
:
During
the
most
acute
and
violent
period
of
an
armed
revolution
—
a
veritable
chaos
in
which
it
would
seem
that
the
people,
after
destroying
every-
thing,
try
to
commit
suicide
in
a
body
—
the
news
of
isolated
cases,
however
horrible
they
may
be,
cease
to
cause
a
deep
impression,
before
the
awfulness
of
the
general
catastrophe.
As
the
struggle
reaches
some
form
of
organization
by
the
grouping
of
men
around
175
176
Appendices
the
various
nuclei
representing
the
antagonistic
principles
in
action,
individuals
grow
in
importance
until
the
nucleus
which
best
interpreted
the
ambitions
and
wants
of
the
people
acquires
absolute
ascendancy.
Then
this
group
is
unreasonably
expected
to
strictly
fulfill
all
the
obligations
usually
incumbent
upon
a
government
duly
constituted.
The
sensations
then
provoked
by
the
news
of
isolated
cases
of
misfortunes
suffered
by
individuals,
because
of
their
very
rarity,
cause
greater
consternation.
This
is
precisely
what
is
occurring
with
the
present
Mexican
Government.
Take
any
two
dates
from
the
beginning
of
its
organization.
Compare
dispas-
sionately
the
relative
conditions
of
national
life,
and
it
will
be
necessary
to
admit
that
the
country
is
rapidly
returning
to
normal
political
and
social
con-
ditions.
It
is
also
undeniable
that
the
temporary
interruption
of
a
line
of
communication,
or
the
attack
on
a
train
or
village
by
rebels
or
outlaws,
now
causes
an
exaggerated
impression,
people
forgetting
that,
not
so
long
ago,
the
greater
part
of
therailway
lines,
or
the
cities
of
the
Republic,
were
in
the
hands
of
said
rebels
or
outlaws,
and
that
in
the
very
territory
domi-
nated
by
the
Constitutionalist
Government
trains
and
towns
were
but
too
frequently
assaulted.
But
it
is
inconceivable
to
try
to
make
the
present
Government
responsible
for
the
transgressions
of
its
predecessors.
The
revolution
itself
is
a
natural
consequence
of
these
faults.
Former
governments
who
knew
not
how
to
prevent
the
revolution
are
responsible
for
the
evils
which
it
may
have
brought
in
its
train,
and
should
the
nation
be
saved,
as
it
shall
be,
it
will
be
due
solely
to
the
citizens
who
have
been
willing
to
sacrifice
themselves.
In
truth
it
is
only
Appendices
177
through
personal
sacrifices
that
itis
possible
to
con-
struct
a
true
fatherland.
The
enemies
of
the
new
regime
—
irreconcilable
be-
cause
they
will
not
accept
the
sacrifices
imposed
are
now
burning
their
last
cartridges,
making
the
Constitutionalist
Government
responsible
for
many
of
the
calamities
which
caused
the
revolution,
and
which
the
Government,
impelled
by
the
generous
im-
pulse
which
generated
it,
purposes
to
remedy.
Thus
do
we
explain
the
protests
of
the
discontented,
and
the
monstrosity
that
said
protests
are
even
more
energetic
and
loud
when
they
defend
money
than
when
they
defend
life
itself.
The
theme
of
this
night's
address
refers
to
one
of
these
calamities,
a
shameful
legacy
of
the
past.
Inimical
interests
are
trying
to
attack
the
Constitu-
tionalist
Government
on
this
score,
though
itis
the
first
Government
in
Mexico
which
has
tried
to
remedy
this
evil.
Having
been
appointed
by
the
First
Chief
in
charge
of
the
executive
power
of
Mexico,
Mr.
Carranza,
to
make
the
study
of
the
problem,
I
would
only
have
to
summarize
or
copy,
in
order
to
develop
suchtheme,
some
fragments
of
the
corresponding
report.
One
of
the
most
imperative
obligations
that
civilization
imposes
upon
the
State
is
to
duly
protect
human
life,
to
permit
the
growth
of
society.
It
becomes
necessary
to
make
known
theprecepts
of
private
hygiene
and
to
put
them
inpractice,
and
to
enforce
the
precepts
of
publichygiene.
For
the
first,
there
is
the
school
as
an
excellent
organ
of
propaganda.
For
the
second,
with
more
direct
bearing
on
healthful-
ness,
there
are
principally
special
establishments
to
178
Appendices
heal,
to
disinfect,
to
take
prophylactic
measures.
Then
there
are
engineering
works,
laws
and
regulations
put
in
force
by
a
technical
personnel,
or
by
an
ad-
ministrative
or
policecorps.
It
may
therefore
he
said,
without
exaggeration,
that
there
is
a
necessary
relation
of
direct
proportion
between
the
sum
of
civilization
acquired
by
a
country,
and
the
degree
of
perfection
attained
by
its
sanitary
organization.
The
activities,
in
this
respect,
of
General
Diaz's
Government,
during
the
thirty-odd
years
of
enforced
peace
and
of
apparent
material
well-being,
were
devoted
almost
exclusively
to
works
to
gratify
the
love
of
ostentation
or
peculation.
Seldom
were
they
devoted
to
the
true
needs
of
the
country.
There
were
erected
magnificent
buildings.
To
build
the
National
Theater
and
Capitol,
both
unfinished,
it
was
planned
to
spend
sixty
millions
of
pesos.
When
it
was
a
case
of
executing
works
of
public
utility,
their
construction
was
made
subservient
to
the
illicit
ends
pointed
out.
Thus,
for
example,
the
works
of
city
improvement,
never
finished,
not
even
in
the
Capitol,
in
spiteof
the
conditions
of
notoriousunhealthfulness
of
some
important
towns,
were
always
begun
with
elegant
and
costly
asphalt
pavements,
which
it
became
necessary
to
destroy
and
replace,
whenever
a
water
or
drainage
pipe
had
to
be
laid.
The
work
of
education
undertaken
by
the
Government
was
chiefly
dedicated
to
erecting
costly
buildings
for
schools;
it
is
only
in
this
way,
therefore,
that
we
can
realize
thatthe
proportion
of
persons
knowing
how
to
read
and
write
is
barely
30%
of
the
total
population
in
the
Republic.
The
net
resultof
what
was
done
in
these
respects
during
the
long
administration
of
General
Diaz
Appendices
179
couldnot
be
more
disastrous.
If
we
take
the
average
of
mortality
for
the
nine
years
from
1904
to
1912,
the
heyday
of
that
administration,
we
find
that
in
Mexico
City,
where
the
greatest
sum
of
culture
and
material
progress
is
to
be
found,
there
is
a
rate
of
mortality
of
42.
J
deaths
for
each
one
thousand
inhabitants.
That
is
to
say
/.
—
//
is
nearly
three
times
that
prevailing
in
American
cities
of
similar
density
{16.1)
;
//.
Nearly
two
and
one
half
times
larger
than
the
average
coefficient
of
mortality
of
comparable
European
cities
{17.53)
'1
3-i^]&MOGRAPHIQUE
M^DICALE
Out
of
this
publication,
issued
by
La
Division
d'Hygiene
de
la
Ville
de
Bruxelles,
we
have
secured
the
data
for
191
1
for
the
following
thirty
European
cities
Germany:
Berlin,
Breslau,
Cologne,
Dresden,
Frank-
fort-on-the-Main,
Leipzig,
and
Munich.
Austria-Hungary:
Vienna,
Budapest,
and
Praga.
Belgium:
Brussels.
Bulgaria:
Sofia.
Denmark:
Copenhagen.
Spain:
Madrid.
France:
Paris,
Lyon,
Marseilles.
Holland:
The
Hague,
Amsterdam,
and
Rotterdam.
England:
London,
Dublin,
Leeds,
and
Sheffield.
Italy:
Rome.
Norway:
Christiania.
Russia:
Saint-Petersburg
and
Odessa.
Sweden:
Stockholm.
Switzerland:
Berne.
Other
Founts
of
Information
The
data
relative
to
the
other
cities
included
in
tables
Nos.
i
and
2,
proceed
from
the
various
authori-
ties
herewith
Central
America
San
Jos6
(Costa
Rica).
Pages
85
and
93
from
Statistical
Summaries
published
by
the
National
Bureau
of
Statistics
for
1883
to
1910,
at
San
Jose,
1
88
Appendices
Costa
Rica,
1912.
Volume
furnished
by
the
Costa
Rica
Consul
in
Mexico.
Guatemala
(Guatemala).
The
figures
on
popula-
tion
were
taken
from
page
998
of
the
Almanack
de
Gotha,
1913,
whereas
those
referring
to
mortality
—
including
all
the
Department
of
Guatemala
—
are
found
in
page
24
of
the
first
Bulletin
of
Agriculture
and
Statistics
corresponding
to
July,
191
2,
published
by
the
Department
of
the
Interior
of
Guatemala.
There
is
a
copy
of
this
volume
in
the
Library
of
the
Department
of
the
Interior
(Fomento)
of
Mexico.
Tegucigalpa
(Honduras).
The
figures
for
popula-
tion
are
to
be
found
at
page
1003
of
the
Almanack
de
Gotka,
191
3.
The
mortality
was
given
by
the
Honduras
Consul
at
Mexico.
Managua
(Nicaragua)
.
The
figiires
for
population
are
to
be
found
at
page
1064
of
the
Almanack
de
Gotha,
1
91
3.
The
mortality
proceeds
from
the
Bulletin
of
Statistics
of
the
Republic
of
Nicaragua,
Nos.
14
and
15,
corresponding
to
January
i,
191
1,
and
published
March
ist
of
the
same
year.
Volumes
furnished
by
the
Nicaragua
Consul
at
Mexico.
San
Salvador
(El
Salvador).
The
data
of
popula-
tion
as
well
as
of
mortality
are
to
be
found
at
page
7
of
the
corresponding
number
of
thequarter
from
January
to
March,
191
1,
of
the
Bulletin
of
Statistics
and
Meteorology
of
the
General
Bureau
of
Statistics
of
the
Republic
of
Salvador.
Volume
furnished
by
the
Salvador
Consul
at
Mexico.
Soutk
America
Argentine
(Buenos
Ayres).
Data
taken
from
page
1265
of
volume
ix.
of
the
Universal
Illustrated
Euro-
Appendices
189
pean
and
American
Encyclopedia,
to
be
found
in
the
National
Library
of
Mexico.
Rio
Janeiro
(Brazil)
.
Data
taken
from
the
Monthly
Bulletin
of
Demographo-Sanitarian
Statistics
of
the
City
of
Rio
Janeiro,
numbers
corresponding
to
191
1,
to
be
found
in
the
Library
of
the
Board
of
Health
of
Mexico
City.
Santiago
(Chili).
Data
furnished
by
His
Excel-
lency
the
Minister
of
Chili
at
Mexico.
Calculating
the
coefficient
of
that
city,
using
the
figuresof
popula-
tion
and
mortality
—
404,481
inhabitants
and
14,457
deaths
respectively
—
which
areto
be
found
on
pages
21,
44,
and
45
of
the
Synopsis
of
Statistics
and
Geo-
graphy
of
the
Republic
of
Chili
in
1907,
published
in
1909
by
theCentral
Office
of
Statistics
of
Santiago
of
Chili,
the
said
coefficient
turns
out
to
be
only
35.7
—
that
is,
less
than
that
consigned
in
table
No.
2,
by
nearly
five
deaths
per
year
for
each
one
thousand
inhabitants.
The
work
in
question
is
to
be
found
at
the
National
Library
of
Mexico.
Bogota
(Colombia).
Data
ftimished
by
the
Colom-
bian
Consul
at
Mexico.
Panama
(Panama).
The
population
figures
pro-
ceed
from
page
1078
of
the
Almanach
de
Gotha,
191
3.
Those
for
mortality
are
to
be
found
on
pages
20
and
21
of
No.
22
of
the
Bulletin
of
Statistics
of
the
Republic
of
Panama,
published
by
the
General
Bureau
of
Statistics
of
Panama.
Volimie
to
be
found
in
the
Library
of
the
Department
of
Fomento
at
Mexico.
Montevideo
(Uruguay).
The
figures
for
popula-
tion
are
to
be
found
on
page
1240
of
the
Almanach
de
Gotha,
1913.
Those
for
mortality
from
page
7
from
Civil
Conditions
and
Mortality
in
the
Oriental
Republic
of
Uruguay
in
191
1,
report
published
in
1912
by
the
I90
Appendices
General
Bureau
of
the
CivilState.
Volume
to
be
found
in
the
Library
of
the
Mexican
Society
of
Geography
and
Statistics.
Caracas
(Venezuela),
Data
taken
from
page
868,
No.
II,
May,
1911,
of
the
Bulletin
of
the
Minister
of
the
Interior
(Fomento)
of
Venezuela;
publication
to
be
found
in
the
Library
of
the
Department
of
Fomento
at
Mexico.
West
Indies
Havana
(Cuba).
The
figuresfor
population
are
to
be
found
on
page
808
of
the
Almanach
de
Gotha,
1913.
Those
of
mortality
are
to
be
found
on
page
613
of
volume
vii.
—
corresponding
to
June,
1912
of
Sanitation
and
Benefaction,
a
monthly
publication
of
the
same
Department.
Europe
Bucharest
(Rumania).
Data
taken
from
the
table
of
Demographic
International
Coefficients,
consigned
in
volume
viii.,
1910,
of
the
Annual
Summary
of
Municipal
Statistics
of
Montevideo,
191
1.
Volume
to
be
found
in
the
Library
of
the
Uruguay
Consulate.
NO.
Ill
TABLE
SHOWING
THE
MORTALITY
OF
THE
CITY
OF
MEXICO
AND
ITS
CAUSES
FROM
I9O4
TO
I9I2
191
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NO.
IV
economic
conditions
of
some
families
among
working
people
first
example
Agustin
Lopez:
Works
as
a
peon
in
the
city's
public
gardens
and
parks;
receives
$0.75
per
day,
during
all
the
days
of
the
week,
and
supports
his
mother
and
wife.
Weekly
Budget
of
the
Family
expenses
Feeding:
8
cuartillos
of
corn
$1.04
2
cuartillos
of
beans
0.48
2
kilos
of
meat
0.70
Peppers
0.16
Salt
0.1
Sugar
0.1
Wood
and
coal
0.60
Pulque
0.42
$3.62
Clothing:
2
meters
of
manta
orpercal
0.62
Wasliing:
Soap
0.25
House
rent:
Pays
weekly
for
a
narrow
and
damp
room,
5th
Chile
Street
No.
19,
Colonia
Santa
Julia
0.50
200
Appendices
201
Hairdressing:
Has
his
hair
cut
every
three
weeks
at
a
cost
of
$0.20;
the
weekly
expense
amounts
there-
fore
to
I0.07
Total
$5.06
RECEIPTS
Receives
weekly
at
the
rate
of
$0.75
daily
5.25
Weekly
surplus
$0.19
Dwelling
Resides
at
the
5th
Street
of
Chile
No.
19,
Colonia
Santa
Julia.
The
habitation
consists
of
one
room,
rather
damp,
though
within
there
is
a
range
fire
burning
during
the
greater
patt.
of
;tiie
day.
The
dwelling
is
made
of
adobe.
-with
brick
iloor,
^lid/has.
3.40
meters
length,
by-
3,37.
meters
width,
and
4:00'.
height.
There
is
no
furniture
save
two
mats
whereon'
the
family
sleeps.
There
are
plenty
of
cooking
uten-
sils,
and
they
are
kept
very
clea^i.
'
The
.•vhole
habita-
tion
is
clean
also.
The
tenement
'is
'
^oll'-
provided
with
water
from
an
artesian
wellj
and
it-
has
washing
places
for
the
community
of
tenants.
second
example
Marcelino
Nieves:
Works
as
a
peon
in
the
city's
public
gardens;
re-
ceives
$0.68
perday,
during
all
the
week,
and
he
supports
his
wife
and
two
children.
The
Family's
Weekly
Budget
expenses
Food:
36
kilosof
dough
to
make
tortillas
or
maize
baked
cakes
$1
.80
202
Appendices
Wood
for
cooking
$
i.oo
I
cuartillo
of
beans
0.20
I
kilo
of
meat
0.18
1
kilo
of
salt
0.25
Peppers
o.io
Sugar
0.03
•
$3-56
Clothing
for
all
the
family:
2
meters
of
manta
or
percal
0.40
Washing:
Soap
0.12
House
rent:
Corresponding
payment
0.50
Hairdressing:
Cuts
his
hair
every
three
weeks
at
a
cost
of
^0.25;
the
weekly
expense
is
therefore
0.08
^
•
'
.
;
Totali;..
v.,.^.^^.
$4.66
Receives
weekly
at
the
rate
o^
$0.58
daily
4.08
Weekly
deficit
$0.58
/
Dwelling
Their
dwelling
could
hardly
be
worse.
It
is
situ-
ated
in
a
nameless
street
of
the
Santa
Julia
Colony,
near
some
swampy
lands.
It
is
made
up
of
an
en-
closure
formed
by
one
adobe
wall,
and
three
walls
of
old
and
badly
joined
boards,
through
the
openings
of
which
drafts
find
access
easy.
The
roof
is
of
zinc
sheets,
in
very
bad
condition.
The
enclosure
meas-
ures
6.70
meters
in
length
by
4.39
meters
in
width
and
3.20
meters
in
height,
with
only
one
door,
low,
and
narrow.
It
serves
as
shelter
for
all
the
family,
and
the
sole
furniture
consists
of
two
mats
to
sleep,
a
comal
or
tortilla
cooking
utensil,
and
a
few
cooking
utensils;
everything
is
filthy
and
presents
the
aspect
Appendices
203
of
direful
poverty.
The
air
is
close
to
the
point
of
oppressiveness,
owing
to
the
smoke
from
the
wood
burned
within
the
hut.
A
partly
civilized
beingcould
barely
remain
two
consecutive
hours
in
such
an
awful
hovel,
the
un-
healthfulness
of
which
is
greatly
increased
by
the
emanations
from
the
swamps
referred
to
above.
The
water
used
for
washing
and
other
purposes
is
taken
from
a
well
close
to
the
house,
and
the
open
field
is
the
only
place
used
for
urinating
and
defecat-
ing
by
the
inhabitants
of
this
den,
and
of
the
similar
ones
around.
It
is
truly
surprising
that
the
wretched
family
of
this
workman
should
have
survived
a
two
years*
sojourn
in
such
conditions.
third
example
Felix
Luna:
Works
as
peon
in
the
city's
public
gardens;
re-
ceives
$0.75
per
day,
during
every
day
of
the
week
and
supports
three
grandchildren.
Weekly
Budget
of
the
Family
expenses
Food:
9
cuarterones^
of
maize
for
tortillas
$1.26
Coal
0.50
I
K
cuartillos
of
beans
0.30
Meat
(only
on
Sundays)
0.15
Peppers
0.12
Salt
0.18
Milk
(for
one
child)
0.42
Sugar
0.12
Pulque
0.42
$347
'
Mexican
dry
measure
equivalent
to
1.72
quarts.
204
Appendices
Clothing
for
all
the
family:
Manta
or
percal,
3
meters
$0.60
Washing:
Soap
and
lye
0.20
House
rent:
Corresponding
payment
l.oo
Hairdressing:
Has
his
hair
cut
once
a
month
at
a
cost
of
$0.10;
the
weekly
expense
is
consequently
0.03
Total
$5-30
INCOME
Receives
per
week,
at
the
rate
of
$0.75
daily
—
$5.25
Weekly
deficit
$0.05
Dwelling
It
is
situated
at
No.
1914
Escandon
Street
at
Tacubaya.
It
is
an
apartment
made
up
of
one
piece
with
yard
and
kitchen,
all
with
much
light,
and
in
relatively
good
hygienic
conditions.
The
room
is
4.20
meters
long
by
3.07
wide
and
3.75
high,
with
painted
walls
and
wooden
floor.
The
only
furniture
is
a
large
mat
on
which
the
whole
family
sleeps.
There
is
besides
a
makeshift
to
store
clothes
made
up
of
two
cases,
and
a
wooden
shelf.
The
walls
are
orna-
mented
with
religious
chromoes,
calendars,
and
other
prints
and
trifles.
The
cleanliness
to
be
observed
in
the
room
and
yard
are
noteworthy,
and
most
uncommon.
The
apartment
is
plentifully
provided
with
water
and
there
is
a
sink
providing
facilities
for
clothes
washing
for
the
community
at
the
distance
of
some
meters.
Although
the
whole
tenement
is
occupied
by
families
in
most
humble
circimistances,
it
does
present
a
very
clean
aspect.
Appendices
205
fourth
example
Isabel
Flores
and
Catarino
Flores:^
They
work
as
peons
in
the
city's
public
gardens;
they
receive
$0.75
per
day,
respectively,
for
every
day
of
the
week,
and
support
the
wife
of
one
of
them
and
two
children.
The
Family's
Weekly
Bxhiget
expenses
Food:
20
cuartillos
of
maize
$2.40
4
cuartillos
of
beans
0.80
Wood
1,40
Meat
1.60
Salt:
I
kilo
0.50
Peppers
0.65
Sugar
0.34
$7.69
Purchase
of
clothing:
Average
1.50
Washing
of
clothes:
Soap
0.30
House
rent:
The
dwelling
wherein
they
live
has
been
gra-
tuitously
ceded
to
them
as
remuneration
for
personal
services
Hairdressing:
They
have
their
hair
cut
every
15
days
at
an
expense
of
0.15
Total
$9.64
RECEIITS
They
earnper
week,
at
the
rate
of
$1.50
per
day,.
$10.50
This
leaves
a
weekly
surplus
in
their
favor
of
$0.86
'
They
are
considered
jointly
as
they
belong
to
one
and
the
same
family,
and
they
both
contribute
to
the
support
of
the
same
with
the
produce
of
their
work.
2o6
Appendices
Dwelling
They
live
in
a
wooden
house,
that
is
fairly
well
built,
to
be
found
in
a
lot
which
is
adjacent
to
the
lateral
gardens
of
the
Reforma,
The
same
is
5
meters
long,
by
3.50
wide,
and
5
high.
It
receives
the
sunlight
during
the
whole
day,
and
this
helpsto
keep
the
interior
quite
dry.
As
an
annex
to
the
houselet,
there
is
a
small
kitchen
also
made
of
wood
where
the
food
is
cooked
without
having
to
usethe
dwelling
for
the
purpose.
In
the
dwelling
there
sleep
at
night,
on
four
mats,
eight
persons,
or
that
is,
four
who
make
up
the
family
of
Flores,
and
four
members
of
another
family
who
live
with
them
and
whose
living
expenses
have
not
been
included
in
this
report.
The
furniture
of
the
dwelling
is
made
up
of
a
small
table,
four
cases
to
keep
clothes
therein,
a
stand,
and
two
small
shelves.
The
kitchen
is
supplied
with
various
utensils,
and
of
course
the
metate
with
which
to
make
tortillas.
Cleanliness
in
the
home
is
to
be
observed,
and
the
people
living
therein
seem
to
be
persons
of
good
habits.
The
water
for
washing
and
for
other
domestic
purposes,
is
obtainable
in
the
gardens
nearby.
University
of
California
SOUTHERN
REGIONAL
LIBRARY
FACILITY
Return
this
material
to
the
library
from
which
it
was
borrowed.
QL.
JAN
REC'DURIC'R
ORIOrt
MM
ia«a
UVURL
*« '»
FEB
3
199p
OLO
^4A99^
JUL
1
3
1998
A
000
090
659
4
.'V^
