INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF NOISE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9325, 30 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF NOISE

A writer in the Popular Science Monthly asserts that noise is one of the most injurious influences of city life. It may not be sufficiently loud to attract the attention of those accustomed to it, but, if continuous, it acta as inevitable upon the nervous system as water in dropping upon a stone. Experiments made upon animals show that when they have been subjected for a number of hours to the vibration of a tuning-fork, their nerve centres become irritated, "as certainly as muscular fibres would be affected by an acid or electric shock. The injurious effect of ordinary noises has boon recognised by the authorities of European cities, and in some cases the nuisance has been suppressed. Heavily laden carts are not admitted to certain streets of Berlin, and in others they are only allowed to pass on condition that the horses walk. The street cars at Munich have no bells, and those of us who live in places where those bells are not used on Sunday can testify to the relief attendant on the consequent " peace and quiet." The amount of the matter seems to be that the city dweller must regard noise as one of tho necessary evils of his condition—one to be borne philosophically, and requiring a large stock of grace and patience. Happy, ndeod, arc they who, through the long hot months, are only disturbed in their morning slumbers by the song of the birds or the crowing of cocks.