confinement is working them bodily harm. Thirty-five thousand six hundred and fifty-eight of the best part of our population, those upon whom the hope of the State is placed and the destiny of its future depends; those of that tender age when external influence and unsanitary surroundings will have the most damaging and lasting effect, are left without that medical care which is given to the outcasts of society in our state prisons.

It may be asked, "What can be accomplished by medical or sanitary supervision of schools?" The appointment of a local school physician who should supervise a certain assigned district, containing not more than 1,000 pupils, and have consultative and deliberative functions with the teacher, would do much towards guarding both the pupil and teacher against those evils which under the present arrangement are liable to assault them. The general sanitary condition of school life and schoolhouse with all its surroundings should receive his attention. He should secure the best known methods of ventilating, lighting, seating, and construction of schoolhouses in his district. He should at proper intervals test the air of the schoolrooms during its sessions, to be sure that the amount of carbonic dioxide does not increase to an extent detrimental to health. If the amount was large it would lead to the inquiry if the system of ventilation was in working order, and any defect that may have occurred remedied.

Pupils should be measured twice per year and placed at desks conforming to their height. All contagious diseases that appear in the school should be at once reported to him, thereby securing proper means to prevent its spread, and no child having had a contagious disease should be allowed to again attend school without his permission.

Perhaps no single organ is more liable to suffer in school life than the eye. How often do we hear of cases of alleged stupidity of scholars in our common schools, in boys and girls who otherwise are bright and active, but who fail to comprehend the simple lesson on the blackboard by reason of near

sightedness. Others appear to receive the severe chastisement of the teacher rather than to apply themselves to books, on account of the severe strain and pain it causes in the eye from want of proper innervations. These troubles with the eye may be caused by insufficient or badly arranged light and poor ventilation.*

This condition may go on until a permanent defect is established and the average teacher never know or even suspect the real cause of the trouble.

How many bright intellects have marked out for themselves brilliant spheres of usefulness, but who have been obliged to abandon all their cherished hopes for the future by reason of a gradually increasing defect in their sight, which they first noticed in their common school days. It should be the duty of the school physician to regularly test the sight of the pupils in his district as often as every six months, make a record of the condition of each, and then by comparing one record with another the very commencement of any defect could be readily detected and the proper treatment applied.

The filthy condition of out-buildings to our common schools are proverbially bad. It is one of the moral blights upon school life. It is hard for the teacher alone to remedy. The aid given by sanitary inspection in this respect would no doubt be welcomed by them.

At the close of the school year the physician in charge should be required to report his work and observations made, to the State Board of Health, who would compile the various reports for publication and no doubt there would be many valuable suggestions derived from them which would add greatly to the cause of sanitation in our State.

It may be objected that the cost of thus giving sanitary supervision to our schools will be greater than the community would be willing to bear. Let me ask is it not cheaper to place buoys and light over the hidden reef than to repair the damage done as vessel after vessel is dashed to pieces. It

* In a former paper on the "Sanitary Conditions of School Life," vol. 7, it was shown that badly ventilated schoolrooms were a direct cause of myopia.

would be placing the physician in his truer and nobler position, that of a guardian of the public health and the prevention of sickness rather than curing it.

As the proper ventilation of our schoolhouses is of prime importance I wish to supplement these rambling and much interrupted thoughts by a few words on the subject.

In the report of the State Board of Health for the year 1888, Vol. VII, I explained a system of heating and ventilation which has been very effective and given good satisfaction where it has been used. It was introduced into several of our village schools in 1887. The system consists briefly of a jacketed stove with an inlet duct coming from outside and opening upward through the floor under the stove.

An outgoing duct was constructed on the opposite side of the room from the stove, extending up through the top of the building, with an opening on a level with the floor. We find this arrangement equalizes the temperature of the room to a remarkable degree, as indicated by the following observations taken October 28, 1891. The temperature outside was 31 degrees F. At 10 o'clock A. M. visited our south primary school, which was in session. In this schoolroom the jacketed stove has been in use for four years. The stove was on the south side of the room near the teacher's desk. The outgoing flue was on the north side, directly opposite. Four thermometers were placed on the four sides of the room about equal distances from the corners and a little higher than the pupils desks. After remaining thirty minutes they registered as follows:

The room seemed a little cool but no one appeared to be suffering from the low temperature. The fire in the stove

Went immediately from this school to the east primary, and at II A. M. made the same observations as at the south primary. In this room they were not using the jacketed

In other

stove nor any special arrangement for ventilation. respects the stoves in the two rooms were alike. The size and seating capacity were less than in former instances. The stove and teacher's desk were also on the south side of the room. In thirty minutes after being placed in position the thermometer registered as follows:

A difference of 13 degrees in the smaller room without the improved heating and ventilating facilities and a difference of only 2 degrees with them. This arrangement furnishes an abundant supply of fresh air at any desired temperature, and at all times under control without leaving the room. It does not necessitate any material change in the appearance of the schoolroom as shown by Fig. 1.

Soon after this system of heating and ventilation was put in, the teachers remarked to me that previous to its use the windows during the cold days in winter would become thickly covered with frost, showing a high degree of humidity in the atmosphere of the room owing to the exhalations from the lungs and bodies of the pupils. After the present arrangement had been put in, the glass in the windows remained clear at all times, and the room was free from that musty schoolhouse odor which is so frequently noticed in badly ventilated houses.

In Massachusetts this system of heating and ventilating is being quite rapidly introduced, from the fact that "the present requirements of the Massachusetts state board of inspection make it imperative for school authorities to provide some proper means for heating and ventilating the buildings under their charge."

Its recommendations are the effectiveness of the system, its cheapness, and adaptability to all schoolhouses heated with a stove, and where furnaces are not practicable.

They are using quite largely what is called the Puritan Jacketed Stove, manufactured by the Barstow Stove Company.