Center and Collegiate Alumnæ of that city, and reported to Congress two years ago.

The places where these investigations have been made are representative American cities. We cannot suppose that Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Baltimore and the rest are sinners above all the cities in this country. The reader of these reports who imagines that the sanitary condition of schoolhouses in his own neighborhood is any better, must be endowed with remarkable optimism. One should not be misled by the reports of superintendents. Naturally they describe the new buildings erected and note their model features. And the community is often led to believe that all the schoolhouses are satisfactory; for the report as a whole makes a good showing. When one cites facts like those given in this paper, some one is likely to point to the improvements that have been made and the excellent schoolhouses built. All this is true enough. Such school buildings are found in most of our large cities. It is a pleasure to contemplate them. But it seems absurd to ask, what all this has to do with the subject we are discussing. The excellence of light and ventilation in the model schoolhouse, recently built, does not ensure the eyesight and health of the children in the old, ill-kept, unrepaired house.

So much for "the big red schoolhouse" of the city as Mrs. Howe of Buffalo has cleverly named it. If we turn to "the little red schoolhouse" of the rural districts, the sanitary condition is often still worse. More than fifty years ago, Henry Barnard, the great pioneer of educational journalism in America, reported the results of his observation in a paper on "Schoolhouses As They Are." In this paper, afterwards expanded into a book on "School Architecture," Mr. Barnard presented facts showing the outrageous neglect and disregard of hygiene in the rural schoolhouses. In many rural districts his words would describe the schoolhouses to-day. I know of no extended statistics in regard to them; but observation and the reports of superintendents indicate that it is the exception to find a rural schoolhouse in satisfactory sanitary condition, and the atrocious sins against health in many of them would require a volume like Barnard's for adequate description.

The environment of the school child is often polluted by flagrant evils that flaunt defiance

in the face of hygiene. Among such are over-heating, neglect of the means of ventilation provided, failure to regulate the light by adjusting the curtains, seating children in the draught from open windows or beside stoves or steam radiators, the promiscuous use of the same drinking cup or towel, the wearing of rubbers and of wet shoes and clothing in the schoolroom, the abolition of recesses, the confinement of pupils in the schoolroom under penalty of remaining after school if they go out, one long session with no lunch except candy from the street vendor or pickles from the nearest grocery, several flights of stairs to be climbed by growing girls, general disregard for cleanliness, illustrated in grotesque form by such so-called methods of cleaning as dry sweeping and the feather duster. How prevalent such evils are, observation shows. To illustrate but one point, the last mentioned: Mrs. Richards of the Boston Committee, reported, "The feather duster is ubiquitous, and it is the practice, sanctioned by the rules of the school committee, to stir up by its use in the morning the dust which has settled upon the desks, just in time to greet the pupils as they enter, and to fill their throats with the germs which cannot fail to be present under such conditions."

It is not strange that the percentage of disease is great. There are no extended statistics in regard to the health of American school children. That a large number are chronically ill or defective, every teacher knows. The investigations of Hertel, in Copenhagen, showed that thirty-one per cent. of the boys and thirty-nine per cent. of the girls were suffering from chronic disease. The commission appointed in 1882 to investigate the health conditions of children in the Danish and Swedish schools found a still greater percentage of illness. Of the total number of over 17,000 boys reported upon by the Danish Commission, twenty-nine per cent. were suffering from chronic illness, and of over 11,000 girls, forty-one per cent. over 11,000 pupils in the boys' higher schools, the Swedish Commission found forty-four per cent. chronically ill, and of over 3,000 pupils in the higher girls' schools, sixty-one per cent. The amount of illness is probably not as great in the schools of this country, but the few investigations already made show a large percentage, especially in the higher grades. Johnson, for example, found about eighteen

Of

per cent. unwell in seven Indiana high schools. Engelmann's investigations indicate that the percentage among girls is very much greater. Impaired sight and hearing and other defects are common among children of both sexes. Tests of the eyes of many thousand pupils by Allport and others, show about thirty per cent. with defective vision.

The English physician, Dr. Chadwick, is reported to have said that he could build a city in such a way as to give any desired death-rate between five, or possibly less, to fifty or more per thousand annually. In like manner, it would perhaps be possible, if home conditions were hygienic, to build a schoolhouse and arrange a school that would give, within certain limits, any desired percentage of disease among the pupils. It is a pleasure to turn from the gloomy statistics cited above to note what has been done in the best schoolhouses to safeguard the health of teachers and children. In the foregoing pages facts have been presented; facts will be presented also in sketching an ideal American schoolhouse. Only those features will be mentioned which are actually incorporated in some school building in this country. In other words, the ideal to be presented is entirely practicable. While there is no schoolhouse of the kind in existence, yet for each feature the writer can refer those interested to some actual school building where it may be found; and approximations to this ideal are presented in the new high school buildings of Boston, Cambridge, Newton, Worcester, Fitchburg, Providence, Indianapolis and other cities, in the Providence normal school, and in a number of grade schoolhouses, notably the Bigelow school in South Boston.

THE IDEAL SCHOOLHOUSE

A very brief description of this actual ideal, as we may call it, would be as follows: This schoolhouse is situated on a slight elevation, the soil is natural, sandy, free from organic impurities, and well drained. No high buildings, noisy, dirty, or ill-smelling industries are near it. There are large grounds containing a school garden, shade trees, playground, etc. The building is entirely of masonry and steel construction, built of the best glazed brick, and practically fireproof. It is two stories high and built around a large quadrangle. At

the grade level, a granite damp course surrounds the building. The outside walls contain an air space, and the outside faces are coursed with hollow brick, making the walls impervious to moisture. All interior wall and partitions are of solid brick. The floors are framed entirely with steel girders and beams. Wide iron stairways, of easy ascent, connect the several floors.

Heating and ventilation are by a combination of the so-called plenum and exhaust systems. Large tubular boilers in the basement generate steam that is circulated through vast coils of piping placed between the cold air room and the fan room. On the north side fresh air, received from a court supplied with air from above the ridges of surrounding roofs, is warmed by passing over the steam pipes to a temperature of about seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and forced by the fans into the main duct, which extends the length of the entire building, between the ceiling of the basement and the first floor; from this it passes to vertical shafts, and is introduced into each room through registers in the wall. Steam coils, controlled by thermostats regulating the temperature, are placed on the exposed sides. of recitation and study rooms for use in extreme weather. The humidity is also tested, and steam mixed with the incoming air when too dry. Two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air space is provided for each pupil, and thirtyfive cubic feet of fresh air is supplied each pupil per minute. Distribution of the warm air and ventilation are ensured by exhaust fans placed near the top of ventilating shafts, and the foul air is drawn from each apartment. The arrangement of the warm air registers and the foul air outlets in each room is made with regard to the best distribution of the fresh air, in the recitation rooms the inlets being placed eight feet above the floor, usually on an interior wall, and the outlets near the floor on the same side. The main horizontal duct for warm air extends under the whole of the assembly room, and fresh air is introduced by a register under each seat, while the outlets are at the top of the room.*

In the basement besides the heating and ventilating apparatus are storerooms, playrooms, gymnasium, shower baths, toilet-rooms, and ventilated lockers for the wraps of each pupil. The plumbing is all open, the sani

taries of the best modern style and ventilated through a special exhaust duct. The light in the class-rooms comes from the left, or from the left and rear, and is regulated by curtains of neutral gray green running up from the bottom as well as letting down from the top. All the exit doors open outward.

Especially noteworthy are the arrangements for cleanliness. The fresh air introduced to the heating apparatus is filtered through a screen of cheese cloth so that dust and other impurities are removed before it enters the fan room. The schoolrooms are really cleaned every day. There is no sweeping or dry dusting. The hardwood floors are cleaned every night by a carpet brush dipped in a special oil preparation. The oil makes the dust adhere to the brush, and in this way it is not stirred up, but removed from the room, and the floor is improved each time it is cleaned so that once a week it can be washed thoroughly without injury. At intervals the rooms are disinfected. The furniture is wiped off with a moist cloth. The chalk dust is reduced to a minimum by the use of the best crayons and by cleaning the blackboards, and the little dust made is caught in removable troughs. Thus each morning the children come into a schoolhouse actually clean. There are no free text-books used promiscuously, no slates, and no drinking cups; but on each floor is a drinking fountain where the children can drink from a continuous stream of water without the need of cups. Wire matting at the doors, individual lockers for wraps, and the facilities for bathing do much to insure clean. clothing and clean children.

Space is lacking to describe details, but among other special features are the following: Electric lights in all rooms, telephones connecting each room with the office, chemical fire extinguishers in the corridors, adjustable seats and desks, special emergency rooms, and toiletrooms on each floor, and in the playrooms in the basements warmed platforms where the children can sit and dry their clothing in wet weather.

Hygiene is regarded in grading the school, in the arrangement of the period of study and the like. Physical condition, as well as scholarship, is considered in the questions of promotions, and pupils with pronounced physical or mental defect are taught in a special school. The teachers devote half their time to class instruction, the other half to helping

their pupils as individuals. their pupils as individuals. There are outdoor recesses for free play and occasionally short pauses to relieve the strain of work at the discretion of the teacher. The aim, in general, is to make the conditions such that pupils may put forth their greatest effort and work at a high pace while in the schoolroom. Special physicians inspect the children every morning; dentists examine their teeth periodically; experts test their sight, hearing, and general condition; and perhaps most remarkable of all, a skillful engineer and an intelligent janitor have care of the heating, ventilation and cleanliness.

It

Every feature of this ideal-it should be repeated—is embodied in some existing schoolhouse. As it takes the virtues of many men to make the ideal man, so in takes many schools to make the ideal school. But if we could bring together and combine in one all the good features found in many schools scattered throughout the country, we should have one almost ideal in hygienic excellence, an ideal which, if not perfect, would have the merit of being real and all the influence of concrete example. It is surprising how good this composite schoolhouse is. Its excellence condemns the ordinary schoolhouse as no words could. It shows, too, the progress of school hygiene. Ten years ago cleanliness in a schoolroom, adjustable seats and desks, school baths, and the like were vagaries of university theorists; now they have concrete embodiment in the best schoolhouses. will, of course, be argued that the cost of such a model schoolhouse makes an approximation to it impracticable. The natural answer to this objection is that any community that will weigh the health of the children against dollars and cents must be the product of a perverted system of education. But, if it be necessary to argue the question on a financial basis, the economic value of hygiene can easily be shown. Not only does the work of teachers and pupils lack efficiency when the conditions are unsanitary; and not only when disease is prevalent does the community have to pay for services that are not rendered because the pupils are absent from school, but epidemics are most expensive, and acute or chronic disease among the children of a family is the one cause of expense that drives the sober workman to despair. The citizen with economic perspective will demand that the conditions in the school as well as in the home

be made hygienic. And if the essentials of hygiene were considered first and ornamentation second, the cost would often be no greater than at present. It should be noted also that defective schoolhouses are very expensive. A most serious waste of public money is often due to an ignorant or criminal policy of building schoolhouses before devising the plan of heating and ventilating them, of rejecting the economical mechanical system of ventilation by fans because the initial cost is greater than that of a natural system, and, finally, of installing an elaborate and costly apparatus for heating and ventilating and entrusting it to an ignorant janitor or brokendown politician.

METHODS OF REFORM

Old schoolhouses are long-lived, and all means of remedying existing evils should be adopted. First, there should be an investigation of the facts. In every city and township a commission of competent persons should ascertain and report the actual sanitary condition of all the schools. The wholesome effect of such investigations has been shown in Washington, Buffalo and other cities referred to. Moreover, parents should feel an individual responsibility. If they would investigate the sanitary condition of the schools that their own children attend, evils like those mentioned above would not long be endured. The fact that parents are so busy trying to earn the wherewithal to give their children the conventional means of education that they have no time to look after their actual education is a practical paradox of our civilization.

Second, there should be regular and competent health inspection of the schools, not merely medical inspection to check contagious diseases and to care for the more serious cases of physical disorder, but inspection of the physical condition of all the pupils and of the sanitary condition of the schoolhouse and its surroundings, under the direction of a competent health officer having both power and responsibility.

Third, a knowledge of school hygiene should be required of all teachers and superintendents, and special courses in the subject should be given in all training schools for teachers. It seems absurd to be obliged to plead for this. A consensus of educators puts normal, healthy development as the end of education, but the one subject especially

concerned with the conditions of healthy development is omitted from the normal school curriculum, or taught incidentally with some other subject-psychology or the like. The young teachers leave the training school and enter upon their work with devotion to arithmetic, geography, grammar and the rest, and insight into defects of method and discipline, but lacking hygienic instinct. They teach children who are worried, overworked, excited or ill, and do not know it. They give children work too fine and too difficult, and are not aware of it; they permit things to be done in a way that hygiene has condemned for twenty-five years and are innocent; they work in rooms where the temperature is eighty degrees Fahrenheit and do not feel it, and where the atmosphere is worse than in prison cells and do not smell it. The teacher, untrained in practical hygiene, is inevitably so pressed with scholastic duties that she is not likely to think of the essentials of health.

Concrete illustrations of ignorance and lack of hygienic apperception on the part of teachers might be cited. A single instance must suffice. In a New England town, as the report has come to me, a case of whoopingcough occurred in the school. The head of the school, with a pathetic zeal for a good record of attendance that marks the scholastically conscientious teacher, told her pupils that probably the rest of them would have the disease, but that she wanted them to come to school just the same.

The teacher should be trained to prevision of matters essential to the health of the children. Not to mention the concrete details of hygienic knowledge necessary, four general facts should be realized by the teacher and all school officials in some such way as they are realized by the expert, namely:

(1.) That sitting still in a schoolroom is unhygienic for children under the best conditions, that normally they should be active and out of doors.

(2.) That one-third of the school-children are chronically ill or physically defective.

(3.) That the individual differences in ability to work, to resist fatigue and the like are so great that some children are always in danger of overstrain from what seems a reasonable amount of work.

(4.) That many things may be injurious. to a child in the period of growth and development that are harmless enough to an adult.

Ο

NE of the most remarkable phases of recent material progress is the ease with which the capital has been found for the many great works of modern civilization. Such works as railways, mills, water works, and other public improvements can be built only from capital saved beyond immediate requirements. These works increase the resources and producing power of the community when they are completed, but the capital employed in creating them is not immediately productive during the process and has to be saved in advance by the community. It was said by Bagehot that a citizen of London, in Queen Elizabeth's time, "would have thought that it was no use inventing railways (if he could have understood what a railway meant), for you would not have been able to collect the capital with which to make them." All this has changed since the efficiency of machine production increased many fold the productive power of the unaided human hand. The growth of capital has gone on in a sort of geometrical ratio. Every new invention which has increased the efficiency of labor has not only resulted in a definite saving, but this new saving has added to the funds for making new machines, which in their turn have added to the capacity for saving.

The rapidity with which the rate of saving has been increasing within the last few years has not yet apparently made its full impression upon the public mind. Much of the saving prior to 1870; and even up to within a few years of the present time, was in the nature of providing the machinery for later production. The invention of railways was a great step in human progress, but its effects only began to be seriously felt when the railways had actually been built sufficient to join together the great centres of production and

exchange. This was hardly the case prior to 1870. The United States at that time had in operation 52,914 miles of railway, but the mileage was almost doubled up to 1880, when the amount was 92,147 miles, and was again increased more than two-thirds up to 1890, when it was 164,359 miles. The construction since that time has been less-only about 27,000 miles-because the country then be came almost fully equipped with railway accommodations. The history of railway development in Europe is equally recent. In the whole of Europe, according to a recent article in one of the foreign financial journals, the railway equipment in operation doubled between January 1, 1875, and January 1, 1899, when it was 165,000 miles. The estimated railway mileage of the whole world in 1896 was about 445,000 miles, representing a cost of nearly $33,000,000,000.

The creation of railways is cited only to show the comparatively modern character of the industrial equipment of the civilized world. The figures regarding the development of various industries, so far as they are available, are equally striking. This is especially true of those industries which minister to the luxuries of civilized life and of the professional classes whose growth is possible only after the more pressing wants of the community have been provided for.

One of the most interesting demonstrations of the growth of capital is afforded by the tabulation prepared every year by the leading financial journal of Belgium of the issues of negotiable securities. These returns include government loans, new banks, railways and industrial stocks and bonds, and all other enterprises which are represented by securities on the stock exchanges. The point of view from which the figures are made up does not