aid; he should be an important member, a sanitary or hygienic adviser on every school board—a board that should be free from petty spite and politics.

Let the school buildings be thoroughly cleansed and kept clean, pure, sweet. Let hygienic laws be properly applied. The remedy is within reach of all. Provide proper light, correct ventilation, have proper school furniture, provide proper seats and desks. See that defective plumbing does not counteract the other good appliances and does not impair the health of the pupils.

Let the outbuildings and grounds be attractive, clean, neat, pure and sweet; away with the filth-reeking and foul cesspools which smell rank to heaven, are an everlasting disgrace to the community, a place of repugnance for the pupils, a disease-breeding focus for human infection.

Let pure air circulate freely in the schoolrooms, suppress all offensiveness, and both teachers and pupils will do more and better work, enjoy better health, and complain of less ailments. The expense will result in a large profit for the public; for good health is beyond price-the wealth of the State.

Teach the children that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness!" Apply the teachings and rules of hygiene not only to buildings and grounds, but doubly apply them to the pupils, the rising generation; impress them with the idea that health and happiness can be obtained by following and obeying Hygeia's laws constantly. It will make better men and women of them, better fit them for their life's work physically, morally, mentally. It will better enable them to do their duty.

Let hygiene be a reality-not a farce, and proclaim her laws from every desk and rostrum in the land; it will bear fruit an hundred fold.

Many diseases can be prevented by following the laws of health. Health and happiness are twin sisters. They are the wealth of the family, community, State and Nation.

If you

wish this nation to be a healthy, happy and wealthy nation, purify and keep clean the school house. "As the twig is bent so the tree inclines." Begin at the bottom with the little ones, teach, explain and apply hygienic laws, and our successors the new man and new woman, on whom the health and happiness of this country depend, will be better, happier, healthier and stronger for such teachings. Do not forget that a healthy mind cannot dwell in a diseased body; therefore teach mental as well as physical hygiene. The millennium may not come any sooner, but the condition of ourselves and neighbors will be greatly enhanced and improved.

SCHOOL HYGIENE:

SCHOOL HOURS TOO LONG.

BY WM. MEACHER, M. D., OF PORTAGE.

Looking from the standpoint of a teacher and physician, I am impressed with the idea that school hours are in general too long for the greatest good of the child's body and mind.

The usual school hours are about six a day; three in the forenoon and three in the afternoon, with two intermissions of fifteen minutes each. Let me ask how many grown people can go into a crowded room and study six hours a day? Or if they are able to do it in spite of the drowsiness and stupor that comes upon them, how long will it be before the health suffers?

I believe that few comprehend how the child's nature rebels against the confinement and restraint of the schoolroom if kept in too long, and how soon a distaste for books and study may be engendered in some.

The practice of keeping children in the schoolroom after school hours, for the purpose of punishment, is a very unwise

one.

If the hours of school could be reduced to about four, instead of six hours a day, two in the forenoon and two in the afternoon, with the usual intermissions, children would undoubtedly learn more, and with greater relish, than in the longer hours, especially if teachers could give them the necessary time and attention. To this end we should have more teachers and fewer pupils for each teacher. Then teachers should have the ability and the opportunity to learn the peculiarity and bias of each pupil's mind, and be able to lead and direct it in the pursuit of the kind of knowledge for which it is by nature best fitted, whether that be a knowledge of books or "knowledge never learned of schools." Of course all this

means much more expense and less "machine made" education "at so much per capita," but how can money be better used than in educating our children? Life has no higher duty except it be the preservation of their health, both of body and mind.

If we are going to win in the fight with the "great white monster," consumption, surely the schoolroom is one of the most important points to be looked to.

SCHOOL HYGIENE: ROUTINE

ISOLATION AND

CLEANLINESS,

WATCHFULNESS OF

SCHOOLS AND CHILDREN.

BY SAMUEL H. FRIEND, M. D., OF MILWAUKEE.

During the past year my attention was called to the sanitary conditions existing in one of our public ward schools. Upon inspection I found such a palpable neglect of both routine cleanliness and building arrangements as would appear hardly possible at the present time, when the knowledge of both as infecting agents is so widespread. Briefly summar

zed, these abnormal conditions were as follows:

Under indications of a lack of routine cleanliness there were: In the basement, a wet floor under the urinals, the odor of which could be gotten upon entering the building; filthy seats to closets; dust and spiderwebs sticking to the walls and ceilings. There were on the three flats above, dust-laden floors, more especially noted in the corners of stairways and school rooms; dirt upon walls, ceilings, desk-stands, desks, foot boards, window casings, sills and windows, with spiderwebs here and there attached to the ceilings; filthy, greasy looking slates; a single washstand on each flat, the iron basins of which were rusty, while the wooden casings were greasily dirtstained, with no soap visible. Over each water spigot was a single filthy, rust-stained, tinned drinking cup, hanging upon a rusty nail.

Under building arrangements I found: In the basement, closets and urinals exposed to dim daylight, and no sunlight; closed plumbing; wooden floors; low ceilings; no arrangements for ventilation. On upper flats the floors were of soft pine, much worn and joints separated. Walls and ceilings were cracked and rough. No arrangements for ventilation save by opening windows.