SCHOOL HYGIENE: EFFECTS OF FOUL AIR IN SCHOOLROOM.

BY T. W. NUZUM, M. D., OF BRODHEAD.

That the subject of ventilation and heating our public schoolrooms has been largely overlooked in many of our country and village and even city schools, is only too apparent to any thoughtful observer, and especially to those who have taught in these rooms.

Our best authorities on this subject claim that each pupil in a room should have fifteen square feet of floor, 250 cubic feet of space, and from 1,500 to 2,000 cubic feet of fresh air every hour. Now if you will compare these figures with the results of some observations you may make on this point, you will find that many if not all of our schoolrooms fall far short of furnishing an adequate amount of floor space; while the cubic space will not be one-half that required and the amount of fresh air introduced not more than one-fourth what it should be. Again, when we take into account the fact that a child exhales twice as much waste matter as an adult of equal weight, we begin to realize to what extent the air becomes vitiated during one session, even though it be of only one and one-half hours duration.

The amount of vitiation is measured by the amount of carbonic acid contained in the air, and this is estimated by the musty or offensive odor one perceives on first entering the room from the fresh air.

The carbonic acid is not in itself the most poisonous, in fact it is perhaps the least poisonous element; but from the fact that it is formed by the decomposition of organic particles contained in exhaled air, these particles being very prone to decomposition, it becomes the most tangible evidence of atmospheric impurity.

Fresh air already contains from two to five parts of carbonic acid to 10,000, while nine to ten parts in 10,000 becomes very offensive and entirely unfits the air for use.

The danger of impure air depends upon the fact that particles of organic matter, living or dead, may be introduced, which tend to produce disease in the recipient. These or

ganic particles consist of ptomaines and leucomaines; the one produce infection and the other toxanemia. Ptomaines are alkaloids produced by putrefaction.

Infection is produced by a particular poison, differing from ordinary poisons in that it is capable of reproducing itself indefinitely. It is a living body or organism that multiplies in the system to which it gains access. Now with these, to us all, very plain facts before us, we can see how the schoolroom, when not properly ventilated, becomes the hotbed of infection and contagion.

The first and most noticeable effect of foul air is exerted upon the nervous system; when the pupils first enter the room they appear fresh, wide awake and attentive, but they soon become drowsy, listless, and inattentive; and if the teacher is himself equally anesthetized by the carbonic acid, and opens a window or door, very soon there will be a change for the better; but if a supply of fresh air is not obtained, headache, nausea and syncope are the result.

The physical growth is more or less stunted, children grow slender, pale and anemic. There is loss of appetite, and the powers of digestion fail, the tongue is furred, and they complain of a bad taste in the mouth on rising and of constant weariness. Their sleep is disturbed and broken, and they arise quite as weary as when they retired.

In this enfeebled and debilitated condition they fall an easy prey to tuberculosis, the germs of which are exhaled by one or many of their schoolmates. Rickets, bronchitis, nasal catarrh, pharyngeal catarrh and any of the acute diseases are readily contracted.

If one of the inmates of the room is taken with scarlet fever, measles or whooping cough, many if not all of the pupils will follow, because of the concentration of the poison, while in a well ventilated room the victims would be few.

In these small and illy ventilated rooms, where the air is reheated and rebreathed many times, the room becomes rapidly overheated, the pupils become depressed and relaxed, and perhaps perspire. Now the only means of relief is to throw open a door or window and a rapid interchange of air takes place; owing to the great difference in the temperature of the outside and inside air, some unfortunates must sit in the draft, and acute colds or something more violent follows. Also in passing from the overheated rooms to the cold air the change is so sudden and so great, as to produce more or less of like results.

Some one has aptly said, "Prevention is better than cure even if that end were always attainable." And the difference in the cost of properly constructed and ventilated rooms can very soon be expended in caring for the little ones who contract disease through this neglect.

I think the public are sorely in need of information along this line, and that when the people know the facts as they are, and realize fully the source of much of their trouble, they will not be slow to remove the cause, and will find it economy to do so.

SCHOOL HYGIENE: EFFECTS OF FOUL AIR IN SCHOOLROOMS, OVERCROWDING AND

IMPROPER HEATING.

BY L. B. COLLIER, M. D., OF MERRILL.

The subject assigned to me I consider of paramount importance.

Our profession is giving too little attention to the sanitary condition of our schoolrooms, the home or place chosen for our children to spend the greater amount of their early lives, and it is at the age when the most guarded care of them, both physically and mentally, should be exercised. It is the age when the greatest changes are taking place, when habits are forming, the system developing, and impression on mind and body are most readily felt. It is also at the age when body and mind are in a very susceptible condition, and diseases are most readily contracted. If such is the case, what excuse have we, as medical men, who, above all other professions, are in a position to see the evils of an unsanitary and unhygienic condition of our schools, what excuse, I say can we offer for devoting so little attention to the subject? I can conceive of none.

We, as members of one of the grandest professions of mankind, have a duty to perform, which none other are as competent to execute.

It should be considered one of the obligations of our lives, not as charity, not for the financial remuneration we would consider earned, but for the benefit of mankind, as deeds well done, which will bear fruit in the generations to follow. What man among us could sit idly by and see a fellow creature destroyed by imbibing a liquid, which we, not he, know to be a rank poison of slow action?

Now we are doing just this, and not in one individual case, but thousands of children are being ruined yearly, physically and mentally by the foul air allowed to be respired, without scarcely so much as a thought.

As you well know, the composition of air is quite uniform and is a mixture of about twenty-one parts oxygen, and seventy-nine parts nitrogen, together with a small amount of carbonic acid, watery vapors, and traces of sulphuretted hydrogen, ammonia, etc. The proportion of carbonic acid is extremely small. Ten thousand volumes of air contain about four or five of carbonic acid. After the air has passed through the lungs a great change has taken place. The carbonic acid is greatly increased but the quantity exhaled in a given time, is subject to change from various circumstances. From every

volume of air inspired about 4.8 per cent. of oxygen is abstracted, while a rather smaller quantity, 4.3 per cent. of carbonic acid, is added in its place. We see then that the exspired air contains a large amount of carbonic acid, and a minute amount of organic putrescible matter.

Hence it is obvious that if the same air be breathed again and again the proportion of carbonic acid and organic matter will constantly increase till fatal results are produced. But long before this result is reached uneasy sensations occur, such as headache, languor and a sensation of oppression.

It is a demonstrated fact, that the organism, after a while, adapts itself to such a vitiated atmosphere--that a person soon is able to breathe without sensible inconvenience, an atmosphere, which, when he first entered it, felt intolerable. Such an adaptation can only take place at the expense of a depression of all the vital functions which must be injurious if long continued or often repeated.

Air is rendered impure, or unfit for respiratory purposes, both by disturbance in the proportions of its normal constituents, and by many substances in the shape of gases, va