velocity of air in meters with inlet and outlet ducts open, observations taken in each; area of ducts, inlet, outlet.

(3) Temperature at twenty-seven different points in each room, at three different heights, with inlet shaft open and shut. (4) Moisture of outer air, moisture of inner air under different conditions, with ducts open and shut.

6.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF IMPURE AIR UPON THE OCCUPANTS OF APARTMENTS HAVING A LIMITED FRESH-AIR SUPPLY, OR NONE AT ALL?

No specific disease can be attributed to this cause, such, for example, as may occur by exposure to the contagion of scarlet fever or measles. The results of such exposure to constant pollution of the air by the products of respiration and combustion are mainly an increased tendency to diseases of the respiratory organs, and especially to pulmonary consumption. Dr. B. W. Richardson states that exposure to one per cent of carbonic acid induced painful and distressing phenomena, such as frontal headache, dizziness, nausea, drowsiness, and faintness. Long exposure to smaller amounts also induces impaired appetite, weakened digestion, and deranged secretion. In the healthy these symptoms readily pass away on exposure to pure, out-door air; but those who are predisposed by inheritance to consumption are especially injured, and many of the most intensely developed examples of pulmonary consumption are induced in this manner.*

In the case of a large number of persons confined in a small, tightly closed space, death may ensue even in so short a period as two hours, as certain historic instances both on land and on shipboard have proven.

That the communication of infectious diseases is promoted by the confined air of illy ventilated apartments there can be no doubt, and a constant and sufficient renewal of such air tends to remove the infectious material and convey it to the outer air, where, by its enormous dilution, it is far less likely to do harm.

The infectious nature of pulmonary consumption is yearly receiving more abundant proofs, and the constant exposure of

*"Diseases of Modern Life," Dr. B. W. Richardson, p. 207.

persons to an atmosphere laden with the impure products of respiration from others who may be already the victims of this disease is undoubtedly one of the modes of infection.

A brief reference to certain statistical tables will throw further light upon this point.

In the registration reports of Massachusetts, which cover a period of nearly forty-five years, the length of life of 221,000 persons is given as classified in groups by occupations. The average of these is 51+ years. The average age of farmers was 66+ years. On the contrary, the average age of shoemakers was 46+ years. It is a significant fact that the age of the latter class has increased considerably within the past twenty years. Formerly the New England shoemaker performed his work under the worst possible conditions, one or more persons working in an extremely small shop, frequently having less than three hundred cubic feet of air-space, the air heated by a stove, with no provision for ventilation, and the workman conducting his work in a cramped position. These conditions have become greatly changed, and men work in large and often better ventilated work-shops, and in a standing position. The same is also true of other in-door occupations.

MEDICAL SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS.

The principles which I have sought to illustrate in this paper furnish but a small portion of the reasons for a constant and careful supervision of public buildings, and especially of public schools, by a trained sanitary officer in every State and large city in the Union. So far as the schools are concerned, such an officer could perform his duties independently of or in conjunction with an educational board.

It is not necessary to carry such work to the extent of medical treatment of the scholar, as is done by Dr. Janssens, of Brussels, in the case of the feeble and poorly developed; it is, however, essential to make their surroundings, while in the school-room, as perfect as possible. For such work the schools of the United States, with their five or ten millions of scholars, present a wide and fruitful field of labor.

ABSTRACT OF DISCUSSION.

Dr. Irving A. Watson, Secretary State Board of Health, said: "I think the importance of good ventilation, especially in our school-rooms, cannot be overestimated. It is a question which we have been considering in this State, and have been making some investigations relative to the amount of air-space and the means of ventilation in our common schools. The results so far obtained show a very great deficiency in the matter of ventilation; in fact, a large majority of the school-rooms are mere boxes. The question is indeed a serious one, and there is no doubt that some supervision of our schools should be exercised by state authority. I believe that certain plans should be agreed upon, and their adoption should be made obligatory in the construction of all school buildings. I am glad to know that the subject is being considered by the authorities of other States, as Dr. Abbott has shown. I think it is a matter of time only when the legislators of the country will consider the question in all its bearings, and enact such laws as will bring about a change."

Dr. D. M. Currier, of Newport, said he believed buildings could be ventilated with a minimum loss of heat if the ventilating flues are properly arranged. With the hot-air register in the floor and the register for the outgoing air overhead, there is necessarily a great loss of heat; but if both registers are on a level with the floor, you not only economize the heat, but also secure good ventilation.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC AND PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

BY EDWARD HUNTINGTON FALLOWS, DIRECTOR OF THE PHILLIPS (EXETER) GYMNASIUM, EXETER, N. H.

'Elegance of form in the human figure," says Emerson, “marks some excellence of structure."

In this scientific age, when the microscope of the biologist and the scalpel of the physiologist are so carefully analyzing and accurately determining the functions and relations of the various systems and organisms which combine to form a man, it is scarcely necessary to make a plea in behalf of physical education. Few physicians or educators can now be found to depreciate the great value of a well-developed physique, and of the increased power it confers on its possessor for work of any kind. President

Stearns has said: "Without the support of well-developed bodily powers and functions, the mental faculties cannot reach their full development," a truth that is emphasized every day in the experience of teachers and physicians, and illustrated in the lives of neighbors and friends.

"The brain is composed of flesh and blood, subject to physiological law, and is not a spiritual organ controlled by laws beyond our reach. Its first need is an abundance of good blood. It is fundamental in the physiology of the brain that the blood shall be pure. If we lessen the supply of blood to the brain, or send poor, thin, badly oxygenated blood there, the organ will act feebly."* But good, pure blood courses through the arteries only when the respiratory, nutritive, and excretory systems are in healthful condition and harmonious relation.

"Exercise alone, of all the agents of growth and development, can be regarded in an educational light, — alone is capable of being permanently systematized and administered as a means of progressive bodily culture." Exercise not only increases the size and functional capacity of the voluntary and involuntary muscles, but by quickening circulation and increasing respiration it promotes the health and strength of the whole man. How important then, that during its growth, at a time when the reparatory forces are in excess of the destructive, the body should have the training requisite to render it a fit casket for the immortal gem God has given it. The vital importance of the teaching contained in the well-worn adage, Mens sana in corpore sano, should be impressed upon the minds of the overworked and undergrown boys and girls in our public schools and academies.

William Blaikie, in his valuable book on "How to get Strong," says: "Let him who thinks the average American boy would fare as well as his English cousin in Rugby (who makes nothing of a six-mile run) go down to the public bath-house, and look carefully at a hundred or two of them as they tumble about in the water. He will see more big heads and slim necks, more poor legs and skinny arms, and lanky, half-built bodies than he would have ever imagined the whole neighborhood could produce.

*From "Hygiene of the Brain," by Dr. M. L. Holbrook.

"Physical Education," by Maclaren.

Or he need not see them stripped. One of our leading metropolitan journals, in an editorial recently, headed 'Give the boy a chance,' said: 'About one in ten of all the boys in the Union are living in New York and the large cities immediately adjacent, and there are even more within the limits of Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and the other American cities whose population exceeds a hundred thousand. The wits of these millions of boys are being forced to their extreme capacity, whether they are taught in the school, the shop, or the street. But what is being done for their bodies? The answer may be obtained by standing at the door of almost any public or private school or academy at the hour of dismissal. The inquirer will see a crowd of undersized, listless, thin-faced children, with scarcely any promise of manhood about them.''

Herbert Spencer says: "On women the effects of this forcing system are, if possible, even more injurious than on men. Being in a great measure debarred from those vigorous and enjoyable exercises of body by which boys mitigate the evils of excessive study, girls feel these evils in their full intensity. Hence the much smaller proportion of them who grow up well made and healthy. In the pale, angular, flat-chested young ladies, so abundant in London drawing-rooms, we see the effect of merciless application unrelieved by youthful sports; and this physical degeneracy exhibited by them hinders their welfare far more than their many accomplishments can aid it."

Narrow, flat chests, stooping shoulders, weak backs, and curved spines, the danger signals of consumption and other chronic diseases, are the rule among American school children. And I say American school children, for the German boys and girls in this country are so much more healthy and sturdy that you could enter a public school in New York city and separate the two classes with ease. And why do the German youth excel their American playmates? Because the German people in this country have formed the largest association of turners in the world, outside of the Deutsche Turnershaft, under the name of the North American Gymnastic Union, with the grand aim of "aiding each other in rearing a people strong in both body and mind." In January, 1885, this union had a total membership