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Now, although I have answered the question which has been put to
me I want to say a little more, and that is, it is my opinion these showers
do not lead to colds. To every medical opinion which is expressed so
positively as this there is always an exception, but the exceptions to the
above statement are so few that you need not think your child is the
exception. Such cases are rare indeed.
Question:— Should later arrival at school for infant children
in the winter be instituted ?
Answer:— It will, of course, be clearly understood that I have
no authority whatever to speak on this matter from an education standpoint,
and all I can say from a medical standpoint is that I know of no
medical reason why schools should start later than 9.30 even on a winter's
morning.
There may, of course, be individual homes where, because father
has got to go to work at one time and an older brother go off at another
time, and an older sister at yet another time, it may be a matter of difficulty
in fitting in a time when the child can have his meal quietly and at peace,
and be at school by 9.30 in the morning, but these are matters for the
sociologist rather than for a medical man, as such.
It is sufficient if we should say that every child before arriving at
school should have time to have his, or her, breakfast, and should have
time to have it quietly, and, of course, incidentally, that there should be
time for attention to personal hygiene and the demands of nature before
the child goes to school.
It is a very healthy custom to see that the bowels are open before
going to school, and it is far more important that the child should attend to
this necessary function rather than that he or she should arrive at school
on the tick of the clock.
Question:— Should sleeping after dinner be extended to
Infants' Schools from Nursery Classes, and if so, how far ?
Answer:— So far as I know all healthy animals, when they have had a
good meal, go to sleep and—of course—we know that a snake after he has
had a heavy meal goes to sleep for quite a long time.
Everybody should go to sleep after he or she has had a good meal.
This is perfectly normal. After you have had a good meal the stomach
has a job of work to do; in doing this job of work it requires that the blood
supply shall be increased. Incidentally, too, the liver—which may be
deemed as the "National chemical industry" of the body—has a job
of work to do as well, and requires a hefty blood supply. All this in turn
means that something has got to go without so far as the blood supply is
concerned, and incidentally amongst other things the blood supply to the
brain is not so good after a meal as it is some time before.
For these reasons everybody, if possible, should sleep after a meal,
and if it could be arranged it would be wise for the mid-day break for all
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