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direction of reducing, so far as possible, the dangers attending
the packing together of large numbers of school children in
one class-room, and the arrangements for sufficiently ventilating
the class-rooms are such as at present admit of improvement.
The school furniture should be far more generally
adapted to the children of various sizes, and not the children
to the furniture. The evil effects of bad posture upon scholars
is universally recognized ; it is responsible for permanent body
deformities, defective physical development, and a large
amount of visual defect. The children should be taught some
of the elementary laws of health, and the female children
should all be taught the more essential facts with reference
to domestic economy and infant rearing. Everyone admits
the advisability of giving this information to school children,
and yet year after vear it has been excluded from the
curriculum. How to live healthy lives (and therefore happy
and useful lives) is one of the greatest matters which education
has to teach, and a system of education falls far short of the
ideal if these subjects are excluded from the curriculum. If
these subjects are to be taught, the Teachers must be taught
how to teach them, and there is certainly a want in this
country for the suitable preparation of Teachers for this important
work. A teacher well informed upon the principles of
hygiene would be enabled to keep a watchful eye upon the
health of the children entrusted to his or her care, and would
at the same time help to obtain the most healthy environment
and the best hygienic conditions for the scholars. Every
scholar represents a certain social value, capable of being increased
by attention to his physical, intellectual and moral
culture; the value is diminished or lost if from neglect of
early treatment of disease or of hygienic precautions the
scholar fails in health. Hence, periodical medical inspection