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8
College, that a cleanly road can be made in the use
of macadam combined with hot tar, properly
prepared, and finished by the steam roller, and I
would suggest that in making up one of the smaller
roads this experiment should be tried. Damp roads
must greatly increase the amount of moisture in the
air, and this moisture is one of the chief drawbacks
to a residence in the Thames Valley.
The question of Baths and Wash-houses being
now before the Coporation it may be desirable to
make a few remarks on their bearing upon health.
In this town we have a very large population of
growing boys and girls, many persons resorting to
this town for the benefit of the Tiffins' Schools.
These boys and girls require as part of their physical
training—without which no mental training can be
complete—the opportunity for swimming and
bathing. Swimming as an exercise develops many
muscles that are rarely used, and therefore undeveloped,
in our usual social intercouse, and by
developing graceful movements induces those
esthetic qualities that have probably a much greater
influence on the development of character than is
generally supposed. Though the practice of swimming
can be acquired by boys by early morning
bathing in the river, this opportunity is denied to
girls, for whom the acquirement of the art is as
needful as for the male sex. In a town whose great
attraction is its boating facilities this is particularly
needed, merely as insurance against drowning.
The question of Wash-houses, or the facilities
for enabling the poor to do their laundry work away
from their small houses, is also most important.
The amount of dampness caused in a small house
by the washing of the domestic linen must cause
great discomfort and even injury to children and