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5
As a means towards improving Public Health the most
important event to record is the coming into force of the
new Education Act. By this Act education is municipalized.
In the Borough, the Health Authority becomes also
the Education Authority. Students of hygiene have long
been of opinion that the great numerical increase of
infectious diseases during recent years has been due to the
bringing together of children into schoolrooms where the
close association is highly favourable to the spread of
infectious disorders and that the measures for limiting the
spread of these diseases are to be found chiefly in the
observation and examination of the children in schools.
From these remarks you will see the great importance
of sufficient air space and supply of fresh air in schools.
The report of the Architect recommends that the number
of places in certain schools should be reduced from
3,138 to 2,466. This is a recommendation of the highest
importance and should be rigidly adhered to. Ten square
feet and 120 cubic feet is usually provided by enlightened
educational authorities, and this should be your minimum
for the present. Ample air space is not only a safeguard
against infection, but also against stupidity. Many a child
is stupid in a close room who shows fair intelligence when
taught in an airy, well ventilated classroom. A great
difficulty in ventilation is the draughts that arise in the
frequent and rapid changing of the air of the room, and
the more persons in the room the oftener is the change
necessary and the greater the draught, which to children
indifferently nurtured, gives colds and coughs.
Children may be said to be indifferently nurtured from
inherited taint, from insufficient or improper food, or from
defective training. "With the first we cannot concern ourselves,
and with the second the question is not yet sufficiently
settled to be generally adopted, but physical training
is generally recognised as an important part of an educational
course, for unless the body is brought up to a certain
standard of development it often happens that the brain
breaks down under pressure.