friendly, is a strain upon the nervous system of a child.

Children ought to have some hours in the day in which to do exactly what they like, inventing their own amusement, and laughing as loud as they will.

Boys should have a good gymnasium, and, in the country, place and means for out-door games. Girls should be obliged to have proper shoes (heels not over half an inch high), and should be let out (or led out, if necessary,) to walk twice a day; they ought to learn the habit of walking while at school.

Music is a fatiguing occupation; if the scholar is fond of it, it is not less an exertion, and should not be carried far (say not over an hour a day of practice) without a corresponding reduction of study. And no prolonged practice should be allowed without suitable breaks, in accordance with general principles which have been fully explained.

9*

IT

CHAPTER XIII.

a

COLLEGES.

T may be questioned whether college students should be included in a work on "school" hygiene. They are, however, very largely under age and in the growing period. The average age at entrance in the best colleges is about nineteen. In the Amherst statistics it appears that during the four college years they grow in height 1.3 inches and in weight 11.1 pounds. The two lower classes, at least, are of the age which breaks down in military life. They are unformed, unconsolidated, and none know better than the authorities of colleges how ductile their minds are in certain directions not laid down in the curriculum of study.

The inference from these remarks is plain: the students must not be left to themselves in physical matters. The younger classes, at least, should be compelled to attend regular exercises in gymnastics under the charge of some respected person. The title and position of professor may confer that respect, or distinction as an athlete and an ingenious

inventor of apparatus may give it; but a mere prizefighter or trapezist is not likely to do well. He should be chosen with the same care as a professor in Chinese.

The exercises required of a whole class must, necessarily, be such as fall far within the capacity of some. They should include a brisk run, free-hand exercises, and exercise with wooden dumb-bells or light clubs. The class is divided into sections, each under the lead of a student. There is no reason why a hundred or more should not exercise at once in this way, with the assistance of music. Thirty or forty minutes a day is sufficient for the purposes of health for most students. Those whose larger muscular development craves more work should be put into special classes or allowed to use all kinds of apparatus, but always under the general control of the teacher. There will be students who could be trusted with instructing classes, but most of them have a propensity to lame themselves, and get discouraged over the hardest apparatus the moment they first enter the gymnasium; and, in short, nine-tenths of them are no more fit to be trusted alone than little boys are with firearms.

The use of the gymnasium is a necessity for those who intend to do boating. The latter exercise, as performed in swift shells, has very little tendency to develop the chest. It brings a great and sudden strain on the heart and lungs, which is very likely to

be injurious in either of two cases: first, if the boy's frame is below a certain minimum of development; and, second, if, being of fair natural growth, he is not specially trained to chest-power-the capacity of the lungs and heart to receive a double amount of air and blood in a given time. The pulse of oarsmen after a race beats at twice the normal rate, and a long and careful training alone can make such a strain safe. If boating is to be encouraged, and I believe it should be,-a gymnasium is a necessity. It is a great benefit to the students to have good, substantial " commons provided for them. This is done at Harvard in a very satisfactory manner and at exceedingly cheap rates. Many students injure their health by "boarding themselves" in their own rooms, and this class especially need such a public provision.

In regard to the structure of college dormitories, it would be well to place them running north and south, so that the sun shall enter every window. For further remarks on the site of buildings, see Chapter XI.

The public have been recently excited at the fatal epidemic in Princeton College. There is nothing at all new in such an event; and if instructive, it is so only in one point, namely, that filth generates disease in seminaries of learning as readily as in New York tenement-houses.

CHAPTER XIV.

CONTAGIOUS DISEASE.

F a person residing in a school is attacked by small

IF

pox, varioloid, scarlet-fever, measles, diphtheria, or any contagious disease of the eye or skin, such person should at once be removed or absolutely isolated. It should be left to the judgment of the physician to decide whether such isolation shall be considered sufficient to permit the other scholars to remain. Such may be thought the case if the school is in the country and has a separate building for an hospital. It may be thought safe for day-scholars to come (e. g., to the rooms in the lowest story, while the patient is in the top of the house); but, in general, prudence will lead to a suspension.

After recovery, thorough disinfection of the room used by the patient is accomplished by burning two pounds of sulphur. Previous to doing this, all bedding is exposed as

much as possible by spreading it on chairs, etc.; and the windows and doors are closed tightly. The wood-work in the room, of all sorts, is then to be sponged repeatedly with solutions of chlorinated soda or carbolic acid.