Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-01-22
HYGIENE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
An Investigation by the State Medical
SOeiety--FaetS Already Discovered.

From the Lansing (SIich.) Republican,
At the last meeting of the State
Medical Society a committee was ap-
pointed to report on the laws of by.
giene in relation to our public schools. f"
The committee consists of DR.. Hitch
cock, of Kalamazoo. DR.. Kedzie, of
Lansing, and Drs. MeGraw ard NOyes
of Detroit.
At a recent meeting of the commit
tee in Detroit, the work was divided
up among the members of the COM
mittee as follows: DR.. Hitchcock
Methods of Government in Schools
and their Influence Upon the Scholar,
Hygienical, Mental and Moral. DIR.
Kedzie-Hygiene as Applied to the
Construction, Warming, Ventilation
and Sewerage of Public School rooms.
DR.. MvGraw-Mtnt ntal Hygiene, in
Respect to the Methods in Public
Schools, Hours of Study, the Forcing
System, Prizes and Rewards, etc.
and the Kindergarten. DR.. Noyes-
Hygiene of the Eye in Public Schools.
Our readers will thus see that most
important investigation has been un-
dertaken by the State Medical SOcie-
ty, and from our personal knowledge
of the members of the committee we
hazard nothing in saying that this
important work will be well done.
The work thus assumed by the
medical prOfe- sion, aiming to remove
preventable causes of disease in the
public schools, is sufficient reply to
the sneers so often heard in regard to
the mercenary motives of the pTofes
sion. 1t is Just such investigations as
this committee have undertaken, aD-
piled to all the relations of life, which
would fall legitimately within the
province of the State Board of Health.
DIR. KedZie has begun the eXamina-
ton OF school rooms in our city, and
the results already reached are such
as should attract the earnest attention
of all who are interested in public
schools, or who care for the health
and well-being of the rising genera
ton. He has visited fourteen school
rooms, analyZed the air in each one,
tested the condition of the room in
regard to temperature, the degree of
moisture present, and the state of ven
tilatiOn. He states that there is not a
properly ventilated school room in
this city. The foulest air was found
in the High School building, where
eight parts of carbonic acid were found
in ], 900 of air, instead of four parts in
10000. The next foulest air was found
in the ward school in the Fifth Ward.
Next came the school rooms in North
Lansing and The Second Ward.
In none of these was there anything
worthy the name of ventilation in
operation. In some of these a pipe
two or three inches in diameter served
to introduce fresh air into a room oecu-
pied by 35 to so pupils. The only real
attempt at ventilation was found in
kindergarten, in the Second Ward,
and in the schools in the Third and
Fourth Wards, where the purest air
was found of all the rooms examined;
and yet it was so foul that no human
being should be compelled to breathe
it for six hours a day. In all the
rooms, save these last, alarge number
of scholars complained OF headache
while in the school room.
Another coNSequence Of imperfect
ventilation va the marked difference
in temperate between the air at the
floor level and that three or four feet