The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-11-03
DANGER N WRITING.
EXPERTS SAY THAT SLANTlNG SCRIPT
CAUSES DISEASE.

A Movement In Favor OF Vertical script
Backed b. the Highest Medical Author
ities-EesuIts OF Extensive Experiments
with school Children.
The method Of writing taught III mod
eTa schools and practiced b. % people
/ cut OF every 100 has been declared dan
/ gerous and unhealthfCl by experts. By
the time the next generation natures IL
VIII probably have been wiped out. The
script then viii De vertical instead Of
slanting, and writers Will SIT square and
upright before their work instead Of side
ways and stopped. o. 1t present.
The idea Of this prospective reform or
! iginated III Germany and overspreads
/ England while reaching this country.
| The following resolution was adopted
not long ago by the international con
! gress Of school hygiene IL London by Q
vote of 200 against /:
Whereas, The hyEienic advantages OF vcrti-
I cal writing have been clearly shown and rs-
/ tab.iShed both by medical uvestgatiou and
/ practical experience. and
Whereas Its intro1 CCt!cn obviates those per-
/ niclous positions of the body which entail IA
! chitic diseases and myopla,
Resolved. That We recommend the introduc-
| ton OF vertical writing II the schools OF The
people.
The effect of so serious an action III a
/ country esteeming proper physical con-
| ditious as England esteens them is
readily TO be imagined.
The corresponding movement in the
| United States is led by Dr. Burnham of
/ Clark university. His Investigations
| nave brought the conviction that the or
| binary position III writing IS among the
| foremost conditions Of school life and
| methods of training which must be
| changed in the interest of health. The
| vertical script, therefore, Is strongly
| recommended. From so to 90 per cent
| of lateral curvature of the spine is found
| to be caused in school life, the curvature
| In large per cent of these cases being
| toward the right side, as a result of a
defective position in writing, and the
] eyes at the same time are seriously in
| jured by this slanted writing.
The practical advance of the newly
approved system in this country is illus
| trated in the Worcester normal school
and the Workingmen's school at Fifty
fourth street In this city, directed by
| Professor Adler, where the vertical
writing is used in the lower grades and
now carried on to the fourth and fifth
grades.
The observations of foreign physicians
| showing that the prevalence of myopia
and spinal curvature is regularly in
creased in the advance through the
| school grades are supplemented in this
| country by work on novel lines. An en-
ergetic course followed by DR.. Shaw of
| the University of the City of New York
| has given additional proof that the cause
| of the difficulty is to be attributed to the
| desks which are generally in use, and
more especially to the bad position in
writing, the opinion being held with APP
| parent unanimity by investigators in
| this country as well as abroad that all
but two positions to be taken in the
school practice of writing are improper.
| One judged 10 be correct is the obhque
| central position and the other the
straight central position, between which
in reference to final choice the contro-
versy in Germany is said to be fierce.
The advocates of reform observe that
| the child writes vertically when he first
| goes to school, and that the teacher has
| to work for the slant. The vertical writ
ing and the central position at the desk
are alike naturally indicated. At this
| SldS6 TIC controversy Ids leu W ZIG SOAI-
clusion that the height of the desk and
| that of the seat must be equally adapted
to the growth OF the pupil. In some Of
the progressive schools, as Felix Adler's
and at South Orange, N. j., adjustable
seats are being used.
| The point in DR.. Shaw's recent expert
ments, made with the aid Of several as
! sistants on more than 300 pupils IN the
| New York and suburban schools, has
| been to see whether, with the paper d.
rectly il front of the pupil and with the
! eyes closed, there could be any tendency
| toward vertical writing. The pupils
| were first requested to take the custom
| airy position in writing, and to write in
! the ordinary manner the sentence, John
is flying his paper kite" This form of
| exercise was selected on account of the
| number Of long letters which it contains,
| and as being one also that is easy for the
| child to remember. After having thus
written the sentence, the pupil was di-
| rected to take the straight central posi-
| ton, dip his pen in the ink and with his
| eyes closed to write the same again.
The closing Of the eyes was to elimi-
| nate from the child's mind the conscious
| ness of the slant. The angle Of slant in
| all the long letters in the test papers was
| carefully measured, the angle of slant in
| the usual writing in each case being also
| found with the same precision. The
| measurements and the calculations ran
! up TO 5000 items, and among other issues
| Of the work was the invention by a lady
| of machine for making the measure
rnents-New York Press.