The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-10-17
DANGER IN WRITING.
EXPERTS SAY THAT sLANTINa SCRIPT
CAUSES DISEASE.

i OFN0O@O 0fO1FfOGs
A Movement In Favor Of Vertical Script
Backed by the Highest Medical Author
ities-Results of Extensive Experiments
With School Children.
The method of writing taught In mod
ern schools and practiced by 90 people
out Of every 100 has been declared dan
gerous and unhealthful by experts. By
the time the next generation natures 1t
will probably have been wiped out. The
script then will be vertical instead of
slanting, and writers will sit square and
upright before their work instead of side
ways and stopped, as at present.
The idea of this prospective reform or
iginated In Germany and overspreads
England while reaching this country.
The following resolution was adopted
not long ago by the international con-
gress of school hygiene in London by
vote of 229 against 1:
Whereas, The hygienic advantages Of verti-
cal writing have been clearly shown and es-
tablished both by medical investigation and
practical experience, and
nicious positions Of the body which entail ra-
chitic diseases and myopia,
Resolved, That we recommend the introduce
ton Of vertical writing in the schools of the
people.
The effect of SO serious an action in
country esteeming proper physical con-
ditions as England esteems them is
readily to be imagined.
The corresponding movement In the
United States is led by DR.. Durham Of
Clark university. His investigations
have brought the conviction that the or
binary position in 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 a large per cent of these cases being
toward the right side, as result of g
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
rated 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-
srgetic course followed by DR.. Shaw of
The University of the City of New York
aas given additional proof that the cause
IF the difficulty is to be attributed to the
1esks which are generally in use, and
more especially to the bad position in
writing, the opinion being held with ap-
parent unanimity by investigators In
his country as well as abroad that all
out two positions to be taken in the
,chool practice of writing are improper.
One judged TO be correct is the oblique
central position and the other the
straight central position, between which
N reference to final choice the contro-
Fersy in Germany is said to be fierce.
The advocates of reform observe that
;he child writes vertically when he first
goes to school, and that the teacher has
10 work for the slant. The vertical writ
ng and the central position at the desk
ire alike naturally indicated. AT this
Itage the controversy has led to the con-
fusion that the height of the desk and
hat Of the seat must be equally adapted
20 the growth of the pupil. In some Of
he progressive schools, as Felix Adler's
md at South Orange, N. j., adjustable
eats are being used.
The point in DR.. Shaw's recent expert
nents, made with the aid of several as
istants on more than 300 pupils in the
New York and suburban schools, has
,een to see whether, with the paper d.
ectly in front of the pupil and with the
yes closed, there could be any tendency
oward vertical writing. The pupils
we're first requested to take the custom
Try position In writing, and to write in
he ordinary manner the sentence, John
flying his paper kite" This form of
exercise was selected ON account Of the
lumber of long letters which it contains,
nd as being one also that is easy for the
ihild to remember. After having thus
written the sentence, the pupil was d.
ected to take the straight central posi-
ion, dip his pen in the ink and with his
yes closed to write the same again.
The closing of the eyes was to elimi-
late from the child's mind the conscious
less of the slant. The angle of slant In
IL the long letters in the test papers was
arefully measured, the angle of slant in
he usual writing in each case being also
ound with the same precision. The
measurements and the calculations ran
Up to 5000 items, and among other issues
# the work was the invention by lady
machine for making the measure
nents.-New York Press.