The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1893-09-16
DANGER IN WRITING.
EXPERTS SAY THAT sLANTu1o SCRIPT
CAUSES DISEASE.


A Movement In Favor Of Vertical script
Baoked BY the rfiehest Medical Author
ities-Rosa!ts Of Extensive Experiments
with school children.
The method of writing taught in mod
ern schools and practiced by 30 people
out of every 100 has been declared dan
gerous and unhealthful by experts. By
the time the next generation natures It
will probably have been wiped out. The
script then win 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
iginatcd 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 a
vote of 229 against 4;
| whereas, The hygienic advantages Of verti-
cal writing have been clearly shown and Is
/ tablishcd beth by medical Investigation and
| practical experience, and
Whereas tts introduction obviates those per-
nicious Positions Of the body which entail ra-
| chitic diseases and myopia,
Resolved, That we recommend the introduc-
| ton of vertical writing In the schools Of the
/ people.
| The effect Of so serious an action in a
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.. Burnham 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 80 to 80 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 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 ap.
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 to be correct is the obliqut
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 tha'
the child writes vertically when he frs
goes to school, and that the teacher hal
to work 70. no slant. The vertical writ
ing and the central position at the desl
are alike naturally indicated. AT thi
stage the controversy has led to the con
] clusion that the height of the desk anC
that of the seat must be equally adapted
to the growth of the pupil. In some o
the progressive schoolsaas Felix Adler
and at South Orange, n. j., adjustable
seats are being used.
9 The point in DR., Shaw's recent expert
h ments, made with the aid of several as
: sistants ON more than 800 pupils in tn
} New York and suburban schools, ha
been to see whether, with the paper di
rcctly in front Of the pupil and with tn
e eyes closed, there could be any tendenc
coward vertical writing. The pupil
we're first requested to take the custom
q ary position in writing and to write 1
the ordinary manner the sentence, 'Joh
is flying his paper kite This form {
- exercise was selected ou account of tn
,e number of long letters which it contains
le and as being one also that is easy for I'll
ID child to remember. After having thu
written the sentence, the pupil was
rected to take the straight central pos
S. hon, dip his pen in the ink ami with h
eyes closed to write the same again.
The closing Of the eyes was TO elm
nate from the childs mind the consciou
IS ness of the slant. Thc angle of slant
il all the long letters in the test papers WI
~ carefully measured, the angle of slant
er the usual writing IN each case being all
ny found with the same precision. III
measurements and the calculations "a
up to 5000 items, and among other issu
NC Of the work was the invention by Lac
Of machiae for making the measur
ments.-New York Press