The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-17
THE SCHOOL POPULATION OF sA-
VANNAH.
The Sanitary Privileges TO Which IL
is Entitled.

ent of our public schools has given me
every facility for a thorough examination
OF them, and. from a conversation had
with this gentleman. feel confident that
if it was in his power so to arrange it, our
children would enjoy the benefits not only
of well ventilated school rooms, OF pre-
ventive medicine and proper sanitary reg
ulations, but of physical training, which
is, and has always been, considered es-
sential to healthful mental training. and
ought to be part of the curriculum OF our
schools.
The school population counts near 1900
in Savannah, of which fully 5000 children
of all ages are taught in the public
schools. The expense of teaching these
children and supporting the schools last
year, was sos 076.l4. Not one penny of
this amount is paid by the city, the en-
tire burden having been thrown upon the
county and state ever since 1879. has
much as fully one-half of this city's chill
dren are daily thrown together in these
schools, and the board of education has
never made any provision to protect them
against disease or to secure school by
giene, it would seem that our city fathers,
when they ceased to make an apDropr.a-
ton, should have felt in duty bound to
give them such protection, by securing
the services of a physician well versed
in state medicine and school hygiene
with full authority to enforce proper
sanitary regulations in all the
schools. But they have failed to
perform this duty, and the necessity for
such an official becoming more urgent
every day, it is the imperative duty of pa
rents to demand that the city council APP
point one. On March s, 1882, the late Gen.
Gilmer, one of our most enlightened citi-
Zens, an old army officer and civil engin-
eer, read a report upon the condition of
our public schools, calling the attention
of the school authorities to defects in their
sanitary appliances, to the imperfect ven
tilation faulty lighting and oVer-crowding
of many of the school rooms and to the
danger to life arising from the lack of SUI
ticient stairways and means of exit in
case of fire. Since that time some improve
ment has been made in the form and ar
rangement of desks, in the means of exit
in case of fire and in the arrangement of
water closets and urinals, but while dur
ing these fourteen years immense strides
were made in every department Of by
gene, especially in the ventilation, light
ing and heating of school buildings in all
that pertains to the prevention of disease,
and to the physical training of school chill
dren, ! am constrained to say, after max
ing a thorough investigation that in these
been made in our public schools In fact it
is evident that in the construction of the
Henry street and the Anderson street
school buildings neither ventilation lex
cept through window9 nor physical train
ing, seem to have been considered at all
by the board of education
Pure fresh air is as essential as food to
robust health, and growing children re-
quire an abundance of it all the time, es
pecially when crowded together in the
school room. To furnish enough air to
keep pure a room full of children is not as
easily accomplished as might at first APP
pear. There are several methods used
for the purpose, but only such as are
available in all sorts Of weather, and can
be controlled at will, are of value in pub
lie schools. =,
School rooms, like prisons, have their
characteristic doors. In some school
rooms 1t is so pungent that 1t stiles, in
others a sensible business greet the Wis
itor Clean skin, clean heads of hair,
clean feet and shoes, and clean garments.
II insisted upon by the teacher, will in a
great way prevent unsavory odors The
daily sweeping and weekly scrubbing of
floors together with the use of a weak
mercurie, or other disinfecting solution,
and the thorough airing of all the rooms
during recesses, and after and before
school hours, will also help to prevent un-
healthy smells But during school hours.
in freezing, stormy, or rainy weather,
when windows cannot be used as venti-
lators, fresh air must be brought in and
the foul air must be gotten rid of.
Careful experiments made in Europe
have shown that about $500 cubic feet
Of air per head must be removed hourly
from a room to keep it pure, "a school
room 25 by 80 and 12la feet high, contain
ing 10000 cubic feet OF air, allows a space
of 200 cubic feet per scholar If 80 scholars
be present. In order to Ventilate such
room at the above rate per hour, the
air needed is about equal to 1000 cubic
feet per minute and would require an
aperture of 10 square feet, or registers
without grating each one foot wide and
two feet long. Such quantity of air.
il admitted cold in a warm room would
create draught dangerous to children
To avert this danger the air must be
heated and it should be admitted in a
horizontal direction" The temperature of
the room should be regulated by means
of registers, a thermometer being hung
in every room.
The source of the supply of air is of
great importance If it is expected to
have 1t always fresh and pure. Drawing
air from cellar, as is frequently DONE
is improper, and very dangerous GUS
tom, particularly where such cellar is
closed during cold weather las Is the case
in the Henry street schooL) In such place
the air is never pure, and being soon used
up may become so rarified that the fire
of the furnace will die out. Generally,
however, II is drawn from the school
rooms above through the hot air box
and it is unfit for use. The supply, there
fore ought to be derived from outside
the building, some distance above the
ground, and the inlet should be large
enough to furnish all that is needed. Air
once used is unfit TO be breathed again
and must be gotten rid Of During the
summer, when the weather is favorable
the windows can be raised and the air
allowed to pour in and out freely, but as
windows cannot always be used, some
other means Of exit must be at hand. for
inside of one hour the air may be so
impure as to cause asphyxiation Old
time fireplaces, immense in size used to
furnish a ready and constant exit for
impure air, with its sparkling wood fire,
but now that the furnace the heater
or the stove, have replaced the hearth,
all school buildings should be provided
with ample means for the escape of the
foul air which accumulates within the
halls, and every school room should have
openings near the floor and near the
ceiling large enough to carry off the
poison-laden air, and to assure its
rapid exit, a gas Jet should be lighted