The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-13
Are OUR Public Schools
Nurseries of Disease ?
Reasons for the Belief That Radical Changes
Need to Be Made i'm School Sanitation.

There were many interesting and inn
portant papers read and discussed by the
Associated Health Authorities of the state
at their meeting in Harrisburg last
month, but the one exciting most inter-
est and that was followed with the closest
attention was that of A. NJ Sloan, presi-
dent of the Greensburg Board of Health,
upon the advisibility of regulating the
erection of school buildings by act of
Assembly. There was in substance as
follows.1
A perfect educational system should
fit the youth of the state for the ac
| tive duties and responsibilities of after
| life. If this public school system of
! ours does not accomplish this, then 1t
| Is, to a greater or less extent, a fail
| ure. To turn out of our schools on
| graduation day an intellectual giant
with a diseased body. and call such a
man or woman, is misnumer; to claim
such a combination an educational sue
| cess is an absurdity. If there be any
| thing in our school management that
| tends to produce diseases of the body,
our first duty should be it's extirpation.
| "A sound mind cannot exist in an un-
sound body" What has the great state
| of Pennsylvania done to guard the
| health of her children? Nothing. Most
of the school buildings of the state have
been defectively constructed and are
fruitful source for the propagation
| of contagious and preventable diseases.
| We embellish and decorate the exterior
of our educational buildings. but APP
ply no scientific principles in the ad-
justment of light. heat and ventilation,
and as a result have a legion suffer-
ing with optical and other diseases due
ton Three and four story buildings
are erected for school purposes, and Our
girls go up and down long stairways
engendering physical ailments which
incapacitate them for life and render
the succeeding generation at least
weaker if wiser. The spinal and othe,
diseases caused by this excessive
climbing of thousands of girls cling tc
them through life, producing an UNTOLD
amount of suffering, supplantins
youthful beauty with wrinkled and
pale features, and prematurely bring
ing on decay and old age. Shall we al
low this to continue year after yea
and be silent?
Were you ever in one of our pri
mary schools, crowded with pupils, OF
a cold winter day? OF all places need
ing ventilation, none seem to demanC
more; crowded with children of an ag
at which they pay but little II an,
attention to personal cleanlness-th
material Is of the best to render the al
impure and unfit to breathe. Th
young and growing body is profoundl!
influenced for good or evil by hygieni
surroundings. Bad sanitary condition
may go impress the delicate organiza
ton of a naturally weak child as t
make life a burden to him, or may s.
influence a vigorous constitution a
to materially lessen his power. TIL
foolish method of training the mind a
the expense of the body can only b
denounced as criminal, and it be
hooyes us to take hand in the mat
ter, and force sanitary legislation fo
the welfare of the children of the com
mOnWealth.
Some one has said, Schools are abso
lutte manufactures of the short-sight
ed" a variety of the human race whic
has been created within historic time
and which, If the result of the inVes
LEGATIONS is to be believed, is enol
mously increasing in number this las
half of the nineteenth century. a
generation follows generation Visibl
defects multiply. Excessive eye-strai
in extreme cases of myopia cause
| blindness. II is true that short-sight
edness is often hereditary. But, | TAX
it, this does not mean that the chi
; dren of short-sighted parents are Dor
short sighted. They have only tt
, predisposition to become so, and TIL
predisposition surrounding the childre
| To ,lttf
short -sightedness in children who hay
: no hereditary predisposition, and II
statistics, in so far as 1 am able t
t gather them, show that the percentae
of school children afflicted therewitl
increases from year to year. The e
fects of school life in producing neal
sightedness in the pupils was fir!
brought to my attention by readin
;, some years ago of the result of II
systematic study of the subject by d
c. r. AgneW, of New York. In an az
. dress before the Medico-Legal soCiet
of that city, he stated the results
= an investigation made in variol
= schools of Cincinnati New York ar
Brooklyn. The number of pupils e!
;, amined was 1,479 of whom $50 We
in Cincinnati $40 in New York and 3
. in Brooklyn. OF the $50 pupils in II
y, Cincinnati schools, 209 We're from II
- primary grades, and of these S3l2 p
. cent, We're near-sighted. In the inte
mediate schools, 21O pupils We're exam
=. ined, and of these 50 per cent. we
% natural and IA per cent. near-sighte
In the high school, the eyes of 2lO ST
10 dents We're examined, and Of these
per cent had normal vision and IL p
> cent near-sighted.
- The $40 students examined in Ne
~ York, belonged to New York colleg
=. Here, in the preparatory classes, 81
- per cent We're found with normal vi
: ion, and % per cent. near-slghted.
>, the freshman class 42l9 per cent. h;
" natural eyes, and 40 per cent, we
. near-sighted. In the sophomore elias
y no very material difference was o
served from that in the freshman elias
But in the junior class, 81 per ceI
had natural eyes and So per cent, we
~ near-sighted. The Brooklyn studer
20 examined belonged to the POlyteChI
\ institute of that city. Here, in [
Academic department, So per cent. h
= normal vision, and 10 per cent. we
In near-sighted. In the next higher gra
SO per cent. We're emmetropic, and y
"a per cent. near-sighted. The statisti
\ of DR.. Cohn, of Breslau, prove hC
m frequently myopia is produced
found in the first degree schools i'm Gt
ia many the proportion of myopia sch
Y. ars was 6 7-i0 per cent. In the seco