The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-28
CAN'T DODGE GERMS
It Now Appears That Pupils Breathe
Them as Well as Drink
Them.
Collegiate Alumnae Analyze the Air
From Variously Kept School
Rooms.

That Minneapolis schools are the worst
kept buildings ih athe city in the matter Of [
cleanliness and the most poorly kept
school houses IN the country is the deducr |
ton reached by q committee Of the Col
legiate Alurnnae after a series of tnveStl- |
cations and tests. While these tests are
admittedly incomplete, they are enough to
convince the Investigating committee that
the cleaning system employed in the Min
neapolis schools is sadly defective.
The Investigations were conducted by
Josephine t5arles Simpson and Mary Case
Barney assisted by Dr.. F. F.. Westbrook
and Dr., j. Frank Corbett, who made the
ARCHAEOLOGICAL examinations. At the
Madison and Marcy schools, which are
old structures with unpublished hardwood
floors, four tests were made. One room
was swept daily. with an ordinary dry
brush and busted in the morning; the
second was swept in the same manner but
the desks were busted with damp cloth
and the room scrubbed -once*a week; the
third was cleansed by means of a brush
with a kerosene spray and the fourth by
the use. of damp ,sawdust pushed ahead Of
an ordinary fiber brush, the busting being
done in the ordinary way, Fy...ss .5.ssss
| Dishes three inches in diameter, con-
tanning sterile, melted Agar jelly, were
| used for trapping the bacteria. Five min
utes after sweeping five of these plates
| were placed in each room and left I'M
| COVSr6u 1OI d Illllutc. Lie l)1dScS WCIO
| then taken to the laboratory and kept at
| a temperature Of 81 degrees centigrade
for four days, when the number Of bac-
terial colonies were counted.
Damp sawdust Was Best
! Investigations at the Madison school
show the most favorable results from the
| use of damp sawdust. The room cared
| for in the ordinary way shows nearly 800
| per cent more bacteria than the one swept
| with damp SawduSt.
| At the Motley school, however, the oil
brush method gave the best results, such
rooms showing only about half as many
l bacteria as the room swept in the or
binary way.
1 The committee in its report says fur
Their:
busting is done in the school rooms in the
morning, just before the children enter, and In
some schools hall and stairways are busted just
before the dismissal Of pupils in the afternoon.
] 1t will be readily perceived that more unfor-
tunate time for busting could not well be chosen
Aside from the menace to health which Sc
much dust occasions, there Is much discomfort
Books and pencils are 50 loaded with dust that
the children's hands become Immediately soiled
when using them. The floors SO dusty that
: a child kneeling STOPPING to pick anything
from the floor looks as tho he had knelt in thu
road 1t Is safe to say that the humblest home
in the city is cleaned Oftener and more thorOly
than our school rooms
!, WHAT OTHER CITIES DO.
" | Y 80 Z.
Inquiry concerning methods OF cleaning il
various cities in our country revea1sthat Mime
apolis requires less cleaning and care from he
s school janitors than any other city.
i Inquiries made in seven Minneapolis schools
o taken at random, show that about 30 per cen
! IF the rooms are cleaned by .'mopping, . an
= thus only one-half Of the buildings are eve
y really cleaned, hopping can do but little NOR
: than remove the dust from the surface of tn
J, floor. AS halls and stairways are always sweep
:. in school hours, the tax upon the janitors 70
Il sweeping out OF school hours Is not great and
3 appears to this committee that more cleanin
. might be easily required.
: The committee comes to the following conclt
: sions:
e Some other method than sweeping with DR.
e brush should be employed.
! During the spring and autumn. when street
J. are muddy, extra care should be given to scho
q buildings.
= Any one of the methods used adds to IL
= comfort of the children and helps to remove tt
% disagreeable school-room odor.
Dugan and Hudson's "orthopedlc" sho.
for children, at The Plymouth