Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-19


lie schools had defective teeth, and fur
Their digging into the causes for this con
i dition of affairs resulted in the informa
| ton that the dentist is seldom consulte
in the cases of children of the schoo
age, and that, Furthermore, large per
centage of the children investigated ha'
never been introduced to the tooth brush
| 1t being found that defective teeth re
suit In malnutrition, as the result OIL en-
larged glands. and all kinds of stomach
troubles, the use of the tooth brush was
persistently advocated, and the invesu
gators say, with quite a good deal o.
success.
Again 1t was found that in very
large number of instances soap was ar
absolute stranger to the children n
| thousands of homes. and in conse-
quence bad eyes and other diseases
were the result.
Mothers from the Battery to Harlem
and from side to side of the great city
were impressed with the necessity for
using both the tooth brush and soap In
their homes, and in a short time won
derful changes were noted.
Mothers of poor children, and some
mothers who were not so poor, were
strong in their support of the PROPOSE
ton of municipal breakfasts for school
children. Now they are equally strong
in their support of tooth brush and a
cake of soap for every child as the best
means for starting on road to health
that cannot. be reached by any other
path.
To Ask Presidents Aid
Having gathered statistics of suffi-
cient moment on the subject of hygiene
in the schools of New York, and having
once before interested President Roos e.
welt in the subject, the local committee
will again call on him for assistance in
making the crusade a strong national
one.
They will ask that the president take
up the matter with the bureau of edu-
cation of the department of the inter-
Tor, and have that bureau take up the
subject with the state superintendent
of public schools and through them the
county superintendent, so that from
one corner of the United States to the
other the song of "The Tooth Brush
and the Cake of Soap" may be as famil-
lar In the ears of the children of the
public schools as Is the ringing of the
morning bell.
With a start on the persons of the
school children, IL is the hope of the
committee to get advanced rapidly to
the hygienic conditions of the school
rooms and houses. the articles used in
udHy Stuuy, as well as the articles uSeQ
in play
Chairman Birmingham Is now on his
way home from England, where he at
tended the second international con-
gress of School of Hygiene. which was
patronized by King Edward VII. There
were delegates present from the United
States, Switzerland, Sweden, the Cape
and Orange river colonies of South
Africa, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Holland,
Greece, Germany, France, Denmark,
Bulgaria, Belgium and Austria.
The congress was divided into sec
tions, and every portion of the school
child's body was discussed with view
to its best hygenic treatment.
The physical condition of the chill
dren of the public schools of the United
States was given little attention prior
to meeting of the National Educa-
tional association in St.. Louis in 1904,
at which time one of the delegates
gathering by saying that the small
amount of teaching of hygiene in the
schools had largely to do with the
large consumption of tobacco and alco-
hol by the students later in life. He
added that large number of children
were being untitled for life through
caused by lack Of
hygienic methods; that most of them
had bad teeth and defective eyes, and
that IL less attention be paid to ply
steal culture and gymnastics, and more
attention to hygiene, the children
would grow up to be healthy and
strong.