EFFECTS OF SCHOOL LIFE 



261 



has been dealt with experimentally by Borchmann and others (3). 

 Borchmann gave blood tests to 19 boys and 18 girls of Moscow before a 

 two months' "summer colony" outing, and again after their return. 

 The second test revealed an average gain of nearly a million red cor- 

 puscles per cubic millimeter of blood and a marked increase of hemo- 

 globin. This is set forth in the following table : 



Borchmann also tested eight of the girls two months after their 

 return to school and found that in three the number of red corpuscles 

 had still further increased about a quarter-million per cubic milli- 

 meter, while in the other five there was a decrease of about two thirds 

 of a million as compared with the second count. But in no case was 

 the condition as unfavorable as before the vacation. The hemoglobin 

 had in some cases decreased 5 per cent, below the second showing, had 

 increased in others, but in all cases it surpassed the pre-vacation record. 

 Lauch had already secured similar results for children of Geneva, and 

 the work of both is strikingly corroborated by numerous blood tests of 

 children who have been transferred from unhygienic conditions of the 

 ordinary class room to the Open Air School. 



The Effects of School Postures on Respiration 



The effect of school occupations on the respiration has been studied 

 experimentally by Oker-Blom (13) and by Badaloni (1). The latter 

 secured kymographic records showing the amount of respiration in the 

 upper part of the lungs resulting from different postures assumed in 

 writing. In this way it was determined that the asymmetrical position 

 induced an inflexibility of the upper part of the chest and a decreased 

 depth of respiration in the upper part of the lowered side. Later Binet 

 raised the question whether this may not be compensated by simultane- 

 ously increased abdominal breathing. In a second study Badaloni was 

 able to show that no such compensation takes place. His records prove 

 that the asymmetrical position brings a " remarkable decrease " in the 

 expanding capacity of the upper chest. The symmetrical sitting pos- 

 ture, even when the sternum was allowed to touch the desk, showed a 

 far less injurious effect. The author concludes, therefore, that it is the 

 asymmetrical position, rather than the sitting posture per se, which is 

 responsible for the school's evil effects upon the lungs. He believes 

 that the school is in this way an important cause of tuberculosis. 



In 1911 Oker-Blom (13) reports a similar experimental study of 



