548 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



warrant a final statement of what should be required in the printing of 

 their books. As the most usable approximate statement of what may 

 properly be insisted on, and for the sake of uniformity, I quote here 

 the requirements made by Shaw in his ' School Hygiene.' These 

 requirements are none too stringent, except that sometimes some of 

 the leading may well be sacrificed in favor of a type that is a little 

 larger, for the third and forth grades especially. 



" For the first year the size of the type should be at least 2.6 milli- 

 meters and the width of leading 4.5 mm." 



" For the second and the third year, the letters should not be smaller 

 than 2 mm. with a leading of 4 mm." 



" For the fourth year the letters should be at least 1.8 mm. with 

 leading 3.6 mm." 



For some grades succeeding this the type should be kept well above 

 the minimal requirements for adult readers. 



Examinations of the school books in use in Germany, Eussia, and 

 other European countries, made at various times and places, have shown 

 that usually from fifty to eighty-five per cent, of the books came short 

 of hygienic requirements. American books are somewhat better, but 

 include very many that are very bad. Even when the principal part 

 of the book is in good type, there will often be large sections printed 

 in a type so small as to be very injurious. The dictionaries and other 

 books of reference have notoriously small print, and those with the 

 smaller and poorer types should be mercilessly discriminated against. 

 As Shaw rightly says, " Principals, teachers, and school superintendents 

 should possess a millimeter measure and a magnifying glass and should 

 subject every book presented for their examination to a test to deter- 

 mine whether the size of the letters and the width of the leading are 

 of such dimensions as will not prove injurious to the eyes of children. 

 If every book, no matter what its merits, were rejected if its type were 

 "too small, the makers of such books would very quickly bring out new 

 •editions with a proper size of type." 



