MKDH AL I XSIM-HTIOX OF SCIKlnl.S. 535 



the best and most endtirin.t; of uur cffcirts. Legislative action, entiuisiasm 

 for reform, inclividnal strivings, all wait on a public desire fm- health 

 progress, an uplift that may come only with a new generation — the 

 generation at present in our schools. Hence, the teaching of hygiene in 

 schools, though of little direct value at present to the conmumity, is 

 nevertheless educationally of vital and immediate imp<''rtance. for as the 

 years pass by increasing waves of hygieuically-disposed minds ari.- enter- 

 ing the ocean of our civilisation to remedy the stagnation of ignorance 

 and superstition. More and more, teachers will be on our side as to 

 the value of fresh air; but above all the children of the open-air class- 

 rooms and schools will grow up living examples and missioners of the 

 gospel of fresh air. Every swimmer taught in our schools will revive 

 in our nation its lost desire for the water and remove its present dislike 

 of contact. Every Australian boy and girl growing up will regard no 

 longer as a menace, but indeed as our finest possession, the glorious sun- 

 shine of this southern continent, ^'et to-day the three things most feared 

 are fresh air — draughts — cold water, and sunshine — sunstroke. These 

 fears arc as visionary and as unreal as former beliefs in witches or in 

 fetishes— lieliefs even uK^re firmly held, yet now exploded. 



I (jtiote this ])ai-tTOTaph becatise. with all dtie respect to otir 

 own conimtinitv, the criticism is singtilarly apposite when applied 

 to tts. In our schools, too, we see filthy children, verminous 

 heads and bodies, and disease bred by want of cleanliness, tear 

 of cold water, and exclusion of sunliijht and air. These three 

 factors are responsible for more ill-health in our schools than 

 are under-feeding or infectious disease. " My people are 

 destroyed for lack of knowledge !" sang the prophet Hosea. eclio- 

 ing his predecessor, Isaiali. It needed e])idemics of cholera and 

 typhus to bring something of this knoAvledge to the public in 

 England ; we. forttmatel}-, have had no Ijlight severe enough in 

 its national destruction to instil the commonplaces of sanitary 

 science into otir people. School medical insiiection, if its object 

 is to increase national efficiency and be of real value to the com- 

 mtinity, .should forestall jilagtie and fever as educative forces. 



Finally, school medical inspection mitst strive to |)romote 

 the betterment of industrial, domestic, and ecottomic conditions 

 which adversely influence the rising generation. Its work in this 

 direction is intiinately connected with its duty as an educative 

 factor in matters of ])tt])lic health, and it can only achieve useftil 

 and practical results by investigating problems .-md co-o]:)erating 

 with the health attthorities. I may allude to the good work that 

 has been done by school medical oBicers in connection with juve- 

 nile employment and vocational training both in England and in 

 Italy, and l)v the stimulus which certain investigations b\' sucli 

 officers have given to improvements in factory legislation. The 

 work mtist be largely indirect, but it luust l)e grounded on 

 patient and solid research ; the em])loyment of the method of resi- 

 dties, wdiich students of ^.lill still regard as a legitimate way 

 of scientific investigation, will not do. As our economic condi- 

 tions imj^rove and otir ])opulation increases, we shall be faced by 

 new problems of work and industry, and their influence u]nm the 

 evolution of the race. At present we have already certain (|ues- 

 tions that have hitherto been discussed from a ])urely ])olitica] or 

 economic, rather than from the sounder sociological aspect — the 



