HYGIENE AND SCHOOL LIFE. 83; 



fountains. The danger of over-crowding coats, hats. etc... 

 needs little comment, I hope. 



The regular publication and distribution among school 

 teachers of statistics and advice taken from the reports of 

 medical inspectors would be a most useful guide to them, and 

 would probably be the means of saving thousands of children 

 from misery and loss of valuable time, not to mention impaired 

 mental faculties thereafter. 



I have already pointed out the absolute necessity of regular" 

 and continuous personal medical inspection of all schools and 

 scholars and teachers as a preventive measure. 



General Health and Over-zvork. — From personal observa- 

 tion I am of opinion that our girls are generally over-worked, 

 and that insufficient allow^ance is made for the climate and 

 domestic conditions of this country. I feel that in too many 

 cases their future happiness and sticcess in life is jeopardised 

 by too much being forced upon them before they have reached 

 the age of seventeen. Can it be denied that many of the 

 nervous ailments that trouble women could be traced to over- 

 work in unwholesome rooms in a trying climate. I do not 

 wish to go into details, but feel very strongly that it is not 

 sufficiently realised that the life led by a girl between the ages 

 of 10 and' 14 is full of import for weal or woe in her future- 

 life, which is too often sacrificed to the shrine of ignorance, 

 indifference, or neglect on the part of the mother, teacher, or 

 School Board inspector. The results of such treatment may 

 be seen in many a school-room and many a home every day, 

 in children who are on the road to physical ruin and misery 

 through anaemia, indigestion (or in other words starvation), 

 neuralgia, insomnia and other nervous developments. The 

 cruel stupidity of keeping a dull child in after school hours, 

 on account of inefficiency, should be considered a reflection 

 upon the training, intelligence and humanity of a teacher, ior 

 surely such treatment will make him the more dull and dis- 

 composed, if not evil-natured. 



Diet. — A subject that needs the closest attention of a teacher 

 and mother is that of the nutrition and diet of children. A 

 teacher under medical advice should be competent to detect 

 such a case, and to instruct both child and mother as to the 

 quality and quantity of foods that are most suitable for delicate 

 children during school life, a time when both physical and 

 mental development are most exacting, and when each is more 

 or less governed by the other. 



Rest and Sleep. — Children should be taught to rise suffi- 

 ciently early in the morning to have ample time to clean them- 

 selves and eat their breakfast slowly. They should be taught 

 the habit of eating deliberately, decently and naturally. This 

 cannot be expected unless the child is peacefully asleep at a 

 reasonable hotu". with brain composed and in those hygienic 

 surroundings that are a condition precedent to physical and 

 mental repose. 



Exercise. — Mental relaxation is a most necessary concomitant 

 to successful teachinjj'. and nothing conduces to it more than 



