MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 355- 



meriting upon this condition, says : "The amount of work, sitting 

 still, etc., exacted of the girls, is not consistent with their health during 

 the growing period. Without going into detail as to the influences 

 injurious to the health of growing children which proceed from their 

 homo, or may be brought out in connection with the school and school 

 work, it is still manifest that the burden of work that children hnve 

 to bear under the present school regulation far exceeds what is pt^r- 

 missible, and is, to a large extent, responsible for the liability of 

 school children to illness." 



It may be a mooted question as regards the condition of children 

 in'some foreign countries, as applied to American boys and girls; that 

 Ihe social surroundings and general mode of life are better here. It 

 is claimed that we are better fed and better housed. Be this as it 

 may, we cannot deny the fact that the nervous strain to which chil- 

 dren are subjected in this country, both in and out of school, n)ore 

 than counterbalances our boasted advantages in other directions. In 

 this country there has not been an extensive research, properly con- 

 ducted, which might enable us to arrive at a fair conclusion of the 

 relation of school life to growth and health. Investigations have 

 been made with the object of obtaining data for special purposes 

 only. I think tliat I am not presuming too much in suggesting tliat 

 physicians institute inquiries in a systematic and thorough manner, 

 so that eventually we may be able to determine in what manner phys- 

 ical development and growth are influenced by school life. Research 

 of this character made in rural districts would be valuable for a com- 

 parative study of the influence of city and country life. We would 

 suggest that this work be extended to the child life in reformatories 

 and other institutions, where the daily routine of life is, perhajts, 

 painfully regular. 



Doubtless in these reformatories we would find a class of children 

 who have grown up under less restraint, and in whom the natural 

 propensities and impulses have been to a large extent unchecked ; we 

 would, as a rule, find in this class a better physical development. 

 There are special points to be considered in the collection of data : 

 age, sex, weight, rate of growth as between boys and girls of the same 

 age, rate of growth at different periods of school life, the percentage 

 of illness, and its nature, whether functional or organic, etc , etc. By 

 collecting observations bearing upon these points, we will at some 

 future time be able to pass judgment upon the merits and value of 

 our system of education, and determine to what extent the health of 

 the child is or may be affected by it. In another statement Professor 

 Key says: "It is incumbent on us to see with all possible care that 

 the growth of youth during their years of puberty, which is so full of 



