192 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vou. VIII. 
rectly to the public of all classes, for contagious diseases know no bounds, 
and in the past, infection has spread to the homes of the rich and poor 
alike, carrying with it death, suffering, social inconvenience and both 
private and public financial losses. 
The system of compulsory education in Ontario is founded on ‘‘An 
Act respecting Truancy and Compulsory School Attendance,’’ Chap. 
296, R.S.O. 1897, passed in the 54th year of the reign of Queen Victoria. 
It requires children from eight to fourteen years of age to attend school 
under penalties laid down in the same Act, which penalties extend to 
both parents, guardians, and persons with whom a child, between these 
ages, resides. This Act does, however, exempt from attendance, chil- 
dren suffering from illness or other unavoidable cause, and clearly indi- 
cates some discrimination is made in regard to healthy and non-healthy 
children, although the line drawn is very broad, and notwithstanding 
its breadth, is somewhat lost in indefiniteness ; for outside of the con- 
tagious diseases and illness of an acute or chronic character which in- 
capacitate the child for a longer or shorter period from attending school, 
there is no differentiation from the medical standpoint of school chil- 
dren, with these exceptions, all except the blind and deaf and dumb are 
considered physically equal, and it is compulsory for them to attend 
school until after the completion of the fourteenth year. 
True it is that amongst the ‘‘duties of teachers” (Cap. 39, 1 Edward 
VII., sec. 80, sub-secs. 7 and 8) as laid down in the Act, ‘‘Assiduous 
attention” is to be given to the health and comfort of pupils, and admis- 
sion is to be refused to any pupil affected with, or exposed to smallpox, - 
scarlatina, diphtheria, whooping-cough, measles, mumps, or other con- 
tagious disease, until presenting a certificate of a physician or of a health 
officer, to the effect that danger is passed. 
The foregoing is all the provision made under the Educational Act 
of the province for the medical examination of school children. 
Of course the Public Health Act particularly provides, (sec. 103, 
sub-sec. 1) for the notification to the teacher by the parent of each 
case of contagious disease within eighteen hours after it has been known 
to exist, and again (Public Health Act., sec. 104, sub-sec. 1) provides 
that the local Board of Health is required to notify the head or other 
master of the school or schools at which any member of the household is 
in attendance, of the facts ; and again (Public Health Act, sec. 103, sub- 
sec. 3) requires, that where a teacher has reason to suspect that any 
pupil has, or that there exists in the house of any pupil any of the con- 
tagious diseases ‘‘referred to in the section, he shall notify the Medical 
