678 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



green or blue material, to be hinged on to one or both sides of the 

 window. Where these have been adopted they are most effective. 

 All infant departments should be on the ground floor. This saves 

 the fatigue of going up, and the danger of falling down stairs, 

 besides being more easy of egress in case of panic. Where there is 

 an upper storey attention should be paid to the staircases. There 

 should be at least two, and they should be fireproof and walled in. 

 The rises should not be more than six inches, and the treads should 

 be of some suitable material that is noiseless, will not wear out 

 readily, and not become slippery. I have had experience of iron, 

 stone, wood, and compositions such as ironite, etc. The iron is 

 noisy and becomes polished and slippery, the wood and stone wear 

 out very rapidly ; the ironite is noisy, chips, and becomes very 

 slippery and dangerous. A tread of asphalt nosed with hardwood 

 is undoubtedly the best ; it gives a good, firm, fairly noiseless 

 tread, is never slippery, and when wearing out can be easily re- 

 paired. 



The teacher is only human, and requires some amount of rest 

 and comfort during the dinner hour. In Greece, Roumania and 

 Hungary I noticed that the Superior Schools had well-furnished 

 reception rooms for the use of the staff. I do not think it would be 

 amiss to have such rooms for the use of the teaching staff in all 

 schools. To add to the comfort it would be well to have a fixed 

 washstand or sink and a gas ring. When a child feels poorly it 

 has either to rest in the shelter-shed or in some shady spot in the 

 playground. It would be advisable to have a room with a couch or 

 two set apart for such cases. 



The sanitary arrangements are an important factor in school 

 hygiene, and also have a moral effect on the children. Where the 

 out- offices are dark and improperly constructed the moral tone 

 becomes lowered. This rarely happens with up-to-date structures. 

 It is very important to choose a suitable site in the beginning. The 

 out-offices should take up the two far corners of the playground, 

 one for girls and the other for boys ; the approach to each other 

 would be by the verandah suggested. The infants should have 

 their offices built midway between, or be divided amongst the 

 girls and boys. By utilising 30 feet off each side of the corner 

 there is enough room for twelve w.c's. and twelve washbasins, and 

 the urinals would accommodate about 36 ; this would be suitable 

 for a school with about 1.000 boys. Part of the structure could 

 have shower baths fixed up. Where possible separate pan water- 

 closets should be provided. The present trough system uses up 

 too much water, is constant^ choked up, and teaches dirty habits. 

 The automatic self-flushing closet tends to make the users for- 

 getful. The urinals should consist of some composition such as 

 ironite, there should be no joins, and the extremities of the urinals 

 should be rounded off. The wall should incline backwards ; this 

 is better for flushing. In ordinary flushing one often notices the 

 water to fall vertically in front of the wall, where the latter slopes 



