68 HOME TIM- \TMENT AND 



means for the scarlet fever germ. These gc 

 would be forced upon tin- mouthpiece, and tl. 

 the germ might lurk for many hours, perhaps <! 

 to infect the next player if the boy was in tin* 

 first stage of scarlet fever before the disease had 

 been diagnosed. 



Pens and From this my thoughts passed on t 



possible lines of infection of a similar 

 Among the 300 boys in the Home tl 

 were scholars going to six different schools. 

 In all of these schools both slate or blacklead 

 pencils and pens are used. Not one of these lads 

 had a pen or pencil of his own, nor is it usual in 

 any school for a scholar to retain his own indi- 

 vidual pencil. In all our board schools, and to 

 a large extent also in our secondary schools, slate 

 or blacklead pencils, as well as pens, are collected 

 twice daily after being used, put in a box, and 

 then given out again indiscriminately on the next 

 occasion. Day by day millions of pencils 

 passed round among our young people attending 

 school. I ask, as a further step, have any of us 

 ever met a child who was not in the habit of 

 putting the pencil in his mouth and chc\viri'_ r . 

 sucking, or biting it? Did any of us fail to 

 indulge in this habit in our own school-days? 

 What must be the result? A little reflection 

 will show that many a child in the inHji- 

 stages of scarlet fever, measles, whooping-coii'Ji. 



