HERBERT BURNHAM DAVIS, PH. D. 273 



fecting agents, especially para-formaldehyde, not only for the 

 purification of rooms, but also for books, pencils, and other 

 school articles which may have been used in common. 



Closely allied to physical cleanliness is the matter of sex 

 hygiene. The experience of physical examiners show that more 

 than 75 per cent, of the young men examined confess to experi- 

 ment with themselves, while about 66 2-3 avow that their par- 

 ents have never mentioned sex and its significance to them. 

 As soon as the child passes the sexually neuter period and in- 

 terest arises, he should receive instruction suited to his age. 

 The whole field of biology offers its wholesome contributions 

 of material to such instruction. While it may not entirely 

 obviate the child's accumulation of vocabulary of indecent words 

 and stories, yet properly given it may keep the mind from 

 moral miasma and free from the needless "fears associated with 

 the misunderstood sexual rhythms and their spontaneous noc- 

 turnal experiences." There is no excuse for the community 

 allowing its youth to grow up in ignorance of the dangers of 

 infection and its consequent enormous evils, for this part of 

 the study of the brain and the mind is one that may be fruit- 

 ful of the highest practical results, and it admits to a much 

 larger extent than is realized of a popular treatment, on scien- 

 tific lines, which would steer a happy mean between a too great 

 attention and a deplorable ignorance. If the parents neglect 

 their duty, then the need must be met by properly qualified 

 teachers. 



While the out-of-door school is the most ideal because of 

 the free air and the absence of furniture, thus allowing the 

 child free play of muscle, yet for the present the schools of 

 America will be compelled to face the problem of the school- 

 room. These problems of ventilation, proper lighting and heat- 

 ing, care of floors, freshening of walls and ceilings, movable 

 and fixed furniture, are not only vexatious, but, because of 

 their real hygienic significance, demand the most minute and 

 prolonged study. Near-sightedness is undoubtedly on the in- 

 crease. Other eye defects result from the use of improperly 

 printed books held at an improper distance and angle, by vir- 

 tue of construction of the school furniture in which the pupil 

 receives his daily torture. One investigator found that in 1,000 

 children examined, over 10 per cent, had a beginning curva- 

 ture of the spine. There is not a single piece of school fur- 

 niture in use in our schools today which does not contract the 

 chest, thus interfering with respiration and at the same time 

 producing improper posture. Why may this field not develop 

 profitable hygienic problems? Who besides Burgerstein and 



