396 MAN'S IMPROVEMENT OF HIS ENVIRONMENT 



Twenty-two per cent of the school children of Massachusetts 

 were recently found to have defects in vision. Tests for defective 

 eyesight may be made at school easily by competent doctors, and 

 if the child or parent takes the advice given to correct this by 

 procuring proper glasses, a handicap on future success will be 

 removed. 



Decayed Teeth. — Decayed teeth are another handicap, cared 

 for by this division. Free dental clinics have been established in 

 many cities, and if children will do their share, the chances of their 

 success in later life will be greatly aided. Boys and girls, if handi- 

 capped with poor eyes or teeth, do not have a fair chance in life's 

 competition. In a certain school in New York City there were 

 236 pupils marked ''C" in their school work. These children 

 were examined, and 126 were found to have bad teeth, 54 

 defective vision, and 56 other defects, as poor hearing, adenoids, 

 enlarged tonsils, etc. Of these children 185 were treated for 

 these various difficulties, and 51 did not take treatment. During 

 the following year's work 176 of these pupils improved from " C " 

 to "B" or ''A ", while 60 did not improve. If defects are such 

 a handicap in school, then what would be the chances of success 

 in life outside. 



In conclusion : this department of school hygiene deserves the 

 earnest aid of every young citizen, girl or boy. If each of us 

 would honestly help by maintaining quarantine in the case of 

 contagious disease, by observing the rules of the health depart- 

 ment in fumigation, by acting upon advice given in case of eye- 

 strain, bad teeth, or adenoids, and most of all by observing the 

 rules of personal hygiene as laid down in this book, the city in 

 which we live would, a generation hence, contain stronger, more 

 prosperous, and more efficient citizens than it does to-day. 



Reference Books 



elementary 



Hunter, Laboratory Problems in Civic Biology. American Book Company. 

 Davison, The Human Body and Health. American Book Company. 

 Gulick Hygiene Series, Town and City. Ginn and Company. 

 Hough and Sedgwick, The Human Mechanism, Part II. Ginn and Company. 

 Overton, General Hygiene. American Book Company. 



