54 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



the children who attend average Board schools 

 for six hours a day are during that time subjected 

 to an atmosphere containing on an average nearly 

 nineteen volumes of carbonic acid per 10,000, and 

 a very large proportion of organic matter, and 

 no less than 155 micro-organisms at least per 

 quart, we need not be surprised at the unhealthy 

 appearance of very many of the children. It 

 must also be borne in mind that many of them 

 are exposed for nine hours more to an atmo- 

 sphere which is about five times as impure as 

 that of an ordinary bedroom in a middle-class 

 house. They are thus breathing for at least 

 fifteen hours out of the twenty-four a highly im- 

 pure atmosphere. The effects of this are often 

 intensified, as is well known, by insufficient food 

 and clothing, both of which must render them 

 less capable of resisting the impure air. The 

 fact that these schools become, after a time, 

 habitually infected by bacteria renders it pro- 

 bable that they also become "permanent foci of 

 infection for various diseases, and particularly, per- 

 haps, for tubercular disease in its various forms." 

 , Further practical evidence of the manner in 

 which the general death-rate for certain diseases 

 is influenced by the conditions under which the 

 poor are housed is afforded by statistics which have 

 been collected at Glasgow. In the case of zymotic 



