Popular Science Monthly 



183 



dren. A father, though suffering from 

 tuberculosis, is usually the bread-winner. 

 Therefore, he can not be sent away. 



It was to meet just such conditions that 

 the Farmingdale Preventorium was built, 

 to provide a place to accommodate young 

 children in whose homes tuberculosis con- 

 stituted a menace to their health. The 

 institution was organized primarily with 

 a view toward building up underfed, poorly- 

 nourished children, who had been exposed 

 to tuberculosis or who had contracted it, 

 but who were in such early stages of the 

 disease that it might be eradicated. Dr. 

 Herman Biggs has estimated that there 

 are forty thousand of these unfortunate 

 children in New York Cit>% 



The Farmingdale Preventorium accom- 

 modates approximately two hundred chil- 

 dren, who are kept there for an average of 

 about four months, so that the institution 

 provides for six hundred children in a year. 

 It is situated in the sandy pine belt of 

 Xew Jersey, where the air is particularly 

 life-giving. The children have a fine play- 

 ground of one hundred and seventy acres. 



On entering the Preventorium each child 

 is quarantined for three weeks in order to 



prevent infection of the other residents. 

 Discharged from quarantine, he is assigned 

 to one of the open-air shacks, each of which 

 accommodates thirt>'-two children. Here 

 he finds open-air sleeping quarters. 



Next he goes to the open-air school and 

 enters the class for which his city schooling 

 has fitted him. For the first time in his 

 life, perhaps, he is given good, wholesome 

 food, and all he can eat of it. Twenty- 

 four hours a day he spends in the open air, 

 pleasant surroundings, room and sunshine 

 in contrast to the crowded, dark tenement. 

 No wonder he picks up. The average gain 

 is about seven pounds, which represents fif- 

 teen per cent of the average body weight. 



Teaching School in the Open Air 



As children are accepted up to the age 

 of fourteen years, school instruction has 

 been provided for them that they may 

 not be behind in their studies when they 

 return to the city. Ten hours a week of 

 school work keep them up to their grade. 



While the children are at the Prevento- 

 rium, every effort is made to improve the 

 condition of their homes in order that 

 their improvement may be permanent. 



Children are accepted at the Preventorium up to fourteen years of age so that school in- 

 struction must be provided. Ten hours of school work a week are sufficient to keep 

 the children up to their grade. The curriculum is the same as in the city schools 



