NATURE 



[September 8, 1910 



jng fossil Isopod from the Irish Devonian. Several other 

 palaiontological papers dealt with the problem of extinc- 

 tion, and with certain Annelids, Reptiles, and Insects. 



Regarding the congress as a whole, one is struck by its 

 increasing scope. It is attended not only by professional 

 and amateur zoologists, but by anatomists, physiologists, 

 and geologists. The problems it discusses touch upon 

 questions of the greatest interest to pathologists and to 

 sociologists. The experimental treatment of zoology is 

 being increasingly adopted, whilst the older systematic 

 problems are being studied afresh. The present is a time 

 of data-collecting on an enormous scale, but no fresh prin- 

 ciples are as yet forthcoming, and there is a marked 

 tendency to confine the treatment of the subject to non- 

 controversial matters. One comes away from Graz 

 impressed by the huge amount of zoological work now 

 being done, by the community of spirit that animates its 

 devotees in all countries, and by the value to the cause of 

 peace which such gatherings represent. These sentiments 

 were emphasised in the speeches at the banquet which 

 closed the congress. 



T^ 



THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF 



SCHOOL HYGIENE AT PARIS, AUGUST 2-7, 

 1910. 



'HE comparative abstention of German school-hygienists 

 from the third congress was a regrettable feature, 

 and considerably diminished its value from a scientific 

 pomt of view. The preponderance of Latin influence led 

 to much rhetoric in the sections, and the records of the 

 congress are those of trends of opinion rather than of work 

 accomplished. 



The subjects set down for general discussion on the 



three working days of the congress were, in order : 



(i) Uniformity of method in medical inspection ; (2) instruc- 

 tion in se.\ual hygiene ; and {3) the' training and appoint- 

 ment of the school doctor. The first of these alone 

 presented any general scientific interest. A problem 

 awaiting solution is how to frame the records of inspec- 

 tion so that trustworthy statistics can be obtained by 

 which the influence of varying environments can be com'- 

 pared and alterations from decade to decade satisfactorily 

 established. The discussion was opened by Dr. James 

 Kerr in a paper the v.alue of which could' not be over- 

 estimated. He postulated that the two aims of medical 

 inspection (the remedial and the statistical) must be 

 separately considered, for no medical inspection carried 

 out on all children is ever likely to be done at public cost 

 to such an extent that it can be of any great value for 

 scientific purposes ; when quantitative estimates or com- 

 parisons are made, even between schools in the same town 

 or classes in the same .school, the results are often not 

 really worth the paper they are written upon. As the 

 result of long experience, he stated that ultimately one 

 IS content with only spending as much time as is abso- 

 lutely necessary on detailed examination, valuable for 

 scientific purposes, and in only examining in such detail 

 suflicient numbers of children to reduce any errors of 

 experiment within such limits that the results' will afford 

 a trustworthy standard ; the examination of all children 

 m that way is quite unnecessary. P'or scientific work, he 

 claimed it is best that each topic be examined as a separate 

 problem on data carefully selected and carefully defined by 

 each investigator, and that general inspection should be 

 carried on merely with a definite practical --im of relief to 

 children who present obvious or gross defects. Without 

 this there is great danger of scientific progress being 

 arrested, and the whole movement becoming a lifeless 

 routine of collecting inaccurate and valueless records. It 

 is to be hoped that Dr. Kerr's opinions as here expressed 

 will receive due attention from the authorities in White- 

 hall, for it is indubitable that much of the work being 

 done in the country at present is utterly unscientific, and 

 has already become the lifeless routine that Dr. Kerr is 

 desirous of guarding against. 



The rest of the work of the congress was split up into 

 thirteen sections and sub-sections. Comparing the dis- 

 cussions_ with those of the second International Congress 

 of 1907 in London, two branches of general school hygiene 

 stand out in which most activity has taken place during 

 NO. 2132, VOL. 84I 



the intervening three years. These are physical educa- 

 tion and open-air schools. In .Section vi., which dealt 

 chiefly with the latter, carefully collated facts were forth- 

 coming which proved alike the wide extension of the 

 movement and the uniform good results obtained without 

 distinction of climate or race. It was Dr. Neufert, of 

 Charlottcnburg, who shadowed forth the future develop- 

 ments arising out of the experience gained in the open-air 

 schools. Why should the advantages of the open-air 

 school be limited to the debilitated and unhealthy? If 

 good for them, it must be good also for the normal. All 

 our schools must in future approximate to the open-air 

 ideal, and more activity must take the place of the 

 sedentariness which is now the rule. In connection with 

 the question of activity, it is interesting to note also how 

 the attention paid to manual training has grown during 

 the past three years. Scarcely mentioned in 1907, its advan- 

 tages are in 19 10 independently pressed in many sections 

 and from many points of view by various workers. 



Dr. Mumford, of Manchester, dwelt upon its import- 

 ance in developing the association centres in the brain, 

 where the various sense organs are organised in relation 

 to the combination and arrangement of the muscles. Herr 

 Schrag, of Berne, pointed out the importance of manual 

 training as a link between the various subjects in the 

 curriculum. Prof. Blazek, of Austrian Poland, brought 

 forward the results of ergographical investigations, demon- 

 strating the effects of manual training in developing certain 

 mental qualities of readiness and concentration, and Dr. 

 Schuyten, of .'\ntwerp, supported this with facts proving 

 the effects in diminishing inattention of satisfying the 

 motor needs of the organism. 



In Section iv., on physical training, many communica- 

 tions of importance were read. Dr. Digby Bell, of the 

 British Naval School of Physical Exercises, insisted upon 

 the necessity of rescuing the subject from the taint of 

 quackery which still hangs around it. M. Demeny, of 

 Paris, introduced his new system of physical education 

 founded upon continuous movement' in opposition to the 

 alternations of fixed contraction and relaxation of muscles 

 upon which older methods are based ; his paper was 

 rendered more valuable by a demonstration upon a pupil, 

 which certainly upon aasthetic, and in the writer's opinion 

 upon physiological grounds, showed his method to be 

 superior even to the Swedish movements, which at present 

 hold pride of place in our systems. 



A question of great importance to medical inspectors is 

 the discovery of a trustworthy mathematical formula which 

 shall determine the state of nutrition of a child in relation 

 to physical measurements. Prof. Guttmann, of Vienna, 

 examined various formula?, and came to the conclusion 

 that the best is that of Bornhardt, viz. Ci = BL'24o, where 

 G = body weight, B = chest circumference, L = height, and 

 240 is a constant representing the mean of a very large 

 number of measurements. 



Amongst some valuable papers in Section ix. (teaching 

 methods and syllabuses) was one by Dr. Janale, of Prague, 

 giving the results of extensive investigations on fatigue 

 in the school children of that city by Ebbinghaus's com- 

 bination method, from which he concluded that a single 

 long morning session per diem is superior to two shorter 

 sessions occupying both morning and afternoon. Another 

 was by Prof. Schuyten on " inattention " as measured in 

 school over yearly periods by dynamometrical experiments 

 accompanied by memory tests. In the first place, inatten- 

 tion is a natural and inevitable result of physiological 

 activity. It is increased by defective conditions of sanita- 

 tion and diminished by wise distribution of subjects in the 

 time-table. The best results appear to be obtained by 

 not mixing up together daily the various subjects in the 

 curriculum, but by grouping together homologous subjects 

 on each particular day. This is in direct opposition, of 

 course, to the usual arrangement in school time-tables at 

 present. 



The congress, it will be seen, presented many features 

 of great general interest, and its practical results will 

 undoubtedly be considerable. It was satisfactory to hear 

 from the lips of one of the .Secretaries of State of France, 

 at the concluding meeting, a pledge that the Government 

 would carry into effective operation the proposals upon 

 school hvgiene already before the Chamber. 



