584 



NATURE 



[August 15, 1907 



tinued in a state of fatigue is of no value for obtaining 

 skill. Lessons should never exceed forty-five minutes 

 in high schools, and for pupils under age of puberty. 

 The earlier lessons of the day should last longer than 

 the later. Six-year-old children should not be kept 

 sitting at work for more than half an hour without 

 exercise and rest. For infants and junior pupils, 

 writing should be interrupted every five or ten minutes 

 by change to a comfortable position. Rests should 

 never be used for the purpose of instruction or punish- 

 ment. T.essons requiring mental effort or memory 

 work should be taken early in the day. Lessons in 

 drawing or needlework should nut follow a lesson in 

 bodilv exercise. Two lessons requiring- mental concen- 

 tration or near-vision should not follow each other. 

 Season has an effect on quality and quantity of work, 

 school-work being harder in summer. 



Prof. Chabot (Lyons) analysed carefully the same 

 problems. In the French elementary school, a lesson 

 does not last more than thirty or forty minutes, but 

 the day's session lasts about an hour and a half, the 

 only rest being change of subject. The official regu- 

 lations, however, permit a margin of variation, and 

 no lesson must' exceed an hour. .After discussing 

 fatigue and the details of typical time-tables, Prof. 

 Chabot suggests that from age seven to ten a lesson 

 should run from fifteen to thirty minutes; from age 

 ten to fourteen it should run from thirty to forty-five 

 minutes; after age fourteen, the lessons may last for 

 an hour or an hour and a half. The limit of daily 

 work should be six hours from age seven to twelve ; 

 seven hours from age twelve to fifteen ; eight hours 

 after fifteen. The rhythm of mental effort — invention 

 or assimilation, analysis or synthesis — depends more 

 on the consecutive masters than on the distribution of 

 subjects ; but abstract lessons should be followed by 

 concrete lessons and practical exercises. It is prefer- 

 able to have two or three classes in forenoon and two 

 in afternoon. There is a growing opinion in England 

 that afternoon work is worth little. 



(7) School Suicides. — Prof. Chlopin (St. Petersburg) 

 gave a paper on suicide and attempted suicide among 

 pupils of Russian middle schools. He had investi- 

 gated 337 actual and 95 attempted cases. Among 

 school children, the suicide rate is three times higher 

 than among the general population. Shooting, 

 hanging, and poisoning are the leading methods. 

 The chief causes are mental and nervous derange- 

 ments. 



Prof. Eulenberg (Berlin) gave similar facts from 

 Germany (as Prof. Gurlitz has already done in a book 

 recently published in criticism of German school 

 methods). He had traced during the last twelve 

 years 1152 cases of actual suicide among school 

 children. More than 50 per cent, of these were trace- 

 able to failure in examinations or overwork at 

 school. 



(S) Economics of Neglected School Children. — Dr. 

 Cronin (New York) gave an estimate of the waste due 

 to diseases and defects of school children. In 1902 

 (New York) there were 24,000 exclusions, which, at 

 the known cost of 20 cents a day, represents a loss 

 of 4800 dollars in three months. In a school popu- 

 lation of 650,000, 30 per cent, were from one to two 

 years behind their proper class — a loss of about 40 

 dollars per child, if only one lost year be counted. 

 Thirty per cent, (or 195,000) lose one year in six — a 

 loss of 1,666,666 dollars in each school year. Most of 

 the diseases were preventable, and it is economic 

 waste not to prevent them. 



(9) Anthrnpomctrv in School. — Dr. Shrubsall 

 (London) sketched what the British .Association regard 

 as essential in school anthropometry — stature, weight, 

 hrir-coloration, iris colours, maximum length and 



NO. 1972, VOL. 76] 



breadth of head, chest in deep inspiration and expir- 

 ation, diameters of chest, breadth across shoulders and 

 trochanters, height of head. (The report of the 

 Physical Training Commission [Scotland] contained 

 all these and some other measurements of 1200 school 

 children.) The opinion is general that this work 

 should form a special investigation, and should not 

 be expected of the education authority at the ordinary 

 medical inspection. It certainly takes more time 

 than medical inspection ; but the data wanted are of 

 value for anthropology. No results were produced at 

 the congress. Mr. Gray gave details of a uniform 

 scheme of yearly measurements of school children as 

 a basis for estimating deterioration of the race. 



Dr. Schuyten (.Antwerp) presented a summary of ten 

 years of research in the padological laboratories of 

 Antwerp. It is difficult to overestimate the value of 

 those researches. The chief general conclusions are, 

 (i) that the child, on entering the ordinary school, 

 undergoes physical and mental depression ; (2) that 

 growth in muscular power is not regular during the 

 school vear, there being a distinct depression in March ; 

 (3) that, as tested by the dynamometer, muscular 

 power varies with the season ; (4) that voluntary atten- 

 tion decreases from January to July, and increases 

 from October to December; (5) that fatigue increases 

 during the school year from one end to the other 

 without perceptible recovery of energy due to holidays ; 

 (6) that the validity of JEsthesiometric methods of 

 determining fatigue is now demonstrated (a view con- 

 tested by Dr. .Altschul, of Prague, who criticises Prof. 

 Griesbach's results, and maintains that his own are 

 conclusive against Griesbach's method). The methods 

 used by Dr. .Schuyten are ingenious. For instance, in 

 drawings of a " little man " on a uniform-sized white 

 surface by children of different ages, it was found 

 that there is a regular increase in the length and 

 breadth of the figure from 3J to 6 years of age. -At 

 age six, on entrance to school, there is roughly a 

 40 per cent, reduction in the dimensions, which again 

 increase with age. Schmidt Monnard noted actual 

 slackening in the child's own development at this 

 age. 



rt is important to have some confirmation of Prof. 

 Griesbach's method of testing fatigue by the 

 ae'Sthesiometer. It has been subjected to much criti- 

 cism ; but its simplicity and ease of application are 

 strong inducements to further definitive experiment. 

 It is undoubtedly the simplest method yet suggested 

 for school children, and research will probably centre 

 round it for some time to come. 



(10) Relations of Medicine and Paedagogy. — Prof. 

 Griesbach (Muelhausen), who first suggested an inter- 

 national congress on school hygiene, and, as president, 

 carried through the Nuremberg congress with un- 

 tiring energy, wound up the London congress with 

 an evening lecture on the " Relations between Medi- 

 cine and P^edagogv." He gave a really encyclopsedic 

 view of the whole vast subject, and his printed lecture 

 will remain one of the most important documents of 

 the movement. In a series of elaborate tables he 

 outlined the whole educational curriculum of elemen- 

 tary and higher schools in Germany, giving body to 

 his comments bv large masses of analysed observations 

 and records. His table on the relations between cir- 

 cumference of head and mental capacity is a striking 

 record of observations made by himself. The numbers 

 examined were not stated, but they were large enough 

 to justify averages. When the full lecture is pub- 

 lished, this table will deserve careful criticism. It 

 sustains the view that, on the average, the larger head 

 goes with the greater mental capacity. The lecture 

 was. in every respect, a worthy close to a great con- 

 g-ress. 



