COJfDlTlONS OF HEALTH ESSENTIAL FOR CARRYING ON INSTRUCTION, 459 



Not less than 65 square feet of floor area should be provided for each 

 occupant. 



Playground. — Every school should be provided with sufficient open 

 space immediately round the school building for the purpose of a play- 

 ground : this should in no case be less than 30 square feet per head. In 

 the case of secondary schools this should be in addition to the playing 

 field for regular games. Boarding schools require considerably more 

 space than day schools. 



Ventilution. — The Committee while feeling to the full the enormous 

 importance of the subject of proper ventilation in regard to the success of 

 the school, both as to the mental and physical development of the pupils, 

 feels some difficulty in offering any suggestions as to how a satisfactory 

 result can be secured. Many schemes are put forward, both ' mechanical ' 

 and ' natural,' each of which claims to secure perfect ventilation, but all 

 of which in actual practice fall far short of their promises. The Com- 

 mittee would, however, like to utter a word of warning with regard to cer- 

 tain systems that rely on the introduction of hot air both for the warming 

 and ventilation of the rooms. Such a system may work well enough in 

 the case of one or two large rooms, but in a school with its large number 

 of rooms with an always varying number of occupants the difficulty of 

 adjusting the pressure becomes very great. The continual movement 

 and opening of doors is also apt to interfere with the proper working 

 of the system ; in addition to this there is the breathing of the warmed 

 air. In winter the incoming air must be raised to a considerable tempera- 

 ture to allow for the cooling effect of the windows, walls, &c. ; and although 

 somewhat cooled down by the time it reaches the pupils it must, it would 

 seem, lose most of its invigorating qualities, even though it has not been 

 heated sufficiently to burn the organic particles present. Rooms heated 

 by hot air are apt to have an enervating and debilitating effect. In order 

 to warm and ventilate a room by hot air only it is, of course, necessary 

 to introduce the fresh air at the top, extracting the foul air at the bottom. 

 This, again, is open to several objections : those sitting near the outlets 

 are in a continuous stream of all the bad air in the room ; the breathed 

 air is brought down again past all the people in the room (as are the 

 products of combustion if artificial light is in use) ; the windows can 

 never be opened because if they were the whole working of the system 

 would be upset ; finally, in summer, when the incoming air is cooler than 

 that in the room, there is a tendency for the entering air to fall straight 

 down to the outlet below. This system has undoubtedly many strong 

 supporters, but the unsatisfactory state of things existing in many schools 

 where it has been installed has induced the Committee to urge that a 

 good deal more experiment and experience of it is required before it can 

 be safely recommended. On the whole, it seems that the solution is likely 

 to be found in some plan by which the fresh air (warmed when the weather 

 is cold so that it can be freely introduced without discomfort and main- 

 tained at a temperature of not less than 55°) is brought in at a low level, 

 the foul air being taken off at the highest point (mechanical power being 

 used to make sure of sufficient movement) and the actual warming of the 

 room being done by some form of direct radiation. 



Sanitary. — The sanitary conveniences in boys' schools may well be 

 placed outside the main building ; but in girls' schools, and where there 

 are very young children, they must be provided in the main building, but 



