54 Stous City Academy of Science and Letters. 
The Whittier building represents another type of 
ventilating system in extensive use in the city, and while 
it is open to the same criticisms as is the system at 
Longfellow, it is at the same time, open to another and 
much more serious criticism. There is absolutely no 
means of supplying fresh air to the furnaces, and conse- 
quently to the rooms, except as this may be supplied 
accidentally through cracks and crevices and the mis- 
takes of carpenters and the occasional opening of doors. 
The furnace draws its air supply from a part of the 
rooms, reheats it and returns it to the rooms to heat the 
rooms and to furnish the breathing material for the occu- 
pants, just as is done in the majority of our house fur- 
naces, only in the latter case the condition is not so 
serious, for the inmates of our homes are few compared 
with the number in school rooms who are constantly 
breathing and vitiating the air. The results of the tests 
show 8.56 parts of CO, present in this building in every 
10,000 parts of air. 
The Cooper building represents quite a common type 
of heating system—that of steam heating. The only at- 
tempt at ventilating according to the plan, is found in a 
little register of a foot or a foot and a half area, furnish- 
ing an outlet into a flue which carries the air from the 
building. The supply of fresh air is obtained in the good 
old fashioned way—the raising and lowering of windows 
over the children’s heads and behind their backs. As 
might be expected, the results here show the poorest 
ventilation to be found anywhere. The presence of 9.62 
parts CO, in 10,000 parts of air, as found in this building, 
is, according to authorities on hygiene, a distinct menace 
to health. 
That the foregoing results are woefully bad, how- 
ever, must not be taken for granted. I think I may safely 
say that the school buildings of Sioux City are as well 
ventilated as the usual run of public school buildings, and 
perhaps better than the average. Some tests in the Kan- 
sas City schools showed the presence of 6, 16, 19, 15, 10, 
21, 33 and 30 parts of CO, respectively as the results of a 
series of eight tests there. Weaver found in a girls’ 
school in England 53 parts per 10,000 parts. Pettenkofer 
found in an occupied room 72 parts in 10,000. 
