Its Present and its Future. 
57 
1879.1 
gate this duty to persons properly qualified. As a matter 
of fa<Ct, these qualifications are obtained at a considerable 
expense to the commuity, for in this stage of the art of ven- 
tilation, there being no authority universally recognised 
and but few generally-conceded rules, every sanitary engi- 
neer goes through a somewhat similar series of experiments 
and failures before he arrives at a reasonably successful 
method in practice. 
As far as I can learn, there appear to have been great 
successes as well as great failures, whether the system of 
ventilation by aspiration has been resorted to, or that by 
propulsion. At the present time many authorities of note 
have declared in favour of mechanical ventilation. And 
yet in a number, I might say in most of the asylums and 
hospitals in this country where fans have been introduced, 
they are now standing still. The Roosevelt Hospital, for 
instance, in New York, where the fan, after having been 
put in operation, was run backward, and run so for 
months. It is now stopped. This is one faCt of many 
which would make us chary of affirming positively that 
either system is the better. Probably both, discreetly ap- 
plied, yield good results, and in their skilful application, 
and not less the faithful supervision of the ventilating appa- 
ratus after introduction, are good results to be sought. 
V. Physical Education in Schools and Colleges. 
Progress in this direction has been initiated at our highest 
seminaries of learning, and is slowly working its way down- 
ward through our educational system. I do not refer to 
so-called athletic sports, although these had not attained to 
much prominence in our colleges prior to the year 1850, 
but to the introduction of physical exercise and instruction 
on hygiene as a part of the college curriculum. This, so 
far as I am aware, was successfully accomplished in 
Amherst College ; and now, after a trial of nearly twenty 
years, is still regarded as an indispensable adjunct of the 
college course. The dignity of this department of instruction 
is emphatically recognised by appointing to it only distin- 
guished members of the medical profession, and including 
them in the college faculty on the same footing as the other 
professors. It is made their first duty to know the physical 
condition of every student, and to see that the laws of 
health are observed by them. In case of sickness the stu- 
dents apply to this officer for a suitable certificate, which 
excuses them from college duties, and are put in the way of 
