State board of Health. 
301 
cause cannot be stated; but evidences go to show that hundreds of 
thousands of lives are thus annually lost. The most moderate 
space assumed to be compatible with the maintenance of health is 
25 feet of floor space and 300 cubic feet of air space with the 
proper ventilation for each pupil. With this amount of space, ven¬ 
tilation can be secured, and the proportion of carbonic acid kept 
down to the standard required for healthful action, by having 
means for the introduction of pure air equal to ten or twelve square 
inches for each person to be supplied, and with egress flues for the 
vitiated air of fully equal capacity; but to accomplish this the dif¬ 
ference in temperature between the air in the ventilating shaft and 
that in the rooms of the building must be such as to secure a mo¬ 
tion equal to supplying 3,000 cubic feet per hour for each person. 
When that provision has been supplied the stigma will be removed 
from our school system that it causes three-fourths of all the cases 
of lung disease known to prevail among children. 
IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM. 
It is not easy to overrate the magnitude of the subject submitted 
for consideration. The court house, the legislative chamber, the 
public hall, are important, because therein the laws, the adminis¬ 
tration and the beneficial amusements of the people are dealt with; 
and it is necessary that health should be compatible with the dis¬ 
charge of all our duties and the realization of proper pleasures. 
The ventilation of churches should receive ten fold more attention 
than has been given; but, in such buildings, the time spent by the 
average worshipper is small during the several services. The school 
should command the first and largest meed of vigilancs, because 
therein those who are helpless require our protecting care, and 
upon the fulfillment of our obligations to them will largely depend 
not only their happiness and health, but the future prosperity of 
the nation. The boys and girls of to-day may be the fathers and 
mothers of many who will witness the next centennial celebration, 
and the highest product that we can olfer for the approbation of 
the world is a better citizenship than that which ushered in the dis¬ 
play in Fairmount Park. It is not enough that we can send the 
work of our looms to Manchester, to be sold in the home of the 
cotton trade from which all nations were once supplied. We must 
be able to show that our free institutions and numberless advan- 
