OUR 
SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
THEIR 
CONSTRUCTION, HEATING, VENTILATION 
SCHOOL HYGIENE, PHYSICAL 
CULTURE, ETC. OUR 
SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
THEIR 
CONSTRUCTION, HEATING, VENTILA- 
TION, SCHOOL HYGIENE, PHYSI- 
CAL CULTURE, Etc. • 
BY 
VALENTINE BROWNE, M. D„ 
Health Officer of Yonkers, N. Y.; Consulting Physi- 
cian to St. Joseph's Hospital, Etc. 
Reprinted, by Special Request, from The Medical 
Record of Sept. 9, 1893. 
YONKERS, N. Y. 
The Gazette Press. 
1893. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS, 
THEIR 
CONSTRUCTION, HEATING, VENTILA- 
TION, SCHOOL HYGIENE, PHYS- 
ICAL CULTURE, ETC. 
By VALENTINE BROWNE, M. D., 
Health Officer of Yonkers, N. Y.; Consulting Physician to St. 
Joseph's Hospital, etc. 
The holidays are past and the pupils of the 
various schools are once more required to re- 
sume cheir studies and thus prepare themselves 
for the many and varied occupations they will 
be called upon to pursue in the near future. 
In view of this fact may we not be permitted 
to ask those to whom we confide the education 
of our children a few pertinent questions in re- 
lation to the school-buildings, the class-rooms, 
the mode of heating, ventilating, and air space, 
etc. ? 
First-Have you the necessary number of 
school-buildings for the reception and proper 
care of our children ? 
Second-Are your teachers well qualified, 
from their home and school training and ex- 
perience, to teach our children ? 
Third-Have you well-appointed gymnasiums 
in connection with your schools ? 
These are important questions, and every one 
of them should be answered in a satisfactory 
manner. Some of our school-houses are mani- 
festly unfit for use in these respects and should 
be relegated to the ranks of the long past and 
superannuated curiosities. 4 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
WHAT A SCHOOL-BUILDING SHOULD BE. ; 
Some few years ago the Board of Education 
of New York City appointed a committee with 
power to award a valuable prize for the best plan 
of a school-building. After carefully examin- 
ing several plans, the one selected embraced the 
following general conditions : 
First-At least two sides of the building 
should be freely exposed to light and air, for 
which purpose it should not be less than sixty 
feet distant from any opposite building. 
Second-Not more than three of the floors 
should be occupied for class-rooms. 
Third-In each class-room not less than fif- 
teen square feet of floor space should be allotted 
to each pupil. 
Fourth-In each class-room the window space 
should not be less than one-fourth the floor 
space, and the desk most remote from the win- 
dow should not be more than one and one-half 
time the height of the top of the window from 
the floor. 
Fifth-The height of a class-room should 
never exceed fourteen feet. 
Sixth-The provision for ventilation should 
be such as to provide for each person in a class- 
room not less than thirty cubic feet of fresh air 
per minute, which amount must be introduced 
and thoroughly distributed without creating 
unpleasant draughts or causing any two parts of 
the room to differ in temperature more than two 
degrees Fahrenheit, or the maximum tempera- 
ture to exceed seventy degrees Fahrenheit. 
Seventh-Heating the fresh air should be 
effected either by hot water or by low-pressure 
steam. 
Eighth-The fresh air should be introduced 
near the windows ; the foul air should be re- 
moved by flues in the opposite walls. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
5 
Ninth-Water-closet accommodations for the 
pupils should be provided on each floor. 
Tenth-The building should not occupy more 
than half the lot. 
Most of these recommendations are excellent, 
but in our opinion there are some very import- 
ant features omitted, such, for example, as the 
location of the building in its relation to damp- 
ness and troublesome noises, the formation of 
class-rooms and corridors, the location of drain- 
pipes, water-closets, and other seemingly insig- 
nificant yet importment details. 
The school-building should, in addition to 
complying with the above recommendations, be 
located, if possible, on a dry, porous soil, on a 
knoll or other elevation, away from noisy public 
thoroughfares and distant from shade-trees, so 
as to permit free access of sunlight into every 
class-room, and ample play-ground for the chil- 
dren. In case theabove named condition cannot 
be procured and a school-building must be 
placed on a moist soil, then the following sug- 
gestions should be adopted : 
First-The location of the building should be 
thoroughly drained by constructing a ditch out- 
side of, and lower than the foundation wall, and 
then filling it in with loose stone to a depth of 
from twelve to eighteen inches. 
Second-One or two similar drains should be 
made in the cellar and conveyed to a safe place 
to discharge. The cellar floor should be made 
water-proof by not less than six inches of well 
rammed concrete, or by asphalt, as recom- 
mended by Colonel Waring. 
Third-The foundation wall should be pro- 
tected by a coating of asphalt, and alike coating 
or layer should be placed in the wall just above 
the ground to prevent dampness from ascending, 
and a hollow place should be left in the wall 
between the outer and inner layers of brick or 6 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
stone so as to admit air and prevent moisture, 
and for the same reason the plaster should not 
be placed directly on the wall, but the wall 
should first be furred, lathed,- and then plas- 
tered. 
Fourth-The cellar floor should not be more 
than three feet below the surface of the ground, 
and the ceiling of the cellar or basement should 
be at least ten feet high, and it should be 
thoroughly lighted and ventilated, and should 
not contain a single water-closet, but should be 
kept scrupulously clean at all times. 
Fifth-Cesspools and privy-vaults when used 
(in the absence of sewers) should never be loca- 
ted at a less distance than seventy-five feet from 
the school-building. 
Sixth-The class-room should be, in addition 
to the conditions before referred to, separated 
by a corridor not less than ten feet wide and ex- 
tending from front to rear of the building, and 
the school-house itself should always front either 
north or south, so as to have the class-room win- 
dows on one side face the east and on the other 
side face to the west, thus securing sunlight in 
every room. 
Seventh-The building should not be more 
than three stories high (except in large, densely 
populated cities), the two lower floors to be used 
for class-rooms and the top floor for water-closets 
and a. gymnasium. 
DRAINAGE OF WASTE MATERIAL. 
The system of conveying sewage from the 
school-house is one of the most important fea- 
tures in connection with school hygiene, and 
demands the utmost precaution at the hands of 
the authorities. Water-closets should never be 
placed in the cellar or basement of a school- 
building, because experience has shown and 
proved that it is utterly impossible to keep OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
7 
them in anything approaching a sanitary condi- 
tion. Every person acquainted with the law of 
the diffusion of gases will at once admit that the 
natural tendency of them is to ascend, and that 
this upward tendency is very much enhanced 
by the warm air on the floors above creating an 
upward current, carrying with it the offensive 
and dangerous odors from those water-closets. 
It requires no scientific demonstration to show 
with what facility those foul odors permeate 
every room in the building, because you have 
a practical illustration of the fact from your own 
kitchen during cooking hours. If you have any 
lingering doubt on this point just ask the cook 
to place some onions in the frying-pan over the 
kitchen-fire, or some carbolic acid, or oil of pep- 
permint in hot water, with directions to stir a 
little, and then elevate yourself to the top floor, 
and you will be surprised to find the odors of 
those rosebuds there before you. If now you 
transfer the kitchen to the top floor, and tell 
the cook to repeat the dose, while you descend 
to the basement, you will not, you cannot, de- 
tect the invigorating perfume from those arti- 
cles; hence the necessity of thorough cleanliness 
in cellars, and hence the absurdity and danger 
of placing those ill-smelling closets in the base- 
ment. The most appropriate and the most 
sanitary location for these closets is on the top 
floor of the house, and when proper precautions 
are observed in the arrangement of them, there 
cannot be the slightest objection to their pres- 
ence there. These closers should be located at 
one end of the top floor, separated by a solid 
stone wall from the rest of the floor or gymna- 
sium. They should be reached by means of an 
iron staircase, constructed on the outside of the 
building, with appropriate landings and con- 
nections for each floor. The staircase should 
be partly enclosed, somewhat after the manner 8 
OUK SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
of the elevated railroad structures, to provide 
against inclement weather. The drain pipes 
should be of the best material, and should be 
thoroughly exposed along their whole course 
within the building. They should be located 
in a well-lighted portion of the building, so as 
to enable the janitor to detect at once the 
slightest leak or other defective feature in them. 
Again, the danger of taking cold by exposure 
to cold air and draughts on the way to and from 
water-closets placed outside of the school-build- 
ing, would be reduced to a minimum. 
Some of our school boards congratulate them- 
selves on providing water-closets or vaults some 
twenty or twenty-five feet away from the 
school-building without any enclosed passage- 
way leading to them, thus, they say, excluding 
from class-rooms all danger from sewer gas. 
I know many such cases, but there is one in 
particular where the school board for several 
years maintained two huge vaults, one on either 
side of the school-building, and hardly thirty- 
five feet distant, provided with no ventilation 
except what escaped through some lattice-work 
over the centre of the enclosure, extending not 
more than fifteen feet from the surface of the 
ground. It mattered little which way the wind 
blew, it was sure to convey the decomposed, 
sickening air from one or both of these vaults 
into the school-house. Some improvement has 
been lately accomplished by converting these 
vaults into water-closets, but the location and 
ventilation remain tha same as formerly. 
Would it not be inconvenient for children to 
climb two flights of stairs to reach the top floor ? 
Not at all. It would only reverse the condition 
of climbing. In case the closets were on the 
ground floor, or outside of the building, they 
would first come down and then climb the stairs, 
instead of first climbing and then descending. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
9 
Besides, when 'stairs are properly constructed, 
the labor of ascending them will be a source of 
physical exercise, which the pupils should have. 
While speaking on the subject of stairs in 
school-houses, perhaps a few remarks on their 
general construction may not be considered a 
digression. Stairs in a school-building should 
never be placed in dark, out-of-the-way cor- 
ners, but should be located one at either end of 
the corridors, and facing the door and windows 
so as to be thoroughly lighted by the glass swing- 
ing vestibule-door and windows. Stairways 
should be fire-proof and provided with at least 
one landing half-way up, but should never be 
winding or spiral-shaped. ''The tread should 
be wide and easy to climb. That portion of the 
corridors between the door and staircases could 
be utilized for clothes-closets, and these closets 
should be so constructed as to admit plenty of 
fresh air to the wraps." They should have 
ventilating tubes leading from the top of the 
same to a properly constructed ventilating flue 
provided in the wall of the corridors, so as to 
prevent possible contagious vapors ascending to 
the class-rooms from the wraps of the children 
not over-cautious in the care of their garments. 
Measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria are often 
communicated by means of these wraps when 
not properly aired and ventilated. Class-rooms, 
as before stated, should be large, well-ventilated, 
and in addition to the windows opening directly 
to the outer air, should also have not less than 
two windows, each say two and a half feet by 
three feet, opening into the corridor near the 
ceiling, and arranged so as to open and close at 
will, thus enabling the janitor to thoroughly 
flush the rooms and corridors during recess. 
By lowering the large windows and opening the 
small windows on both sides of the corridors a 
rapid current is at once established which will 10 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
effectually remove all impure air and foul or- 
ganic matter usually found near, and often 
adhering to the upper portions of the wails and 
ceiling. In no other way, and by no known 
system of ventilating shafts can these impurities 
be so thoroughly removed from the class-room 
ceiling. 
,Class-rooms should be large enough to allow 
each pupil three hundred cubic feet of air space. 
This would require for a class of fifty pupils a 
room twenty-five feet wide, fifty feet long, and 
twelve feet high, or fifteen square feet of floor 
space for each scholar. How many school 
boards furnish this amount of space ? We pause 
for a reply. 
DESKS AND SE^TS. 
Desks and seats in the class-room should be 
placed so as to admit light on the left side of 
the pupil, and the most remote desk should not 
be more than twenty feet from the window on 
the left, and each scholar should have the sole 
use of one desk. There seems to be some differ- 
ence of opinion as to the size, shape, and position 
of desks and seats in the class-room. Some 
think that a desk should be nearly flat, while 
others say it should be tilted. " In my opinion 
it should be nearly flat for writing on, and its 
edge should project over the front of the seat or 
chair, and the height should be so arranged as 
to allow the arms to slide over it without lifting 
the shoulders." While reading, however, the lid 
should be tilted so as to form a convenient book- 
rest. Desks embracing these qualifications can 
now be procured at very reasonable terms. 
Perhaps there is more difficulty in supplying 
the ideal seat or chair to suit the various notions 
not only of the pupils but also of the teachers, 
or rather the school authorities, than in the 
selection of any other article of school furniture. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
11 
Some believe that it is necessary to support only 
the lower third of the back ; others declare in 
favor of a chair with a curved back ; still others 
say that support is needed for half the back; 
yet others would allow only a narrow strip for 
the support of the spine, while quite a number 
would do away with chair backs altogether. 
Among these conflicting opinions it seems 
hard to decide what sort of a chair to select. 
In my judgment the chair having a straight, 
upright back, somewhat concave from side to 
side, is the most appropriate for general school 
use. This kind ofchair, I think, will be found 
the most convenient for writing, reading, draw- 
ing, copying, ciphering, etc.; in fact, for all 
work requiring an upright position. 
Seats should not be placed too far from desks, 
but should be so placed as to allow the edge of 
the desk to overlap the front portion of the 
chairs. Desks and chairs thus shaped and 
placed will enable the teacher to correct many 
faulty positions so often assumed by school- 
children while occupied with their studies, and 
will prevent many of the deformities usually 
observed in young pupils. 
Teachers should devote more attention to cor- 
recting the abnormal positions of pupils than 
they are in the habit of doing. It is a fact that 
neglect of seemingly insignificant details has 
been the cause of inflicting untold injury on 
numberless school-children. Any close observer 
cannot fail to notice the excessive number of 
boys and girls compelled to wear eye-glasses on 
account of defective vision caused by imperf* ctly 
lighted class-rooms and the position of black- 
boards on the walls, at which they are compelled 
to gaze so much during school hours. Many of 
the deformities so often seen among school- 
children are due to the unnatural positions 
which they are allowed, or perhaps compelled, 12 
OUK SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
to assume during school hours, such,for example, 
as curvature of the spine, round shoulders, con- 
tracted chests, etc.-deformities which un- 
questionably pre-dispose them to fatal diseases 
and premature decay. 
The spread-eagle-like position, so commonly 
indulged in by the pupil when at work, without 
any remonstrance from the teacher, is so mani- 
festly detrimental to the physical development 
of the pupil as to demand thorough reform in 
this important department of school work. If 
teachers were a little more exact in correcting 
these abnormal positions in the pupils, by com- 
pelling them to maintain an upright attitude 
while engaged in school duties, they would not 
only prevent many of the deformities referred 
to, but would also confer lasting benefits on fu- 
ture generations. 
Class-rooms should never be separated by glass 
partitions or glass sliding-doors, for the reason 
that it has been thoroughly demonstrated that 
such an ancient makeshift contrivance does not 
improve the character of light in the rooms re- 
mote from the windows, while it diminishes the 
light in the room next the window in a very 
perceptible manner. " The glass in the parti- 
tion reflects a part of the light and throws it 
back and out of the window/' Glass also reflects 
light and allows part to pass through and out 
by the window on the opposite side, while the 
noise, at times unavoidable, in one class-room, 
becomes a nuisance to teacher and pupils in the 
next room, and vice versa. 
Class-room windows should extend from, say 
three feet above the floor, to a point within six 
inches of the ceiling, so as to afford light to the 
students remote from them, and for the further 
purpose of thoroughly flushing the class-rooms 
at least three times a day during school-hours. 
These windows, however, should never be open OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
13 
either from bottom or top when the tempera- 
ture outside of the building is more than ten 
degrees lower than that in the class-room, on 
account of the marked tendency of some chil- 
dren to take cold. Yet when pupils and teach- 
ers alike experience that disagreeable condition 
of almost suffocation from hot, impure air, we 
must acknowledge that it is hard to resist the 
natural impulse which seems to prompt them 
to open the windows. When such conditions 
unfortunately occur, and fresh cold air must be 
had, the children should stand up and practice 
some rapid movements of the whole body, as re- 
quired in many of our schools. Even with these 
athletic motions a sudden rush of cold air on 
the pupils has too often caused severe colds to 
be contracted by delicate children, and hence 
the necessity of vacating the class-rooms while 
they are being aired. 
COUNTRY SCHOOL-HOUSES. 
With these remarks in relation to large school- 
buildings in cities, we will now pass to an ex- 
amination of school-houses in the outlying dis- 
tricts or country towns where a large building 
is not required. It has been, and I believe is 
still, the custom to run up a one-story shanty, 
about twenty by fifty feet, anywhere, regardless 
of the nature of the soil, cellar, or other impor- 
tant details. 
The interior is sometimes decorated with a 
vestibule, and usually one class-room, in which 
imaginary lines are drawn to separate the various 
grades into which the pupils must necessarily be 
divided. The ceiling of this lofty institution of 
learning may be anywhere from ten to twenty 
feet high, and the building is provided with 
windows on every side, including also each end, 
and these windows are expected to furnish light 
and ventilation at one and the same time. 14 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
The class-room is large enough to accommo- 
date forty persons, but in cases of emergency 
more than double this number may be admitted. 
The building or class-room must be warmed by 
a huge stove, placed usually in the centre of the 
room, where, in cold weather, it is expected to 
make itself red hot, regardless of the poison it 
evolves. The blackboard is placed between 
windows, and the children are required to strain 
their eyes in looking at it during their exercises, 
thus inflicting injury to the eyesight which in 
many cases can never be repaired. 
School authorities seem to regard isolated or 
outlying district schools as matters of little con- 
sequence, either as to their location, construc- 
tion, heating or ventilation, and as a natural 
sequence, those buildings are generally badly 
located, imperfectly constructed, too much 
lighted, indifferently heated, and completely 
devoid of ventilation, save only that furnished 
through the open doors and windows. 
Why is this ? Why make any distinction ? 
The children in country districts are just as 
much entitled to properly constructed school- 
houses as those in the cities. The State or 
Church should not permit any such distinction. 
Farmers are taxed for maintaining the school 
as well as the business man or mechanic, and 
are justly entitled to equal school accommoda- 
tion for their children. 
Do thev get it ? A visit to any one of those 
barns called district schools will answer in the 
negative. Instead of erecting a shanty twenty- 
five by fifty feet, build a two-story house, any 
size from thirty-five to fifty feet wide by fifty to 
seventy-five long, as may be required, and let 
the two or more class-rooms be separated by a 
corridor, as recommended elsewhere, extending 
the whole length of the building. The first 
floor will offer ample class-room, clothes-room, OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
15 
etc., while the second floor can be used for a 
gymnasium and play-room in wet weather. 
In places where the number of school-children 
is limited, to say thirty or forty in a district, a 
one-story building may suffice. In that case 
the school -house should extend from east to west, 
and be provided with a corridor on the north 
side of the house, the class-room windows look- 
ing to the south only. By this arrangement 
the blackboard could be placed at the west end 
of the room, the pupils facing it, while the 
teacher's desk would be, of course, at or near 
the blackboard, thus allowing light to enter 
above and to the left of the children. In case 
of too much sunlight through these south win- 
dows, light-colored shades may be used to mod- 
erate and equalize the same at pleasure. 
Drinking-water for school-children should 
claim the most earnest attention of school 
boards. In districts where city water is not 
available, well or cistern water is that usually 
resorted to. Well-water may be, and generally 
is, in country districts, safe to drink; but when, 
as sometimes happens, the well is located within 
a less distance than fifty feet from a vault or 
cesspool, the water in such well should not be 
used for drinking purposes, and a vault or 
cesspool placed at a less distance than forty 
feet from the school-house should have a ventila- 
ting pipe taken from the said vault or cesspool 
and conveyed to the outer wall of the school- 
house, and then extended to the highest point 
of the roof. By this pipe most, if not all, of 
the offensive odors from those foul receptacles 
may be removed beyond the roof of the building, 
instead of being drawn into the class-rooms, 
either through the cold air conduit or through 
the windows, as frequently happens. Each of 
these latter school-buildings, no matter how 
small it may be, should have a well-lighted and 16 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
clean cellar in which a good hot air furnace 
should be located. 
GYMNASIUM. 
Every school and educational institution 
ought to have a well-equipped gymnasium at- 
tached to it, so as to enable the pupils to cultivate 
and develop the physical as well as the mental 
faculties. This important branch of education 
has been too much neglected in our public and 
parochial schools, and, indeed, in many private 
schools, academies, and colleges as well. Of 
late years, however, not a few in charge of these 
institutions are waking up to a realization of 
the fact that physical education must soon be- 
come an important feature in the curriculum 
of the institutions under their care, and have 
accordingly provided gymnasiums for their stu- 
dents. Let the good work go on until every 
school, high and low, male and female, public 
and private, shall furnish its pupils with a sys- 
tematic mode of acquiring physical culture, and 
thus enable them to blend and harmonize in a 
happy manner those two divisions of education, 
without which there cannot be a finished, healthy 
termination to school-work. 
But, say many of our school-managers, these 
gymnasiums are very expensive and we cannot 
afford this luxury. Do not allow the expense 
to deter you from establishing what is a neces- 
sity, not a luxury. Better reduce your expenses 
in some other direction than graduate a mental 
Shakespeare enclosed in a physical Pope. 
Physical training, like mental cramming, can 
be abused by over-exertion. Excesses, of course, 
must be avoided. The kind of exercise and 
the time devoted to it must be of a character 
suited to the particular student, for it is evident 
to even a casual observer that the amount and 
kind of physical exercise which may with safety OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
17 
be indulged in by one, may prove too fatiguing 
to another. For example, would it not be 
absurd to require the same amount of physical 
exercise from a weak, debilitated-looking boy 
of, say twelve years, as that required from a 
healthy, robust-looking youth of the same age ? 
Physical exercise for school-children must be 
selected with great care and subject to the 
advice of the family physician, and under the 
eye of an intelligent instructor in gymnastics. 
Otherwise,instead of developing and strengthen- 
ing the bones and muscles of the pupils, it may 
cause deformities of certain parts of the body, 
atrophy of one set of muscles and abnormal de- 
velopment of another. Hence the necessity 
for a competent instructor in every gymnasium. 
In our day and time physical culture is gradu- 
ally and effectually gaining in every civilized 
country. Intelligent people begin to see and 
understand that their intellectual faculties can- 
not attain that high degree of perfection so 
earnestly desired, unless they are intrenched or 
fortified by a sound physicial frame, and that 
this condition cannot be achieved without physi- 
cal exercise. "The body cannot become a per- 
fectly working machine without culture, any 
more than the mind can become intellectually 
perfect without education." "Let me have a 
sound mind in a healthy body," says Juvenal, 
in his prayer to the gods. States and nations 
should show as much zeal for the cultivation 
and education of the physical as they do for the 
mental faculties of the people, because it is 
now a recognized fact that in those countries, 
ancient and modern, where physical culture 
formed an important feature in the education 
of the people, the highest type of the intellectual 
faculties was usually found. 
" The poetry of Homer grew and lived on the 
same soil that produced Leonidas and his vet- 18 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
erans." In ancient Greece physical culture was 
from the days of Homer made an important 
part of the school curriculum. The education 
of the Greek youth was divided into three parts 
-grammar, music and gymnastics, to which 
painting or drawing was added by Aristotle. In 
the city of Athens gymnastic exercises occupied 
as much time as all the other branches or 
divisions combined, and were continued long 
after mental education terminated. There was 
not a Greek town without its gymnasium, and 
the large cities had several. History tells us that 
just before the time of Hippocrates gymnastics 
were made a part of medical study, to counteract 
the effects of indolence and luxurious feeding. 
The wisdom which prompted the ancient 
Greek and Roman to introduce and perpetuate 
manly sports and games was abundantly mani- 
fested in the magnificent proportions of the 
Athenian, the Spartan, and the Roman. You 
cannot name a single historical person in the 
annals of those ancient countries that was not a 
trained athlete. Homer, Achilles, Patroclus, 
Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Demosthenes, Hippo- 
crates and a host of others renowned in ancient 
Greek history, were skilled in gymnastic exer- 
cises, and the fame of Athens as an educational 
centre attracted pupils from all parts of the 
civilized world. 
The Romans, desiring to equal if not excel 
their Grecian neighbors, quickly adopted and 
utilized those invigorating games that contri- 
buted so much to render Greece almost invinci- 
ble for so many ages, constructed the most mag- 
nificent and costly gymnasiums and bathing- 
houses combined, for the cultivation of the 
physical faculties of her people. But with the 
decline and fall of Greece and Rome came 
neglect of gymnastic exercise, loss of physical 
strength, and general depravity. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
19 
During the middle ages but little, if any, at- 
tention was paid to physical culture, and it was 
not until 1776 that any effort was made to revive 
the almost forgotten games and sports of ancient 
times, when Basedow united once more mental 
with physical exercise. From this small begin- 
ning the practice slowly extended, until in the 
latter part of the eighteenth century gymna- 
siums were extensively introduced into Prussian 
schools. In the year 1810 Jahn instituted the 
well-known organization called the turnverein, 
a body of athletes which materially enabled 
Prussia to expel the French from her soil more 
than any during the present century. 
The revival of gymnastic exercises in Ger- 
many soon spread over most European coun- 
tries, but not until 1848 did the contagion reach 
our shores, when the German exiles laid the 
foundation of the turnverein in New York,where 
it has flourished, and from which it has extended 
to almost every city in the United States. 
During the past ten years many colleges and 
some high schools have introduced gymnasiums; 
but as yet very few, if any, of the primary 
schools are furnished with these desirable 
institutions. 
The kind of exercise best calculated to im- 
prove the physical condition of the average 
school-boy or girl is a matter which should re- 
ceive special attention from the authorities. 
The physical exercise for the young pupil which 
affords the greatest amount of pleasure to the 
particular student is the kind that should be 
adopted. In recommending that exercise most 
pleasing to the individual do not understand or 
imagine that we are in favor of any athletic 
games having a vicious or demoralizing ten- 
dency. Not at all. The various sports and 
games so highly enjoyed by boys could hardly 
be recommended for girls. The exciting games 20 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
of base-ball, foot-ball, hand-ball, jumping, 
bicycle riding, climbing, boxing, bowling, run- 
ning after a fire engine, military drill, and such 
like sports and pastimes, so exciting and at- 
tractive to boys, would hardly be the proper 
exercise for girls,unless they donned the Bloomer 
costume on such occasions. Even then we 
should still object to those violent forms of 
exercise for the fair sex on account of their 
exhausting character. Many of these games 
are being indulged in to excess by persons 
physically unable to stand the fatigue conse- 
quent upon such exercise. 
Moderation in physical exercise is as neces- 
sary as in any occupation and should be in- 
dulged in accordingly. It is much to be re- 
gretted that most of those violent and fatiguing 
games are being resorted to during the warmest 
part of the day and year when repose is so 
necessary. We have often been surprised at the 
wonderful endurance of young men who will 
play base-ball under the burning rays of a mid- 
summer sun when the mercury registers one 
hundred and thirty degrees or more in the sun. 
Do not understand us as being opposed to 
physical exercise for girls, because we know 
that exercise is just as requisite for girls as for 
their brothers, but somewhat different in charac- 
ter. They have croquet, lawn tennis, dancing, 
walking, skating,horseback riding,running, and 
certain kinds of indoor exercise in the gymna- 
sium, all of which tend to develop bone and 
muscle and thus enable them to resist disease 
and enjoy long life and happiness. 
There is no exercise more pleasing to the 
average school-boy or girl than a wild romp and 
unrestrained screaming for ten or fifteen min- 
utes in the school yard during recess. Such 
complete relaxation in the open air from the 
rigid rules of school discipline seems to infuse OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
21 
new life into the pupils, by expanding or 
inflating their lungs with fresh air, while at 
the same time the foul air of the class-room is 
completely expelled. This important effect can- 
not be obtained by the system now in vogue in 
most, if not all, of the common, and many 
parochial schools, of opening the windows for a 
few minutes while the pupils stand and stamp. 
All that can be said in favor of this new system 
of prancing is that it is a little better than no air 
or exercise at all. Why ? First. If the desks 
and chairs are properly placed there is no room 
for the pupils to stand erect, and they are forced 
to assume a position not of ease but of discom- 
fort and contortion, and consequently are not at 
liberty to move the hands and feet as they 
would wish to or as they could in the play- 
ground, and while in this awkward position the 
windows are thrown open, the cold air thus 
unduly cools the class-room and causes delicate 
children to take cold. 
For the foregoing and other reasons we think 
that school-managers are wrong in abolishing 
the old-time recess of fifteen minutes in the 
middle of each school session. No sound reason 
has been advanced in favor of the change except, 
perhaps, the co-education of the sexes, which we 
suppose forbids or precludes the emptying of all 
the class-rooms at the same time, the object 
being not only to afford fresh air and exercise 
for the pupils, but also thoroughly to flush all 
the class-rooms with fresh air. Whatever cause 
or combination of causes worked the change, 
whether it was co-education or some other ab- 
surd rule that prohibited this old and excellent 
method for furnishing air and exercise for the 
children, it is much to be regretted that the 
change ever took place in our schools. 
Military drill has lately become an important 
feature in many schools and colleges, and it is 22 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
demanding and receiving much attention from 
interested parties. While it is admitted that 
this kind of exercise tends to correct certain 
abnormal positions in the rapidly growing boy, 
we cannot recommend its general adoption for 
boys under eighteen years of age, on account 
of the fatigue whioh it inflicts on the pupil, un- 
less very judiciously practiced under the eye of 
a competent instructor. 
In short, any long-continued exercise, having 
a direct tendency to fatigue, or unduly exhaust 
the pupil, should be avoided by the young 
athlete. Too violent exercise not only does not 
develop the muscles,but frequently retards their 
growth, and leaves the boy puny and delicate. 
" During the active growth and development 
of the body the bones are soft and spongy, and 
contain more blood, relatively, than those of the 
adult, and consequently are more liable to yield 
to violent exercise, thus causing inflammation 
and deformed conditions of those parts to take 
place." The vital organs, as well as the bones 
and muscles, are in process of rapid develop- 
ment, and are much affected by too violent ex- 
ercise, and, as a result, we have enlargement of 
the heart, rupture of blood-vessels, and various 
other affections of those organs. 
Bicycle riding is certainly an excellent form 
of out-door exercise for adults. But in order 
to procure the full physical development to be 
derived from the use of the wheel the rider 
must assume and constantly maintain a per- 
fectly erect position on the saddle, and he must 
be free from all forms of grave organic disease, 
particularly disease of the heart, etc. The 
wheel should be well adapted in all its parts to 
the size, weight, etc., of the particular rider, so 
as to prevent the awkward and ungraceful posi- 
tions so often observed among wheelmen on the 
public streets. The doubled-up or acute angle OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
23 
sort of carriage too often seen on bicycles, not 
only does not develope the muscles or expand the 
chest and lungs, but actually retards the first 
and contracts the second set of muscles and 
organs. The lank, rapidly growing, stooping 
back lad should not practice cycling until the 
age of 21 years, and not then unless he can 
maintain an erect position on the saddle. 
I regret to express this opinion of the bicycle, 
more especially on account of the fact that some 
of the gentle sex seemed determined to indulge 
in this masculine sport. While we are delighted 
to see young ladies indulge in out-door sports 
and games, still we cannot approve of certain 
kinds of those exercises so mentioned. Those 
occupations are, we think, too violent for the 
usually frail constitution of girls, andm no way 
tend to a vigorous development of their muscu- 
lar system, but on the contrary, they have been 
the primary cause of certain ills requiring the 
aid of the physician. 
In thus restricting our girls in the choice of 
athletic sports and games we differ materially 
from our ancient Grecian friends, who required 
their daughters to publicly exhibit their gym- 
nastic proficiency before contracting marriage. 
But as there were no bicycles for the Spartan 
girl to ride in those days, we cannot dogmatically 
say what action their fathers would have taken 
in the premises. Certain it is, however, that 
the Author of our being did not deem it neces- 
sary to endow the female portion of mankind 
with the same rugged bone and muscle which 
characterizes the male element of creation. 
OVERCROWDING CLASS-ROOMS. 
In another part of this article we stated that 
in the opinion of the best sanitary authorities 
not less than fifteen square feet of floor room 
should be allowed to each pupil, the ceiling 24 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
being at least twelve feet high. In the higher 
grades some of our class-rooms afford a little 
more than half this amount to each scholar, 
simply because the attendance in those grades 
is small as compared with the lower grades, and 
not on account of the sanitary demands of the 
children. As we descend from a higher to a 
lower grade we find the class-rooms more and 
more packed, until, on reaching the lower 
grades of the primary department, it is not un- 
usual to find children so packed in these im- 
perfectly ventilated rooms as to render the air ab- 
solutely detrimental to the health of the inmates. 
Picture to yourself a room twenty-five by forty 
feet with an average attendance of eighty per- 
sons, seated on hard benches or chairs, with the 
feet of the smaller ones lifted off the floor, no 
support to the back and no desk in front of them, 
closely packed together and forced to inhale 
poisoned air for two or three hours at a time. 
In this class-room there are three windows and 
one door, the only channels through which 
fresh air is admitted and foul air expelled. As 
you enter this department from the open air 
you at once detect something wrong in the 
character of the atmosphere. You notice a 
disagreeable, sickening odor, or combination of 
odors, which at first prompts you to retrace 
your steps. You observe the children seated as 
before stated, some with pale, sickly expres- 
sions, others with flushed faces, all listless and 
restive. If you remain in this room you imagine 
that the disagreeable odors are no longer present, 
your sense of smell for this particular air is for 
the time completely effaced, and you soon begin 
to feel the evil effects of the poison that is being 
conveyed to your lungs, your heart, and your 
brain. Carbonic acid that should have been 
purified or removed from the room remains to 
be again and again inhaled, thus slowly but OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
25 
surely poisoning the system and destroying the 
vitality. Such is the general character of the 
air those children are compelled, by a cruel, 
iron-clad law, to inhale for hours in a so-called 
school-room. Children who were bright with 
rosy cheeks and as merry as the lambs of the 
field are, at the tender age of four or five years, 
shut up in those polluted apartments, and de- 
prived of that which is most essential to the 
health and happiness of the individual, fresh 
air and exercise, and plenty of it. 
Such school-rooms serve another very objec- 
tionable purpose in a superlative degree,and that 
is in the spread and propagation of such con- 
tagious diseases as scarlatina, measles, whooping- 
cough and diphtheria. The mode of conveying 
these contagious and infectious diseases through 
the agency of such packing is evident and may 
be summed up thus : A mild case of either of 
the diseases above named occurs at the residence 
of one of the children, so mild indeed that its 
nature is not recognized by the parents or others 
in the house. The little patient plays about 
with nearly his usual vitality, mixing with his 
accustomed playmates, or perhaps, as often 
happens, he continues to attend school for some 
time before the nature of his complaint is dis- 
covered, or until the disease has been communi- 
cated to other members of his class. Or the 
little student may be perfectly well and free 
from the actual disease himself, but his gar- 
ments may be saturated with the fatal germs of 
diphtheria, contracted from a member of the 
family at home, or even from a neighbor's child. 
In this way whole schools have been exposed 
to the danger of infectious and contagious dis- 
eases despite the efforts of the most vigilant 
health authorities, and from this fertile source 
of contagion whole communities have been 
made to suffer irreparable losses. 26 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
The tyrannical law which compels children 
at the tender age of five years to attend such 
schools is as unjust as it is unconstitutional, 
and ought to be disregarded because it is an 
unwarranted attempt to interfere with the guar- 
anteed rights of the citizen to force him to edu- 
cate or train the intellect of the child at the 
expense of, and to the absolute detriment of, 
that vastly more important element of his being, 
namely, physical development. 
Standard authorities tell us that each pupil 
should have not less than fifteen square feet of 
floor space, or from two hundred and fifty to 
three hundred cubic feet of air. Now let us 
consider the condition in a class-room which 
I have visited lately and see how much air space 
is furnished each child. This room is fifty by 
thirty feet, and an average of seven feet high, 
and seats one hundred and fifty children. Light 
and ventilation are furnished by six windows 
and two doors, and the room is heated by direct 
steam radiation. In other words each scholar 
has the liberal supply of seventy cubic feet of 
air space, or about one-fifth the required amount. 
How, in the name of humanity, can a child 
learn her lessons in a room like this ? Is it any 
wonder to find them inattentive, listless, and 
stupid when subject to such deleterious influ- 
ences ? 
Observe these children at the commencement 
of the school term and you will notice how fresh 
and animated they are, with bright, sparkling 
eyes and rosy checks, full of life and vigor. But 
a change takes place before the end of the school 
year which completely alters or changes the 
physical condition of the pupil. The fresh, 
buoyant, animated condition is gone, the rosy 
checks have been replaced by a pale, dull ex- 
pression of countenance; the pupil is languid 
and longs for the termination of her imprison- OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
27 
ment; nervous headache, neuralgia and many 
other complaints torment her, and frequently 
the vitality is so reduced as to expose her to 
many contagious diseases and not infrequently 
to one or more of the lingering complaints that 
so often terminate in premature death, and thus 
forever close the perhaps bright prospects of the 
pupil of an overcrowded and imperfectly ven- 
tilated class-room. 
The physical and mental outrage so perpe- 
trated on children compelled to attend schools 
of this character should not be tolerated in a 
civilized community. It is bad enough to con- 
fine children for several hours in a room having 
the requisite amount of air space, but when they 
are packed like sardines in a box and forced to 
inhale over and over the poisonous exhalations 
from the lungs it becomes positively criminal. 
Why, we ask again, should such conditions be 
tolerated in a civilized country-a country 
which claims the right to educate our children, 
in violation of constitutional law ? Why should 
it disregard the just demands of our children ? 
If the Government has a right to erect expensive 
school-buildings, and spend fabulous sums on 
teachers, principals, and superintendents, and 
foreign languages, has it not the same right to 
furnish room and air enough for the scholars ? 
If school authorities neglect to supply proper 
school accommodations what right have they to 
demand the attendance of our children ? It has 
been truly said that " knowledge is power," but 
what use can a physical wreck make of the 
most complete education ? Better allow our 
children to grow up in comparative ignorance 
than to subject them to physical ruin by shut- 
ting them up in a class-room saturated with the 
germs of disease. Public schools, parochial 
schools, and even private schools, should look 
into this important matter before it is too late, 28 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
because the time will come when education and 
sanitation must harmonize. 
ADDITIONAL REMARKS AND 
SUGGESTIONS. 
WARMING AND VENTILATING. 
The important question of furnishing heat 
combined with fresh air to our school-buildings 
is, I am happy to say, engaging the most earnest 
attention of not only architects, physicians and 
sanitarians, but the general public as well. For- 
merly architects paid but little attention to this 
important matter, preferring to devote all the 
skill of their art to the general construction of 
the house, its symmetry, etc., forgetting or 
perhaps not knowing of the danger that lurked 
in the magnificently frescoed rooms in the shape 
of foul air. During the last twenty years, how- 
ever, quite a change has taken place with regard 
to this subject, and as a logical consequence 
much improvement has been achieved. 
The need for better methods for warming and 
ventilation is especially apparent in our large 
public buildings, but in none is it more essential 
than in our schools. Although much progress 
has been made in the matter of ventilation, yet it 
will be admitted that there is still room for im- 
provement and that we have yet to solve the 
problem of furnishing heat and ventilation in 
a manner at once economical and effective. 
In order to sustain life in anything approach- 
ing comfort a body temperature of ninety-eight 
or ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit is necessary. 
Various influences tend to either increase or 
diminish this normal standard, such, for exam- 
ple, as an overheated atmosphere, certain ab- 
normal conditions of the body, etc., or a resi- 
dence in any locality having a temperature from OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
29 
thirty to forty degrees lower than that of the 
body, especially when the mercury drops to zero. 
For the purpose of guarding against these 
changes of temperature clothing and artificial 
heating are deemed necessary. 
With regard to clothing as a means of econo- 
mizing heat and protecting the body there may 
be some difference of opinion, modified by the 
climate and customs of the peoples. Whether 
Adam and his family utilized the fig leaf with 
a view to this object is a question which I will 
not just now undertake to answer. Certain it 
is, however, that any person living in a climate 
like ours parsimonious enough to refuse to pro- 
vide himself with proper -garments would soon 
regret his exposure to an overdose of free venti- 
lation. Clothing is the first requisite for utili- 
zing the temperature of the body by preventing 
rapid extraction of heat, and houses are required 
for shelter and repose, and in addition artificial 
heat for those houses in our inhospitable climate 
is an imperative necessity. 
Having introduced this artificial heat into our 
houses the question which now naturally pre- 
sents itself is, How shall we preserve the requi- 
site amount of oxygen in this warmed air ? The 
problem of maintaining the temperature of an 
artificially heated room at from sixty to seventy 
degrees F., and at the same time furnishing 
oxygen in volume even approximating the 
recognized standard of health is not fully solved, 
notwithstanding that many of the most eminent 
sanitarians in Europe and America have devoted 
much time and study to the subject. 
The quality of the air required for ventilating 
as well as the quantity is very important. At- 
mospheric air as we usually find it is composed 
of twenty-three parts of oxygen, seventy-seven 
parts of nitrogen and about four per 10,000 
parts of carbonic acid gas. It also contains 30 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
traces of ammonia and some watery vapor. 
Nitrogen and oxygen are always in a state of 
mixture or combination, but capable of being 
separated and analyzed, and the relative pro- 
portions are almost always uniform, no matter 
at what elevation. Samples of air have been ob- 
tained from an elevation of 21,000 feet, analyzed 
and found to agree exactly in oxygen and nitro- 
gen with that taken near the surface of the 
earth. 
Not so, however, with carbonic acid. The 
quantity and even the quality of this portion 
of the atmosphere is much influenced by local 
causes,such as persistent dampness, the absence 
of sunlight, decaying organic matter, etc., thus 
increasing the quantity of carbon dioxide from 
four to six and even eight-hundredths per cent. 
The quality of carbon dioxide is not altered to 
such an extent in the open air as it is in confined 
places. Carbonic acid is the resulting product 
of perfect combustion of carbon in dead and in 
living organic matter. 
Ammonia, traces of which we find in air, is 
also influenced by local causes. It is diffused 
from decaying animal and vegetable substances 
on the surface of the earth, and it is also fur- 
nished by the electric currents produced during 
thunder storms and is washed by the rain into 
the ground. It has been suggested that the 
quantity of this gas found in a given surface 
should form an approximate idea of the amount 
of impurity in the atmosphere. The watery 
vapor, though constantly present in healthy 
air, varies in amount in different localities. 
Since the discovery of ozone in 1840, by 
Schonbern, our knowledge of the action of this 
peculiar and highly important modification of 
oxygen in impure air has been materially im- 
proved, although its positive nature and action 
are not yet fully understood. When this gas is OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
31 
present oxidation occurs with much activity. 
It destroys with great energy all volatile gases 
evolved from decaying organic matter. 
Ozone is therefore a powerful disinfectant, 
attacking and rapidly destroying or neutralizing 
the impurities in atmospheric air, and it is 
known that one part of this gas will effectually 
purify 3,000,000 parts of impure air. Ozone is 
found in considerable quantity during and im- 
mediately after heavy rain storms. Flowers 
and plants seem to produce it under the influ- 
ence of the sun's rays, but in the absence of this 
luminary they retain the ozone and give up 
carbon dioxide. It is not present in dark and 
filthy places. From an analysis made by Pro- 
fessor Nichol of air collected in a dark, filthy 
lane in Paris, we learn that the quantity of 
oxygen was found reduced to 13.79 parts instead 
of twenty-three per cent., while the quantity of 
nitrogen rose to 81.24, carbon dioxide to twelve 
per 10,000 parts, and sulphurated hydrogen to 
three per cent. 
An atmosphere containing more than ten 
parts of carbon dioxide to 10,000 parts of air 
is detrimental to health, and when it rises to 
fifteen parts per 10,000 may cause death. In 
fact odors, exhalations or conditions that ma- 
terially alter the normal proportions of the 
atmospheric air. tend to debilitate the system 
and predispose the individual to disease and 
discomfort. 
We have attempted to explain the relative 
proportions of the air we breathe outside of 
school-buildings, and at the same time demon- 
strate the changes which take place in the rela- 
tive proportions of the same, their effects on the 
human system, etc. 
As before stated, atmospheric air essentially 
consists of a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, 
yet we generally find about four volumes of 32 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
carbon dioxide in 10,000 volumes of this air, 
but when it is introduced into a class-room of 
the ordinary size occupied by fifty persons and 
provided with the defective sort of ventilation 
usually found in such rooms, the relative pro- 
portions of this air are materially altered. This 
alteration in a crowded class-room takes place 
in a remarkably short time, and the longer the 
occupation continues the greater the alteration 
or pollution becomes. 
A properly ventilated class-room should not 
contain more than four volumes of carbon 
dioxide in excess of that found in air outside 
the building, but when this dangerous gas 
amounts to ten or more parts in 10,000 the air 
is acting as a slow poison on the pupils, and 
were it not for the fact that the windows are 
occasionally opened, or a recess allowed, com- 
plete exhaustion would soon follow. 
In addition to this noxious carbon dioxide 
the air of the class-room is further polluted by 
still more dangerous and ill-smelling gases, 
such as the decaying organic matter expelled 
from the lungs and carbon oxide, the effects of 
which on the human system are extremely de- 
leterious, for it is now known that one part of 
this latter named gas or poison in 10,000,000 
parts of air attacks the blood, the red corpuscles 
of which it rapidly destroys, rendering the pupil 
pale and languid, and causing headache and 
often extreme prostration. 
HOW NOXIOUS GASES ARE GENERATED IN 
THE CLASS-ROOM. 
The chief source of impure air in school- 
rooms is the foul carbonic acid exhaled from the 
lungs of the pupils, each one of whom liberates 
an average of 340 cubic feet per hour. Pro- 
fessor Parks, and other equally high authorities, 
assert that the quantity of carbon dioxide thus OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
33 
liberated is much influenced by age, sex, ac- 
tivity and repose, and that 340 cubic feet may 
be considered a fair average for each pupil. 
Take a class-room twenty-five feet square, 
having a ceiling twelve feet high, and contain- 
ing 7,500 cubic feet of air, including the aver- 
age amount of impure air. There are say fifty 
pupils in this room of ages ranging from four- 
teen to eighteen years and each pupil exhaling 
about 340 cubic feet of impure air per hour. 
If we multiply these figures by fifty, the num- 
ber of pupils in the room, we have 17,000 cubic 
feet of this sickening air in one hour, and in case 
the occupation is continued for three hours 
consecutively we would have not less than 
51,000 cubic feet of this air, or nearly four 
times the amount of ordinary air found in an 
unoccupied class-room. 
It is generally admitted by sanitarians that 
this exhaled air contains not less than four per 
cent, of the most noxious carbon dioxide. In 
other words, instead of furnishing an atmos- 
phere containing eight or ten per cent, of im- 
pure air we generously provide the children 
with nearly 100 parts in 10,000. 
In addition to these impurities in the school- 
room we have, when the rooms are heated by 
stoves, hot air furnaces, etc., a still more poi- 
sonous gas to encounter in the carbon oxide 
generated by the so-called base-burning, gas- 
consuming stoves, all uniting to render the air 
absolutely unfit to breathe, provided that there 
was no provision for the access of fresh air or 
an outlet for this impure air. But as the class- 
room cannot hold all of this air at the same 
time, its capacity being only 7,500 cubic feet, 
the greater portion 45,000 cubic feet must have 
found its way out of the room through some 
channel or other nothwithstanding the efforts 
of the architect to confine it in the room. 34 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
How did this confined impure air escape 
from the class-room ? There are various chan- 
nels furnished, not by school boards or archi- 
tects, but by nature's law, through which this 
impure air is forced from the room notwith- 
standing the fact that every effort is made by 
the authorities to exclude the cold, fresh air 
by providing storm doors, double windows and 
any amount of weather strips, forgetting or not 
knowing the fact that by excluding the fresh 
cool air they also prevent the escape of foul air. 
But they cannot completely succeed. The 
pent up impure air in the class-room is wait- 
ing for a door to open, (a circumstance which 
must occur often in a crowded room,) when 
it rushes out with much force, while at the 
same time cool, fresh air forces its way through 
cracks, crevices, and badly constructed doors 
and windows to take the place of this escaped 
polluted air, thus furnishing some, though not 
enough, fresh air. 
In case this natural ventilation through 
open doors and crevices does not occur, and if 
the class-room could be made absolutely air- 
tight, the pupils and teachers could not possi- 
bly live, even for three hours, in such an 
atmosphere. From these facts it must be evi- 
dent to every investigating mind that our 
children are often exposed to, and that they 
suffer from, the evil effects of impure air and 
defective ventilation in many school-rooms not 
only in cities but also in country district 
schools. 
The question, therefore, which claims our 
attention in connection with this subject is 
ho.w we shall improve on the present system 
of warming and ventilating our school-rooms 
without creating dangerous draughts. 
One hundred years ago, or even less, it was 
customary to attempt the almost impossible OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
35 
task of warming houses by means of grate fires 
and open fire-places. While the grate fire and 
open fire-place furnish ample outlets for foul 
air, they also removed nearly all the warmed 
air as well, and the inmates had to suffer from 
too much ventilation. Great improvements 
have been accomplished in the mode of heating 
since that time and the man who would now 
undertake to heat the air of a large class-room 
by means of a grate fire would probably be 
considered a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. 
The introduction of the iron box or stove was 
an improvement on the open fire-place or grate 
fire m.that it furnished more heat at a greatly 
reduced expenditure of fuel, but it proved very 
defective in the important matter of ventilation. 
Numerous improvements, however, have from 
time to time been made in connection with this 
apparatus, so as to render it very useful, when 
properly managed, not only for warming the 
room, but also for culinary and other domestic 
purposes. 
Those improved, so-called base-burning, gas- 
consuming stoves, certainly give out much 
heat at a very moderate expense, yet they are 
dangerous if not well understood. How often 
have we entered a room warmed by one of these 
stoves to find the air heavily charged with that 
poisonous gas, carbon monoxide, and when we 
investigated the cause found dampers that 
should be open closed, throwing the product 
of imperfect combustion into the room and 
slowly poisoning the inmates. 
Not so, however, with the hot air furnace. 
From this apparatus we get a combination o f 
heated and fresh atmospheric air, and wh en 
properly made, placed and handled it is capa- 
ble of supplying a very good quality of heat and 
ventilation at the same time. But even this 
does not give us the requisite amou nt of oxygen. 36 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
We must of necessity, therefore, have resource 
to other methods of artificial ventilation and 
heating. 
A good hot air furnace in full operation, the 
wind and dampers being favorable, will convey 
to a school-building about 43,200 cubic feet of 
warm air every hour, or heat enough for 100 
pupils. If the ventilation is even approaching 
anything near what is considered fair in 
character this warm air will be changed about 
three times every hour by foul air shafts or 
open fire-places. In case the school building is 
large enough to seat 800 persons, you will need 
not less than eight of those furnaces, or 
345,600 cubic feet of warm air per hour. In 
order to properly ventilate the building or re- 
move this quantity of foul air from the class- 
rooms, foul air shafts capable of removing 
double this volume of air should be provided, 
if we desire to furnish anything approaching 
good ventilation. 
The ventilation or cold air obtained through 
the hot air furnace is often defective and im- 
pure, for the following reasons : 
First-Because of the direction and force of 
the wind. 
Second-Because the cold air furnished is 
often contaminated by impure air taken from 
unsanitary locations. 
In order to properly warm and at the same 
time thoroughly ventilate a school-house by 
means of a hot air furnace five conditions are 
necessary : 
First-The cellar in which the furnace is 
located must be well drained, the floor well 
cemented, with high ceiling, thoroughly light- 
ed, scrupulously clean, and free of decaying 
vegetable matter and rubbish of all kinds. 
Second-If, unfortunately, a water-closet 
hould be placed in the cellar it should be as OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
37 
remote as possible from the furnace and in- 
closed in a separate apartment of mason work, 
having a window opening to the east, west or 
south, and provided with the very best sanitary 
basin, drain and vent pipes. 
Third-The utmost caution should be ob- 
served in selecting the place from which the 
cold air is to be procured. It should never be 
taken from areas, damp, shady places, or from 
the vicinity of vaults, cesspools, or other filthy 
places ; but when possible should be taken at a 
distance of not less than ten feet from the sur- 
face of the ground and from three different 
locations, east, south and west. 
Fourth-The cold air box, or conduit, should 
be perfectly air tight in the cellar, but so con- 
structed as to admit of access for cleaning, etc. 
Fifth-The hot air furnace should be of the 
most approved make, the joints perfectly tight, 
and provided with ample space for holding 
water. 
Unless these necessary precautions are ob- 
served and practically carried out you will be 
constantly exposed to danger from impure air. 
Too much caution cannot be taken in all the 
many apparently insignificant details of con- 
veying pure air to the furnace, for this is the 
air which, after being heated, we must inhale 
in all parts of the house. 
With your permission I will relate one of the 
many obscure causes of disease produced by 
carelessness or ignorance in connection with 
this system of house warming. 
In a neighboring state five persons out of a 
family of thirteen were prostrated with diph- 
theria, three of whom died. The house stood 
alone on a hill, 300 feet above the sea, was 
thoroughly ventilated, the plumbing and drain- 
age seemed almost perfect, the hot air furnace 
was of the most approved kind, every room was 38 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
well lighted and exposed to the sun's rays-in 
short all the surroundings were unexception- 
able. 
At the time diphtheria appeared in the house 
there was no other case in the town or neigh- 
borhood. No member of the family had been 
in contact with any person having the disease, 
and, in fact, no cause could be assigned until 
the physician in attendance discovered that the 
owner of the adjoining premiseshad caused the 
contents of a cesspool to be spread over the 
grass-plot some twelve days before the outbreak 
of the disease, and that the offensive odors 
arising from the decomposed matter were being 
drawn to and through the cold air conduit, 
which was located on that side of the house, 
and conveyed with the hot air to the rooms 
occupied by those suffering from the disease, 
while the members of the family who slept in 
rooms into which this hot air had no access 
escaped unharmed. 
.No argument of mine is necessary to con- 
vince you of the well known fact that cold air 
taken from or near the surface of the ground is 
charged with from two to five per cent, more 
carbonic acid than that ten feet higher, and 
that distance from the surface lends purity to 
the air. 
Anyone disposed to doubt the danger of 
drawing impure cold air and conveying it with 
the warm air into the house need but have 
recourse to the simple experiment of testing for 
himself by igniting any material capable of 
emitting plenty of smoke and placing it at a 
distance of from twenty to fifty feet from the 
entrance to the cold air box, the furnace being 
under full headway, and note the direction 
taken by the smoke. He need not wait long 
before being convinced that the smoke is being 
rapidly drawn into the cold air box. And so it OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
39 
is in the cellar in case of any opening in the 
cold air conduit. 
Now let us follow the warm air into the house 
and there examine it and ascertain its nature, 
composition, etc. For this purpose we will 
select a room having no open fire-place, but 
large enough to contain 12,000 cubic feet of air. 
The room is well lighted, being furnished with 
four windows, but no other visible means for 
the access of fresh air. This room is occupied 
by an average number say forty persons, it 
being one of the high grade class-rooms. The 
temperature outside varies from zero to twenty 
degrees above, cold enough to keep windows 
and doors tightly closed. The furnace fire is 
taxed to and beyond its capacity, but the 
amount of hot air delivered in this room does 
not warm it. As you enter this apartment you 
at once detect a peculiar and very disagreeable 
odor. You feel there is something unpleasant 
in the atmosphere of the room. The air near 
the register is warm, but at a distance of ten 
feet from it is cold. The temperature of the 
room drops to fifty-five degrees, while at the 
same time coal is piled into the furnace. 
Why is this ? The cause is evident and may 
be summed up thus : 
First-There is no provision for the admis- 
sion of fresh air to the appartment except 
through the cold air box, which in this case is 
rendered almost wholly defective, as I will 
attempt to show by and by. 
Second-There is no outlet for foul air ex- 
cept by accidental leakage. 
Third-The unequal warming of the room is 
due to deficient circulation of this compressed 
air. 
Fourth-This air is polluted by consuming 
or withdrawing the oxygen and liberating car- 
bonic acid, carbon oxide and other offensive 40 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
vapors thrown or exhaled from the lungs, etc., 
of the occupants of the room, each of whom 
inhales an average of 340 cubic feet of air per 
hour, or about eighty-seven cubic feet of 
oxygen. 
This of course means that the forty inmates 
of the class-room withdraw 14,000 cubic feet of 
air every hour, or about 4,240 cubic feet of 
oxygen, and at the same time liberate or pro- 
duce about 13,500 cubic feet of vitiated air, 
containing nearly 3,400 cubic feet of the most 
poisonous kind of carbonic acid. If these con- 
ditions were maintained for say four hours 
consecutively there would have been withdrawn 
nearly 56,000 cubic feet of air, or about 13,600 
cubic feet of oxygen, and nearly 55,000 cubic 
feet of impure air produced. 
Fifth-The confined air is still further pol- 
luted, in case of night school, by twelve gas 
burners, each of which consumes about twenty- 
two cubic feet of oxygen and produces not less 
than twenty cubic feet of carbon dioxide per 
hour, and the further fact that the hot air is 
deprived of much oxygen while passing 
through the hot air chamber. 
Sixth-From the above figures and facts it 
will be seen that during class hours an amount 
of oxygen equal to four times that in the apart- 
ment had been withdrawn or consumed, and 
that the remaining air was rendered unfit for 
inhalation, and were it not for the fact that 
some fresh air found access, by accidental leak- 
age around windows and doors, life could not 
be sustained in this apartment. 
Seventh-The hot air furnace does not al- 
ways warm the house, or rather, certain rooms 
in the house cannot be warmed by the furnace. 
Why ? Because owing to the direction of the 
wind, the locality from which the cold air is 
taken and the almost horizontal position of the OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
41 
pipes at their exit from the furnace in the cel- 
lar, and the further fact of defective ventila- 
tion in these rooms, the furnace seems to go on 
a strike, if I may use the expression, at a time 
when its heating capacity is most needed. 
A room badly ventilated cannot be warmed 
in very cold weather by your hot air furnace, 
no matter how well constructed it may be, for 
these reasons : 
First-The class-room is already more or less 
full of impure cold air and there is no outlet 
for this air, even at the windows, the intense 
cold wind acting as a barrier, pressing and 
forcing back the partially warmed air or hold- 
ing it at bay, and, as it is a recognized axiom in 
philosophy that two bodies cannot occupy the 
same place at the same time, the furnace is 
unable to deliver the requisite amount of warm 
air into the room. 
Second-The furnace or cellar floor is too 
low (the distance from floor to ceiling) to al- 
low ascent enough for the heat conducting 
pipes, or conduits, to rapidly convey the heat 
from the furnace to the room to be warmed. 
Third-The cold air being taken only from one 
side of the building and the wind refusing to blow 
in the direction calculated to enter the cold air 
conduit, the hot air current is diminished, the fire 
does not receive the necessary amount of oxygen 
for active combustion and so it goes on strike. 
In order to determine the actual character of 
air like that described above I have tested 
samples of the same and found it, in almost 
every case, unfit for human respiration. The 
tests were, of course, directed to the detection 
of carbonic acid. Some of those employed 
were very simple, affording only an approxi- 
mate idea of impurities and capable of being 
used by most persons, while others were a 
little more complex and rather expensive. 42 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
The first and most simple test for the detec- 
tion of carbon dioxide employed was by means 
of lighted tapers suspended at different eleva- 
tions from the floor, the fact being known that 
oxygen is a powerful supporter of combustion 
and that carbonic acid is the direct opposite. 
The taper at the flooi' burns with a brilliant 
flame, that at five feet with much less 
brilliancy, while that near the ceiling refused 
to display more than an almost imperceptible 
light. 
The lime water test, which is very simple 
and accessible to everyone, may be used in the 
following manner : Take a clear glass bottle, 
large enough to contain one-half pint. Pour 
one ounce or one-fourth of a gill of freshly 
made lime water into this bottle and let it re- 
main uncorked in the room, the air of which 
you wish to test for half an hour or more. 
Then shake thoroughly. If the lime water be- 
comes turbid it indicates an excessive percent- 
age of carbonic acid gas in the room ; but if 
the lime water remains perfectly clear you have 
an almost positive guarantee that the air is 
pure, at least approximately. 
The test composed of a solution of oxalic 
acid and baryta, which is somewhat compli- 
cated, and Dr. Billings's test were also em- 
ployed, all giving results closely resembling 
Patteukofer's analysis, the details of which 
would occupy too much time and space here. 
Defective ventilation not only does not ven- 
tilate, but it pollutes the air and prevents the 
access of warm air into the rooms to be heat- 
ed. Various methods are recommended to 
ventilate artificially warmed rooms but all are 
more or less defective. 
Suppose we adapt the time honored system 
founded on the theory that carbonic acid being 
heavier than atmospheric air always dropped to OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
43 
the floor, and, acting on this hypothesis, pro- 
vision was made for the admission of fresh air 
at or near the floor at one side, and for the 
escape of foul air near the ceiling at the other 
side, with the notion, probably, of neutralizing 
the impure air at the floor, warming it, and 
then forcing it out at the ceiling; or perhaps 
the idea was to create a direct current from the 
floor to the ceiling and thus clear the room of 
both warm and cold air at the same time. Now 
while it is acknowledged that carbon dioxide is 
heavier than ordinary atmospheric air at the 
same temperature, it is equally evident that the 
relative conditions of these bodies are materi- 
ally altered by the application of heat. The 
carbonic acid which we have to consider in 
connection with house ventilation is principally 
that exhaled from the lungs, and as this acid 
leaves the lungs at a temperature of about 
ninety-eight degrees F., it is much lighter than 
the surrounding air, being warm and in a state 
of expansion, consequently it rapidly ascends to 
the ceiling, and as the region of the ceiling is 
the warmest in all artificially heated rooms, 
especially at night, it remains there until the 
heat is withdrawn, when it cools and drops to 
the floor. 
The old system of ventilation then does not 
ventilate, because when the cold air inlet is 
open the feet and legs of the inmates are chilled 
and the fresh air inlet is soon closed, while the 
impure or hot air outlet at the ceiling acts in a 
very capricious manner, sometimes when open 
permitting warm air to pass out, sometimes 
allowing cold air to pass in, and at other times 
refusing either ingress or egress-the cold air 
outside and the warm air inside fighting as it 
were for supremacy. In addition to the 
vitiated atmosphere in rooms thus ventilated, I 
found a difference of from four to six degrees 44 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
in the temperature in various parts of the same 
room. 
There are several other devices employed for 
house ventilation too numerous to mention, 
each having some good features, but, in my 
opinion, the most efficient system is that which 
affords fresh air enough to completely change 
the atmosphere of the apartment two to four 
times every hour. 
This can be accomplished only, as far as I 
know, in the following manner : The foul air 
outlets or flues should be much larger than the 
warm air inlets and capable of removing about 
15,000 cubic feet per hour. These outlets in a 
large class-room should not be less than three 
in number and should be connected with an 
air shaft extending to and beyond the roof. 
These foul air outlets should be placed at the 
same side of the room where the warm air is 
introduced and at the floor. The foul air shaft 
or flue should be as straight as possible and 
have a perfectly smooth inside surface to 
facilitate the escape of the impure air. 
These impure air outlets, however well con- 
structed, will fail to remove the vitiated air in 
the class-room in cold weather unless aided by 
artificial heat. The writer has often observed 
the utter inability of such flues to accomplish 
the work expected. Indeed, it is not unusual 
to find them acting as cold air inlets instead of 
polluted air outlets, and hence the absolute 
necessity of furnishing some artificial heat so 
as to induce an upward current. 
In school-buildings warmed by steam heat 
the air shafts could be heated at a very moder- 
ate expense by extending a steam pipe some 
distance through the shaft or flue, and houses 
otherwise warmed may, with advantage, em- 
ploy illuminating gas for the purpose indicated. 
An open fire-place, in cases where it is in close OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
45 
proximity to a warmed flue, will answer very 
well for an outlet, provided the open space is 
closed to a point within eighteen inches of the 
floor, and furnished with a smooth inside sur- 
face, etc. 
In addition to the impure air outlets at the 
floor, each class-room should be provided with 
one or two outlets at or near the ceiling, so as 
to assist in removing the superheated, impure 
air usually floating in that portion of the class- 
room. These outlets are especially necessary 
during the months of May, June, September 
and October, when artificial heat is but little if 
at all required, and also in cases where rooms 
are used for night school, when the air is 
actually poisoned by illuminating gas. 
The object in having more than one outlet 
in each room is to equalize the air currents and 
thus avoid dangerous drafts, and to insure a 
thorough circulation of warm air. The hot air 
is now introduced at the floor, and as it gradu- 
ally ascends towards the ceiling it diffuses itself 
all over the room, and as it cools is slowly 
drawn to the foul air outlets near the floor and 
removed from the room, while the other 
warmer and purer air takes its place. 
In order to accomplish this object thoroughly 
it will be necessary to provide pure atmospheric 
air for the furnace. The cold air conduit must 
be air-tight in the cellar, and the air must be 
taken from three points and away from tainted 
localities. 
The object in procuring cold air from three 
different points is to insure an abundant supply 
of the article, no matter from what point the 
wind blows. In no other way can you main- 
tain the constant exchange of air so necessary 
to healthy ventilation. 
In rooms thus heated and ventilated the 
temperature does not vary three degrees in any 46 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
part of the room, the changing currents are 
hardly preceptible, and carbonic acid is seldom 
found in excess of the normal standard, even 
though the windows remain closed the whole 
day. 
In cas& of constant occupation of class and 
recitation rooms, however, it is advised to open 
all doors and windows three times a day for 
five or ten minutes at a time so as to completely 
remove the offensive organic odors often cling- 
ing to the walls and ceilings. This mode of 
ventilation is especially adapted to the hot air 
furnace system of heating and to system heat- 
ing by indirect radiation. 
The Smead warming and ventilating system 
embraces many excellent features and all things 
considered is perhaps the best hot air and ven- 
tilating combination yet devised. This system 
is employed for warming one school-building 
in Yonkers, (No. 2,) and with very satisfactory 
results, notwithstanding the fact that the 
school-building and its surroundings are far 
from perfect. Much care and common sense, 
however, are necessary on the part of janitors 
and teachers in regulating the amount of heat 
and ventilation furnished by the Smead system. 
Warming school-buildings by means of indi- 
rect steam radiation is one of the best, if not 
the very best, modes of heating now in use, 
provided the precautions before referred to in 
connection with the hot air furnace be strictly 
observed. This system essentially consists in 
coiling pipes in a chamber to which fresh cold 
air is introduced, warmed by steam and dis- 
charged into the rooms to be heated, as in the 
case of the hot air furnace, but the quality of 
the air is much better than that from the hot 
air furnace on account of a certain amount of 
moisture which it always retains. 
This moisture is a very necessary qualifica- OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
47 
tion and one not always obtained from the hot 
air furnace. The steam heat is more even and 
constant in character, not being nearly so 
much influenced by temperature, wind, etc. 
The suffocating and poisonous gas, carbon 
monoxide, resulting from the imperfect com- 
bustion of carbon, so frequently detected in 
rooms warmed by hot air furnaces, is never 
found in rooms warmed by steam. 
The excessively dry character of furnace air, 
so irritating to the respiratory mucous mem- 
brane, is never found in houses heated by 
steam. For these and other reasons too numer- 
ous to mention, heating school-buildings by in- 
direct steam is recommended. 
Warming class-rooms by direct steam radi- 
ation is not recommended unless great atten- 
tion is devoted to the important matter of fur- 
nishing fresh, pure air, so as to thoroughly 
neutralize the impure air in the room and cause 
the said air to be changed not less than 
three times every hour by means of properly 
constructed impure air outlets as before recom- 
mended. This is a very difficult matter to 
accomplish and consequently this system of 
warming class-rooms should be abandoned. 
Heating by means of hot water is not recom- 
mended on account of the danger of the 
water freezing in the pipes in exposed places, 
and for other reasons stated in connection with 
direct steam warming. 
In any case every class-room should be pro- 
vided with not only a dry thermometer but 
also a wet bulb thermometer and a well con- 
structed hygrometer, so as to enable each class- 
teacher to determine the actual amount of 
humidity in the air as well as the temperature. 
It is well known that hot dry air is charged 
with fine particles of dust which when inhaled 
cause much irritation, coughing, etc., while 48 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
warm air midway between the points of com- 
plete dryness and complete saturation, which 
is fifty degrees, with a temperature of from 
sixty-five to seventy degrees F., is considered 
the proper atmosphere for the class-room. 
From a number of careful experiments, made 
a short time ago by a committee of the 
American Medical Association, on the air of 
school-buildings in Cleveland and other west- 
ern cities, the following facts were elicited, 
showing the amount of carbon dioxide in 
class-rooms warmed by the hot air furnace, 
direct steam, indirect steam, and by a combi- 
nation of direct and indirect steam heating. I 
quote from the report of Dr. R. Harvey Reed. 
This excellent report states not only the 
temperature of the class-rooms visited but also 
the humidity and the percentage of carbon 
dioxide at the level of the floor, the mouth and 
ceiling, but as the air at the mouth level is that 
which concerns us in this paper we shall con- 
fine our remarks to figures quoted from that 
portion of the report. 
METHOD OF HEATING. 
Temperature... 
Humidity 
Carbon dioxide 
in 10,000 parts. 
Indirect steam 
67.0 
28.7 
7 068 
Indirect and direct steam 
69.5 
45.7 
11 253 
Direct steam 
71.5 
39.3 
16 753 
Direct steam with open fire pl.. 
73.8 
33.0 
11.847 
Hot air furnace, Smead system 
68.5 
97.3 
11.255 
Hot air furnace, Grossum sys.. 
67.5 
40.5 
10.158 
You will observe that the above figures 
demonstrate two very important facts. 
First-That in the air in the class-rooms 
warmed by indirect steam radiation the OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
49 
amount of carbon dioxide was very much less 
than was found in connection with any other 
system of heating ; and 
Second-The air furnished by a combination 
of direct and indirect steam proved to be the 
nearest to the recognized standard in humidity, 
45.7, while one of the best hot air furnace 
systems in use furnished an atmosphere con- 
taining from three to four parts more carbon 
dioxide and an abnormal amount of moisture, 
or the reverse, at or very near the same tem- 
perature. 
Another and a very important feature in 
connection with steam heating is that the pipes 
can be so arranged as not only to warm the 
corridors, but also to warm and dry the cold 
and sometimes wet feet of the pupils and 
teachers in winter, thus preventing colds and 
other illness. The Yonkers High School 
authorities have provided feet warmers along 
the corridors of that fine building by means of 
these steam pipes, and although rather circum- 
scribed, they are very much appreciated by the 
pupils and teachers. 
WARMING AND VENTILATING OF SUBURBAN 
SCHOOL-HOUSES. 
The improved system of warming by hot air 
furnaces, or by steam, is usually considered too 
expensive for those little school-houses located 
about the outskirts of cities and towns, and 
consequently other and less expensive methods 
for warming them must be employed. Many 
varieties of stoves are offered for the purpose, 
but that usually employed is what is termed a 
base-burning, gas-consuming stove, "warranted 
to produce an immense amount of heat from 
the smallest amount of coal," etc. These stoves 
certainly furnish much heat at a small expense, 
but they do not consume the deleterious gases 50 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
which they generate. Pupils in the immediate 
vicinity of these stoves are well warmed, while 
those remote from them suffer more or less 
from cold. 
In mild weather, when only a moderate 
amount of heat is required, these stoves supply 
heat enough, but in very cold wheather, when 
warm air is most needed, they are not equal to 
the demand on them, although they are pushed 
to a red hot heat, and every fresh air inlet, as 
well as foul air outlet, even to the open fire- 
place, is tightly closed. 
Some of these school houses are provided 
with so-called ventilators away up near the 
ceiling, where they are useless, except when the 
air up there is very much heated they permit 
it to escape occasionally. These outlets are 
usually ornamented by an iron grating and fan 
like contrivance to shut and open at will by 
means of cords and tassels extending to a con- 
venient point. 
The good teacher usually directs these warm 
air outlets to be closed in cold weather, pre- 
ferring warm foul air to cold pure air for the 
class-room. At last the air becomes so impure 
as to be oppressive, and in order to get a breath 
of fresh air the windows are thrown open, a 
current of cool wind suddenly strikes the 
pupils, and colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc., 
often result. 
A careful examination of the air in one of 
these schools showed the enormous amount of 
forty volumes of carbonic acid gas in 10,000 
volumes, or in other words, the air inhaled by 
the pupils in such class-room contained over 
four times the standard or healthy amount. 
The kind of heating apparatus and ventila- 
tion that should be furnished school-houses 
in these outlaying districts should embrace the 
following general conditions: OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
51 
First-The best available hot air furnace 
should be properly placed in the basement 
(where there is one) regardless of the expense. 
Second-There should be a janitor to take 
charge of this heater in addition to his other 
duties about the building. 
Third-The class-room should be warmed to 
a temperature of sixty-five to seventy degrees 
F. before school begins in the morning, and 
this temperature should be maintained through- 
out the day. 
Fourth-In the absence of proper ventilators, 
such as described before, the windows may be 
utilized for furnishing fresh air, not however 
by throwing them open in the usual dangerous 
manner, but by the following simple way : A 
pine board, from three to six inches wide, and 
long enough to fit accurately the place of the 
lower window sash, is procured, the sash is 
raised, the board inserted, and the sash lowered 
or shut down upon it. The air now enters 
between the upper and lower sashes, in an 
ascending direction, mingling with the warm 
impure air without causing any annoying 
draught on the heads of the pupils. This sys- 
tem of ventilation of course is at best only a 
make-shift or tributary aid to the object in 
view, (fresh air,) but in the absence of a more 
scientific system it furnishes much pure air and 
should be employed. 
In case the little building on account of 
financial embarrassment must be warmed by 
stoves the following suggestions should be 
adopted. A stove large enough to heat the 
class-room being located, the room should be 
ventilated in the following manner : 
The stove should be completely surrounded 
by a metallic wrap or cylinder and fastened to 
the floor, allowing a space of several inches be- 
tween it and the stove, and it should extend to 52 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
a height of nearly five feet from the floor. A 
good sized cold air pipe is next taken from the 
outside of the building through the basement 
to a point exactly under the stove and extended 
through the floor, where it terminates just 
under the stove. The outer end of this pipe, 
or conduit, must be protected by a fine wire 
screen, while the inner end is provided with 
means for regulating the volume of fresh air. 
By this contrivance a good amount of atmos- 
pheric air is conveyed to the stove, warmed and 
diffused through the class-room without unduly 
warming the scholars in the immediate vicinity 
of the fire. 
Some prefer the plan of placing the stove 
near a window, enclosing it half way round as 
above, but leaving that part of the stove near 
the window exposed to the cold air usually 
passing in between the window sash and frame. 
The heat just inside the window acting like a 
suction pump seems to draw in the cold air, 
warms it and delivers it in a state of expansion 
in the class-room. In case cold air enough is 
not obtained in this way, the window should be 
raised a little so as to supply the requisite 
amount. 
By one or both of these plans a certain 
amount of fresh air is introduced, but not 
enough to maintain a healthy atmosphere, 
there being no foul air shaft accessible to re- 
move the impure air rapidly accumulating in 
the class-room. In order to accomplish this 
desired object many plans have been suggested, 
none of which, so far as known to the writer, 
seem to completely fulfill the purpose. One of 
these plans, however, seems to merit a fair trial 
and is as follows : 
The opening into the chimney for the stove 
pipe is enlarged so as to receive a much larger 
pipe, which encircles the stove pipe like a OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
53 
jacket. This j'acket should extend from a 
point say ten inches above the floor to the 
chimney, where it is inserted with the stove 
pipe. The chimney into which the stove pipe 
discharges the smoke should have an opening 
extending from the floor to a point twelve or 
fifteen inches above, so as to assist in removing 
polluted air from the room. Open fire-place 
aids to ventilation are now, as a rule, closed, 
under the impression that such openings act 
as a damper on the fire. On the contrary such 
openings rather increase combustion by the 
suction which the smoke creates, except only 
when the fire is being made, when the opening 
should be closed for a few minutes. 
The absured notion so generally held by not 
only plain people, but also by people considered 
intelligent, of closing every fresh air inlet, as 
well as every foul air outlet, during winter 
weather, is so pernicious in its efforts on the 
health of its votaries as to demand a firm pro- 
test from every sanitarian. If too much cold 
air finds its way to your living rooms, or school- 
rooms, warm it by means of a few extra tons of 
coal, and the saving in your doctor's bill will 
more than balance the expense. If you desire 
healthy air in your rooms, you must take it 
from the outside of the building, then warm it, 
and when it becomes impure allow it to escape 
through apertures provided for that purpose, 
otherwise your health will suffer. 
SCHOOL WORK IN THE CLASS-ROOM AND ITS 
RELATION TO PHYSICAL CULTURE, ETC. 
This subject should demand the attention 
not only of sanitarians and physicians, but of 
every thoughtful mind, on account of its close 
connection with the question of school hygiene 
and also because of its intimate relation to the 
future physical condition of society. 54 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
Teaching the young idea how to shoot, or, 
if you will, moulding the elastic minds of our 
children, is a matter that cannot be too care- 
fully examined, and it behooves us who are 
directly concerned to point out the defective 
features involved in our present system of 
education in so far as it relates to physical 
culture. Doubtless there are persons who will 
question our motives in our efforts to criticise 
the actions of school authorities, and if there 
are any such let them be assured that any sug- 
gestions we may offer are intended for the 
mutual benefit of teacher and pupil. 
Many of the class of persons to whom the 
subject of education is entrusted do not appear 
to fully appreciate the vast importance of their 
high and responsible position. They do not 
seem to thoroughly realize the fact that they 
are responsible for many of the physical imper- 
fections acquired by young children during 
school hours. Defective knowledge of matters 
in relation to school work is due more to the 
system employed than to the imperfections of 
the teacher, and while it is admitted that some 
improvement in the matter of school hygiene 
has been accomplished of late years, yet that 
very much more can be achieved must be ad- 
mitted. 
The introduction of the kindergarten system 
of teaching young children is a step in the 
right direction as far as it extends, but is too 
limited in its operation and consequently does 
not accomplish the object in view. School 
authorities should devote more attention to 
this excellent mode of primary education, and 
make it a prominent feature in every school 
where young children are compelled to attend. 
The kindergarten method intelligently prac- 
ticed and a well appointed gymnasium estab- 
lished in connection with every school, will OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
55 
accomplish much needed reformation in men- 
tal and physical education. 
The evil effects of our present imperfect sys- 
tem of acquiring book knowledge are very 
clearly illustrated in the pale features and gen- 
eral appearance of so many school children, 
and yet those defective educational methods, 
including parrot-like recitations and cramming, 
alone, would not effect the physical or mental 
condition of the pupil to the extent usually 
attributed to them were it not for the defective 
ventilation of school-rooms. But when the 
deleterious effects of cramming and foul air are 
combined in the class-room, the pupils are sure 
to suffer from the combination. 
Passing over the imperfect construction of 
school buildings, the defective methods of 
heating and ventilating class-rooms, etc., we 
will now proceed to make a brief examination 
of the qualifications of teachers and the rules 
so rigidly enforced by them, not only in com- 
mon schools and parochial schools, but also in 
many fashionable private schools. 
As a rule, children are compelled to attend 
school too young. Girls ought not to be re- 
quired to attend school under seven years of 
age, and in no case should boys be subjected to 
the rigid discipline of a school under nine 
years. Experience has very positively demon- 
strated the important fact that the pupils who 
begin their studies at the age of say seven to 
nine years, were quite as far advanced in book 
learning at sixteen as those who commenced at 
the age of five years, and that they were physi- 
cally and mentally in better condition to con- 
tinue their higher studies to a successful ter- 
mination. 
In advocating these rules, however, do not 
understand us as being opposed to home edu- 
cation for the child before entering school. 56 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
When possible the child should be instructed 
by its mother, or other members of the family, 
so as to be able to read before entering school, 
but in case kindergarten training can be ob- 
tained this home instruction may be omitted. 
Many deformities, so often observed by the 
physician, can be charged directly to prema- 
ture development of the young mind, rigid 
school rules, and the impure air which they are 
compelled to inhale in badly ventilated class- 
rooms. But little, if any, effort is being made 
by school authorities to provide chairs, benches 
or desks having the shape necessary for en- 
abling the pupil to assume and maintain the 
position calculated to afford unrestrained 
healthy development of the body. School fur- 
niture is usually selected not on account of its 
adaptability to the pupil, but rather for its 
beauty of shape and low price. 
The deformities caused by neglecting or 
ignoring apparently insignficant details in con- 
nection with school furniture are more numer- 
ous than generally admitted, not only in the 
selection of the furniture, but also in placing 
the same in position so as to obtain the requis- 
ite amount of light, etc. 
Now, let us see how our school teachers are 
generally appointed and what qualifications are 
required of them. The candidate, after pass- 
ing a satisfactory examination, either before a 
board of examiners or the superintendent of 
schools, presents herself or her application to 
the school board, and if her references are 
good, etc., she is appointed. Our young teach- 
er, being fresh from the mill, is well up in all 
the rigid rules of school discipline. She is 
placed in charge of a class of from forty to 
eighty children. She knows little or nothing 
of human nature, or of the peculiarities or 
nervous susceptibilities of the pupils, and yet OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
57 
she undertakes the difficult task of moulding 
their young minds, and does it after the man- 
ner of her own education. 
Any person having a certificate is good 
enough, in the opinion of some school authori- 
ties, to teach the primary classes, forgetting 
the fact that " as the twig is bent the tree will 
grow," and that true education demands the 
best talent in the primary department of 
schools. 
The unfortunate children are now placed on 
benches, forming long rows, with perhaps no 
support to their backs, and their feet hardly 
touching the floor, not allowed to look to the 
right or left, nor yet rest their eyes by looking 
up. The overheated and Suffocating air of the 
class-room soon becomes intolerable and the 
children and teachers become restive and irrita- 
ble to a degree, demanding fresh air; but as 
this desirable article cannot be procured, on 
account of defective ventilation, the windows 
must be raised so as to admit the desired oxygen. 
The sudden rush of cold air on the over- 
heated pupils frequently causes colds and acute 
lung diseases. But the cramming must go on, 
with very little relaxation or physical exercise, 
and thus the routine stuffing and cramming go 
on, constantly increasing from one grade to 
another, piling on study after study, many of 
them unnecessary and unsuited to the pupil, 
until at last the physical powers succumb, and 
relief is sought at the hands of the physician. 
When our youthful teacher remains long 
enough to know something of the nature and 
management of children she deliberately and 
even without the consent of the school authori- 
ties, enters the matrimonial state, and for her 
presumption she forfeits her position of Ceacher, 
and her now valuable services are forever lost 
to the cause of education. 58 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
Thus we go on patiently submitting to this 
everlasting changing year after year without 
any radical improvement, with only an oc- 
casional exception on the part of some patriotic 
maiden lady who is interested more in the 
education of other people's children than her 
own. 
Just how to prevent this natural tendency of 
our young teachers is a question which should 
claim the profound attention of school boards, 
and doubtless the combined wisdom of those 
august bodies will solve the difficult problem. 
Both men and women teachers in our com- 
mon schools seek the position of educator not 
for a permanent occupation, but rather to pre- 
pare themselves for higher or more lucrative 
places, and consequently the soul of the in- 
structor is not fully bestowed in his temporary 
occupation, and it is safe to say that complete 
success is seldom if ever achieved in the prose- 
cution of a business or profession where the 
whole energy of the individual is not com- 
pletely enlisted in his work. 
The ideal teacher should, in addition to the 
usual routine educational capacity, have the 
following qualifications : 
First-She should be competent to govern 
herself in every emergency. 
Second-She should be a good judge of 
human nature, and able to rapidly recognize 
the educational capacity and drift of the young 
student's mind and to direct it accordingly. 
Third-She should have broad views on all 
topics relating to sound education and be thor- 
oughly conversant with the questions and 
literature of the day including a practical 
knowledge of hygiene. 
Fourth-She should be of good moral charac- 
ter and a consistent member of some Christian 
denomination. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
59 
Fifth-She should have at least the average 
amount of common sense. 
Common sense may and no doubt is consid- 
ered a secondary consideration in the opinion 
of many educators, yet it is most essential, and 
unless it is born in the individual there is not 
much prospect of acquiring it. 
If I were asked to define the term common 
sense it might be difficult; but it will be suffi- 
cient for our purpose now to say, that it con- 
sists in applying rational, simple rules of con- 
struction to the various theories of educational 
rules in and out of the class-room. But you 
may ask what have the qualifications of teach- 
ers to do with school hygiene and physical 
training ? Sanitarians have much to do with 
the whole subject of education in all its 
branches. It is a part of their business to im- 
prove the mental and physical condition of 
those destined to shape and direct the destinies 
of future generations. The sanitarians and 
physicians can, if they will, by their intelligent 
advice accomplish more complete reformation 
in school work than all other professions com- 
bined. 
They can reform the school board and the 
school teacher, as well as the general public, 
by educating and directing them onward to a 
more thorough appreciation of those simple 
yet important laws of hygiene and physical cul- 
ture by the observance of which alone health, 
vigor and true education can be achieved. 
Sanitarians and physicians should protest 
against much of the present system of cram- 
ming and parrot-like recitations. They should 
see that unnecessary studies are dropped from 
the curriculum, and encourage the study of 
those branches that are especially adapted to 
the ability of the pupil. They should demand 
representation on school boards in order that 60 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
they may point out the defective features in 
connection with education in its relation to 
physical culture. 
The singular notion of expecting every pupil 
to become proficient in every branch of school 
work seems to pervade the lofty minds of many 
educators. Every boy is expected to bloom 
into a scientific prodigy, and every girl into a 
lady of leisure, while physical culture is almost 
completely ignored. 
Even now the study of physiology is recom- 
mended, and not only recommended but is 
actually made a part of the curriculum in 
many schools, and for what useful purpose 
does not appear. We are told that knowledge 
is power, and that the study of this important 
and difficult branch of medical science will 
enable the rising generation to become pro- 
ficient in the knowledge of how and what to 
do that they may live long and happy lives 
without dosing themselves with doctors' drugs 
-in short, to enable them to avoid all the 
"ills that flesh is heir to." Pope says : 
" A little learning is a dangerous thing ; 
Drink deep, or taste not of the Pierian spring." 
Will the smattering of physiology now pro- 
cured through defective channels compensate 
the average student for the time devoted to 
this innovation ? I think not. Every physician 
of experience can recall cases of unmanagable 
cranks-if I may be allowed the expression- 
in his practice, who imagined, from their 
smattering of medicine, that they knew more 
of their diseases, or the complaint of some 
other person, than the physician in attendance. 
We know that in order to understand physi- 
ology thoroughly we must also study anatomy, 
and that a thorough knowledge of the first 
cannot be achieved without a knowledge of the 
second. OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
61 
If it could be proved that the imperfect 
knowledge of this science, as now imparted in 
our schools, tended in any practical degree to 
promote the physical well-being of the average 
student, sanitarians and physicians would be 
found in the front rank encouraging its study. 
We are told that a knowledge of physiology 
will enable us to avoid, among other things, 
the use of alcoholic stimulants and tobacco. 
Nonsense. We know better. Take, for ex- 
ample, our college educated men, our wealthy 
men, our professional men, and those who con- 
stitute what are termed the higher circles of 
society, and who are supposed to be educated, 
and see how many of them abstain from the 
use of stimulants and tobacco. Is it not a fact 
that there is more wine drank and more tobacco 
used by them than by the most ignorant in the 
land ? Is it not the wealthy and educated 
people who have called into existence, and now 
maintain, all the magnficent rum palaces so 
numerous all over the country ? 
Or take the medical profession, whose 
knowledge of physiology cannot be well ques- 
tioned, and place its members on the dissect- 
ing table and see if they are all perfection in 
respect to stimulants and tobacco. I do not 
mean to say, or even to insinuate, that medical 
men are not models of everything that is cor- 
rect, yet I must say that any person wishing to 
avoid the use of tobacco should attend one of 
our meetings. 
The time and mental effort required to ac- 
quire even a smattering of physiology in school 
could be used in gaining more useful informa- 
tion, or in gymnastic exercises. 
There are other studies now insisted on that 
might with advantage be excluded from the 
regular course of school work, but as great re- 
formations were never accomplished without 62 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
determined and persistant agitation, we can- 
not expect to at once overthrow the present 
and long practiced system of cramming. Still 
we can, if we will, materially improve the 
present mistaken notions of imparting educa- 
tion to our children. 
By our past and present forced system we 
demand, and in fact accomplish, more routine 
book learning from our students at the pre- 
mature age of eighteen years than is required 
of pupils in European countries at the age of 
twenty-one. Is this wise ? Is it just or is it 
humane to thus force the intellectual faculties 
at the expense of the physical powers ? Most 
assuredly not. Mental and physical education 
should harmonize, and the first should not be 
acquired to the detriment of the second. 
Physicians are frequently consulted by young 
girls suffering from nervous prostration, de- 
bility, loss of appetite, loss of sleep, dyspepsia, 
hysteria, chorea, headache, neuralgia and 
many other complaints caused by mental over- 
work. The hours of study, although some- 
what shorter than formerly, are still too long. 
This fact is painfully perceptible in the gen- 
eral expression of the pupils toward the end of 
the school year, this being especially the season 
of cramming for examinations, etc. 
During an investigation by a school board, in 
a neighboring city not long ago, some remark- 
able evidence was procured, showing that, 
among other things, many of the pupils in the 
higher grades of the school spent from nine to 
fourteen hours of each day in study and recita- 
tions, in and out of school, and at or near ex- 
aminations still longers hours. 
This shameful stuffing and cramming should 
not be tolerated in either public or private 
schools. Sanitarians and physicians should 
unite in protesting against a system of so- OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
63 
called education which so unerringly and 
irresistibly tends to premature decay. 
As a remedy for this mental overwork we 
would suggest the enactment of some general 
law, to compel all school managers to equalize 
their school curriculum, and enforce a general 
rule demanding certain hours for study and 
certain other hours for exercise and recreation, 
and to see that during recreation no studies 
are allowed. 
Until some such law can be enforced stuf- 
fing and cramming will go on, and candidates 
for consumption, and other wasting diseases, 
will continue to graduate from our educational 
institutions. The anxiety, the mental strain, 
the excitability attending the June examina- 
tions all crowd on the young mind, often 
causing the physical wreck of the candidate for 
school honors. 
Young girls are obliged to go through this 
terrible strain at a time when repose is most 
essential for the future woman. The natural 
aptitude and overwhelming ambition of our 
American youth seems to almost irresistably 
urge them on to the accomplishment of educa- 
tional achievements above and beyond the 
youth of any other country. 
We have the material second to none, and 
far in advance of all other nations, thoroughly 
capable of being developed into the brightest 
intellects, if we will only insist upon these 
simple yet essential rules of co-operative men- 
tal and physical education. 
Overworking the children in all our schools 
is a matter of serious consideration, and while 
it is admitted that education tends to diminish 
crime, and that the education which prevents 
crime must necessarily become a prominent 
factor in political economy by reducing sick- 
ness and mortality to a minimum, yet that 64 
OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 
education should not be procured to the detri- 
ment of physical culture. 
" Education and sanitation represent great 
forces invoked by man in the effort to prolong 
his life and improve his condition-one the 
science and art of culture, the other the science 
and art of health. As terms they may not 
always have been present in the vocabulary of 
the ancients, but the ideas they express, the 
facts which they include, and the objects at 
which they aim, are ever present in the human 
mind and are as universal in man's experience 
as death and sickness and ignorance, which 
they antagonize."