ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

there is no regulation of the sanitation of country schools. Heating is generally by means of a stove, and bad ventilation is usually the result. Seating accommodations are bad and general sanitary conditions often unspeakable. Frequently the only provisions for cleanliness are a pail of water, a dirty basin and a common towel. Drinking arrangements are bad and drinking water often contaminated. Dr. Wood sums up the situation thus: "Now take into consideration the many other contingencies which the country child has to meet-physical labor, chores before he starts for school in the morning, a badly assorted breakfast, a long walk over bad roadsthen subject him to direct infection, to bad water, and it is small wonder that he falls prey to a dozen maladies more readily than the city child."

The results of this survey of rural schools cannot fail to shatter some of our previously conceived views regarding rural conditions, and at the same time to point out the remedy. Not one state in five today provides for its country school children. In most of the cities some kind of supervision and care of school children is maintained, but rural schools have so far been left very largely to shift for themselves. "The welfare of our country," says Dr. Wood, "depends on no factor more indispensable, more vital, than the welfare of our rural life. Our finest crops are our children. The farmer does not see this truth. If he did, he would rise up and demand state protection for his youngsters-a more important matter than tariff regulation."

A few days after the publication of Dr. Wood's article in the Times, the New York Evening Post, in a long editorial, discussed his statement, which it characterized as of exceptional interest. "It is not often," says the Post, "that so striking a survey of statistical results in the domain of health bears such clear marks of trustworthiness and sobriety." After reviewing the article and Dr. Wood's conclusions, the Post indulges in some general optimistic reflections. It says: "Just as surely as the child of the city is more free from defects and ailments than the child of the country, just so surely is the city child of the present in better case than the city child of the past. If in spite of crowded homes, impure city air, lack of recreation facilities, in spite often of the poverty into which he is born and perhaps the vice with which he is environed, the city child makes a better showing than the country child, it is because of the multitude of benefits which have been bestowed on him by the progress of science and the steady advance of civic care, enlightenment and responsibility."

In the improved condition of the city child as contrasted with the country child, the Post finds reason for believing that the condition of the child in the country will be speedily corrected now that attention has been brought to the situation.

The work of the joint committee of the American Medical As

sociation and the National Education Association has proved already of the utmost value and its activities have only begun. These two powerful organizations representing the organized professions of teaching and medicine can, during the next five years, effect a marked improvement in the health conditions of American school children.

RURAL SANITATION.

By W. C. RUCKER, M.S., M.D.,

Assistant Surgeon General, United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.

The happy days of childhood
I often call to mind;

I love to live them o'er again
By memories light refined-
The orchard and the meadow

And the loft of fragrant hay,
The garden and the privy,

And the well not far away.

The farm yard with its litter
Of manure 'round about,
The milking shed where flies galore
Flew buzzing in and out,
The pig-sty and the chicken house,
The hens that scratched all day
In the ground beneath the privy,
With the well not far away.

We took our joys and sorrows

As they chanced to come along;
My brother had the ground-itch

And he didn't grow up strong,
And Mary died of fever-

It was mighty sad that day-
But we didn't blame the privy
Nor the well not far away.

In the summer time mosquitoes

Used to sing the whole long night,
But we would keep the windows closed
And thus avoid the bite;

But Billy got the ague

And Lizzie pined away

Mosquitoes foul air-privy,

And the well not far away.

We used to think that death was just
A punishment for sin—
The sin of ignorance, I say!-
So let us now begin

To try to get the windows screened,
But open night and day,

And a sanitary privy

With the well quite far away.

Let's clean the cows at milking time,
Let's clean the barn yard, too,
Let's rid ourselves of feyers

And the chills and ague crew;

Let in the air and sunshine,
But drive the fly away,

With the ancient typhoid privy
With the well not far away.

ADVICE TO NURSING MOTHERS.

(From the Indiana Mothers' Book.)

Don't worry. Cultivate calm.

Get full eight hours sleep.

Sleep in a well ventilated room.

Take a walk out of doors every day except when the weather is inclement.

Take a daily bath. A sponge bath is good.

Eat only plain foods. Pass salads, pickles, spices. Eat moderately of meats. Eat freely of fruits and vegetables.

Don't become constipated. Relieve constipation by attending to nature's calls, by cultivating a regular habit, by eating very freely of fruits and drinking plenty of pure water.

Don't take patent medicines or indeed any medicines, except as the doctor directs.

Take a nap every afternoon, or at least lie down and rest for half an hour.

Don't drink tea or coffee. The tannin they contain causes constipation, and the caffein they contain is a nerve whipper and is bad for mother and child.

Don't allow yourself to become angry. Fits of temper injure the breast milk.

Nurse your baby only five or six times daily, and cut down the milk supply if the baby vomits it.

Don't nurse your baby at night after it is six months old.

See that your baby is registered.

First-Remember thy garbage can to keep it covered lest thy garbage become a stench in the nostrils of the people and breed flies.

Second-Thou shalt cut the weeds in thy vacant lot lest it become a hiding place for old tin cans, which catch water and breed mosquitoes; papers and divers sort of trash.

Third-Thou shalt bear witness against thy neighbor's rubbish heap, likewise his dirty back yard.

Fourth-Thou shalt clean out the habitation of thy horses and thy cows frequently lest the stable fly flourisheth and spread infantile paralysis and the housefly breed by the thousands and millions. and annoy thee and thy beast and produce much sickness in thy family.

Fifth-Thou shalt prevent the breeding of the fly in the springtime that thy children unto the third and fourth generation need not swat him later.

Sixth-Remember thy back yard and alley to keep them clean. Six days shalt thou labor to keep thy premises clean, and if yet the task is not accomplished thou couldst do worse than continue on the seventh.

Seventh-Thou shalt covet all the air and sunshine thou canst

obtain.

Eighth-Look not upon the milk when it cometh from the unclean dairy, for the doctor will not hold thee guiltless if thy infant sickeneth therefrom and die.

Ninth Remember thy cleaning up day and keep it wholly. Tenth-If thou dost hearken unto these sayings to do them thou shalt live long in the land.

THE HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

The report for 1912 of the medical officer of the British board of education has just been issued. It contains an exhaustive account of the measures which are being taken throughout the country to safeguard the health of schoolchildren. Uncleanliness still occupies a large share of the time and energy of the officers of the school medical service, but the returns show a decided and progressive improvement, and the grossest forms of uncleanliness are now rare as compared with the conditions that prevailed when medical inspection was instituted in 1908. There are about six million children in the public elementary schools. About 10 per cent. suffer from serious defects of vision. Among the causes given are heredity, early eye-strain, defective lighting, infectious diseases and neglect in obtaining early medical advice. From 1 to 3 per cent. have suppurat

ing ears; about 10 per cent. have adenoids, inflamed tonsils or enlarged cervical lymph-nodes requiring surgical treatment; I per cent. have ringworm; I per cent. suffer from tubeculosis of readily recognizable form; from 1 to 2 per cent. have heart disease; from 30 to 40 per cent. have unclean heads or bodies, and more than half the children are in need of dental treatment.

In five directions school hygiene has undergone evolution. There has been a steady improvement in the routine work of medical inspection and auxiliary undertakings. There is less "leakage,' more following up and more accurate clinical examination. Secondly, there is fuller differentiation of abnormal children and a tendency on the part of authorities to modify the school curriculum in their behalf. Much time and labor are now being devoted to mentally defective, tuberculous, stammering and frail or retarded children. Thirdly, there has been an enlargement of the conception of the sphere of influence of the school medical officers. Education authorities are finding that though they have been appointed in the first place merely to inspect children, they may fill a very useful place in the educational system. Fourthly, there has been a marked advance in respect to medical treatment both in quality and in quantity. Lastly, the intimate relation between school hygiene and education is becoming recognized and its application understood. The equipment of the school, the character of the teacher, the importance of physical exercise and manual work, the relation of the leaving child to the national insurance system, to industrial employment, to further education in secondary schools, and to its own home life, are now receiving attention. Thus the school medical work and the issues arising therefrom, says the London correspondent of The Journal of the American Medical Association, are beginning to form an integral part of our educational system.

THE TRAINING OF THE NERVOUS CHILD.

In his admirable address on the "Care of the Nervous Child,” Dr. Barker, according to Life and Health, states that, above all, it is important to overcome the tendency to give way to emotions. Children should early be given to understand that they must control themselves before they can get what they want. The child must learn that it is more apt to get what it seeks if it controls itself than if it gives way to an emotional outbreak. Beginning later in life, it will be found almost impossible to control this emotional instability.

Vacillation is another characteristic which must receive especial attention in childhood. Parents should see that the child finds in them no example of this failing. While a few children of the "hairtrigger" type need to be taught deliberation in making decisions,

[ocr errors]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »