Incubation of Measles. Dr. James A. Myrtle, of Harrogate, writing to the British Medical Journal, February 1st, 1890, says: "In a young ladies' school with thirty-five resident scholars, a case of measles occurred; the girl was at once removed to a cottage in the rear of the dwelling house, complete isolation secured, a nurse put in charge and all communication cut off. In twelve days the patient and nurse were sent away, and the cottage and everything in it thoroughly disinfected. Exactly fourteen days after this girl showed the disease, a second case occurred; fourteen days after that a third, fourteen days after that a fourth, and fourteen days after that a fifth. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 belonged to different classes and slept in different rooms; Nos. 1 and 4 were sisters and slept together; but No. 4 showed the disease eight weeks after her sister. Each case, as soon as it declared itself, was removed to the hospital. The outbreak in the first instance was supposed to have been caused by infection when away from school, but that is by no means certain, as measles was prevalent in the district. Comment on these clinical records is needless." Hygiene and Quackery. It is by the judicious use of such articles of diet that a constitution may be gradually built up until strong enough to resist every tendency to disease. Hundreds of subtle maladies are floating around us ready to attack wherever there is a weak point. We may escape many a fatal shaft by keeping ourselves well fortified with pure blood and a properly nourished frame." The above quotation is clipped from the advertisement of a proprietary article that has fabulously enriched its owners. What is here claimed for a single article is the claim made for hygiene by its advocates. This article is easy to take; the people, therefore, buy it; they imagine that the doctrines of hygiene are hard to take and, they, therefore, pass them by. The popularity of certain proprietary articles is due to the fact that the people are made to believe that they will prevent disease; such, to the intelligent mind, is a delusion. No one, single article can prevent disease, but an aggregation of intelligent principles, such as constitute the science of hygiene, will and can do so. Ice in the Sick Room. A saucerful of shaved ice may be preserved for twenty-four hours with the thermometer in the room at 90° F., if the following precautions are observed: Put the saucer containing the ice in a soup plate and cover it with another. Place the soup plates thus arranged on a good heavy pillow, and cover it with another pillow, pressing the pillows so that the plates are completely embedded An old jack-plane set deep is a most excellent thing with which to shave ice. It should be turned bottom upward, and the ice shoved backward and forward over the cutter. Advice to Boarding Schools. Since writing the note on "Measles and Boarding Schools," which we published in our last issue, we have learned that the disease was introduced into the school in question by a child who went home for a few days to have some clothes fitted, and in whose family the disease was prevalent. Probably 500 cases of measles can be directly laid to the criminal ignorance or carelessness of the parents of this child in allowing her return to school. Now, the advice we would volunteer to boarding schools for their own protection is that they should positively refuse to receive any child unless accompanied by the certificate of a reputable physician that such child has not been, for at least two weeks previously, exposed to any contagious disease. This rule will, of course, apply to day as well as boarding schools. Some pupils may be lost by the enforcement of this rule, but they will be such as would have vitally dam aged the school by the introduction of disease therein. State Board of Health and Vital Statistics of the Supreme Court Room, State Capitol, Harrisburg, unless otherwise ordered. Place of Meeting (until otherwise ordered)—Executive Office, 1532 Pine Street, Philadelphia. Time of Meeting-Third Wednesday in January, April, July and October. Secretary's Address-1532 Pine Street, Philadelphia. Bureau of Registration and Vital Statistics-Department of Internal Affairs, State Capitol, Harrisburg. State Superintendent of Registration of Vital Statistics-BENJAMIN LEE, M.D. On the subject assigned to me papers might very properly be addressed to schoolteachers, to directors and managers of schools, and to parents. In a circular issued by our State Board of Health, I have very fully explained to teachers those matters of hygiene to which they should give constant attention, viz., to the hygienic care of the eyes, and to all that tends in school to injure these organs; in reference to the use of drinking water; to cleanliness in and about the school; to wet clothing; to ventilation; to proper and improper exercise; to contagious diseases; to overwork; and to the use of tobacco and narcotics. This circular may be obtained by teachers in any quantities of the Secretary of the State Board of Health in Philadelphia. A similar circular to directors and managers of schools is contemplated, and as soon as it can be prepared, will be issued by our Board. This morning, then, only a few words to parents and friends of our common humanity in reference to hygiene as applied to school children. After I had promised to write this paper I picked up the latest circular of our Board, "Precautions against Consumption." On the second page of the cover is a diagram of the diseases most fatal in a neighboring city. Out of 400 deaths in the city of Reading in 1880, 105, or more than 25 per cent., were from consumption, but examining the diagram further, it is seen that 128 of the 400 deaths, or 32 per cent., are of diseases most commonly called diseases of children, and most probably of children of school age, or below. That is, of 400 deaths in Reading in 1880, 52 per cent. are of diseases now known to be preventable, and 32 per cent. of these of children. While it is known to sanitarians that nearly every child born into the world can be reared to years of man * Read before the State Sanitary Convention at Norristown, Pa. hood or womanhood, yet the fact is that in Pennsylvania, in the Nineteenth Century, from one-fourth to one-fifth of all the children born die before reaching 10 years of age. What a murder of innocents! And in a Christian State !! But why this state of things? Mainly on account of ignorance and indifference on the part of parents. These unfortunate little ones, who received the blessing of the Great Teacher, are born of parents who themselves, and their ancestors before them, have violated nearly every law which governs their physical existence. They come into homes where no welcome awaits them. They are improperly fed, improperly dressed, without proper attention as to sleep, fresh air or cleanliness. It is not alone the children of the poor and the ignorant who suffer in these respects, but in a very large degree also the children of the well-to-do, whose mothers, from improper and deficient education, as we believe, commit their helpless offspring to the tender mercies of ignorant nurses, while they, the mothers, are active in temperance, missionary, charitable, church, or society duties. Shame, shame, that this is true, and yet it is. As an illustration, I was told a few days ago of an educated woman of a neighboring town, most active and efficient in temperance work, whose own boys are growing up in the streets while she devotes her time to others. But what has this to do with school hygiene? This. To call the attention of teachers to the great need of educating the children, and parents, too, to the need of knowledge on these subjects. Sanitary science is a matter of first importance. It is not a branch, for while in school, "we have no time" as a principal told me a few years ago. It is imperative. We owe it to every child to teach him the plain errors of living which bring disease and death. But people are beginning to appreciate these things. But a few days ago a matron of culture remarked in my presence: "It is no longer fashionable to have delicate children about the home." The words show that the teachings of sanitarians are beginning to bear fruit. When in home and school the known principles of sanitary science are intelligently applied, we may expect a great diminution of sickness, suffering and premature deaths, and a corresponding increase of longevity and physical happiness. Contrary to the popular opinion, studious habits, even hard study, are not injurious to the general health. Rather, in well-regulated schools, the average health of the students will be found to be above that of those of the same age out of school. This is true of both young men and women. The statement applies to private schools where the whole time of the pupils is controlled, rather than to public day schools. Irregular habits (irregular eating, drinking, loss of sleep, lack of physical exercise, overwork, excitement) are the causes of failure of physical power in students as in other persons. At present students from the farms, the shops, the mines, have, as a rule, a better physical development than the children of professional men and of the well-to-do classes, which is certainly not a favorable showing for modern culture. In European countries school children are often seen who are underfed. The same is true in our bountiful America. Indeed, with many young girls it is just the thing to eat about half enough to supply the demands of nature, and even the tables of many well-to-do people seldom contain what growing school children need. If only a small portion of the testimony of the children of the Home for the Blind in Philadelphia was true, in reference to the dietary of that institution, there was not a child there fit to be in school and at real work. I have myself seen the school dinner of a poor boy consist of cold Indian meal mush and fried sausage; of a child whose parents were in comfortable circumstances of bread and cold boiled potatoes, and of a rich child, bread and butter only. Children cannot grow and study on such food (unless we make an exception of the mush and sausage). I once remarked that the young ladies in a female seminary made very little progress in their studies, when the answer quickly came, "What more could you expect, remembering what they have to eat?" I suspect this evil is a general one in homes and schools. Bread and coffee is not enough to start the day upon if much work is to be done. School children do not have enough sleep as a rule. For children under twelve or thirteen years, ten hours out of each twenty-four should be spent in sleep, and all other students should have at least eight hours of sound sleep each night. This is most important. School hours are for young children entirely too long. Not over three hours for children under thirteen, and five hours for all others. It is generally true that the playgrounds are too small. In all small towns schools should be built in the suburbs, that large lots may be secured. If country children can safely walk two or even three miles to school through mud and snow, town children can certainly reach school having good pave ments. One of the modern innovations most to be condemned is the abolition of the recess. A prominent teacher of a neighbouring county in defending this movement remarked that "if factory children can do without a recess, certainly school children can do without it." The eye is the organ which first and most generally fails in school children. This is due to overwork of the organ, to insufficient light, to poor print, to the use of the eyes when the general health is below par, as well as numerous other causes. I once visited a school room in a Pennsylvania city with windows none too large, in every window two curtains and several shelves filled with plants. I have seen school houses in which the blinds were nailed shut to save the glass from being broken. But this does not equal the cold, dark kindergarten room at the Institution for the Blind, into which sunlight is said never to enter. Whenever the subject of school hygiene is mentioned one listens to hear something on ventilation. Bad air is bad enough, but it is given too heavy a load to carry. There are other evils much greater, viz. : The too long hours, the long terms, the lack of light, the underfed condition of pupils, overheated or under-heated condition of the room, the inaccessible and filthy privy |