A manual of hygiene and sanitation by Egbert Seneca 1863-

Author:Egbert, Seneca, 1863-
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sanitation, Hygiene
Publisher: Philadelphia, New York, Lea & Febiger
Published: 1919-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

Fia. 85.—Illustrating the Smead system of ventilation.

visible at twenty-nine feet, so the maximum length of the room will be about thirty-two feet, this allowing for an aisle of sufficient width at the rear of the room.

With the area of the room already determined as indicated above, this length necessitates a complementary width of twenty-five feet, a dimension that is also in a measure governed by the principle that the school-room should not be much more than twice the height of the top' of the windows, which in turn, should extend almost to the ceiling. And as it is agreed that the ceilings for rooms

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of this size and purpose should be about twelve or thirteen feet high, the width mentioned is a correct one.

Ample cloak-rooms should be provided for every school; they should be warm and well ventilated in order to seciu-e the rapid drying of the garments in wet weather, but they should not communicate directly with the school-rooms themselves, if it can be avoided. Provision should also be made for readily disinfecting them, and, in fact, the whole school building at intervals and whenever necessary.

In 1897 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, "the experiment was tried of closing each school, where scholars were being taken ill, for a few hours only, long enough to allow of thorough purification and the sprinkling of the floors of class-rooms with disinfectants. This disinfection so far as measles was concerned, was followed by the extinction of the disease in question."^

The school-house should be on dry and well-drained soil, as dampness is not only depressing to all constitutions, but is also an important factor in the causation of phthisis and strumous diseases. There should not be too much shade about, and as many rooms as possible should have sunny exposures. If the sunlight is annoying during the session, it may be excluded by inside blinds or shutters, but we must not lose sight of its helpful influence in the destruction of bacteria and purification of organic matters.

Where sunlight is scanty or it is diflScult to illuminate the school-rooms, it may be advantageous to furnish one or more of the windows with some form of the diffusing and refracting prisms already described (page 313), thus giving an abundance of light where there was formerly a deficiency, and materially lessening the eye-strain of the scholars.

Basements of school-houses should be well lighted and dry, and should be kept scrupulously clean that moisture

* American Year-book of Medicine for 1900. pp. 543 and 544.

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and noxious gases may not be drawn into the rooms above. If properly arranged and cared for, they may be used as play-rooms in stormy weather when it would be unwise to send the scholars out-of-doors.

Open-air Schools. —^A striking innovation of recent years is the open- or fresh-air school, the first being established in Germany in 1904, and in this country, in Providence, R. L, in 1908. Since then others have been opened in many American cities, and "there is but one reason against the very extensive adoption of the open-air school —its expense.

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