School Hygiene A Manual of School Hygiene

Abstract

IT has been the aim of the authors of these two works to set forth the conditions which should surround school pupils in order that their mental and physical health may be promoted. No true education in mental training can overlook the hygienic and physical relationship of mind and body, and no knowledge must be conveyed at the expense of physical and moral development; for it is true, as Mr. Herbert Spencer has reminded us, that the essential object of education is to teach us how to live happily. Moreover, the connection between physical health and the power of voluntary control and, consequently, of conduct, is very close, and perfect mental development cannot be brought about if the opportunity is not given for healthy physical development. Notwithstanding the general acceptance of these truisms, school buildings are still being erected with a view mainly to exterior effect, and an adequate system of ventilation in the crowded class-rooms is rarely to be met with. As Prof. Shaw has pointed out, the school-room should be the unit first to be considered in planning the school building, and the building should be a number of school-rooms properly disposed, and not a whole cut up into school-rooms whose size and arrangement are dependent upon the size and shape of the building.

School Hygiene.

By Edward Shaw, Professor of the Institutes of Pedagogy, New York University. Pp. 260. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1901.) 4s. 6d. net.

A Manual of School Hygiene.

By E. W. Hope E. A. Browne, Lecturer of Ophthalmology, University College, Liverpool. Pp. 207. (Cambridge: University Press, 1901.) 3s. 6d. net.