There was an old schoolhouse that I found, it seems to me the worst thing I ever saw. I tried for a good many years to get an appropriation for a new one. Some of the people in the district thought they didn't need it, especially one man who had no children and who had lived near the schoolhouse. After a good deal of work, we received the appropriation to have a new schoolhouse built. We thought perhaps it would save a little money if someone in the neighborhood would buy the old one. I went to this man who had opposed the building of the new one on the ground that it wasn't needed, and said to him "You'd better buy that building; it is right next to your land." He said, "Well, I don't know as I want it, I don't know as I could use it for anything, but perhaps I could fix it up a little and use it for a hogpen." We gave it to him, and he used it for a hogpen.

I do hope that the State Board will pay attention to what the speaker has said in regard to the placing of running water in the schoolhouses, because I believe the old method is a source of disease. I know in my own town that the water that is used in the schoolhouses is not suitable; taken up in an old rusty pail from a brook or old well or wherever they can get it, and kept there in the pail. I hope they will pay attention to this matter, and remedy it.

Question.

Would you suggest individual cups?

With running water there will be no particular need of individual cups, as the running water will more or less cleanse that cup; but when you come to put a cup into a pail and leave it there for two or three years, or until it rusts a hole through the bottom of the pail, it gets to be a pretty filthy thing.

Discussion.

This subject of school sanitation is one which none of us who are interested in the curtailment of contagious disease can get away from. I have been interested very much myself, and have had some experience, as Mr. Ranger perhaps remembers, with the summer school. One question is always uppermost in my mind, and that is: what would happen if the compulsory educational law was strictly enforced, when the conditions are obviously unsanitary, and I have brought the matter before the school commissioners in regard to these summer schools. I don't know but that some of our towns will have damage suits on their hands, which will prove a good deal more costly than sanitary schoolhouses; and there will be damage suits brought against towns and school districts when some such thing happens; when some family loses its children from diphtheria or scarlet fever that can be traced directly to the schoolhouse.

I wish we had the combination of health officer and school commissioner more often, and that they were all like Dr. Goss.

In speaking before one of these summer schools two or three years ago, a teacher followed me out, said she wanted to speak with me for a moment alone. She described a condition of things in a mountain town, that was not Norwich, by the way, where the outhouses, and the woodshed, and some cther parts of the building were certainly, if she described them correctly, in a disgraceful condition. I told her that when she had anything of that nature, to go to the health officer; that there was a health officer in every town in the state, and that she could feel perfectly free to consult with him, and to complain to him. She said, "But the school commissioner is the health officer, and I have complained to him, and he won't do anything."

Now there was a condition of things very much the reverse of the condition of things which prevails in Norwich. I am persuaded that this is a little unusual, and few school commissioners and health officers would tolerate anything of that kind, and I think if the combination were made more often the condition of our schoolhouses would improve.

Now there is one thing that is perfectly true, and that is that contagious diseases are spread more often from the schoolhouse than all other places put together. I think the school building is the exchange for diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, and occasionally tuberculosis, more particularly than from all other conditions combined.

Now you will notice that the State Board has modified its modified quarantine, which the health officers are absolutely compelled to carry out. The present modified quarantine can be, and I think it rests with you gentlemen to see that it is. It consists in simply keeping these cases of measles, etc., out of places of public amusements, keeping the children away; and the public school is the most important of all of them.

Measles and whooping cough are especially hard to manage, the difficulty being that they are started before anybody recognizes them, and they both have preliminary stages or symptoms and both of these diseases are marked by a cough. Cough should never be allowed in the schoolroom, whether it means tuberculosis, ordinary cold, or the premonitory symptoms of these diseases; cough should be kept out of the schoolhouse and children who have it should be sent home.

This matter of running water has been brought up here. In my town there is no running water near the school, but I am going home and something is going to be done about it. I would like to ask one question.

Is it obligatory upon the health officer of a town to make a personal examination of every town schoolhouse in his town? and who pays for it?

Answer by Dr. Caverly.

Every health officer is expected to make a sanitary survey of the schoolhouses in his town, and report at each March meeting and the town pays the bill.

Question.

I should like to ask a question. If a health officer makes his report, year after year at the March meeting, of the condition of things, that they are in bad condition, and the school commissioners sit there and laugh at him, what more can a health officer do? They simply won't do anything in regard to ventilation of schoolhouses.

Answer by Dr. Caverly.

You can call the attention of the State Board. Act Number 44 of the last Legislature provides that the State Board of Health shall have power to examine or cause to be examined any school building or outhouse, and if found to be in an unsanitary condition, to condemn the same.

Discussion by Dr. Norton.

I haven't but just a little to say. What are you going to do if your town refuses to do anything, to act upon your report.

I condemned a schoolhouse, asking for an appropriation; the next year I did the same thing and they refused to do anything; and last year I condemned it, and I got quite a favorable showing from the town, among the real wealthy. A few of the taxpayers were in favor of building a new schoolhouse, but the people fought it at the annual March meeting; then I made a report to the State Board. We had a member of the State Board come there, and he backed up my condemnation at a special town meeting, and the town voted to build a new schoolhouse at a cost of four thousand dollars. The schoolhouse cost ten thousand dollars, has running water, water closets, and all modern sanitary conditions that we can think of. It is heated by a furnace, and is perfect for a town of our size.

H. H. Wheeler.

It doesn't seem to me that the duties of parents towards their children can be performed by any teacher, however good she may be; and it doesn't seem to me that the size of the tax that is raised for the support of our schools is necessarily a gauge for their efficiency, for under certain conditions half the money will accomplish more good in a town if wisely expended.

I have one remark which I wish to make, and that is, that every town should be more careful in their selection of the board of school directors. And I wish to say right here, I wish there could be a law passed that no citizen of a town should be eligible to a position as school director that wasn't a patron of the school. I mean by that that he should have children to send to school; that he should have a living interest in the success of that school, and the town that will elect a board of school directors that is composed of poor old dried-up bachelors, or members of the community who have raised their families of children and don't care about any one's else, is not doing the right thing.

Dr Whitaker.

There is some truth in the remarks made by the gentleman, and yet, I think that sort of a law would work wrong sometimes. We have some now in office, while they may not be "dried-up old bachelors," they aren't worth much more! and there are quite a few who have no families, and who are entirely unsuitable to conduct the affairs of the schools, they have no children of their own and are not suitable to look out for some other fellow's children.

I believe this is one of the most important subjects that will come before this meeting. There have been many truths brought out here that will result in great good to the towns, and the whole state.

Dr. Newton.

I was a member of the school board for six years. I have not any children to send to school, but I am interested in the schools. When I took the position our schoolhouses were nearly all supplied with the old-fashioned desks and seats; when I left we had good modern seats and desks, and everything that I could get through my influence. I was very kindly assisted by the other members of the Board in this work. I think it is well to elect men to the position who are interested in the school; those who care for the condition of the public schools, more than for the money.

Mr. Ranger.

I don't know as I wish to talk any more. I wish to remark, lest there may be a misunderstanding about the condition of the schools in general. I estimate that about one half of our school children throughout the state are in schools with fair sanitary conditions, but perhaps a quarter more are under tolerable conditions; where the system of ventilation is not particularly good, but the rooms are clean and well cared for; and I estimate that another quarter of our children are in conditions that ought to be relieved. I have said that Vermont was raising a larger tax than any other state in the Union except Nevada. Our people are devoted to the matter of education, and are doing large things for the schools.

Edgar Moore.

I have heard the talk about old bachelors and men who have no children, and I wish to say, that a man who gets himself elected to the position of school commissioner for the purpose of getting his own daughter in as teacher, no matter how unfit she may be for the position, is worse than any old bachelor!

EXAMINATION OF EYES AND EARS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

(By authority of an act passed at last legislature.)

BY GEO. H. GORHAM, M. D., Bellows Falls, VT.

At the last legislative session, in 1904, a law was enacted compelling teachers in all our public schools to make an examination of the eyes and ears of all pupils in September of each year, under the direction of the State Board of Health and the superintendent of education. That you may fully understand its provisions I will read you the law.

SECTION. 1. The State Board of Health and the superintendent of education shall prepare, or cause to be prepared, suitable test cards, blanks, record books and other needful appliances to be used in testing the sight and hearing of pupils in public schools and necessary instructions for their use; and the superintendent of education shall furnish the same, free of expense, to every school in the state. The superintendent, principal, or teacher, in every school, during the month of September in each year, shall test the sight and hearing of all pupils under his charge and keep a record of such examinations according to the instructions furnished, and shall notify in writing the parent or guardian of every pupil who shall be. found to have any defect of vision or hearing, or disease of eyes, or ears, with a brief statement of such defect, or disease and shall make a written report of all such examinations to the superintendent of education as he nay require.

SEC. 2. The state auditor is hereby directed to draw his order on the state treasurer for such sums and at such times as the superintendent of education, with the approval of the State Board of Health, may require to carry out the provisions of this act. The total expense under this act shall not exceed six hundred dollars in any biannual term ending June 30. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 1905.

I consider this one of the most important laws passed at the last session of our legislature.

That the necessity for such an examination of the scholars in the public schools was apparent to our forefathers is proven by the fact, that more than one hundred years ago a book was published upon this subject. But more than half a century passed before any scientific or progressive action was taken. In 1867 Cohn of Germany published the results of the examination of ten thousand pupils in the public schools of Breslau, comprising all grades. In 1885 Dr. Randall of Philadelphia gave to the medical profession the results of his labor in the examination of 146,000 children in the public schools of his city. At present we have the statistics of the examination of several hundred thousand.

Probably Dr. S. D. Risley of Philadelphia has done more strictly scientific