encouragement afforded to the young people by this public notice of their success, is one of the chief advantages which an association of this kind has to offer. Again, the employment by the association of the most intelligent young men as local teachers for the different evening classes seems to be an excellent plan. It is the means of rewarding many a deserving youth, who may be inclined to give his services for so useful a work; his being paid by the association, and having his work periodically supervised by the secretary, is a guarantee that he understands something about the business of teaching. If an association of this kind offered prizes to the youth who excelled in athletic sports, or to the institutes which could show the best youthful rifle corps formed from their members, it would not be departing from its proper function. To train the bodies of the citizens so that they might grow up sound and healthy, valiant, active, was ever held by ancient nations to be part, and that no mean part, of education.

In conclusion, as I would gladly see some practical result follow from the discussion on this subject, I would venture to suggest whether an association such as I have described might not with great advantage be established for the encouragement of adult education in North and East Yorkshire. I am aware that the Yorkshire union of institutions professes to extend its operations to the whole county. Yet I doubt whether the gentry and clergy in the North and East Ridings will ever take sufficient interest in the proceedings of an association which has the basis of its operations so far off as Leeds. On the other hand, if it be desirable that there be one association for the whole county, the establishment at least of a branch committee for the North and East Ridings would be desirable. Men most readily take an interest in these and similar undertakings when scope is left for local self-management, when they feel they are working for the good of their own immediate neighbourhood, and when they see the result of their efforts in the improvement of those who live around them. It may be urged as an objection against taking any action in this matter, that a district so scantily supplied with night schools as the North and East Riding, is not ripe for any such a scheme as I have suggested. On the other hand, the case of the Southern Counties Association which started with examining three candidates, and in 1862 examined 269, seems to show that associations of this sort may tend to increase in any district the number of young persons anxious to improve themselves. Certainly the existence of an association of the sort for the encouragement of adult education, with its public examinations and distribution of certificates, seems to draw attention to the subject; the fact that a committee mects periodically to carry out plans for its improvement, tends to awaken public interest; the common interest thus excited leads individuals to make efforts in the cause, which otherwise might not have been made. This especially is the case when men of influence, of energy, of public spirit, in a county will give their countenance and their assistance to the work.

On Sanitary Instruction and Training in those Domiciliary Habits which conduce to Physical and Moral Well-being. By HENRY ROBERTS, F.S.A.

THAT the domiciliary habits which conduce to physical and moral well-being have been too generally disregarded by a large portion of the community, even in the most civilised countries, will be admitted by all who have in this respect investigated their actual condition. The evil effects of this neglect are mainly physical in their personal influence on those of the upper and middle classes who, from ignorance or want of consideration, expose themselves and their families by occupying a dwelling which is unhealthy as to its locality, or defective as to its sanitary arrangements; whilst in regard to the lower classes the evil results are too often moral as well as physical, and multitudes of the poor suffer in both respects, in consequence of the ignorance or neglect of duty of those of the upper classes on whom they are dependent, and without whose aid their domiciliary condition can only be partially ameliorated. The means best adapted to effect a change in this most lamentable state of things is therefore an important practical question, and although I have referred to some of them in previous papers published in the Transactions of this Association, it has been thought desirable that they should be more fully brought under your consideration, and that the result of twenty years' experience, during which much of my time has been devoted gratuitously to promoting the improvement of the dwellings of the labouring classes in this and in other countries, should be stated in their bearing on the subject in question.

After a long period of persevering effort, the advocates of sanitary reform begin to see the fruit of their labours in the attention now given to it by the public; yet but little comparatively is done towards the much needed instruction of all classes in the science of preserving health, or in the training of such as labour with their hands in those habits of personal and domiciliary cleanliness and order, which conduce to physical and moral well-being. science of preserving bodily health has been considered too exclusively the department of the medical profession, as in some countries religion is deemed to be exclusively the department of the priestly order.

The

In regard to the upper and middle classes in our country, it is instruction rather than training which is needed, in order that they may no longer remain ignorant of the conditions and of the importance of a healthy dwelling. The past want of such knowledge on the part of the educated classes in England might be illustrated, if it

Transactions, 1858, p. 583; 1860, p. 766; 1862, p. 750.

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were necessary, by many striking instances which have come to my own knowledge. I might refer to debates in parliament; to the halls in which men of learning and science assemble; to the proceedings of magistrates, and of those who have been selected by their fellow-citizens as guardians of the poor; but the time to which I am limited forbids my saying more than that to the ignorance of men in such positions may be traced the great want of the proper provi sion for the drainage of some even of the princely mansions of our nobility, and the cesspools beneath them, as well as the often very inadequate provision for ventilation, particularly in apartments occupied by the children and servants of the family. The effects of this ignorance have extended much beyond the limits of their own families, for to it may doubtless be attributed, in no small measure, the long neglected state of the dwellings of the labouring population. Insensible to the evils resulting from sanitary defects in their own dwellings, landowners and employers of labour were not likely to estimate aright the consequences of much greater and more serious defects in the dwellings of their dependents. The instruction which I advocate should therefore reach the highest as well as the lowest classes in the community, and should be given in our colleges not less than in the schools of the poor, special care being taken that scientific truths be studiously conveyed in a form suited to the capacities of the audience, and be accompanied by practical illustrations, adapted to impress on the memory their application to the circumstances of every-day life.

It was in accordance with these views, that the representatives of twenty different countries, convened at the Congrès International de Bienfaisance, in Brussels, in 1856, adopted unanimously the proposal which I there made, to the following effect: "The Congress declares that it is of public utility that the working classes be enlightened, by all possible means, in regard to the improvement and the keeping of their houses in good order; it declares that the instruction of the young in the labouring classes ought to comprise all which relates to the cleanliness of their persons and of their dwellings to the benefits resulting from good ventilation, and the evils resulting from humidity. Lastly, it thinks that the study of the science of preserving health, is one which ought to be rendered accessible to all."

In regard to the lower classes, some apparently take for granted that the evils we desire to see remedied are a necessary result of poverty, and taught by experience, as well as by holy writ, that "the poor shall never cease out of the land," deem that in their case a remedy is hopeless. But, whilst maintaining that there is no more certain test of the temporal well-being of the working classes than the condition of their dwellings, and admitting that poverty has in this respect a decidedly injurious tendency, other and unquestionably removable causes might be easily pointed out, which are with much greater certainty deteriorating in their effects on the homes of the working population; and at their head and fore-front stands the monster vice of intemperance. Multitudes whose wages would

suffice to provide them with every comfort and even some of the luxuries of life, in consequence of their vicious habits, live with their families in an appalling state of moral and physical degradation.

No one, however, who has come much in contact with the poor can doubt that both physical and moral well-being are compatible with poverty, nor will they have failed to observe that individuals and families, similar in regard to their pecuniary circumstances, often present a striking contrast in their domiciliary habits. I have seen adjoining cottages, and neighbouring rooms in lodging houses, exhibit unquestionable evidence of the dissimilarity which exists in the habits of the occupants; and in spite of the injurious tendency of town life, where so generally the working classes are overcrowded in their dwellings-and those so often situated in low unhealthy quarters-cleanliness, order and propriety may be found, with sufficient frequency, to prove that it is not a hopeless task to combat the existing mass of evil.

That there is a great necessity for the training of the working population in good domiciliary habits, as well as for the supply of good dwellings, suited to their means, will scarcely be questioned; nor will those who have considered the subject much, deem their instruction in sanitary science to be superfluous. How to accomplish the former object most effectually, especially in the case of children who are exposed to the antagonistic tendencies of home training, I do not attempt to point out, believing that the plans pursued ought to be varied according to circumstances. Amongst those which have been tried with success are the following

The delivering of lectures on sanitary subjects, and the publication of small books, written in a style adapted to the capacities of the working population. The Ladies' Sanitary Association, established about seven years since in the metropolis, seeks by such means to promote its object. In connection with it nine branch associations have been already formed. The bestowment of premiums and rewards for the best kept cottages was a plan adopted at Windsor by the late Prince Consort, who made a point of delivering the prizes himself, which added greatly to their value, as I can testify from having witnessed their distribution. In some instances there has been the loan of such articles as facilitate improvement; and district visitors, generally connected with some religious body, as well as women engaged in the sale of the Scriptures to the poor at reduced prices, often combine sanitary instruction with their more special object, and by manifesting sympathy with those to whom they give advice gain their thankful attention. Mechanics institutions and working men's clubs are fitting places for the delivery of lectures and the diffusion of such knowledge as we desire to see imparted. In industrial, and especially in training schools, it should form a part of the course of study. In all these cases much assistance might be derived from the establishment of such collections as were recommended at the Congrès General d'Hygiene held in Brussels in 1852, when, on my proposal, "The utility was declared

of establishing in each country, and also in the principal centres of the population, a collection, as complete as possible, a kind of museum where shall be gathered together models, plans, specimens of materials, &c., relating to hygienic amelioration and progress."

About fifteen years since, when acting as honorary architect to the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, I commenced the formation of such a collection, and placed it in the Exhibition of 1851. The idea has been subsequently expanded by Mr. Twining, whose economical museum at Twickenham may be studied with great advantage by those who desire to promote the sanitary and social improvement of the masses of our population.

RAGGED SCHOOLS.

The Duty of Government to Aid in the Education of Children of the Perishing and Neglected Classes. By MARY CARPENTER.

N the year 1847, a Select Committee of the House of Lords directed

respecting Juvenile Offenders and Transportation." The two subjects would not, at first sight, appear to have any close connection with each other, and yet there was a deep significance in their union. The subjects of transportation were found, in a large number of cases, to have begun their career of crime as juvenile offenders. How to deal with these two questions was the subject of long and anxious discussion, and the examination of many witnesses of high judicial experience. There was much difference of opinion on other topics, but perfect unanimity on one-the last resolution. The report says:

"Upon one subject the whole of the evidence, and all the opinions are quite unanimous, the good that may be hoped from education, meaning thereby a sound moral and religious training, commencing in infant schools, and followed up in schools for older pupils; to these, where it is practicable, industrial training should be added. There seems, in the general opinion, to be no other means that afford even a chance of lessening the number of offenders, and diminishing the atrocity of their crimes."

After such a resolution, coming from such authority, and supported by so many witnesses, it might have been anticipated that so comparatively easy and inexpensive a remedy, so commending itself to the common sense of the nation, would at once have been tried; that immediate measures would have been taken by the