course, be excessive (too strong light may be admitted to the school, or the artificial illumination may be unduly concentrated) or even too variable, but these are not the usual faults. Speaking for Chicago, I believe that, considering the rapid growth of the city and the constantly increasing demands upon us for school space, our school board has done wonders, yet there are many schoolrooms in which pupils and teachers strain their eyes, worry their nervous systems, upset their digestive apparatus and contribute to other forms of mental and physical distress by attempting to see by insufficient or improper illumination.

I do not, of course, say that in a crowded city with its atmosphere befouled with smoke it is always possible to secure, especially during the winter, an ideal illumination, but the continual agitation of this important matter has enabled us to obtain better-built and better-lighted schoolhouses. Largely due to this cause is the decent light in our public schools as compared with the generally wretched illumination of our federal, state, and municipal buildings. Everybody, even the proverbial schoolboy, knows that in the construction of the schoolhouse the distance that separates it from surrounding buildings should be at least twice their height and that the window space of the exterior walls having a northern or western exposure should be quite one-fourth the floor space, although it may be only one-fifth of the floor area when the schoolroom has an unobstructed southern or eastern exposure. Of course, I need not say that the application of this rule must be somewhat modified, as in the case of all rules, by individual instances. In small rooms with a generally clear atmosphere, or where the school buildings can be elevated well above their surroundings, a smaller proportion of window space may be allowed.

During winter, or where, as in some localities, it is a question of artificial lighting or no school at all, the respective merits of kerosene, gas, electricity, and the various forms of lamps are often discussed. I have had occasion to say, in this connection, and I repeat it here, that as a choice of evils I would prefer to have the pupil take an indefinite holiday than allow him to be immured during school hours in some of the educational dungeons that I

have known to masquerade as recitation and study-rooms. I need not enlarge upon the physical, moral, and mental ills that come to children that are forced to study or even to sit all day in a badly ventilated, artificially lighted, interior schoolroom. Better a healthy street arab than a shortsighted, anemic, neurasthenic schoolboy.

If artificial lighting is unavoidable, the same law that governs the employment of sunlight should ever be borne in mind; the illumination should resemble as nearly as possible diffuse sunlight; it should be sufficient to permit diamond print to be easily read in any part of the room, and it should shine upon the work to be done, and not, either directly or by reflection, into the eyes of the pupils. After all is said and done, if the lighting, natural and artificial, of all schoolrooms realized these standards, we should have few excessively myopic and fewer nervous symptoms to treat among our child population.

Owing to recent improvements in electric lamps, to the fact that the electric light does not to any extent overheat or vitiate the atmosphere of the schoolroom, to the diminished danger of fire, and to its greater convenience, it is generally to be preferred to gas or kerosene. It is, however, capable of greater harm to the vision and much more likely to produce eye-strain unless judiciously arranged. As a rule, I prefer a sufficient number of 32 candle-power lamps placed, in ground-glass globes, near the ceiling. The dazzling, uncertain, flickering, arc-lights with their irritating violet rays should never be used for school lighting or, in my judgment, for any illuminating purposes when any close work is to be done.

That the sunlight should not shine into the eyes of the school children will require a proper arrangement of the seats, desks, and blackboards. Of course, this important detail in school-house building should receive the careful attention of the architect, but it can generally be satisfactorily arranged, it matters not what exposure the schoolroom may have.

Inasmuch as the great majority of pupils are right-handed, the rays of light from whatever source of illumination, from the left, or from the left and rear, should fall upon the desk, book,

writing pads, etc., in near work, and from the rear or obliquely upon blackboards, maps, wall diagrams, or other objects required to be looked at by pupils from distant parts of the room. If windows are upon the right side of the room, they should, as in artificial lighting, be placed as near the ceiling as possible. It must be remembered that the eyes require sufficient, as well as proper, illumination to do without strain the work of ocular fixation. As Risley points out, these supplementary windows may, in summer, be used for ventilating purposes. He also suggests that where for any reason there is not sufficient sunlight admitted to a room, a second sash may be adjusted to each window on the left, which, when dropped to an angle of thirty-five or forty degrees, will act as a reflector and throw the light from the sky upon the desks of the pupils. I have myself seen such a device employed for directing the sun's rays upon a white ceiling and then by secondary reflection upon the objects in the room below. In this way the sun's rays were sufficiently diffused to render them effective and not irritating to the eyes.

While on this subject I am, of course, distinctly opposed to such means as Luxfer prisms for school lighting, valuable as these devices undoubtedly are in illuminating basements and other dark rooms of our city buildings, particularly. All schoolrooms in which pupils are expected to use their eyes to any extent should be properly lighted, outside rooms-for many reasons besides the fact that they are necessary for the ocular well-being of the children. Indeed, in the ideal school building the rooms in which pupils spend most of their time should have a south or southeastern exposure. Excessive sunshine could be regulated by double screens the one semi-opaque and colored light green for bright summer days, and the other cream or light gray for the less dazzling though direct sunshine of winter. If this were done recitations and other occasional tasks could be worked out in rooms on the opposite side of the building.

The tinting of the walls.-Although much has been written on this subject and although the rules for successful mural coloration are easily remembered, there still exists some confusion in the minds of many educators regarding this important matter. As

before stated, if the ocular apparatus is adjusted (especially during such near work as reading, writing, drawing, etc.) for diffused sunlight, the wall tints should be chosen in view of that fact. Each schoolroom should be considered by itself. If it be situated above the ground floor, has a southern exposure, faces a wide street or other large space, and particularly if there be no tall building to shut out the sunlight, the color chosen may be a light green, dull gray, or even a deep orange relieved by a lighter ceiling tint of the same color mixture. On the other hand, the walls and especially the ceiling of a recitation or study-room with a northern exposure, especially if the window space be insufficient or the view obstructed, should be papered or painted a light buff or, better still, dull white. To assist in lighting up such a room the walls should be regarded as reflecting surfaces and ought not to be unnecessarily covered with maps, diagrams, pictures, blackboards or figured wall papers. Where it is possible, dull paints on a smooth surface are preferable for use in such a room to burlap, calcimine, or wall paper.

A wider choice may be allowed in rooms and halls with a bright southern exposure; indeed, if for this reason alone it is a pity that all rooms cannot have either a south, a southeast, or an eastern outlook; it would permit of almost unlimited color schemes and mural decorations. Between the brightest southern exposure and the most obstructed northern view, we may then say that the mural colors should be chosen to suit the individual case. As you are aware, there are several photometric schemes devised to reduce color schemes in schoolrooms to a scientific certainty, but practically all that one needs to remember is comprised in the foregoing considerations.

Reading matter.—The size of the letters, the style of the type, the width of the printed columns, the spacing of the words and lines, the color and texture of the paper used in the make-up of schoolbooks are all important factors in the prevention of eyestrain and ought to receive more attention than they generally do. Without entering too deeply into these subjects I believe that the rules laid down by Cohn ought to be followed. He advises that the weight of letters like n be not less than 1.5 mm. and the down

strokes be at least one-fourth of a millimeter thick and, that the the vertical distance between the lines be not less than 2.5 mm.

Inasmuch as the strain upon the eye muscles, both internal and external, is in direct proportion to the length of the lines, he suggests that the columns of reading matter never exceed 10 cm. Furthermore, as ocular fatigue is, other things being equal, more easily brought about in younger children than in those more advanced in years, these measurements should be increased for those of tender years. Edward Shaw proposes that for the first year in school the type should be 2.60 mm. high and the leading 4.5 mm.; for the second and third years the height ought to be at least 2 mm. with leading of 4 mm. For the fourth and subsequent years 1.8 and 3.6 mm., respectively. Considering the unavoidable variation in school lighting, I do not consider these figures unwarrantable.

A good deal of discussion and much difference of opinion is held as to the proper texture and color of paper in schoolbooks, but I do not think we shall be far wrong if we insist on a dull white paper printed with jet black ink. Likewise the copybooks, pads of paper used in school exercises, in the practice of handwriting and as substitute for greasy, dirty slates (now happily things of the past) should be a “dead” white, the ink deep black and the lead pencils as black as they can be had. Where illustrations requiring a highly calendered or shiny surface are required, these should be in the form of "tips" or inserts; the fewer of them the better. I may say in passing that the fewer magazines printed on glossy paper the child is allowed to read the better for his eyes.

Handwriting.-As to the relative merits of perpendicular, intermediate slanting penmanship and the decidedly slanting forms of penmanship as well as the postures assumed in each, I have little to say. In choosing one or other, let us not forget that easy legibility is desirable both for the writer and for the reader, and that it is important that the pen strokes should be thick enough to be read without eye-strain. When properly arranged desks are used and the illumination is good, perpendicular penmanship (taught in the upright position) certainly presents ocular advantages over every other form of handwriting with which I