"all school directors, trustees, principals, and presidents of schools and colleges outside of cities * * * pay prompt and regular attention to the disinfection of buildings used for educational purposes immediately after the discovery of any communicable disease within said building."1 Floors shall be swept daily except on holidays; all wainscoting, window ledges, and furniture shall be wiped daily with a cloth dampened by an approved disinfectant; all removable rugs, cushions, and other upholstery are to be thoroughly aired and sunned by removal from the building weekly (Texas). All sweepings must be removed daily; furniture and woodwork are to be wiped with a disinfectant solution once a month and with a damp cloth once a week (Virginia). All schoolhouses, before school opens at the beginning of each school term, shall be thoroughly cleaned (Wisconsin). The new Wisconsin law of 1913 requires the use of

vacuum sweepers.

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Methods prescribed. Prescriptions of method are as follows: "Cleaning shall consist in first sweeping, then scrubbing the floors, washing the windows and all woodwork, including the wooden parts of seats and desks, and the disinfecting shall be done in accordance with the rules of the State board of health," dusting shall be done with an oiled cloth (Indiana); windows shall be thrown open after sweeping and the rooms thoroughly aired, disinfection follows the rules of the State board of health (Louisiana); the local or State board of health must approve all methods of disinfection (Pennsylvania); before sweeping, the floor shall be sprinkled with an approved disinfectant solution, saturated sawdust preferred (Texas); no disinfectant solution is necessary, but the floor must first be dampened with water, damp sawdust, or damp paper (Virginia).

Practices forbidden.-Several very common practices are forbidden in some States. Dry sweeping is tabooed in Indiana. No sweeping can be done until after dismissal for the day in Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia. The Indiana State board of health orders that blackboards and erasers shall not be cleaned by pupils, nor until the session is over. With a single exception every rule is of State-wide application.

Extraordinary cleaning.-Extraordinary cleaning or disinfecting follows in seven States immediately upon the discovery in any school of any of a certain class of diseases. These are variously described as "communicable," "dangerous communicable," "contagious," "infectious," and "quarantinable." But three of the States have a special list of specific diseases that call at once for action. This list includes

1 Rules and Regulations, Aug. 15, 1911.

2 School Laws, pp. 92-93.

3 School Laws, p. 45.

4 Laws of 1911, ch. 44; acts of 1913, ch. 274.

See published rules of boards of health of various States.

scarlet fever, smallpox, and diphtheria in all three States, measles in two, and infantile paralysis, epidemic spinal-meningitis, and bubonic plague in one each. In Indiana and Michigan it is only the rooms attended by the stricken child that must be disinfected, but in the other States the entire building must be closed and treated. The method of disinfection is in the hands of the State board of health with one possible exception, and this body has been very careful in some States to explain everything to the minutest detail. Drawers, closets, and desks are opened. Books are stood on end, wide open. The rooms are made air-tight, kept sealed for six hours, then flooded with fresh air for another six. Corrosive sublimate solution may be afterwards used to wipe all clothes closets and desks; for metal fixtures a solution of carbolic acid in hot water is commonly employed. Formaldehyde is favored by most as the disinfecting gas.

XI. FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT.

Two items of furniture and equipment at once occur to the mind as media with which the child is almost continually in contact during the school day. These are the books on the one hand, the desk and seat on the other. It is with these in some form that most of the rules under this section deal.

Books. Two general classes of provisions affect books, (1) those which concern disinfection, (2) those that relate primarily to the hygiene of the eye. Rule XXI of the Idaho State Board of Health states that school or library books taken to a house where Asiatic cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, infantile paralysis, typhus fever, diphtheria (membranous croup), cerebro-spinal meningitis, or scarlet fever exists, must be destroyed. The State law also says that books belonging to any district which happen to be in the house of a pupil when he is confined with a quarantinable disease, must be disinfected by the attending physician before being returned to the school.1 Rules of the Wisconsin 2 and Nebraska State boards of health are equivalent to that of the Idaho board. The Oregon board requires that under similar conditions books shall be destroyed or properly disinfected before being placed again in circulation. Since Dr. L. B. Nice reported in 1911 that nine States disinfect by steam or burn badly soiled books, it may well be that the above data do not represent fully the present status. The statutes of Maine contain a useful provision that no second-hand books shall be purchased by any district.

1 School Laws, p. 60.

* Rule 11.

School Law, p. 121.

4 Statutes relating to public health, etc., p. 48.

Monthly Bull., Ohio State Bd. of Health, Aug., 1912, p. 272.

• Laws of 1909, ch. 131.

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1

2

3

5

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi," Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma,' and South Dakota,1o legally authorize textbook commissions, usually of the State, sometimes of the county, to consider in the selection of texts such qualities as printing, type, paper, binding, etc. Oddly enough, these commissions appear not to have adopted definite standards.

Seats and desks. On general furniture Delaware is at least explicit. The furniture must be modern according to the standards of the State board of education," but what these standards are is a matter of doubt. Apparently they have not been published. Minnesota is the only State that has legally adopted single desks;12 20 per cent of all desks and seats in each room shall be adjustable in Indiana.13 Adjustable furniture is not spoken of in either the Vermont statutes or in the rules of the State board of health, but the correspondence of the latter body shows that the schools at Newbury, Groton, and Royalton have been compelled to put in adjustable seats.14 The Indiana health authorities in each locality are charged to see that the adjustable furniture is changed once or twice each year to allow for the growth of the pupils;15 and the State health offi cers make some special requirements for crippled children. Desksshall be "of suitable size" (Minnesota). The State superintendent in South Dakota before approving plans will look carefully to the spacing of seats.16 He will expect an interval of 9 inches from the back of the seat to the edge of the desk in primary rooms, 10 inches in intermediate grades, 11 or 12 inches in grammar grades, and 1 foot in the high school. He advises against the policy of placing different sizes of seats in the same row. The Vermont Board of Health describes the seat and desk in some detail." The height of seat shall correspond to the length of the leg below the knee; the seat must be horizontal or slightly curved, the lower back convex, the upper back concave; the desk and seat are to overlap slightly, and the desk for writing to slant about 15°. The New Jersey State Board of Educa

1 Gen. Pub. School Laws.

2 Digest of School Laws, p. 100.

School Laws and Decisions, p. 50.

4 School Laws, p. 338.

Ses. Laws of 1910, Act No. 39.

School Laws, p. 42.

7 Revised School Laws, p. 108.

Public School Law, p. 86.

• Laws and Opinions for the Regulation and Support of the Common Schools, p. 16.

10 School Laws, sec. 225-235.

11 Personal Letter of State Supt., dated May 7, 1913.

12 State Health Laws and Reg., p. 54.

13 School Law, p. 135.

14 Sixteenth Rept. of State Bd. of Health, pp. 26, 25, 44.

15 Book of Instruction to Health Authorities, issued by State Bd. of Health.

16 Bien. Rept. State Supt. Pub. Instr. (1910-12), p. 154.

17 Regulations issued May 1, 1911.

tion includes the location of each pupil's desk and the teacher's desk in the blue prints of the plans on which it passes, and no seating arrangements may be changed without the board's approval.1 Aisles at the side and rear of the room in South Dakota must be at least 30 inches, all others about 20 inches. According to the Ohio law all classrooms must have aisles on all wall sides. The minima for wall and center aisles are as follows: 2

For auditoriums additional detailed provision is made. All seats, chairs, and desks for pupils in classrooms or auditoriums shall be fastened to the floor, unless less than 16 pupils are seated in the room. Not a word more about classroom seating, but in assembly rooms (those accommodating over 100 persons) benches or chairs shall not be less than 24 feet from back to back, measuring horizontally, and the width of the seats shall average 20 inches per person, measuring from center to center of seat arms. No such seat shall be less than 19 inches wide, and if benches are used, 15 inches of bench length shall be allotted each person. In assembly halls no seat shall have more than six seats between it and the aisle. Thus it impresses one that, while Ohio has more legislation on seating than any other State, the entire effort has been directed toward the prevention of injury or death in an emergency, rather than toward conserving the health of the child day by day.

Blackboards.-The Montana Board of Health forbids blackboards between windows. The Indiana law requires that they be a dead black. The Vermont Board of Health combines the two requirements. There appears to be an utter absence of rules regarding the height of blackboards, though several State departments of education make suggestions. Those of South Dakota may be quoted as typical. "The following are the best heights adapted to the various grades: 26 inches for primary grades, 30 inches for the intermediate grades, and 36 inches for grammar and high-school grades." 5

1 State Building Code,

2 State Building Code, Part 2, title 3, sec. 10. The same figures exactly have been adopted by the Ind. State Bd. of Health. See Bull., 1913, No. 52, U. S. Bu. of Ed., pp. 17-18.

Regulation 26.

4 School Law, p. 135.

Bien. Rep. of State Supt. (1910-1912), p. 152.

XII. MISCELLANEOUS.

Basements. The basement has often been regarded as a legitimate place to dispose of the overflow in rapidly growing school systems. The possible dangers of basement schoolrooms are receiving recognition at present, and there seems a well-defined drift toward doing away with such quarters altogether except for temporary uses. Minnesota was the first State to take drastic action. A law of 1909 directs that in any city of 20,000 or more no basement room shall be employed for "grade school purposes," unless it is used exclusively for domestic science, manual training, or physical culture. This statute was not made fully operative till the opening of the school year 1912-13, thus permitting towns to adjust themselves to the new conditions. It is now made applicable to a school in any locality, regardless of population. A basement room was defined as one "the floor of which is below the surface of the surrounding ground on all sides of said room." The Ohio State building code declares that all rooms used for school purposes, except those devoted to domestic science, manual training, and recreation, must be wholly above grade line. The exceptions noted may be placed partly below grade if properly lighted, heated, and ventilated, but all basement rooms used by pupils or public must have a waterproof floor.

All two-story school buildings shall have a dry, well-lighted basement under the entire building, the floor of the basement to be cement or concrete, and the ceiling 10 feet high (Indiana). In the smaller buildings, where the basements are not finished or not properly heated and ventilated, a swinging door with spring hinges shall be used to prevent basement air from entering rooms or corridors above (Indiana).1

Foundations.-All school buildings shall have a solid foundation of brick, tile, stone, or concrete, and thorough ventilation between. ground and floor, the latter to be not less than 3 feet above the earth; and all brick school buildings shall have a foundation of vitrified brick, or of stone, or have above the ground line a layer of slate, vitrified brick, stone, or other impervious material (Indiana). Moreover, no foundation shall be laid on filled ground or soil containing a mixture of organic matter. A rule of the Vermont State Board of Health denies approval of plans unless floors of buildings without cellars are 2 feet above ground and free circulation of air allowed beneath. South Dakota is satisfied with 18 inches."

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1 Laws of 1909, ch. 52.
'Part 2, title 3.

School Law, p. 134.

4 Bull., 1913, No. 52, U. S. Bu. of Ed., p. 15.

5 Regulations issued May 1, 1911.

Bien. Rep. of State Supt. Pub. Instr. (1910-1912), p. 151.