free from any contagious skin disease. There has been a rapid increase in the last 10 years in the number of swimming pools throughout the country, in connection with high schools, Christian associations, churches, municipality undertakings, and many fraternal orders. The committee on sanitation of swimming pools of the American Public Health Association reported in New Orleans, in 1919, that data had been received relative to 1,254 pools of 47 States. Probably it will not be far from the truth to say that at present there are between 1,500 and 2,000 swimming pools in various parts of the country. It is interesting to note that according to population the Western States are better supplied in this regard than the Eastern. California has practically twice as many as any other State in the Union.

Keeping these pools in sanitary condition and seeing that they are used properly are not easy tasks. In most States, as the report of the foregoing committee shows, very little has been done in the way of legislation to control sanitary conditions in swimming pools. A committee of the American Public Health Association also sent out a questionnaire on bathing places. Seventy per cent of the replies received were to the effect that bathing places were an important factor in the transmission if diseases. Bathing places in this report include beaches and other open pools in addition to swimming pools. Naturally, there would be a good deal of difference between these two types of bathing places. In open water, such as beaches and rivers, there is more opportunity for contamination from a distance; that is, the water is likely to be far more impure than in properly cared for bathing pools. On the other hand, the danger of transmission of diseases from person to person is doubtless more likely in swimming pools. The problems of the swimming pools are not only concerned with the purity of the water but with the cleanliness of towels and the condition of the bodies of those who enter the pools. The report of the above-mentioned committee may be fairly well represented by the following quotation:

The most significant and important data obtained from our replies were reports of epidemics of various diseases, which, from the information supplied by the reporting physicians, may be considered reasonably authentic. Seven different physicians reported epidemics of conjunctivitis, and six others, epidemics of skin diseases, four of these being epidemics of furunculosis, two of impetigo contagiosa, two of molluscum contagiosum, and one of eczema. Two physicians reported epidemics of middle-ear infection, which, from the history submitted, were undoubtedly caused by infection of the water at the bathing places. Two other physicians reported epidemics of tonsillitis and pharyngitis, and one reported an epidemic of nasal sinus infection in which all the evidence pointed to bathing water as the origin. One of the members of the committee also reported an epidemic of typhoid fever in a camp for boys, which was unquestionably caused by bathing in polluted water.

It is very seldom that fatal cases of any disease, outside of typhoid, perhaps, have been attributed to bathing place infection. One physician, however, reported a fatal case of mastoid infection and four other physicians reported a number of fatal cases of meningitis following infection of the nose or ear passages.1

1

It is plain from the result of this investigation, and others of a similar nature, that those who plan to construct swimming pools in high-school buildings or other public-school buildings may have clearly in mind that while they are offering a fine opportunity for healthful sport they are also affording opportunity for the spread of infectious diseases unless they make thorough sanitary provisions to prevent such dangers. Eye, ear, nose, and throat specialists have frequently told me that infections have multiplied perceptibly and in certain cases strikingly whenever swimming pools have been opened to the general public. To be sure, it will be much easier to guard from infections in swimming pools for schools than those in general public use, but even here a definite and serious problem must be frankly met.

All water in swimming pools should be thoroughly filtered each day, and this can be accomplished by any good form of pressure filtration. The water should be tested at regular intervals, both chemically and biologically, but, probably more important than all, no one should be allowed to use the swimming pool who is infected with eye trouble, nose or throat trouble, or any form of contagious skin disease. This calls for a constant examination of children's bodies and would certainly require more time and more expense than the average high school is able or willing to undertake at present. All swimming pools should be sterilized daily by the use of chemicals, or, preferably, ultra-violet rays of light, for this is not harmful to eyes or ears. From what has been said above there is no reason to infer any opposition to swimming pools in connection with high schools if the community is willing to pay for their installation and proper sanitary oversight. All who have seen the delight and help children get in learning to swim will agree in saying that it is a splendid recreational agency. I am anxious, however, to make plain the dangers connected therewith so that those who construct swimming pools will know the problems they must plan to meet and the dangers they must combat.

XIII. GYMNASIUMS.

During the past 10 years there has been a remarkable growth in the demand for gymnasiums in public-school buildings and especially so in medium-sized high schools. The problem of health development, greatly emphasized by the World War, has caused boards of

1 American Journal of Public Health, February, 1922, pp. 121-123.

education and the people in general to demand gymnasiums and equipment for school buildings much more persistently than was formerly the case. No one can conscientiously deny that this is a good thing, but it often happens that people make demands inconsistent with conditions as they actually exist. Gymnasiums are important, no doubt, but so are open-air sports and outdoor exercises. In the northern part of our country it is too cold and disagreeable in winter to get much regular exercise outdoors, and hence in such climates gymnasiums are far more important than in the warmer sections where, during at least four-fifths of the winter, children can play out of doors, to the advantage of all concerned. Some architects, notably Mr. Ittner, have made the gymnasium serve the purpose of a theater and assembly room. This is illustrated in the Grover Cleveland High School in St. Louis and the new Phillips High School in Birmingham, Ala. Others have made assembly rooms serve as gymnasiums.

The size and relative dimensions of gymnasiums should be worked out to suit the special conditions and needs of the school, but it should be high enough, wide enough, and long enough to accommodate a regulation basket-ball court, for this is rapidly becoming a very important game in American high schools and colleges and is worthy of encouragement.

It is to be hoped that more attention will be given by schoolmen to open-air gymnasiums than thus far has been given. By an openair gymnasium is meant a covered structure large enough and high enough for all gymnastic exercises, but inclosed on the sides with wire only, so as to allow the free movement of the outside air and complete exposure of the floor to sunshine some parts of the day. The most successful of such structures are usually made of a light but firmly united steel frame and trussed roof. In most of the Southern States such gymnasiums can be used nearly every day of the winter and, of course, offer children a chance to exercise in the open air without exposure to inclement weather. But in sections where snows drift and the temperature is too low for free play out of doors they are not especially valuable.

A combination of gymnasium and auditorium will be discussed under the heading "Assembly room."

XIV. PLAYGROUNDS.

The apparent tendency of boards of education to limit the amount of ground for school buildings and at the same time to demand expensive gymnasiums should be protested against. The popular call for gymnasiums, in which spectacular basket-ball games may be played, should be resisted. It would be better to spend the money

on larger and better school grounds, with hard surface tennis courts which may be used for outdoor sports of many kinds, including basket ball, volley ball, etc.

Educational authorities and officers should give more time to the general recreation and health of all the children instead of devoting money, time, and attention to opportunities for athletic contests, for a few only. These contests are not harmful if managed sanely and honestly, but they are far less valuable than the quiet, unpretentious but thoroughgoing upbuilding of the health of all the pupils. It often happens that those who need general outdoor exercise and general upbuilding are the ones who are left out when some "team" is to be developed. Year after year this problem arises when grounds are selected and buildings planned. Principals of schools are partly to blame for this, because very few are able to resist the advertisement that comes from a winning team.

By all means build gymnasiums, if the community is willing, but first get plenty of ground for play purposes and prepare this for all sorts of sports and expect the children to use it. When this attitude toward relative values becomes more marked. fewer gymnasiums will be necessary.

XV. LABORATORIES.

The time has passed in the history of education when it was thought sufficient in a course in physics or chemistry for the teacher to set lessons in textbooks and do the experimenting himself in the presence of the class. There is yet definite need for textbooks and good models of experimentation, but we have learned that unless the pupils take hold of apparatus and, under specific direction and wise guidance, perform experiments themselves, we can not hope for any lasting interest or thorough understanding of these subjects. It becomes necessary, therefore, to plan to give each student who is studying either or both of these sciences, and for that matter all sciences, room and opportunity for individual work. Furthermore, as a laboratory equipped with tables, gas pipes, water basins, microscopes, balances, etc., can not be used conveniently as a lecture room, where the class may meet to see experiments of a special sort, to discuss them and to compare their own results with certain principles enunciated in the textbooks, a science lecture room is almost a necessity. Hence, at least, five rooms are needed for these two sciences: A laboratory for physics, one for chemistry, a common lecture room, and two smaller rooms for storing apparatus and chemicals until needed. In a high school where one teacher is expected to teach both of these sciences one supply or apparatus room of ample dimensions and of proper construction can be made to

suffice. This is true only on the condition that some isolated part of it be set apart for those chemicals which might by their presence in the same room be deleterious to certain pieces of physical apparatus. But it is always better to have a separate room for the chemicals, where they may be carefully and systematically placed and rendered less dangerous to both apparatus and the building as a whole.

Suppose two supply or apparatus rooms can be provided, how shall these, the laboratories, and the lecture room be best arranged with reference to each other? In the first place, the question must be asked: Where shall these rooms be placed, on the first floor or on the second, if a two-story building is planned? There are advantages and disadvantages with either location. When a chemical laboratory is placed on the first floor there is danger that the fumes and odors from the chemicals used in experiments may escape into hallways and adjoining rooms, rendering it difficult to keep the air fresh and pure. Then, too, it is better, as far as possible, to use the space on the first floor for recitation rooms, and in this way make it unnecessary for most of the students to climb the stairs so often, for it must be remembered that at least three-fourths of the recitations of a high-school course are held in ordinary classrooms. In the next place, it is far more difficult to ventilate properly a chemical laboratory on the ground floor than it is one located on the second floor next to the roof, presuming, of course, that the building is two stories in height. In fact, no schoolhouse should be built higher than two stories; all those going beyond this limit introduce many difficulties and dangers merely for the sake of economy. No chemical laboratory can be safely used unless adequate precaution is taken to carry off the fumes and gases generated during experimental work. And these ventilators must extend to the outer air above the building. When the laboratory is on the ground floor these ventilators have to be placed in the walls, and this either makes it necessary to do the work close to the walls or to make sharp angles in the ventilating ducts so that they can overhang the experiment tables in the center of the room. If the ventilating ducts are placed in the walls and the experimental tables arranged next to the walls, it is almost impossible to arrange sufficient work room with satisfactory light without undue expense. If these ducts are bent or elbowed so as to open above the central parts of the room, where the tables should be placed, they are thereby rendered far less effective on account of the great retardation of the movement of the air due to the friction in the crooked and longer ducts. On the other hand, it is much easier and less expensive to supply proper and safe plumbing for a chemical laboratory situated on the ground floor. Gas