In case of earth closets, let properly covered and partitioned urinals be built in the rear of the closet next to the inclosing fence. A drain should be so arranged as to conduct the liquids into the soil for some considerable distance, there to be appropriated by trees and grass. The joints of the tile should not be cemented. The building should be painted within and without.

While vaults ought never to be allowed to exist, yet they may be rendered more tolerable by pouring in, every week during warm weather, a pail of water containing four pounds of dissolved copperas and an ounce of crude carbolic acid. This solution should be poured into drains quite frequently during warm weather.

The trustees, having put the outbuildings in proper condition, should hold the teacher to a strict accountability for their preservation. The first soiling or pencil marking must be removed immediately, as it is far easier to keep closets scrupulously clean than in a half-cleanly condition.

The law requiring separate closets for each sex," and that they shall be neat and clean, is explicit, and the penalty for its violation severe. If the closets are properly constructed, are made neat and cleanly, and are inspected daily by a teacher who is determined to succeed in this matter, and who can create a proper sentiment among the pupils, the great disgrace of filthy and obscene outbuildings will speedily disappear from our school grounds.—H. R. Sanford.

VENTILATION.

There is no one thing connected with the economies of school life that is worth so much and costs so little as proper ventilation. Many schools are pronounced inferior (and rightly so), and many teachers oftentimes fail in the proper education of such schools, because the physical conditions upon which all mental development is based are wanting. Nothing adds more to the enjoyment of life, nothing is more absolutely necessary for mental work than pure air and an abundance of it. A schoolroom fitted for children to occupy must have two essential provisions. There must be an adequate supply of pure, warm air, and the foul air must be removed in order to give place to the pure air. This must be done in such a manner as to prevent all drafts that will endanger the lives of the children. Without stopping to give reasons for certain necessary arrangements, it is proposed to suggest simple plans:

In building an ordinary single-room district schoolhouse, a brick flue should be constructed, at least 2 by 3 feet in the clear; this flue should contain within it an 8-inch heavy iron pipe, placed in the center and extending fully 2 feet above the top of the brick flue; the brick flue should extend down into the basement, and directly under the floor should be connected by means of pipes with two or more registers placed in opposite parts of the room directly in the floor, being careful not to place them under the seats. These registers should be at least 16 by 20 inches, and after the fire is built in the morning should always be open. When the fire has been burning sufficiently long to warm the iron pipe, there will be an upward current of air in the brick flue, which will at once begin to exhaust the vitiated air of the schoolroom.

*Chapter 538 of the Laws of 1887, entitled "An act in relation to health and decency in the school districts of this State," is as follows:

"SECTION 1. From and after the first day of September, 1887, the board of education, or the trustee or trustees having supervision over any school district of this State, shall provide suitable and convenient water-closets or privies for each of the schools under their charge, at least two in number, which shall be entirely separated each from the other, and having separate means of access, and the approaches thereto shall be separated by a substantial close fence not less than seven feet in height. It shall be the duty of the officers aforesaid to keep the same in a clean and wholesome condition, and a failure to comply with the provisions of this act on the part of the trustees shall be sufficient grounds for removal from office, and for withholding from the district any share of the public moneys of the State. Any expense incurred by the trustees aforesaid in carrying out the requirements of this act shall be a charge upon the district, when such expense shall have been approved by the school com. missioner of the district within which the school district is located; and a tax may be levied therefor without a vote of the district."

To provide fresh air, if an ordinary stove is used, an opening can be made directly under the center of the stove, about 12 by 16 inches, with a pipe fitted to this, running into the basement and connected with the outside; never to be left opening into the cellar. This pipe, or wooden box, if preferred, should contain a damper, which may be closed at night, and by means of which the supply of fresh air may be regulated, depending on the wind and temperature. This pipe under the stove should extend to within 4 inches of the bottom of the stove, and should be fitted with a flange running over the entire bottom of the stove and projecting 2 inches beyond on oth sides, with an edge turned up about 3 inches, so as to give an upward direction to the air as it becomes heated by the bottom and sides of the stoves.

When a furnace is used, a much better supply of heated air can always be furnished, but the fresh-air supply should always be connected with the outside, and never be taken from the cellar or schoolroom itself, as the air from either of these places would endanger the health of the occupants.

The principles involved in the foregoing are the same to be used in a building of two, four, six, eight rooms, or of any size whatever. They may be briefly enunciated as follows:

1. Two hundred cubic feet of air should be allowed for each scholar, provided the air is changed continuously.*

2. The foul air should be taken out of the rooms at or near the floor.

3. The ventilating flue should be of sufficient capacity to take out the foul air. 4. The ventilating flues should always be heated to be of any value in exhausting air.

5. The supply of fresh air must be warmed, and the amount of fresh air must be sufficient to compensate for that taken out by the foul-air shaft.

SUGGESTIONS.

1. When furnaces or indirect steam is used in the construction of new buildings, the warm fresh air in the schoolrooms should be admitted above the children's heads. In the cloakroom or hallway there should be one or two registers placed in the floor for the purpose of drying and warming feet and clothes; but unless absolutely necessary, these should never be placed in the floor of the schoolroom, as there is nothiug more disagreeable than the odor of drying boots and clothes in a room used for daily school work.

2. If school trustees, parents, and teachers really understood how much more mental work can be done in a schoolroom properly supplied with fresh warm air than in a room where the air has become vitiated and unfit to breathe, a month would not elapse before some adequate provision would be made in this direction.

3. It is estimated by c mpetent authorities who have gathered the statistics, that vitiated air in the houses of our citizens causes 40 per cent. of the deaths annually occurring.

4. Every schoolroom should be provided with a series of the lime-water bottles, showing the per cent. of vitiated air and determining when it is dangerous. A series of such bottles are inexpensive, and at the request of the Association of New York State School Commissioners have been prepared and may be obtained by applying to C. W. Bardeen, of Syracuse.

I hope that these suggestions may prove of value to the teachers and school trustees of our State, and trust that they may be the means of urging upon those in authority the necessity of furnishing our children with that which they need in order to do good work, and which may be had freely at slight expense.-E. H. Cook.

*According to the recommendation of the State Board of Health of New York.

LIGHT AND EYESIGHT.

Convincing arguments, supported by statistics, have been advanced by eminent writers, directing attention to the injurious influences of too much school work and insufficiently lighted schoolrooms upon the acuteness of vision, but unfortunately little attention has been given to remedying an evil which has incapacitated thousands of children for the comfortable enjoyment of one of the most important of the senses. Properly lighted schoolrooms promote a healthy influence upon the faculty of visual application. Good light is indispensably necessary for the comfortable exercise of the power of vision, and any architectural interference with the manner of introduction and distribution of the same is injurious to the eye and prejudicial to health. It is during the period of school years that the eyes of children are prone to lose their acuteness, thereby becoming more susceptible to influences tending to a development of refractive disturbances. The golden rule for the guidance of teachers is to refrain from overburdening the eyes with school work requiring long and close application, but the observance of this rule is of little consequence, if, in the architectural design of school buildings, the fact that good light is essertial to acute vision and favorable to good health is overlooked. Light is one of the abundant gifts of God to man; its presence is essential to the faculty of seeing; it is an important factor for the preservation of vision, and it is a pity that, by the abuse of its virtues, a single eye should be robbed of its normal acuteness. The wrong done to children by exacting proficiency in a curriculum of high standard, under the injurious influences of too much school work and a faulty arrangement of light-supply, can no longer be ascribed to ignorance on the part of the teacher, or a want of the knowledge of construction on the part of the architect; and if, in the future, the much needed reform of less school work, aided by a proper and well-regulated supply of light, be inaugurated, it will do much to lessen the large percentage of refractive errors acquired during the period of school life. The quantity of light introduced into schoolrooms should be of sufficient strength to fully stimulate the faculty of vision. If necessary, space and symmetry of schoolrooms should be sacrificed to architectural plans best calculated to afford such light that will make the visual act a pleasure and not a burden. Methods adopted for the introduction of light in school buildings should be perfected to a degree admitting of complete control of the quantity required and the regulation of the same. Special attention should be given to the location and size of windows, the quality of glass, and the mounting of the same in a manner that will not interfere with the transmission of light by the reflection of shadows. Low windows should be condemned, and the windows covered by hangings or shades that will admit of controlling the light, so that the supply may be introduced from above and not from below. The appliances by which light is admitted and tempered should, in color, be of neutral tint, so as to protect the eyes from the annoyance of reflecting effect. Light should not be so sparingly admitted as to be insufficient for the purposes required, nor too strong to be trying or dazzling to the eyes.

The source of light-supply in school buildings should admit of being so governed as not to come from opposite directions. Seats and desks should be so arranged that the quantity of light required should come from above and from the left side. Plate glass of equal density, clear and free from flaws and irregularities, is best calculated for the free transmission of light. The custom of introducing windows of tinted or cathedral glass may add to the appearance of school buildings, but possesses the disadvantages of diminishing the intensity of light and altering the equality of its elements. The walls and ceilings of schoolrooms should be tinted in colors, preventing any glaring effect, and, under all circumstances, the effect of light upon the eye should be soft, free from glare, and of sufficient strength to see with clearness and to admit of study with comfort.-Herman Bendell, M. D.

BLACKBOARDS.

EXTENT.

Blackboards should extend entirely around every schoolroom. It is better that the top should be 6 feet from the floor, to enable the teacher to place work on the blackboard to remain from day to day. For the use of the young children the boards should reach to within about 2 feet from the floor. This will give a vertical width of blackboard surface of about 54 inches.

MATERIAL.

Slate boards have frequently seams, are noisy, and, from the expense, schools fitted with stone boards usually have a very inadequate supply.

Wooden boards are noisy and generally very unsatisfactory.

Neither slated plaster walls nor blackboard plastic materials seem to wear well. Paper boards have been in use for nearly 20 years, and when properly constructed, are as durable as the walls themselves, and delight all who use them.

HOW TO MAKE PAPER BLACKBOARDS.

When a new building is to be erected, let the walls be plastered in the usual manner, except that the final coat, instead of being composed only of lime-putty and plaster of Paris should contain also sufficient good sharp sand to make a very hard surface, and it must be troweled till perfectly smooth.

When the plaster is fully dry, it is ready for the paper. Select manilla paper of medium thickness, not thick, having a good, smooth, calendered surface. Spread the paper cut to the appropriate size on a clean floor, and wet it with cold water, using a clean whitewash brush; apply good cooked flour paste (cold); lay the paper on the wall and smooth it down with a brush, as in ordinary paper-hanging. A soft cloth can be used instead of a brush. Nail a neat molding around the edge.

When dry, apply any good slating, and the next day rub the slating with fine sandpaper. Apply two or three coats in the same manner, rubbing each coat as the first. If the slating is of good quality, the boards, though constantly used, will not need to be reslated within 2 or 3 years. It is probably economy to apply three or four coatings of slating at first, as it will prove far more durable. Old cement boards or slated walls, if they are reasonably solid, may be cheaply converted into good boards by first filling smoothly any cracks and holes by a mixture of lime-putty and plaster of Paris, and then applying paper, as described above. Paper will not adhere to thick coats of whitewash. If old walls are loose and shaky they should be replaced by new ones and then papered, as in new walls.

Boards should not be washed, but can be well cleaned with a piece of dry flannel. If the erasers are made of a material which will hold the dust, and they are dusted every day by striking them against a board out of doors, there will not be very much annoyance from crayon dust.-H. R. Sanford.

SCHOOL DESKS.

Double desks cause the spread of vermin and disease, and the contamination of the pure, by close relationship with immoral seat-mates; the amount of genuine study is lessened, and the need of disclipine is increased by children sitting together at the same desk. The best schools have generally adopted single desks, and no double desks ought to be purchased.

In the matter of adaptation to the needs of the schoolroom, comfort and appearance, the best school furniture now leaves little to be desired, and the best will, in the end, be found the cheapest.

Great care should be exercised to adapt the height of seats and desks to the size of the children who are to occupy them.-H. R. Sanford.