feels chilly," is as old as the days of Celsus, who gives a very practical direction how to avoid this when a bath must be had on a cold day. "Rub the surface well all over before going down into the water, and until it is in a complete glow." It is a great mistake to suppose that the shock will be more felt when the surface of the body is warm than when it is cold. The very opposite is the case, as those who have undergone the cold douche on coming out of the Turkish bath well know.

The time for remaining in the water may vary according to the warmth, either of the water itself, or of the bather's body. A mere dip and out again must suffice for the mere novice, and persons in delicate health, increasing the time a minute or two at each immersion, always taking care to use plentiful friction so as to induce the necessary reaction. From three to ten minutes will be proper for children and aged persons; and even the robust will derive more real benefit from a bath of fifteen or twenty minutes than they will get by remaining in the water, as some do, for the greater part of an hour. There are two tests by which we may know if the sea-bathing agrees with the individual, and will be productive of real benefit. The first is, a feeling of elation which should succeed to the first shock of the water; a desire to remain in and battle with the waves, the body feeling warmer as we proceed. But this, which forms the enjoyment of the robust and practised bather, is not often felt by the more delicate. It is sufficient for the latter if reaction or glow comes on whilst dressing (using plentiful dry friction to produce it), or at latest on taking a brisk walk on the beach afterwards. If reaction of this kind be persistently absent after two or three attempts, then bathing in the open sea should be given up, and exchanged for a warm or tepid salt-water bath at home, or at the baths usually found at seaside places. An increase in the appetite, with a desire for exertion, soon follow when bathing agrees; although for the first few days there may be some degree of languor and inertia. Sea-bathing may generally be made to agree, however, by using some preparation for it before starting for the coast. For this purpose the surface should be well sponged every morning, or even twice a day, in the dressing-room, with quite cold water, to which may be added a few handfuls of Tidman's sea salt. Should matters be even worse than those just mentioned, and blue skin with a tendency to collapse appear after the bath, the sufferer must be got into a hot bath as quickly as possible, and stimulants should be administered with plenty of warm clothing afterwards.

Within what limits as to age is it safe or profitable to use cold seaVOL. I., N. S. 1868.

X

bathing? Our knowledge of the weak and easily-depressed circulation in the young, tells us that it is not safe as a rule for very young children. Under seven it must be used only with the precautions mentioned above. Strong children, however, may be dipped without danger. Again, the vigour of the circulation begins to abate in most people at or before fifty-five. The heart and great vessels are often at that age the seat of incipient changes, which although they may be unknown to and unfelt by the owner, will not allow him to bear any severe or unusual strain like that of a sudden plunge into the sea, without risk of danger. Such persons should at least proceed with caution; preparing for the sea in the manner above stated, going into the water gently, covering the head as quickly as possible, and remaining in only for a few minutes. If we may be allowed to quote what we have written in another place, we should say that it is young men and females who derive most benefit and pleasure from sea-bathing; the former because their circulating powers are in their fullest vigour, and the latter because the body being partially covered, the shock of immersion is less severely felt, and because they commit fewer indiscretions whilst in the water and afterwards than the other sex.

WILLIAM STRANGE, M.D.

OUR GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

II. AS THEY ARE.

ECONDARY education, embracing in that term all the wide realms of instruction that lie between the primary schools on the one hand, and the universities on the other, is at present supplied to the English public by three different kinds of schools. There is the public grammar school, founded upon an endowment, and ruled by statutes more or less ancient; there is the proprietory school, established by individuals for purposes other than those of personal profit; and there is the private school, established as a business speculation by the master who conducts it. Each of these schools has its special characteristic.

The public grammar school is, to some extent, a charitable institution, giving an education gratuitous either in whole or in part. This enables it to be more independent than either of the other two classes of schools. As it gives something for nothing, it can itself fix the terms of giving. The master is, in great part, independent of the results of his teaching. He is appointed under the statutes of the school, and so long as he fulfils their conditions, he is safe in his position, no matter whether his mode of management prove satisfactory or unsatisfactory. He has no occasion

to please parents, either in the character or the quality of his teaching; and as a natural consequence the education given by grammar schools is less elastic and less energetic than that given by some other kinds of schools. The proprietory school is a school established by parents to secure to their sons the kind of education that they desire should be provided for them. The proprietors are either dissatisfied with the curriculum or the society of the grammar schools, or there is no good grammar school in their neighbourhood; and so they subscribe to provide a school to which they shall have the exclusive right to send their sons, and to decide collectively the kind of education that shall be given to them. The private schools, again, are schools established purely

and simply for the profit of the master, and they are used by people who either cannot send their children to grammar schools, or who desire them to obtain a different sort of education from that obtainable there. The last-mentioned kind of school is obviously the most elastic. It exists purely in consequence of a demand, and it necessarily shapes itself to the nature of that demand. Whatever parents desire to be taught, is taught in those schools; sometimes well taught, oftener ill taught; but still professedly taught. Each of these different kinds of school has its advantages and its disadvantages, which in the present condition of middle-class education it is important to weigh and compare.

An exhaustive inquiry, made under the authority of a Royal commission, the results of which are being given to the public in a report of twenty stout volumes, shows us that all these kinds of schools put together do not supply to any reasonable extent the educational wants of the middle classes. The means of giving their children a good education has by no means been placed within the reach of all middle-class parents. In fact, if we compare the educational facilities of the middle classes with those possessed by the lower and upper classes, we shall find that they are the worst-off class in the community. The British or National schools give to the labouring classes very fair facilities for the acquisition of primary education, and the Universities supply to the upper classes magnificent means of acquiring a superior education. But for the classes who seek the standard of their education between these two extremes very few facilities exist. There are schools of the three sorts we have spoken of-and there are good, bad, and indifferent schools in each of the three classes-but there is no system of schools to which a middleclass parent can commit his son, confident that in them he will acquire a sound secondary education, suitable to his opportunities. Each school, whether endowed, proprietory, or private, recognises its own standard only; and unless a parent can satisfy himself by particular evidence that the character of the school is such as he desires, he is very likely to send his son to a school quite unsuited to his requirements.

An inquiry into the character of the schools for secondary education in England discloses, moreover, far more that is unsatisfactory than that is satisfactory. The proprietory schools are generally good, but they are by their nature exclusive, and their advantages are confined to a favoured few. There is unfortunately but a small number of people among the middle classes of England who take sufficient interest in their children's education to build proprietory colleges in

which to prosecute it; and in considering the educational question we may safely leave those proprietory establishments out of sight.

The endowed grammar schools and the private schools are as a whole unsatisfactory. Some of the grammar schools are very good, and some of the private schools are equally excellent in their own way; but no one can rise from a perusal of the reports of the commissioners without feeling that they, as a whole, fall very far short of the requirements of the age. It is very evident that much of this weakness arises from the want of due organization and regulation. There is at present no system, and no common standard. Each school is straggling along upon its own path, taking no account of other schools, paying no heed whatever to the common interests of education, but acting in every way as if it were the only school in the world. This want of co-operation causes an enormous waste of teaching and learning power. It obliges each school to provide for the wants of all classes of scholars, and each scholar to enter a curriculum which, as likely as not, is quite unsuited to his prospects. The only way in which this difficulty-and it is a most serious one -can be met is by creating a comprehensive educational system, under which schools can be classified according to the requirements of the people who use them.

Such a classification can be most easily accomplished in the case of endowed schools. The fact that they are endowed gives the public a certain right to control them; for whatever the express instructions of particular founders may be, their most obvious intention was to benefit the cause of secondary education. They left their money to promote education in the way best known to them in their time, and the fact that they did not provide for the requirements of modern society is simply a proof that they could not foresee what was to occur in ages then far distant. Private schools stand upon a different footing. The keeping of a school is simply a business; and as the State gives the master of a private school nothing, it would be unwise and unfair to subject him to subordination or regulation against his will. At the same time, it is very possible that an educational system that shall at first only embrace the endowed schools, may be made so attractive that the private schools will voluntarily seek admission. Meanwhile, it is with the endowed schools that Parliament can alone act, and it is therefore with the present condition of those schools that we are now mainly concerned.

There are in England and Wales nearly 3,000 endowed schools. Of these about 2,200 are simply village, or other primary schools