APPROACHING CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION. In my last report I called attention to the International Exposition to be held in Philadelphia during the year 1876, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of our national independence. I would respectfully renew the suggestions therein made. My efforts to aid the Exposition at Vienna are made with the hope that the plans devised and tried may furnish educators in different parts of the country some practical views of what can be done at Philadelphia to show progress in American education. The stimulative effect upon every State, county, city, and town, school, academy, college, or university, to gather its history and record its present condition, can not fail to produce most excellent results. In the correspondence with this office of the commission in charge of the Exposition, there is evidence of an earnest purpose to give all educational interests their appropriate place. It is not too early for each system of education and each institution of learning to begin its preparation. If the Centennial serves as the occasion for putting into permanent shape for preservation the abundant educational history in this country, much of which is now unwritten, a great service will be rendered to mankind. General T. B. Van Buren, United States commissioner to the Exposition, consisting of the following gentlemen: Hon. J. P. Wickersham, Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania; Hon LA. Newell, Baltimore, Maryland; Hon. T. W. Harvey, Columbus, Ohio; Hon. Newton Bateman, Springfield, Illinois; Hon. W. H. Ruffner, Richmond, Virginia; Hon. J. D. Philbrick, Boston, Massachusetts; Hon. J. O. Wilson, Washington, D. C.; Hon. Duane Doty, Detroit, Michigan; Hon. W. T. Harris, Saint Louis, Missouri; and Hon. Henry Kiddle, New York City. A Circular of Information, containing the progress of, and other information respecting, the Exposition, was issued and widely distributed. The gentlemen of the committee just mentioned, who were able to be present, spent day in considering the best plan for the representation of an American school-house or school-room, and agreed on the following conclusions, as best under the circumstances: 1. A school-room with single desks and single seats for forty-eight pupils, the room to be 33 feet long and 27 feet wide by 14 feet high. 2. The room to be arranged as a room for co-education, to include two entrances and wo cloak-rooms, with all the usual appliances of a school-room. 3. The committee approve, if Ġeneral Van Buren is able to secure it, a building upon the plan proposed by Mr. Philbrick, suggesting that it would be better to have a ground-plan of the whole building. If this can not be done, the plan upon the foregong principles is recommended; or any harmony of the two plans or medium between them. These opinions were conveyed to General Van Buren. This Bureau has sent out 12,000 mail packets, composed of 17,000 pamphlets and let, respecting the Exposition. The result has been more extensive than was at first aticipated, and furnishes a gratifying suggestion of what is possible to do at our Cenennial Exhibition in 1876. 'In view of the fact that woman has derived such great benefit from the freedom of science and individual act, directly traceable to the spirit of the immortal Decration of Independence, and believing that she should properly give expression A census by the United States, with special reference to the prepa ration for the Centennial, would be exceedingly useful to the interest of education. THE GREAT FIRES IN THE WEST AND IN BOSTON. It is gratifying to observe, as described elsewhere, to what an exter the educational interests in those western localities which were visite last year by terrible conflagrations have already recovered from th effects of them. In Chicago, where were destroyed fifteen school-buile ings, accommodating 10,000 children, nearly one-third of the total en rollment, as Superintendent Pickard's report informs us, there scarcel remains to-day a trace of the fire upon the schools, and the school yea closes with only about two per cent. less attendance than at its begin ning. This result, it should not be forgotten, is due largely to th earnestness and self-sacrificing devotion of superintendent and teachers who, amidst the desolation of those few first days, decided that, with o without money, the schools should be continued. Mr. Philbrick writes that the recent great fire in Boston destroyed n public-school buildings, and will not disturb the pay of the teachers, o interrupt, for any length of time, the even tenor of the schools. The effect of the calamity upon the university at Cambridge is mor severe. It sustains a loss of property worth $560,000, the annual incom from which was $38,000. This is the heaviest blow from which the colleg has ever suffered. Her appeal for aid in this crisis is responded to by graduates and friends in all portions of the country. "We have re ceived," writes President Eliot, "$85,000 during the past week toward repairing our losses, and the prospect is good that the whole loss wil be covered by subscription. How many sacrifices, and how much devo tion and hard work, simply to regain lost ground! But I do not forge that a defeat redeemed is sometimes better than a victory." It is to be hoped that the receipts may soon equal the losses sustained. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, though' losing compara tively little directly, suffers from the fact that many of its friends have been crippled by the fire and are compelled to devote all their energies and means to retrieve losses. The Boston University loses all but one of the fine buildings of the estate devised to it by its lamented founder, Isaac Rich, esq., the loss, over and above all insurance,. being estimated by the trustees of the estate at $200,000. A granite block of stores, which cost $250,000 to build, being an investment of a portion of the funds of the theological school, was also eutirely destroyed. By a circular letter issued by the corporation of the university, an appeal is made to all who appreciate to her appreciation by directly identifying herself with work preparatory to, and 60 with the Exposition itself, the women of Philadelphia, lead by Mrs. M. E. Bronson Clark, propose an organization for this purpose, with which all the women of the land are to be invited to coöperate. -the highest education, and have means to assist in promoting it, for aid. Not less than $50,000 a year, for the next ten years, it is stated will be required in order that the university may continue in operation upon a scale worthy of its name and birthright.* The effects of healthy training on the growing mind and body of the youth, and the influence of school-life in preventing, correcting, or producing disease, are subjects so vital to the public welfare, that every teacher should be awake to the importance of understanding them. The census of 1870 reported the following number as dead at the ages mentioned: Between 1 and 4 years old Between 20 and 24 years old 203,213 26,329 15,979 20,262 25,981 So that the total mortality of the population below 25 years of age was 291,764, and the mortality of those who are fit subjects for elementary,` secondary, and superior instruction, between 5 and 21 years of age, was 88,551. But the mortality is only an indication of the amount of disease prevalent; and the diseases incurred during school-life, or aggravated by it, prepare many victims for lingering illness in later life, and Contribute largely to the mortality of the adult population. Beside this, many troublesome complaints, not of perceptibly fatal character, are often contracted in school. It has been discovered, for instance, that cases of myopea, or short-sight, increase in frequency and in degree as the course of instruction carries children from elementary up to secondary schools, and youth from academies to colleges and professional studies. Headache, bleeding at the nose, diseases of the eye and the spine, dyspepsia, affection of the bronchial tubes and lungs, exanthematous fevers, diphtheria, and many other complaints, have been undoubtedly induced or aggravated by the collection of numerous children in school under unfavorable conditions as to ventilation, light, heat, cleanliness, exercise, and habits of study. School-furniture is responsible for much curvature of the spine. Bad print, bad light, and bad position of the *But a few days after the great calamity at Boston, information was received of the total destruction by fire of the Illinois Female College, at Jacksonville. No less than three times, during the last ten years, has a similar misfortune befallen this institution; and since upon each of the two previous occasions the college arose from its shes to a new and more efficient life, it is not doubted that the present sad event will be attended with a like result, arrangements having been already made for the rebuilding of the institution. The mortality statistics of the Eighth and Ninth Censuses, with illustrative diagrams, by J. M. Toner, M.D., of Washington, D. C., were published in the Circular of Information of this Bureau for March, 1872. head while studying, continually cause distortion of the eye, and result ant trouble. But neither time nor space will permit of further detai here. The material collected on this subject will be published at a early date.* NECESSITY OF PUBLIC SANITARY MEASURES. School management, proper in kind and degree, good buildings, sci entifically constructed furniture, and clearly printed text-books, wil obviate much of this trouble. The enlightened interest and coöper ation of the medical profession are also much needed, and their advice should be sought and followed by all interested in the health of schools But we must finally go behind all schools, and, prior to the entrance o children upon instruction, see that the infant offspring of the poor in all crowded centers of population is put in proper conditions of health and is supplied with pure air, wholesome food, sufficient clothing and lodging. The awful mortality of children before school-age points to the still more dreadful amount of disease. Beside the 203,000 children which the census reports as dead between one and four years of age. countless thousands of little sufferers pined in dark rooms, wasted their young life in exhausting diseases, and lived on inuutritious food. Of these no account can possibly be taken by the decennial census; nor is there any instrumentality for their record. PUBLIC PARKS AS SANITARIUMS. While many important measures for the preservation of public health will be found imperatively necessary hereafter, I can not avoid pointing out here the great and immediate importance of sanitary appliances for the children of our cities. The following suggestions from the pen of Joseph M. Toner, M. D., late president of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia, are taken from a letter to this office, dated June 3, 1872: An examination of the published annual reports of the boards of health of our different cities for many years, reveals the fact that more than one-half of all the deaths occurring in them are of children under five years of age; and a study of the reports with reference to the causes of death, shows that a large percentage of them occur during the months of June, July, August, and September, and are attributed to cholerainfantum and kindred diseases, produced by the heats of summer. Whenever the thermometer rises and romains for any considerable number of days above 80° Fahrenheit, unless the greatest care is taken, deterioration in the quality of all fresh animal food takes place, even where it is kept on ice; and when such has to be used by jufants already weakened by meager diet, and by such protracted and exhaustive heats, their delicate digestion is sure to be damaged, and a class of diseases set up destructive to young children compelled to live in narrow courts and crowded and badly ventilated rooms. The poor, with the most active parental solicitude, can not * Valuable suggestions on this subject, contained in an article by the celebrated Dr. Virchow, of Berlin, were published by this Bureau in the Circular of Information for August, 1870. Overcome these evils and inconveniences in cities, or provide from their limited incomes the best quality of food, even in times of sickness, for their families. It has long been the habit of physicians to send children under three years of age to the country during the summer when their digestion becomes seriously deranged, (if their parents can afford the expense,) with the confident expectation that they will recover, and without medicine.. It is said the poor have no friends; at all events, so far no health-restoring springs, mural boarding-houses, or cool summer resorts have been established for the special accommodation of the needy poor. The impecunious condition of vast numbers of heads of families in large cities renders them utterly unable to remove their children the country during the summer months, no matter how urgent might be the necessity for such a change to save their lives. Children in this sphere of life, in vast numbers, in spite of all the physicians can do for them in the city, gradually waste away and die. To counteract this waste of life, I conceived the project, and have to some extent promulgated the idea, that the founding by cities of one or more large free parks camping grounds, as a resort for school children and their mothers and nurses during the summer months, might save the lives of many children who would otherwise perish. Such parks or sanitariums ought to be located on elevated wooded lands, above the line of malaria, where there is good drainage and an abundance of spring water. The site ought to be selected with special reference to its accessibility, on a line of ailroad or a steamboat route, and within a couple of hours' run from the city, and there provisions and the necessaries of life are cheap. In the United States every 300 feet of altitude above sea-level secures a temperature of about the equivalent of one degree of north latitude. The grounds should be improved by the removal of all underbrush, the planting of shade, fruit, and ornamental trees, the laying out of walks and drives, and by the rection of cheap summer cottages and boarding-houses every way comfortable and itable for the purposes of the institution. Those who could not obtain cottages should be permitted to erect canvas tents on particular parts of the grounds, and all be permitted to live in such style as might be suited to their means, provided they did not violate propriety, and observed a proper regard for the rights of others. Play-grounds, gymnasiums, school-houses, and chapels ought to be provided, so as to secure as much healthy and refined home influence as possible for all. The whole institution should be governed by liberal rules, so as to obtain the greatst amount of health and comfort to the greatest number, with the least constraint, bat with due regard to the rights of all. A medical and civil police should have the immediate supervision of the establishment, to insure order and preserve a proper gard for the laws of health and the salubrity of the park. In my report for 1870 I called attention to the value of parks in an educational point of view. I am happy to state that the legislature of New York passed, May 23, 1872, an act appointing seven commissioners of parks. THE "TIMES" FUND FOR POOR CHILDREN. One of the interesting reliefs undertaken for the young of the city of New York, and of the most salutary character, was carried forward by the managers of the New York Times newspaper. Mr. George F. Willjams, who was especially active in managing the fund from first to last, rnishes the statements from which the following facts are drawn for the information of those in other cities who are studying methods for ameliorating the sufferings of the poor and young: |