A manual of hygiene : public and private, and compendium of sanitary laws ; for the information and guidance of public health authorities, officers of health, and sanitarians generally / by Charles A. Cameron.

  • Cameron, Charles Alexander, 1830-1921.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of hygiene : public and private, and compendium of sanitary laws ; for the information and guidance of public health authorities, officers of health, and sanitarians generally / by Charles A. Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    as in Prussia, by a person licensed for such a purpose, and should be subject to official visitation. The celebrated Rudolph Virchow, Professor of Medicine in the University of Berlin, has written (in 1869) a valuable treatise^ on the diseases incidental to schools, which I should be glad to see translated into English, and circulated amongst the school autho- rities of these countries. Virchow agrees with those orthopedists who maintain that the school is largely to blame for distortions of the spine, and more especially for that form of spinal curvature termed Scoliosis. He quotes several eminent authorities, amongst others Guillaume, who found amongst 731 scholars whom he exa- mined no fewer than 218 with distortion. The great majority of cases of scoliosis are amongst girls. In 72 cases noticed by Knorr, of Munich, there were 60 females. As girls spend less time at school than boys, and fewer girls attend at school, it has been urged that scoliosis is not most frequently induced by bad postures whilst studying. To this objection it may be answered that boys during their hoursof play counteract by vigorous exercises, involving the play of nearly all the muscles of the body, the evil influence of the school-room postures. On the other hand, girls, as a rule, do not practise any kind of gymnastics. In almost every school the children in each class, no matter their heights, have to sit at desks of the same size : why could not the desks for each class be made in short lengths, and of different heights, so that no child would be placed at one either too low or too high for him or her ? Dr, Guillaume gives a table showing the proper height of desks for children of different heights. Height of pupi] I. Height of Height of Height of table. stool. back. ft. in. ft in.2 in. in. in. 3 0 to 3 3 13.5 7.5 9.8 3 3 „ 3 6 14.7 8.5 10.8 3 6 „ 3 9 15.8 9.5 11.9 3 9 ., 4 2 17.0 10.3 12.9 4 2 ,, 4 5 18.1 11.2 14. 4 5 „ 4 8 19.2 12.2 15. 4 8 ,. 5 1 20.4 13.1 ]6.1 5 1 „ 6 4 21.6 14.1 17.2 Virchow attributes a large proportion of the pulmonary con- sumption of childhood to over-crowding in school-rooms, to sudden changes of temperature in passing from hot school-rooms into the cold outside air, to the dust of the school-room, and, lastly, to impaired respiratory movement induced by prolonged sitting. Short sight is the commonest disease in Germany. Dr. Cohn found that 60 per cent, of the students of the University of Breslau ' Ueber gewisse die gesundheit benachtheiligende einfiiisse der schulen. 2 11 Swiss inches equal 13 English inches.