Health and Education.

By T. C. Horseall.

('Contemporary Review,' March, 1906.)

It is a proof of the perversity of human nature that it is still necessary to discuss the relation between education and health. Every not very unintelligent person who tries to be guided by a preference of the interests of the whole community to those of any section of it political or ecclesiastical, sees that complete health—good, strong, physical, mental, and moral health—is an acquisition more desirable than anything else; and therefore, if the community were guided by intelligence and by preference of general to sectional interests, the attainment of complete health by all persons would be the one object of all educational systems. . . . Though it is possible for the individual, especially if he Lave a considerable income, to be good and clever and sickly, this is not possible for a family living under the conditions which affect the lives of ninety-nine hundredths of the community. For the ordinary family lack of physical health and strength means unemployableness and morbid thought and feeling; and unemployableness and morbid thought and feeling mean loafing, vice, crime. . .

Let me first speak of the relation of education to one of the most tragical thing in human life—the permanent loss by members of the race and their offspring of functions the possession of which is necessary for the attainment of health and page 87 vigot. It is well known to all persons who study) the conditions needed for the health of communities that children who are suckled by their mothers have, as a rule, not only better health in infancy, but also stronger constitutions all their lives than children who are not so fed. In Germany, where observations have been made carefully and on a large scale, it is found that amongst artificially-fed babies the rate of death in the first year varies at different seasons from eleven to twenty-one times the rate for breast-fed children. Norwegian statistics show clearly that the high degree of immunity from disease possessed by naturally fed children in their first year is kept for life. In Norway, happily for that country, it is the almost universal habit—it has become the fashion—for women to suckle their babies; and one of the results is that notwithstanding the dampness and severity of the climate and the poverty of a considerable part of the population, the rate of infantile mortality—that is, the rate of mortality for children under one year of age—is only 100 per 1000, as compared with 145 per 1,000 in Great Britain and 250 per 1,000 in Germany. Norway also has a very low death-rate for children of all ages, and for men and of all ages except the most advanced, when even Norwegian man, being mortal, to die. It has one of the lowest death-rates in Europe from tuberculosis, The influence of the natural feeding of babies on health and strength in men and women is also clearly shown in France. There are districts where it has become the evil fashion for mothers not to suckle their children, while there are others in which that bad fashion does not exist. It is found that in the districts where artificial feeding prevails there are twice as many young men who are physically unfit at twenty for service in the army as in the other districts. . . .

I now come to the power of the school to cause bad health, or to prevent good health; and again I must use German statistics. The German child normally begins to go to school when it has completed its sixth year. In nearly all German towns the elementary schools are now under the charge of school doctors, one of whose duties it is to examine every child before it begins to go to school. If a child of six is in such a condition of health that the doctor believes that it will suffer from beginning school life, he defers its entry into a school for a year. The number of children who are thus caused to begin school life only on the completion of seventh year is considerable. In some places as many as 10 per cent. of the children are thus treated. There are therefore a good many delicate children who spend their seventh year at home, and a much larger number of more robust children who spend their seventh year in school. Dr Schmid-Monnard found that going to school almost stopped the increase of weight in girls for a year, and much diminished their increase in height; and that the more robust boys in Halle who spent their seventh year in school on an average increased 21 per cent. less in weight and 43 per cent. less in height than the more delicate boys who passed their seventh year at home. In Lusanne. Drs Scholder, Weith and Combe, who examined 1.290 boys and 1.024 girls, found curvature of the spine in 23 per cent. of the boys and in 26.7 per cent. of the girls. The percentage of cases increased rapidly as the length of time spent in school increased. Only 9.7 per cent. of the eight year-old boys in their second year of school, and 7.8 per cent. of the girls in that year had curvature; but of the scholars of thirteen years of age 37.7 per cent. of the boys and 26.3 per cent. of the girls had curvature. Lawrentjew found that in the lowest class of the village schools only 1.4 cent. of the children were short-sighted, but in the highest class of the classical schools 55.8 per cent. In Germany boys who pass a rather difficult examination at the close of their stay in a secondary school are allowed to serve for only one year in the army, if they are able and willing to pay for their uniform and their board. Not to pass this qualifying examination causes a boy to bo regarded as a dolt; many boys who would have no objection to serve for two years in the army are therefore led by ambition to try to pass the examination, and 40 per cent. of the boys who go to secondary schools succeed in passing it. It is this arrangement which, more than anything else, gives Germany its large supply of well educated boys. For some years after the system was established the eagerness of boys to learn, and the willingness of schools to give them mental training with a quite insufficient admixture of physical exercise, led to very bad physical results. In the year 1877 Dr Finkelnburg stated at a conference in Nurnberg that the figures collected by the Prussian Statistical Office showed that, of 17,246 youths who were qualified by the examination which they had passed to serve as one-year volunteers, only 20 per cent. were physically fit for service, while of the ordinary recruits, whose brains had been less burdened and who had had more physical exercise, from 50 to 55 page 88 per cent. were physically fit for service. The publication of these figures caused a great improvement to be made in the curriculum of the secondary schools. . . .

There is one matter of very great importance which I must mention here, and respecting which I fear that not all of my readers will agree with my opinion. I believe that the kind of physical training received by most of the boys who go to our large public schools and to the preparatory schools connected with them is doing a great deal of harm to the whole nation. By giving us a large supply of young men who are badly prepared for carrying on any kind of serious business or profession with zeal and intelligence, and who regard success in games as the chief object of their ambition, the system discredits games in the minds of sensible persons, and makes then unwilling to admit that rightly chosen physical training ought to be the foundation of the education of boys and girls of all classes. . . . If we are to to in clear ideas as to how schools can be made less injurious to physical health than many of them are at present, we must first of all gain clear ideas as to what conditions are necessary to enable human beings to gain and to retain health, and as to the constant inter-action between physical, mental, and moral activity and health. The conditions are the same for people of all stations, for princes and peasants, for costermongers and merchants; all are exposed to the same kinds of temptations; none can be protected against the influence of the bad elements of modern civilisation except by help of the influence of its good elements.

Let us consider what are the chief conditions which are necessary for the maintenance of good health. The habit of taking moderate exercise cleanliness of body, resolute obtaining of fresh air, of bright light and some sunshine, steady work for the earning of one's daily bread, the possession of adequate air space in a dry house—all these are obviously among the conditions. So are abstinence from drunkenness, gluttony, excessive use of tobacco, licentiousness. And so are cheerfulness, joy, the habit of being glad that one is alive, hopefulness for the future. These conditions can only be obtained by compliance with moral rules, obedience to which ensures the attainment of a high character. . . .

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