Hygiene and public health / by B. Arthur Whitelegge.

  • Arthur Whitelegge
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hygiene and public health / by B. Arthur Whitelegge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    181/610 (page 169)
    Schools is 80 cubic feet, and the floor-area 8 square feet. These standards are very low. A higher stan- dard is adopted for new schools, except infant schools, and the London School Board now require 130 cubic feet per head. The window area should be not less than one-tenth of the floor area, and may with advantage be one-fifth, or more. Every window should be carried up to the ceiling, and should be made to open. Schools should not face a narrow street, or one in which the opposite buildings are lofty, on account of the difliculty of efficiently lighting the rooms on the ground floors. Natural ventilation is rarely sufiicient to maintain the purity of the air in schools, and fans or other artificial means are needed, as Carnelley has shown. Open fires do not distribute the heat suffi- ciently, and are less satisfactory than hot-water pipes. The seats should be arranged so that the strongest light comes from the left. The edge of the desk should be vertically over the front edge of the seat, and about the height of the scholar's elbow. The seat should be at least 9 inches wide, and about the height of the knee. The desk should slope, and the seat be provided wdth a back ; it is desirable to provide for a little horizontal adjustment of either the seat or the desk, so that they may be slightly separated for writing, and brought together for reading. Separate closets are required for boys and girls, and there should be at least one for every twenty scholars. Flush-closets are best adapted for the purpose. No dry system works very well in schools, as the admixture of ashes is insufficient for dryness and deodorisation. It is, of course, possible to make pails, earth-closets, or even privies serve the purpose, but only by constant supervision and far more frequent cleansing and scavenging than are usually available can they be prevented from becoming a serious nuisance in schools.