joy, as far as it is safe to enjoy, and feel too that he does it with the full approbation and good will of his instructer.

"There is one subject more to which we must be permitted to refer; one with which the morals of the young are intimately connected, one in which parents, instructers, and scholars should unite their efforts to produce a reform. There should be nothing in or about the schoolhouses, calculated to defile the mind, corrupt the heart, or excite unholy and forbidden appetites; yet, considering the various character of those brought together in our public schools, and considering also how inventive are corrupt minds, in exhibiting openly the defilement which reigns within, we do not know but we must expect that schoolhouses, as well as other public buildings, and even fences, will continue to bear occasional marks both of lust and profaneness. But we must confess, that the general apathy which apparently exists on this subject, does appear strange to us. It is an humbling fact, that in many of these houses, there are highly indecent, profane, and libidinous marks, images, and expressions, some of which are spread out in broad characters on the walls, where they unavoidably meet the eyes of all who come into the house, or, being on the outside, salute the traveller as he passes by, wounding the delicate and annoying the moral sensibilities of the heart; while there is still a much greater number, in smaller character, upon the tables and seats of the students, and even, in some instances, of the instructers, constantly before the eyes of those who happen to occupy them. How contaminating these must be, no one can be entirely insensible. And yet how unalarmed, or, if not entirely unalarmed, how little is the mind of the community directed to the subject, and how little effort put forth to stay this fountain of corruption. Such things ought not to be; they can, to a considerable extent, be prevented. The community are not, therefore, altogether clear in this matter.

"When we regard the deleterious effect which the want of accommodation and other imperfections, in and about these buildings, must have upon the growth, health, and perfectness of the bodily system, upon the mental and moral powers, upon the tender and delicate feelings of the heart, we must suppose there is as pressing a call for the direct interference of the wise and benevolent, to produce an improvement, as there is for the efforts of the Prison Discipline Society, or for many of the benevolent exertions of the day. And we do most solemnly and affectionately call upon all, according to their situation in life, to direct their attention to the subject; for the bodies, the minds, the hearts of the young and rising generation require this. It is a service due to the present and future generation. A service due to their bodies and souls."

I will now bring this long statement to a close by the enumeration of a few further particulars, which could not well be arranged under any of the preceding heads; and shall omit such things only as no CIVILIZED people can ever forget.

Where the expense can be afforded, every schoolhouse should be provided with a bell. If not the only mode, it is probably the best one for insuring punctuality; and the importance of punctuality can hardly be overstated, either as it regards the progress of the school collectively, or the habits of the individual papils. If morals were to be divided into the greater and the less, the virtue of punctuality should be set down in the first class. Probably there are few districts, which would not obtain a full equivalent, every year, for the price of a bell, in the improved habits and increased progress of the children.

It is also very desirable to have a time-piece placed in some part of the schoolroom, where it can be seen by all the scholars. It is both encouragement and relief to them. It has an effect upon the pupils, just like that of mile-stones upon travellers. Men and children have a wonderful power of adapting themselves to circumstances; but, with all their flexibility, neither child nor man can ever adapt himself to a state of suspense or uncertainty. All the large schools in the city of Lowell are provided with a clock, which strikes after stated intervals. This is a signal for classes to take their places for recitation, and for reciting classes to return to their seats.

Many schoolhouses in the country, are situated a hundred rods or more from any dwelling-house. In all cases it is desirable, but in such cases it seems almost indispensable, to have a pump or well, where water for drink and so forth can be obtained. In the summer, children usually require drink once in half a day. A hundred rods is too far for them to run in a brief intermission, or for water conveniently to be carried;-to say nothing of the inconvenience to a neighbor of having his premises invaded year after year, and, perhaps, his gardens and fruit-trees thereby subjected to petty depredations.

No children or teacher ought ever to be blamed for having a mud-plastered floor, if mats and scrapers are not placed at the doors of the house.

If there be not a cellar for wood when that species of fuel is used, a shed in which to house it is indispensable.

In the year 1831, the censors of the American Institute of Instruction submitmitted to that body a "Plan of a Village Schoolhouse." As the object of this Report is, not so much to present a model for universal adoption, as to explain the great principles which should be observed, whatever model may be selected; I have thought it might be acceptable to accompany this Report with the 'Plan' which was submitted by the censors as above stated, together with all the material parts of their explana tion of it. They are therefore appended. [See the 2d volume of the Lectures of the American Institute of Instruction, p. 285, et seq.]

It will be perceived, that the 'Plan' of the censors exhibits a Doric portion in front of the house. Such an ornament would be highly creditable to the district, which should supply it. It would be a visible and enduring manifestation of the interest they felt in the education of their children. And what citizen of Massachusetts would not feel an ingenuous and honorable pride, if, in whatever direction he should have occasion to travel through the State, he could go upon no highway, nor towards any point of the compass, without seeing, after every interval of three or four miles, a beautiful temple, planned according to some tasteful model in architecture, dedicat ed to the noble purpose of improving the rising generation, and bearing evidence, in all its outward aspects and circumstances, of fulfilling the sacred object of its erection? What external appearance could impress strangers from other States or Countries, as they passed through our borders, with such high and demonstrative proofs, that they were in the midst of a people, who, by forecasting the truest welfare of their children, meant nobly to seek for honor in the character of their posterity, rather than meanly to be satisfied with that of their ancestors? And how different would be the feelings of all the children towards the schools, and through the schools towards all other means of elevation and improvement, if, from their earliest days of observation, they were accustomed always to look at the schoolhouse, and to hear it spoken of, as among the most attractive objects in the neighborhood!

In the preceding remarks, I have suggested defects in the construction of our schoolhouses only for the purpose of more specifically pointing out improvements. I would not be understood as detracting from, but as attesting to, their usefulness, as they are. Although often injudiciously located, unsightly without, and uncomfortable within, yet, more than any thing else, they tend to convert the hope of the philanthropist into faith, and they fill him with a gratification a thousand times nobler and more rational than the sight of all the palaces in the Old World.

HORACE MANN,

Secretary of the Board of Education.

BOSTON, March 28, 1837.

(A.)

Letter from DR. SAMUEL B. WOODWARD, Superintendent of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.

Worcester, March 14, 1828.

HON. HORACE MANN, Secretary of the Board of Education

DEAR SIR:-Your note and queries, respecting the construction of schoolhouses, came to hand yesterday; I improve the earliest opportunity to reply.

First, as to the ill effects of high and narrow benches, and seats without backs.

High and narrow seats are not only extremely uncomfortable for the young scholar, tending constantly to make him restless and noisy, disturbing his temper, and preventing his attention to his books, but they also have a direct tendency to produce deformity of the limbs.

If the seat is too narrow, half the thigh only rests upon it; if too high, the feet cannot reach the floor: the consequence is, that the limbs are suspended on the centre of the thigh. Now, as the limbs of children are pliable or flexible, they are easily made to grow out of shape, and become crooked, by such an awkward and unnatural position.

Seats without backs, have an equally unfavorable influence upon the spinal column. If no rest is afforded the backs of children while seated, they almost necessarily assume a bent and crooked position; such a position, often assumed, or long continued, tends to that deformity, which has become extremely common with children in modern times-and leads to disease of the spine in innumerable instances, especially with delicate female children.

The seats in school-rooms should be so constructed that the whole thigh can rest upon them, and at the same time the foot stand firmly upon the floor; all seats should have backs high enough to reach the shoulder-blades; low backs, although better than none, are far less easy and useful than high ones, and will not prevent pain and uneasiness after sitting a considerable time. Young children should be permitted to change their position often, to stand on their feet, to march, and visit the play-ground. One hour is as long as any child, under ten years of age, should be confined at once; and four hours as long as he should be confined to his seat in one day.

Second Query-"What general effects will be produced upon the health of children by stinting their supply of fresh air, through defects in ventilation?"

An answer to this query, will involve some chemical principles, in connection with the animal economy, not extensively and fully understood.

The blood as it circulates through the vessels in our bodies, accumulates a deleterious principle called CARBON, which is a poison itself, and must be discharged frequently, or it becomes dangerous to life. In the process of respiration or breathing, this poisonous principle unites in the lungs with a proportion of the oxygen of the air, and forms carbonic acid, which is expelled from the lungs at each expiration. The proportion of oxygen in the air received into the lungs, is about twenty-one in the hundred; in the air expelled, about eighteen in the hundred-the proportion of carbonic acid in the inhaled air is one part in the hundred, in the exhaled air about four parts in the hundred By respiration, an adult person spoils, or renders unfit for this vital process, about one gallon of air in a minute. By this great consumption of pure air in a school-room, made tight and filled with scholars, it will be easily seen that the whole air will soon be rendered impure, and unfit for the purpose for which it is designed. If we continue to inhale this contaminated air, rendered constantly worse the longer we are confined in it, this process in the lungs will not be performed in a perfect manner; the carbon will not all escape from the blood, but will be circulated to the brain, and produce its deleterious effects upon that organ, to which it is a poison. If no opportunity be afforded for its regular escape, death will take place in a few minutes, as in strangulation by a cord, drowning, and immersion in irrespirable air. The cause of death, is the retention and circulation of this poisonous principle, in all these cases.

If a smaller portion is allowed to circulate through the vessels than will prove fatal, it produces stupor, syncope, and other dangerous effects upon the brain and nerves. In still less quantity, it produces dulness, sleepiness, and incapacitates us for all mental efforts and physical activity. The dulness of a school, after having been long in session in a close room, and of a congregation, during a protracted religious service, are often attributable to this canse mainly, if not solely. Both teacher and scholar, preacher and hearer, are often greatly affected in this way, without being at all sensible of the cause. Fifty scholars will very soon contaminate the air of a school-room at the rate of a gallon a minute.

Suppose a school-room to be thirty feet square and nine feet high, it will contain 13,996,000 cubic inches of atmospheric air. According to Davy and Thompson, two accurate and scientific chemists, one individual respires and contaminates 6500 cubic inches of air in a minute. Fifty scholars will respire 325,000 cubic inches in the same time. In about forty minutes, all the air of such a room will have become contaminated, if fresh supplies are not provided. The quantity of carbonic acid produced by the respiration of fifty scholars, will be about 750 cubic inches in an hour.

From these calculations, we must see how soon the air of a school-room becomes unfit to sustain the animal powers, and how unfavorable to vigorous mental effort such a contaminated atmosphere must prove to be. To avoid this most serious evil, is a desideratum, which has not yet been reached in the construction of schoolhouses.

In my opinion, every house and room which is closed for any considerable time upon a concourse of people, should be warmed by pure air from out of doors, heated by furnaces placed in a cellar, (and every schoolhouse should have a cellar,) or in some contiguous apartment, so that the supply of air for the fire should not be from the school-room. Furnaces for warming external air, may be constructed cheaply, so as effectually to answer the purposes of warmth and ventilation. When a quantity of fresh air is forced into a school-room by means of a furnace, the foul air is forced out at every crevice, and at the ventilating passages; the currents are all warm quite to these passages.

But if the room is warmed by a stove or fireplace, the cold air from without rushes in at every passage and every crevice, and while the parts of the body nearest the fire are too warm, the cur rents of cold air rushing to the fire to sustain the combustion, keep all the other parts cold and uncomfortable. This is a most direct way to produce disease; nothing can affect the system more unfavorably than currents of cold air coming upon us when quite warm.

I have said that schoolhouses should have cellars under them. The floor of a building withont a cellar is always cold, and often damp; this tends to keep the feet of scholars cold, while the head, in a region of air much warmer, will be kept hot. This is both unnatural and unhealthful. The feet should always be kept warm and the head cool. No person can enjoy good health whose feet are habitually cold. In school-rooms heated by stoves, the feet are very liable to be cold, while the upper stratum of air, kept hot and dry by a long reach of pipe, produces a very unpleas ant and unfavorable state of the head-headache, vertigo, and syncope often take place in such a

room.

The human body is so constituted, that it can bear almost any degree of heat or cold, if the change be not too sudden, and all parts of it be subjected to it alike. We find no particular inconvenience from respiring air at the temperature of ninety degrees on the one hand, or at zero on the other; but inequalities of temperature, at the same time, affect us very differently, and can never be suffered for a long time without danger.

There is one consideration in the preparation of furnaces for warming rooms, that should not be overlooked. The object should be to force into the room a large quantity of air heated a few degrees above the temperature required, rather than a small quantity at a much higher temperature. The air chamber should be capacious, and the passages free. The air should always be taken from out of doors, and never from a cellar. The air of a cellar is often impure itself, and, if pure, a cellar that is at all tight cannot furnish an adequate supply. The whole air of a school-room should be changed at least every hour; if oftener, it would be better. If a cellar is not much larger than the room above it, this supply will soon be exhausted also. The air of the cellar may be sufficient to supply the combustion of the fuel; this is all it should do-and for this purpose it is better than air froin out of doors, as the coldness of this checks the heat, and diminishes the temperature of the fire, and its power of heating the furnace.

In giving my views on this subject, I have been so desultory as to embrace nearly all that I can say on the other queries proposed to me. At any rate, my letter is already of an unreasonable length, and I must come to a close. Wishing you every success in the arduous duties of your present station, I remain truly and affectionately yours,

S. B. WOODWARD.

(B.)

Extract of a Letter from BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, Professor of Chemistry in Yals College, in reply to an inquiry similar to the SECOND proposed to Dr. Woodward.—See p. 208,

Of our atmosphere, only one fifth part, by volume, is fitted to sustain life. That portion is oxygen gas; the remaining four-fifths being azote or nitrogen gas, which, when breathed alone, kills by suffocation. The withdrawing of the oxygen gas, by respiration or otherwise, destroys the power of the atmosphere to sustain life, and this alone furnishes a decisive reason, why fresh air must be constantly supplied, in order to support animal life. But this is not all. Every contact of the air with the lungs, generates in the human subject from six to eight per cent, of carbonic acid gas-the same gas that often destroys the lives of people who descend, incautiously, into wells, or who remain in close rooms, with a charcoal fire not under a flue. This gas-the carbonic acid-kills, it is true, by suffocation, as azote does, and as water acts in drowning. But this is not all. It acts positively, with a peculiar and malignant energy, upon the vital powers, which, even when life is not instantly destroyed, it prostrates or paralyzes, probably through the nervous

system.

I find by numerous trials made with my own lungs, that a confined portion of air,-sufficient, however, to fill the lungs perfectly with a full inspiration,-is so contaminated by a single contact, that a candle will scarcely burn in it at all; and, after three contacts, the candle will then go out, and an animal would die in it as quickly as if immersed in azote, or even in water.

It is evident, therefore, that a constant renewal of the air is indispensable to safety as regards life, and no person can be compelled to breathe, again and again, the same portions of air, without manifest injury to health, and, it may be, danger to life.

It follows, then, that the air of apartments, and especially of those occupied by many persons at once, ought to be thrown off by a free ventilation; and, when blown from the lungs, the same air ought not to be again inhaled, until it has been purified from the carbonic acid gas, and its due proportion of oxygen gas restored. This is effected by the upper surface of the green leaves of trees and plants, when acted upon by the direct solar rays. The carbonic acid gas is then decomposed, the carbon is absorbed to sustain, in part, the life of the plant, by affording it one element of its food, while the oxygen gas is liberated and restored to the atmosphere.

(C.)

Extract of a Letter from DR. SAMUEL G. HOWE, Director of the Institution for the Education of the Blind, in Pearl Street, Boston.-See p. 290.

I take it for granted, that the existence of blindness, in the human race, like every other physi cal infirmity, is the consequence of departure from the natural laws of God; that the proportion of blind persons in every community is dependant upon the comparative degree of violation of the natural laws; and that scientific observation can in almost every case point to the kind and degree of violation.

Imperfect vision, partial and total blindness, are more common among men than animals, and in civilized than in savage or barbarous nations. It seems to be well ascertained, that blindness is more common as we approach the equator; and that on the same parallel it is more frequent in dry sandy soils, than in humid ones.

It is supposed by some, that in very high latitudes blindness is more frequent than in the temperate zones, on account of the strong reflection of the sun's rays by the snow; but besides that we have no statistical returns to confirm this opinion, there are other causes which make it doubtful; the solar rays are much less powerful, the days are short, and the tendency to local or general inflammations and congestions of blood, is much less in cold than in warm climates. Without, however, dwelling upon general rules, I will come at once to causes operating in our own climate.

Any one who has reflected that man was created with a perfect physical organization-that his eye, the noblest organ of sense, was fitted to reach to a distant star, or to examine the texture of the gossamer's web, will be struck by the fact that every tenth man he meets is either near-sighted, or far-sighted, or weak-eyed, or has some affection or other of the vision. Now, the frequency of this departure from the natural state of the vision, is not a fortuitous circumstance; if there were but a single case, it must be referrible to a particular cause; and, a fortiori, when it prevails in eyery section of the country, and in every generation. Let us consider the greatest derangement of vision-blindness: there are very few cases, where the eye is totally insensible to light; let us call every person blind, whose organ of vision is so permanently deranged, that he cannot distinguish the nails upon his fingers; for many persons can see how many fingers are held up between the eye and a strong light, who cannot see the nails. Of persons blind to this degree, and of those totally blind, there are about one in two thousand in the United States. This calculation is warranted by statistical returns, which are liable to error, only in putting down too few.

Of these six thousand five hundred persons, but very few lose their vision by wounds, injuries, or acute inflammation; the great majority are blind in consequence of violation of the natural laws, either by themselves or their parents; for I hold it to be indisputable, that almost every case of congenital blindness, is the penalty paid by the sufferer for the fault of the parent or progenitor. The number of cases of hereditary blindness, and of hereditary tendency to diseases of the eye, which have come under my observation, have established this beyond all doubt in my own mind. I have known many cases, where a parent, with defective vision, has had half his children blind; and one case, where both parents had defective vision, and all their children, seven in number, were blind.

There are, then, causes at work in our own community, which destroy the vision of one twothousandth part of our population, and impair the vision of a much greater part; and although each individual thinks himself secure, and attributes the blindness, or defective vision of his neighbor, to some accidental or peculiar circumstance, from which he himself enjoys immunity, yet the cause will certainly have its effect; the violation of the natural laws must have their penalty and their victim-as a ball shot into a dense crowd, must hit somebody. It is incumbent, then, upon each one, in his individual capacity, to avoid the remote and predisposing, as well as the immediate causes of impaired vision; and it is incumbent on those, who have an influence upon the condition and regulations of society, to use that influence for the same end.

It would lead to tedious details, to consider the various modes in which each individual or each parent should guard against the impairment of vision; but there are some obvious dangers to which children are exposed in schools, which may be pointed out in a few words.

You will often see a class of children reading or writing with the sun shining on their books, or writing in a dark afternoon with their backs to the window, and their bodies obstructing its little light; and if you tell the master he is perilling the eyesight of his scholars, he thinks he gives you a complete discomfiture, by saying, that he has kept school so for ten years, and never knew a boy to become blind; nevertheless, it is a cause of evil, and so surely as it exists it will be followed by its effect.

A boy reading by twilight, or by the blaze of a fire, or by moonlight even, will tell you he does not feel the effects; nevertheless, they follow as closely as the shadow upon the substance; and if, ten years afterwards, you see the boy selecting glasses at an optician's, and ask him what caused his imperfect vision, he will tell you that there was no particular cause; that is, the amount of evil done at any particular time, was not perceptible-as a toper, whose system is tottering to ruin, cannot believe that any particular glass of brandy ever did him any harm.

We should never read but in the erect posture; we should never read when the arterial system is in a state of high action; we should never read with too much or too little light; we should never read with a dazzling light of the sun, or fire, striking on our face.

Schoolrooms should be arranged in such a manner, that the light of the sun can be admitted in the right direction-not dazzling the eye, but striking upon the books; there should be facilities for admitting the light fully in dark weather, and for excluding it partly when the sun shines brilliantly.

I believe an attention to the physiology and laws of vision, by parents and instructors, would be of great benefit to children, and diminish the number of opticians; for as surely as a stone thrown up will come down, so surely does exposure to causes of evil, bring the evil, at some time, in some way, upon somebody. Truly yours,"

HORACE MANN, Esq, Secretary of the Board of Education.

SAMUEL G. HOWE