CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10653, 14 May 1895, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

At a recent meeting of the health in Otago Educational Institute,' the , an interesting paper was read school. on the important subject of school sanitation. The authorwas Mr Geo. Balsille, head-master of the Sandymount School, a gentleman who has given a good deslof attention to inculcating his ideas upon his pupils. In his ideas there is nothing new; the whole point lies in their application. Personal cleanliness, and the importance of pure atmosphere, are the lessons enforced by Mr Balsille. In his paper he condemned the lack of cleanliness in the streets of our towns, and said that when there was added to this the danger arising from imperfect ventilation, cleansing, and other sanitary arrangements, the wonder was that the whole city was not decimated. In consequence of these terrible affairs there was not a school in any of the large towns that had altogether escaped from epidemic of some sort. Moreover, with reference to country schools, these past few years he had scarcely heard of one which had come off scot free except his own. Of course, some would, no doubt, think this due to the singularly healthy aspect or position of his school. This was not so, however, since the same school under his predecessors was as frequently scourged as others; but since under hia charge, for the last eight years, it had nob even been once closed for any kind of sickness. This he attributed to a systematic carefulness of ventilation, fumigation and other measures taken for the general cleanliness of the school. A school that had 1 not for eight years been closed on account of sickness may well be taken 'as a model for others to copy. Mr Balsille lays especial stress upon free ventilation, but in town schools, in addition to this, he says, there ought to be a spraying of the walls with chlorine water, or where the practice of white-washing is resorted to,' there should be a certain quantity of chloride of lime mixed with the wash, and the walls washed with the solution at least twice a year. Again, all school committees should set their faces as flints against cesspools for the reception of nightsoil. These measures are so self-evident that the wonder is they are not strictly enforced everywhere.

These - are subjects in our' PHrsxoLOGi public schools for the more and laws advanced pupils, but there oir health, seems to be a lack of simple and comprehensible lessons for the younger children in matters essential to tho preservation of health. Teachers might remedy this by giving a few plain directions whenever occasion arose. To show how imperfectly public school pupils assimilate the lessons in physiology, the English paper Health lately published a selection of answers upon that subject. Hero are a few on the subject of disease and health:Disease is more common to some people than to others. Disease is sickness caused by the introduction of some foreign, generally insect, substance, as cholera. All mechanical work is injurious to. the health. Neuralgia is caused by nerves trying to pierce the bones. The bones need constant oiling. This oil is called cartilage, ami rune from all the glands in the body. Take, again, the. following on the comparatively simple topic of digestion : Digestion belongs to the lower animals. Digestion is reducing our food to plump. Tha organs of digestion are the stomach, liver, spleen and utensils. The stomach is a small pear-shaped bone situated in the body. The gastic juice keeps the bones from creaking. It is not very serious to find children mistaking a word and writing about the abdominal “ canopy/’ or saying that the blood is “putrefied” in the lungs; but it is alarming to find such misunderstanding of facts as is betrayed iu the following replies When the intestines become congealed they are followed by instant death. The heart, lungs and blood is very dangerous. A cow has no pulse, bat the higher animals sometimes do. Tho molars are the teeth that grow outside tha head. The growth of a tooth begins in tho back of the mouth and extends to the stomach. •

Physiology taught or assimilated in that fashion cannot be productive of any good, and may indeed lead to very disastrous consequences. Instead of trying to stuff youthful minds with abstruse facta and learned terms, it would be much better to impress upon them in plain language the simple everyday rales for the prevention of disease.

Report alleges that the the sultan Sultan of Turkey has been and the thrown into a state of powers. consternation at finding England, Russia and the other Great Powers at one demanding the introduction of administrative reforms iq Armenia. Evidently his Majesty has boon living in a fool’s paradise and trusting that international jealousies would suffice to protect him from molestation. According to General Low Wallace, the well-known Armenian author. It the. SjiJten is] tho ablest, diplfr?

tafctist in . Europe. He holds his place by xeaaon of the equilibrium he maintains •inoag the Great Powers. His whole business is to play off one of his covetous neighbours against the other, to soothe the ■usceptibilities of one and excite those of another, so as to maintain himself through their rivalries and thoir jealousies. Tho Snltainship is in consequence an unstable and precarious office, and demands the very highest order of diplomatic shill on the part of the man who fills it. The present Sultan possesses that skill in an eminent degree. He ‘teeters’ in the balance with a consciousness that a solitary error would he fatal to him. But he makes no mistakes.” If this is a true picture of the Sultan, there is some hope for Armenia. Once the Sultan is satisfied that the Powers are as earnest as they are in appearance united on the subject of the anti-Christian outrages, he will concede whatever guarantees they may demand. But if he is as able as General Wallace depicts, he may imagine himself able to set the Powers quarrelling among themselves, and there is thus an element of danger. It is to be hoped, however, that the attitude of united and horrified remonstrance will be maintained, and effective reforms insisted upon.