it will be observed that the human skin | public schools, indifferent to this subject of ventilation. And yet these figures are to be found in almost every book upon the subject. * is punctured, as it were, with almost innumerable small orifices, probably averaging three thousand five hundred to the square inch. These orifices are the openings of the perspiratory ducts from which the perspiration may be seen at times to flow. Now, these ducts, or channels, or tubes as they are variously called, communicate with little cavities upon the under surface of the true skin which contain very small glands, whose function is to receive the impure blood always passing into them, and to purify it by casting out, through the perspiratory ducts, the waste and offensive matters which it contained. The blood being thus purified, another set of vessels carries it back again to the body, and this work in the skin is constantly going on. * * There are sixty feet of these little ducts, or canals, to every square inch of the human skin. Now, the number of square inches of surface on a man of ordinary height and bulk is 2,500; the number of pores 7,000,000; and the number of inches of perspiratory tube 1,750,000, that is, 145,833 feet, or 48,600 yards, or nearly twenty-eight miles. Such a vast piece of mechanism must needs have very important duties to perform, duties most essential to the well being of the human economy. Not the least important of these is the one already alluded to-the casting out of the impurities of the blood, the retaining of which, because the pores are closed by winter cold air from upper sashes, or the impart ing of which to another, because of want of ventilation, is equally destructive to health and to life. I have confined myself, so far, in speaking of poisonous emanations of the skin to those which are given out in health; but to lend force to what I have just said, it may not be out of place to allude to those which arise from disease. To be sure these may be said to be exceptional cases; nevertheless they are, to my knowledge, sufficiently common to warrant, if not to demand, some notice. There is a class of serious diseases which, by medical men, are known as contagious, and by the public, as "catching diseases;" such for instance as typhoid fever, small pox, scarlet fever, meales, etc. Now, the poisonous matter of any one of these diseases given out in a school room by a diseased pupil is sufficient to so affect the school atmosphere as to convey the disease. Hence, in time of epidemics, ventilation becomes more than ever necessary, since it is the only practicable means the only means the teacher possessesthat can be used as a preventive of disease; it being well understood that “where tentilation is complete, in other words, where the gaseous poison is freely diluted with atmospheric air, the sphere of its operation is very limited.” That these impurities, or emanations from the skin, should in quantity be commensurate with the mechanism employed for the purpose of casting them off, you would be prepared to expect. Consequently, it is not a matter of surprise to There is yet another source of poisonlearn that it amounts to about thirty-three | ous emanation to which schools are exounces in twenty-four hours. With these figures before us, it is incredible that any one should be found in connection with posed; I mean the clothing of children. Concerning cleanliness in general, the teacher can not lay too great stress; but uncleanliness in the scholar's clothing- pure air-it is rather to be regarded, I mean uncleanliness as well to the nose as to the eye-is a matter that should not escape notice. There is a very peculiar and most marked odor attached to woolen clothing that has been shut up in some close and neglected dwelling, if only for a night, and be assured such odor is of poisonous character. But sometimes disease and death are carried by woolen clothing, that gives you no notice by its appearance, or unpleasant odor. A London physician of the highest standing in his profession, relates, in one of his lectures, that a piece of flannel used on a child's neck in a family that had suffered from scarlet fever, gave rise a year afterwards to the same disease, in the same house, which had been vacant during the time. The flannel had been shut up in a close draw er, and not been exposed to the air. Another source of impure air is only too noticeable in schools heated by furnaces, particularly when from the comparative mildness of the weather little fire is required, but is liable to occur at other times, as I have personally observed in the Second Ward School House of this city, which is claimed to be one of our best arranged buildings. oft times, as an atmosphere of poisonsuch as is to be found in ships which are unclean, badly ventilated or over-crowded, or in prisons or hospitals. Consequently it must and does give rise to and become, as I have witnessed in this city, the exciting cause of typhoid fever. You cannot live on poison; and whether you eat it, or drink it, or breathe it, the result is the same. I cannot easily imagine a more prolific source of disease than the one we are now considering, especially, as I have before said, when an epidemic atmosphere prevails; the predisposed being ready to take on disease. But beside the ills which arise to health from air filled with animal emanations, there is another class of ills which occur from the presence of too much carbonic acid gas, so freely and so constantly poured forth by the breath and the skin. I mean nervous diseases. That we may appreciate the action of this poison in our schools, it is only necessary to run over its effects in the order in which they commonly occur. When this gas has accumulated to the extent of one per cent. in the air respired, feelings of faintness and uneasiness across the brow begin. At two per cent. the heart is quickened, the faintness greater; there is some giddiness and nausea. At three per cent. there are vertigo, fluttering of We have seen how the foul air of the neglected school room is constituted. Robbed of its life-preserving oxygen; filled more or less with life-destroying the heart, nausea and sickness, followed carbonic acid gas; loaded with poison- by an overwhelming sense of muscular ous emanations from the breath, from the prostration. At this moment the conskin, from the clothing, and sometimes tractions of the heart become very feeble, from external emanations; the room the skin relaxes, and is bedewed with a warmed with air at times more or less de- cool, clammy perspiration. These sympprived of its moisture, and at times toms deepen with the increased quantity loaded with the products of combustion; of carbonic acid in the air respired, until ventilated in a way calculated to do the utmost limit of toleration is reached. almost as much harm as good ;- -we have From these effects it is certain that conalready heard all this, but it is not pos- finement in an atmosphere charged with sible that we shall ever hear the amount carbonic acid, even to the extent of one of mischief of which it is the cause, be- per cent. only, quickly deranges the cause too general and possibly spread functions of the heart and ultimately deover a life time. ** * The atmos- teriorates the tissues themselves of that phere of a school room is not simply im- organ. It is certain that in this func tional disturbance lie the germs of organic mischief, and that frequent repetitions of this cause will undoubtedly end in organic disease. "We can at most," says Hufeland, “breathe the same air only four times; for it is then, from the finest support of life, converted by ourselves into the most deadly poison.” Executive Session of the State Teachers' Association. MADISON, Wis., Dec. 29, 1878. Pursuant to public notice, the Executive Committee of the Wisconsin Teach ers' Association, with a large number of the teachers of the state, met in the room of the bank comptroller, in the state capitol, and organized under the chairmanship of B. M. REYNOLDS, of La Crosse, President of the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association. J. Q. EMERY, of Fort Atkinson, was chosen Secretary. must determine the age, which shall be included in the operation of this law. This will be attended with some dif ficulty. Select any five years of a child's life, and there will be some difficulty to say that the law shall lay its hand upon the child, and take him from the control of the parent who may need his services in manual labor. 2. This measure involves the supersedure of parental authority, or rather the assumption of parental authority by the At first State. This is an innovation. thought this may not seem far out of the way. As we look at the dangers of the State from ignorance, and the right of the State, it may not seem very objectionable, but it is an innovation, and one which will meet with opposition. And it may be questioned whether the State has the right to assume all the authority Prayer was offered by Dr. CHAPIN, of which the enforcement of this law would Beloit College. The discussion of the first topic upon the programme, "Compulsory Attendance," was opened by Supt. CHANDLER of Dane county. Mr. CHANDLER said that the pressure of official business had prevented him from making a full preparation, but he would make no apology. This subject had been fully discussed elsewhere, and a strong pressure was being brought to adopt this measure here. All of us, no doubt, wished to do right. He would call attention to a few points which should be attended to. The topic of compulsory attendance, involves : 1st. The enforced attendance of every child upon the public school long enough to enable him to read, write and cipher in simple numbers. We must insist that this attendance be long enough to reach these results. This cannot be accomplished in as brief a time as one would at first think. It usually takes from five to eight years. This then, involves the enforced attendance upon school during this length of time. We must look at this question i all its bearings. We require. This supersedure of parental authority involves other matters - it brings with the question the right of the parents to exercise their judgment as to the propriety of patronizing certain schools. Certain parents felt loth to patronize the public schools, and knowing the circumstances surrounding the public schools, he himself would not only neg lect, but refuse to send to the public school. It was a serious question whether the assumption that the merest rudiments of learning would make the child a better citizen. He would not argue against learning, but he thought that a little learning was a dangerous thing. 3. It involves the assumption that the merest fragment of learning thus acquired would render the child a better citizen. He was in not in favor of ignorance. He was in favor of the most widely spread education. But take away the stimulus of love and bring him into bondage to compulsion, and he did not believe that we would gain as good results as now. This law implies, 1st. Such an indifference to and neglect of our present school facilities, as to require it. It would be unwise to ask for such a law if there is not the most serious demand for it. Is there such indifference? To answer this we must fall back to statistics. The figures published show that a large number of our children are not attending school, and our last census shows that illiteracy is on the increase. He had a theory on this point, and did not think it proved this indifference. 2. Such an absence of parental care and such indifference to the future wel fare of their children as to demand such a law. It might be well in some cases to pass laws to provide against some future evils. If the depraved tendencies of our nation are such as to warrant us in believing that our citizens will thus neglect their children, then it might be well to pass such a law. But we need the most positive proof that such depravity exists. 3. Such a mercenary spirit and practice in the employment of children of tender age in manual labor, as to demand such a law. If this is the case here among us, we ought to protect the children, and give them at least the care we give to dumb animals. But does this state of things exist in Wisconsin? On one side of his district they raised tobacco, and it interfered with the schooling of the children. He would go so far as to favor a law forbidding children to be kept out of school to tend tobacco. But on the other side of his district they raised onions, and to be consistent, he must also prohibit children from being employed in weeding onions. He had alluded to the census report of growing illiteracy. His theory was that the illiteracy does not grow out of neglect of our schools, but it was imported illiteracy. It was largely composed of grown up young people who were kept from school by their pride. He knew of cases where young men grown were reading in the same class with children of six or seven years. This did not look like neglect of school privileges. The figures taken from his notes of visits showed that but one-half of the children in 29 districts were attending school. But this was not the fact. His visits were all before Christmas: if he should make his visits now he would find fifty per cent. of these absentees at school. The school-houses in his district averaged $600 in value. There was expended on an average $4.25 for every pupil in the district. This did not argue indifference. He had a better remedy. It was to have better schools. He was fearful that in our great zeal to have schools of a certain kind, we had lost sight of one of the greatest aims of the common school. It is the duty of the teachers, if there are scholars in the district who do not attend, to know the reason why. The old plan of boarding round was not an unmitigated evil. It would be a good thing if we could have a missionary or two in every district. J. Q. EMERY, of Ft. Atkinson continued the argument. He found himself alone in his advocacy of compulsory attendance. If he believed in the question as stated by Mr. CHANDLER he would also oppose it. The child had a right to an education, and no person had a right to take it from him it. He would not favor sending all children to the public schools. We have academies and colleges which are not public schools. He would hold that the child had a right to an education and that the State has the right to enforce this education. The State has a right to say how much we must know at least that we may be safe citizens; and it has the right to demand this education. The child may get it anywhere, at home or in college, but he must have this. Prof. NORTH of Pewaukee, said he did not question the right of the State to see that each child should have an education. He would go further, it was the duty of parents to bring up their chil dren to habits of industry. A close logician might go on and prove that law. It is not expedient, for it would fail. No board of supervisors would dare to put it in force. The dog law could not be enforced. It is not necessary. In Waukesha Co., the per centage of attendance from 7 to 14, was over 86. school. Looking at the working of the laws in European countries and in the States in this country where it has been adopted, and looking at the 54,000 persons in this State who could not write, he thought that the law should step in. Mr. CHANDLER said the attendance in There were over 50,000 children in Wishis district was over 90. Mr. NORTH said he knew that Waukesha county was not at the head, but he held that an attendance of 86 per cent. gave no caase for alarm for the commonwealth, and this was the only reason for this law. In Waukesha county each child had on an average 40 weeks schooling. A person so educated was not a dangerous citizen. A man was not necessarily a bad citizen because he could not read and write. He knew plenty of them in Waukesha county. Whenever there was a really good school, there was a good attendance. The idea that every good-for-nothing teacher should have the power to compel the children to drink of his muddy water was an outrage. To make a horse eat, give him something better than an empty rack. To give better advantages was all the compulsion necessary. Dr. CHAPIN, of Beloit College, said: Two or three questions had arisen in his mind which had been partially answered, These questions were: 1st. Is it necessary to attain the end? 3d. Supposing such a law was enacted, would it accomplish the object? In some communities such might be the only remedy. But such did not seem to be the case in Wisconsin. He thought that illiteracy had been referred to its true cause. He thought that other agencies would reach the end quicker than legisla tion, of which he thought we had ten times too much. Dr. FALLOWS said that he had been slow in reaching the conclusion that in this State the law should step in and compel the parent to send his children to consin who never attended school at all. Dr. CHAPIN asked if Gen. FALLOWS had discovered any way by which the law could be enforced? Dr. FALLOWs said he had not. Dr. CHAPIN said that GUIZOT said that GREGORY failed as a reformer from attempting too much. Dr. TWOMBLY said that he was in favor of compulsory attendance. This involv ed a necessity for it. If there were no children to be educated, then there was need for it, but if children were being neglected, then he would be in favor of a law compelling them. He was satisfied that educational statistics were unreliable. He knew the law had worked well at the east. But he was not in favor of laws which the moral sentiment of the people would not enforce. The first duty would be the missionary work. In Mr. MARSH criticised the statistics. He knew that many clerks made out these figures without leaving the house. one instance he visited every family in the district, and found the number twenty-five too high in the clerk's report. Mr. RAIT, of Sheboygan, said that he congratulated Messrs. NORTH and CHANDLER upon living in such enlightened regions. He did not; of all the children in Sheboygan, only about one-half of the census attended school. He said that in the factories there were boys deformed by being put to labor before they were strong enough, and he knew they were deformed mentally. Rev. Mr. PRADT said it was unsafe to reason from exceptional cases; and he knew that the state of things at Sheboygan was wholly exceptional. He thought that our present work should be to make the schools better; and he thought that |