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The Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, held in Washington City in the autumn of 1912, was a notable event in the history of sanitation and in the discussion of the conditions of the physical and mental health of the people. The exhibition held in connection with the congress was instructive in many ways, and contained much of interest to those who are responsible, directly or indirectly, for the health of children. The first section of the accompanying manuscript contains brief and accurate descriptions of some of the most important of the exhibits, and comprehensive summaries of their meaning. Topics addressed in this section include: (1) School buildings and school sanitation; (2) Hygiene and tuberculosis; (3) Industrial hygiene; (4) Nourishment of children; (5) Mental hygiene; (6) Sex hygiene; and (7) Experimental psychology. An appendix to Part I of this bulletin presents instructions relating to tuberculosis, distributed by the Department of Health, New York City. The second section consists of excerpts and summaries containing the gist of some of the most important papers read at the congress. These abstracts are as follows: (1) Ringworm in the Schools of Mexico (Manuel Uribe Y Troncoso); (2) School Disinfection (J. T. Ainslee Walker); (3) Campaign against Contagious Diseases of Children (Walther Ewald); (4) Management of Tuberculosis among School Children (Arthur T. Cabot); (5) Studies in the Relation of Physical Inability and Mental Deficiency to the Body Social (Isabelle T. Smart); (6) Education of Immigrants in School (William E. Chancellor); (7) Service of Medical Inspection of Schools to the Teacher (Helen MacMurchy); (8) Follow-Up System in Medical Inspection (Thomas A. Storey); (9) Hygiene of Children's Teeth (William H. Potter); (10) Dental Hygiene for Pupils of Public Schools (S. Adolphus Knopf); (11) Universal System of Measurements (Leotardo Matus Z.); (12) Development of Hygiene in Educational Institutions (Dudley A. Sargent); (13) Training in Personal Hygiene in Private and Public Schools (John W. Ritchie); (14) The Public School as a Factor to Lessen Infant Mortality (Henry L. Corr); (15) Physiological Age in Education (C. Ward Crampton; and (16) School Children of the Stock-Yards District of Chicago (Caroline Hedger). It is believed that the information contained in this bulletin will be permanently helpful to teachers, school officers, and others interested in the health of children and the sanitation of homes, schools, and other places in which they work. (Contains 1 footnote.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

This two-part bulletin updates growth and activities of the parent-teacher associations. Part I, History and Progress of the Parent-Teacher Movement (Margaretta Willis Reeve), points to the Congress of Mothers, founded in 1897, as adopting parent-teacher cooperation as part of its program; and describes its evolution, purpose, and activities as the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. Part II, Program Service, Trends, and Expenditures of Parent-Teacher Associations (Ellen C. Lombard), discusses three factors influencing the parent-teacher association movement and ways to determine the success or failure of a program. Individual sections describe topics of current interest: (1) increases in revenue and expenditures; (2) the establishment and growth of colored parent-teacher associations; (3) questions indirectly related to child life upon which the organization has passed resolutions; (4) scholarships and students' loan funds that may be used to enable student completion of elementary or high school, or college; and (5) efforts promoting interest within the home regarding the literature of child life and training. [Best copy available has been provided.]

One of the most important factors in the education of children is the establishment of their physical health, without which all learning and training must have less value for the individual and for society than they would have with it. Implicitly in the act creating the Bureau of Education and explicitly in recent acts of Congress, investigations in regard to the health of children, the publication of the results of these investigations, and giving such information as will help teachers and school officers in solving the problems of school hygiene and sanitation are made functions of the bureau. The three papers transmitted herewith, written by F. B. Dresslar, Ph. D., specialist in school hygiene and sanitation in the Bureau of Education; Thomas D. Wood, M. D., professor of physical education in Columbia University;. and Charles E. North, M. D., of New York City, in a very effective way to call the attention of teachers, school officers, and parents to the importance of the health of children, and offer many valuable practical suggestions as to the means of preserving it. (Contains 3 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

Competent authorities seem to agree as to the causes of eye strain in school children other than congenital defects. Standard works on diseases of the eye are practically unanimous in declaring that myopia results from the protracted and unhygienic use of the eyes in near work. Most of the factors tending to cause eye strain exist in the schools. Among them are improper illumination: glare from windows, from glazed paper, and from improperly arranged artificial illumination; improper seating; poor printing and improper type. This bulletin represents the results of a comprehensive survey having for its objects the ascertaining of the following: (1) The nature and extent of defective vision in school children as disclosed by medical inspection; (2) The preventable causes within the schools and factors intimately connected with school life to which may be attributed eye strain and general deterioration of visual capacity, as established by the investigations of different authorities; (3) Efforts made to correct conditions inimical to eyesight in the schools and prophylactic measures adopted; (4) Clinical facilities for the correction of refractive errors and available sources of supplying needy children with eye glasses; and (5) Necessary improvements in facilities and methods in three various fields. The chief considerations were the environmental influences which tend to produce functional disturbances of the eye and thereby to impair the physical fitness of the child for school work and later for industrial or professional work. Eight appendixes present: (1) Book type specimens; (2) School survey forms; (3) Direction for testing sight and hearing; (4) Standard for admission to the conservation of vision classes; (5) Forms used in cooperative health supervision, New York City; (6) English and American specimen forms; (7) Vision test charts; and (8) State laws requiring vision tests. An index and general reference and annotated bibliography are included. Individual sections contain footnotes. (Contains 16 plates.) [Best copy available has been provided.]