It will, of course be understood that in this case I purposely misused a word, and the children being taught to think, easily detected it.

6.  WATCH AGAINST THE ENTRANCE OF DISEASE.

It may, probably, be considered presumption in me, to speak of the diseases of children, as this more properly belongs to the faculty; but let it be observed, that my pretension is not to cure the diseases that children are subject to, but only to prevent those which are infectious from spreading.  I have found that children between the ages of two and seven years, are subject to the measles, hooping cough, fever, ophthalmia, ringworm, scald-head, and in very poor neighbourhoods, the itch—­and small-pox.  This last is very rare, owing to the great encouragement given to vaccination; and were it not for the obstinacy of many of the poor, I believe it would be totally extirpated.  During the whole of the time I superintended a school, I heard of only three children dying of it, and those had never been vaccinated.  I always made a point of inquiring, on the admission of a child, whether this operation had been performed, and, if not, I strongly recommended that it should be.  If parents spoke the truth, I had but few children in the school who had not been vaccinated:  this accounts, therefore, for having lost but three children through the small-pox.

The measles, however, I consider a very dangerous disorder, and we lost a great many children by it, besides two of my own.  It is preceded by a violent cough, the child’s eyes appear watery, and it will also be sick.  As soon as these symptoms are perceived, I would immediately send the child home, and desire the parents to keep it there for a few days, in order to ascertain if it have the measles, and if so, it must be prohibited from returning to school until well.  This caution is absolutely necessary; as some parents are so careless, that they will send their children when the measles are thick out upon them.

The same may be said with respect to other diseases, for unless the persons who have charge of the school attend to these things, the parents will be glad to get their children out of the way, and will send them, though much afflicted, without considering the ill-effects that may be produced in the school.  Whether such conduct in the parents proceeds from ignorance or not, I am not able to say, but this I know, that I have had many parents offer children for admission, with all the diseases I have mentioned, and who manifested no disposition to inform me of it.  The number of children who may be sick, from time to time, may be averaged at from twenty to thirty-five, out of two hundred, we have never had less than twenty absent on account of illness, and once or twice we had as many as fifty.

Soon after I first took charge of the establishment, I found that there were five or six children in the school who had the measles; the consequence was, that it contaminated the whole school, and about eight children died, one of my own being of that number.  This induced me to be very cautious in future, and I made a point of walking round the school twice every day, in order to inspect the children; and after the adoption of this plan, we did not have the measles in the school.