and who are accustomed to doing pretty nearly as their elders do, the night seldom begins before eleven or even twelve o’clock.  It is one of the saddest sights of London to see small children dancing on the pavement in front of the public-houses up to a very late hour, while groups of loafing boys and hoydenish girls stand about at the street corners half the night.  There is little wonder that the morning finds them heavy and unrefreshed, and that schoolwork suffers severely from want of the alert and vigorous attention that might be secured by a proper night’s sleep.

Great harm is done by allowing children to take work home with them from school; if possible, the day’s work should finish with school hours, and the scanty leisure should be spent in healthy exercise or in sleep.

Overcrowding.—­In considering the question of adequate sleep it would be well to think of the conditions of healthy sleep.

For sleep to be refreshing and health-giving, the sleeper ought to have a comfortable bed and an abundant supply of fresh air.  Unfortunately the great majority of our people both in town and country do not enjoy these advantages.  In both town and country there is a great deficiency of suitable dwellings at rents that can be paid with the usual rate of wages.  In consequence families are crowded into one, two, or three rooms, and even in the case of people far above the status of day labourers and artisans it is the exception and not the rule for each individual to have a separate bed.  The question of ventilation is certainly better understood than it was a few years ago, but still leaves much to be desired, and there is still an urgent necessity for preaching the gospel of the open window.

Exercise.—­In considering the question of the exercise of adolescents, one’s thoughts immediately turn to athletics, games, and dancing.  As a nation the English have always been fond of athletics, and have attributed to the influence of such team games as cricket and football not only their success in various competitions but also their success in the sterner warfare of life.  This success has been obtained on the tented field and in the work of exploring, mountaineering, and other pursuits that make great demand not only on nerve and muscle but also on strength of character and powers of endurance.

Team games appear to be the especial property of adolescents, for young children are more or less individualistic and solitary in many of their games, but boys and girls alike prefer team games from the pre-adolescent age up to adult life.  It is certain that no form of exercise is superior to these games:  they call into play every muscle of the body, they make great demands on accuracy of eye and coordination, they also stimulate and develop habits of command, obedience, loyalty, and esprit de corps.  In the great public schools of England, and in the private schools which look up to them as their models,