The

almost discouraged he happily thought of trying the effect of music. services of a fiddler were procured and under his influence the negroes were stimulated to activity and the work progressed with alacrity. The effect of music upon muscular contraction has been definitely established.

First, that the strength of muscular contraction is greatly increased by any sound made simultaneously with the movement. This may be either an accompaniment of instrumental or vocal music, clapping, stamping, or shouting. Second, the strength of contraction increases with the intensity of the sound.

Third, it increases with the height of the pitch-the higher the pitch the stronger the contraction.

Fourth, muscular contraction is affected by the character of the music. Anything written in the major is stimulating; in the minor depressing. Fifth, the point of fatigue is greatly postponed.

Sixth, the steadiness of contraction varies. "This last," Jacob Bolin says, "is an experimental proof that music diverts the attention from the work at hand." In other words he claims that good form is lost in the effort to get the time.

It is a psychic law that the mind can focus its attention upon but one thing at a time, and most certainly good form of execution is the foundation of all physical training, or perhaps better, it is the goal toward which we struggle, for indeed there is no royal road to good posture. But how is it to be attained if there is no strength of body or muscle?

A weak man cannot do the work of a strong man and no more can a flaccid muscle be expected to compete with a strong and healthy one. Therefore, every means that is possible must be used to help build up the muscular tone of the body. As has been proven, music acts as a powerful stimulant, strengthening the muscular contraction. Therefore the blood supply to that part of the body brought into action is correspondingly increased. By repeated efforts it is possible thus in a shorter time than it could be accomplished without the aid of the outside stimulant to strengthen and build up the tone of the body. Hence any exercise which will greatly increase the blood supply and thus the nutrition of the body, is a good one and any outside agent which will aid in stimulating muscular contraction is to be desired and used.

However, as has been stated before, the mind is capable of focusing its attention upon but one thing at a time. With the use of music the time element is made of first importance and the form of execution must necessarily suffer, unless by previous practice the movement has become automatic. When, however, the muscular tone of the body has been so strengthened that it is possible to demand precision and correct form, then all stress must be laid upon the posture. Anything that will divert the attention from the proper execution of the exercise is a hindrance to the progress of the work and should not be employed. At this point in the development posture must not be given second place.

After the correct form has been thoroly mastered, in fact when it has become second nature, then music is again useful. It is a stimulus to the movement and adds interest to the work.

So there are three stages in the development of physical education in which music plays an important part, both as a help and a hindrance.

The first is when it is necessary to build up the general tone of the body. It is the preparatory stage when music by its powerful effect upon the stimulation of the muscular contraction is an absolute necessity. In every school where physical education is a part of the daily curriculum, and of course that ought to be every school in the country, a piano should be in each classroom; in the primary department at least. Where this is not practicable during exercise, time should be kept in some manner, either by clapping or stamping or beating on the desk with a ruler. The idea of allowing half of the class to sing while the remainder exercise is an exceedingly poor one. It is a waste of time and energy. Every child in the class should receive the benefit of the physical work each day. To permit the children to count in unison is an excellent plan especially in the lower grades.

The second stage is the backbone of all physical training-the correction of posture. Here, as has been previously stated, the whole attention must be upon the form of execution, consequently music is an absolute hindrance.

The last is the finishing stage when perfect control has been reached. Then music once more becomes a necessity and at last we realize the poetry of motion, the absolute control of the mind over the body. Therefore an intelligent use of music with physical education is to be desired. But like everything else it can be abused and its continuance thruout the entire course is exceedingly harmful.

WHAT CAN PHYSICAL TRAINING DO FOR THE TEACHER? HARRY M. SHAFER, PRINCIPAL, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, CHENEY, WASH. The ideals and purposes of any age have found their application and their attempt at realization in the practices and teachings of the schools of that period. The schools have been a reflection of the tendencies of the age.

Has there existed admiration for beauty of form, for ease and agility of motion, and for those forms of expression which are physical, education has been directed into activities which have resulted in the development of a highly perfected physical being. Has the hero of the time been the one in possession of mental acumen, and forensic power, the schools have exhausted their energies in varied forms of mental gymnastics. Has the man of the hour been he who held the mastery over the classics, the curriculum has consisted of the Greek verb and the Latin noun.

In educational ideals of our own times the law still holds. Not only do the incentives which impel each nation reveal themselves in their systems of education, but the rank of that nation among the peoples of the earth can be

determined, to a great extent, by a study of its schools. Yea more, the practices in vogue in any country along lines of school hygiene reveal the efficiency, or lack of it, in the educational system of that country. Almost in direct proportion to a clear understanding and application of laws pertaining to satisfactory physical development is general intelligence and social strength.

The unusually high per cent. of illiteracy and the decadent condition of the people of Spain are matters of common information. The general lack of appreciation of physical training values and the too frequent complete neglect of health conditions in the schoolroom and the close connection of these with the degraded state of many of the people are not matters of such common information. In describing the situation a recent Spanish writer in a current magazine of the country says:1

The schools of Spain are inadequate and unsanitary, the teachers are poorly paid, and not always capable, and about half the people are illiterate. Yet nobody troubles about this deplorable state of things; and an excellent law which was passed half a century ago to inforce a kind of compulsory education is a dead letter.

Some of the rural schools have had to be closed because the only opening in the building thru which the fresh air could come was overlooking a burial ground. Other schools were simply the antechambers of town prisons, thru which prisoners were conducted. Others, again, are separated only by a wall from the hospital. In Malaga, twenty-seven schools have the drains opening on the playground, or court, close to the classroom; of 429 schools in other provinces, 400 are without water; a large number of the schools in Spain are without lavatories, and even that condition is better than that of some where the lack of sanitary arrangements can scarcely be described.

Some schools in a province mentioned by the writer have no opening but the door, which naturally has to be closed during the prevalence of certain winds and when it rains. Quite a number of these hovels have no boards on the floor, and the children stand on the bare earth. Add to all this the fact that the little ones are cooped up, in very many instances in a manner which allows them to have only one-fifth of the cubic space considered necessary in other countries.

The number of teachers is absurdly inadequate; Spain has rather fewer than 30,000, whereas New York alone has more than 39,000. The pay of the teacher is distinctly small; a large percentage do not receive more than $100 per annum, and the maximum, except in some of the Madrid schools, is $400! It is hardly to be wondered at that the teaching is not good. Spain falls below the standard even of Italy. The pay and the social position of the teachers must be improved; when this is done. Spain will have more of them, and they will insist upon improving the condition of the schools.

The result of this lamentable condition of elementary education is that 60 per cent. of the people in several provinces are illiterate, while in those provinces which may be termed better-educated we find 40 per cent. of illiterates!

The annual expenditure for education is very low, beinga bout $5,600,000, which is less than little Belgium devotes each year to the enlightenment of her people. This sum is not increasing from year to year, but is practically stationary.

The children do not remain at school so long as in other countries; the consequence is that while in other lands the number of those unable to read and write has rapidly diminished during the past thirty years or so, in Spain the diminution is very slow.

Quite in contrast are the attitude and conditions of other countries. Those countries which have been alive to the causal influence of physical training, "Slow Progress of Education in Spain," Review of Reviews, June, 1907.

and its logical application thru school hygiene, present conditions far different from those that prevail in Spain. A century or more ago the English Parliament was appointing committees to investigate and act upon factory and school conditions in that country. The reports of committees, made from time to time, invariably culminated in a discussion of physical training and physical conditions in the schools. Altho the problem is an old one, it still lives, is vital, and is woven into the very meshes of the life of the people. Says a late writer,' discussing English life and physical conditions:

The forthcoming International Congress on School Hygiene, to be held in London, August 5 to 10, has aroused widespread interest in the subject to which the congress pertains, considered both in its relation to school administration and to school instruction. In England several important events have conduced to make the physical welfare of the young a subject of first consideration with the government, and also with the leaders in all measures affecting public welfare. In particular the South African war demonstrated in a striking manner the need there was for improving the physique of that class of the population from which recruits are chiefly drawn, and also for extending among the masses elementary ideas of hygiene and sanitation.

An outcome of the interest thus excited was the Inter-parliamentary Committee on Physical Deterioration, appointed "to make a preliminary inquiry into the alleged deterioration, of certain classes of the population, as shown by the large percentage of unfit recruits applying to enter the British army."

Of fifty-three recommendations made by this committee to the British government, thirteen were especially concerned with school hygiene. Their report was presented to both houses of Parliament, July 20, 1904, and in the following March another committee was appointed by the government to obtain further information as to the medical inspection of schools and the provision of meals for children by voluntary agencies. Meanwhile, a petition signed by 14,718 registered physicians was presented to the educational authorities of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, asking that the laws of health be taught and inforced in the national schools. As a result of this agitation, the English board of education and the Scotch education department have made the teaching and laws of health in public schools compulsory, and since the failure of the education bill of 1906, a brief measure has been enacted providing for medical inspection of schools in England.

The civilized world recognizes the fact that the comparatively small loss of life on the part of the Japanese, in their war with Russia, was not so much due to the inaccurate marksmanship of the Russians as it was to the rigid inforcement of laws of hygiene in the Japanese army. Bathing before entering battle, boiling water used for drinking purposes, changing under-clothing frequently, and measures of a similar kind are supposed to be responsible for the satisfactory condition of the Japanese troops. Perhaps an investigation would reveal a cause more remote in the lives of these people; it might show that the highly organized service of medical inspection in the schools, employing nearly 9,000 specialists, was the real cause of Japanese victory.

For many years medical inspection and direction in the German schools have been a potent influence in bringing them to their high standard of efficiency. Occasionally the world pays tribute to the educational standards and practices of the Scandinavian peninsula. Is there an educator who does not

"School Hygiene," Education, June, 1907.

know that much of inspiration and content in physical training, as well as in several other departments of the curriculum, have come from conparatively small Sweden ?

In recent time, almost within recent months, added value has been imparted to the schools of our own country thru attention, long-delayed, turned to improvement of the physical conditions.

The location of school buildings is being done more and more with an idea of satisfactory environment and foundation with regard to principles of school hygiene, school lunches are being arranged with some thought for their effect upon the individual and his power for work, the length of the school day, the adaptation of school activities to ages of pupils, the hygiene of the daily program, the requirements for a satisfactory school desk, a thousand matters of health are under scrutiny.

One of the most important movements in recent times is the enlistment of the services of medical school inspectors or consulting physicians. The mention of the title of such a school officer suggests his relation to and his direct effect upon pupils. However, his greatest influence has not been in that direction. The greatest good that he has accomplished has been to open the eyes of the teacher.

From the days of the ancient Hebrews, and before, various and varied aims have inspired education, but only here and there has there been a leader to bring into prominence the leading purpose of all education. There need be no hesitation in enunciating it as an established principle that the leading aim of all education, that to which all other purposes are subordinate, is health.

As a result of the efforts of medical inspectors in schools, teachers are beginning to realize that when proper physical training and health requirements are neglected or omitted they are derelict in duty and are falling far short of being worthy of the vocation whereunto they are called. They are neglecting that which will redound not only to the good of their pupils but to the promotion of their own well-being.

"What can physical training do for the teacher?" Teachers often weary of addresses and papers which discuss the teacher's high and holy calling, the responsibility of the teacher, the teacher's obligation to the state, her place in the "system," her relation to the coming generation, to the men and women of tomorrow. There is less of opportunity for ennui from the too frequent presentation of her obligation to herself. Some one has said that "A body, beautiful, strong, and healthy, under the control of a trained and balanced. mind, with both dominated by a high degree of social and moral consciousness, is the ideal which physical training seeks to realize and maintain." The body, the physical being, the foundation and center of action, ruled by a sane mind, to impress the personality upon the environment thru the ethical, which is also social. Physical training teaches the teacher the dignity and worth of her own being and that her function in life is to be fulfilled only thru the protection and