School Hygiene, in its Mental, Moral, and Physical Aspects

Hyyiene, in its Meutal, CSept.provide comparatively healthy surroundings, anld, indirectly at first, to provide for elementary education.Fr'om 18:33 children under 13 years of age who were workers had to spend two hours daily in school, and in 1844 this was raised to tbree hours.The enactment of 1792 preventing children under 8 years from chimney sweeping was followed, in 1819, by fixing 9 as the lowest lirrmit of age for work; this has been raised under the Factory (Health of Women, &c.) Act, 1874, to 10, and again under the Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act, 1893, to 11; and the Department, in the Blue Book, hopes, " That as years go on, "a nd public opinion ripens as to the importance of sufficient edu-"cation, and the mischief of early child labour, it may be found "possAble to raise still farther the minimum age of exemption."This was proposed to be fixed at 12 in the late Education Bill (1896), and in time may probably reach a limit of 14 years.In 1816 a Committee of the Commons concluded " that a very " large number of poor children were without means of instruc-" tion," and asserted that their education was a vital matter for This content downloaded from 185.44.77.