was sufficient evidence for school authorities. Suit was brought to compel the board of education to receive the child upon the physician's certificate, but the judge held that the board of education had a right to require inspection.

We ought to have in Chicago one hundred and fifty inspectors instead of fifty, so that inspection could be completed earlier, that is, within a half-hour after the opening of the schools in the morning. We spent last year $13,000 for medical inspection, but the appropriation has now been cut down to $9,000. If we could have more money and more inspectors, we could make the system much more efficacious.

In the city of New York there were examined during the period of ten months 140,000 pupils; number excluded, 7,606. In Chicago, during a period of seven months, there were examined 115,000 pupils; the number of pupils excluded was 7,600. The number excluded in New York was .5410 per cent. of the number examined, while in Chicago during a shorter period .66 per cent. were excluded. Out of 7,606 pupils excluded in New York city, 3,500 pupils had parasitic disease in the head, as against 500 from the Chicago schools during seven months for the same reason. In Chicago we have done double the work that they have done in New York, with one-fourth the force, at one-half the cost. The medical inspectors in New York and Boston report once a month; in Chicago they report once a day. In 1898 thirty-two cases of scarlet fever were reported as having been excluded from the New York schools; in Chicago 501 pupils were excluded in seven months for the same reason. I do not offer this statement in criticism of our neighbors, but to compare the methods of the two systems used.

DISCUSSION

SUPERINTENDENT AARON GOVE, Denver, Colo.- The objection raised this morning, that the question then under discussion was not legitimately a part of the work of this department, does not apply to this question. The question of medical inspection touches the work of the superintendents in a vital way. I do not know much about the comparative merits of the systems employed in different cities, and must refer to medical inspection as I know it. This is a practical matter and one that I very heartily indorse. The regulation of contagious diseases is not the only subject of medical inspection. The eyes and ears should be tested, and I am not sure but the teeth are proper subjects for inspection.

The use of the card catalog in keeping a record of the items of physical conditions deemed proper for inspection is a valuable help. This card should give the name of the pupil, state whether vaccinated, with the date, and give indication of bodily defect of any kind. This card goes with the pupil, whether he remains in the system or goes elsewhere. In Denver eight expert opticians have placed themselves at the disposal of the principals. No embarrassment arises from our use of this help, because, when defective vision is discovered, the teacher merely informs the parent that the child's vision is

seriously defective. We positively decline to give out information contained on the cards and deny access to them by speculative traveling doctors.

SUPERINTENDENT E. P. SeaveR, Boston, Mass.-Chicago may have been able to establish a system of medical inspection in four weeks, but we have found it too great a task to perfect a system in so short a time. We have, however, had medical inspection for seven years, while Chicago has had it in operation for two years. The medical inspectors of Boston visit the schools every morning, and inspect, not only the pupils selected by the teachers, but also many others.

The Boston inspectors have done more than inspect; they have established pleasant relations with the boys and girls. The teachers have learned much from them about the symptoms of contagious diseases. The measures taken regarding scarlet fever, etc., are very thoro. It is true that this inspection occurs under authority of the board of health, but the relations of inspectors and school authorities have been pleasant and harmonious thruout. The physicians who constitute the board of medical inspectors do this work for the schools, not because they are adequately paid, but because it is a part of their duty to the public.

One advantage our system has is that a large number of the medical inspectors are agents of the board of health, and they therefore have double authority. But they may

not only inspect, but may also isolate cases in the homes. They may send pupils home from school who appear to be ill, and then later on in the day may visit the homes of such children, as agents of the board of health, investigate the illness, and isolate the pupil in case of contagious disease. Such a pupil may be kept at home by the authority of the inspector until the recovery is completed. Numbers of possible epidemics have been stamped out thru the agency of medical inspectors.

SUPERINTENDENT W. H. MAXWELL, New York city. I am prevented by considerations of good taste from noticing more than one or two points of the address of Dr. Christopher. I give attention to these only because of a possible reflection upon the fidelity of the inspectors of New York. Being in a position to know, I deny emphatically that the reports submitted by them are padded or represent conditions other than as they occur.

An injustice appears in the comparison of the number of scarlet fever cases reported in Chicago and New York. The thirty-two cases reported in New York represent the cases found in the schools, and not the total number of cases excluded.

DR. W. O. KROHN, Chicago, Ill. The object of the American school is to develop the best type of citizenship, best physically, best mentally, best morally—a complete, well-rounded-out, well-developed personality. Such a type of citizenship is impossible without the soundest physical basis, a healthy body.

Therefore the state owes two duties to children: first, the preservation of health; second, education. In order to obtain the second we have compulsory attendance at school. It is not only illogical but unjust to maintain that we should have compulsoryeducation laws in the absence of good laws for the medical inspection of our schools. By what reasoning can we warrant ourselves in compelling children to go into the midst of danger, when we know that the school is frequently a focus for the spreading of disease? There is greater difficulty in enforcing medical inspection in the smaller cities and towns than in our large cities, for in the smaller community the sense of individualism is more pronounced. The smaller community is more nearly a social democracy. In the city the administration is more impersonal; enforcement is easier.

The most important argument for medical inspection is, to my mind, the educational benefit to the community at large, because the direct and aggressive tendency in the operation of the medical inspection of the schools is to bring to the attention of the parents in particular, and the community in general, a knowledge of the common laws of health. This knowledge soon becomes universal in spite of the most lethargic conditions. A better, more intelligent citizenship results.

The cry of the objector to medical inspection is paternalism. There is no real argument in this sordid cry of paternalism. It is simply a cry. We have heard this campaign slogan of paternalism before. It is always voiced when any movement is undertaken for improving social conditions. We have heard it when factory and sweatshop laws were proposed. We have heard it when we attempted to care for the stepchildren of the state, anywhere. If it be paternalism to care for the health of the children and of the community by providing medical inspection, then let us have more paternalism.

THE USE AND CONTROL OF EXAMINATIONS

PRESIDENT ARTHUR T. HADLEY, YALE UNIVERSITY

Every practical educator knows that an examination has two distinct aspects one looking toward the past, the other toward the future. It is a means of proving the student's attainment in that which has gone before; it is also a means of testing his power for that which is to come. It sums up the result of previous work in such a way as to help us in meting out praise or blame for what he has already done. It at the same time indicates the degree of his mental advancement, and enables us to place him for the coming year in those classes from which he will gain most profit and for which his powers will be most fully adequate. It protects our schools against waste of time in the days which precede it, by setting a mark which the student must reach. It protects our colleges against waste of time in the days that follow it, by giving us a basis on which to group our classes and arrange the tasks which are imposed. It is at once a measure of proficiency in what has been previously learned, and of power for what as yet remains unlearned.

Unfortunately, these two qualities do not always coincide. We have all had experience with pupils who have been faithful in the performance of their duties, and have acquired that kind of knowledge which enables them to pass a well-conducted examination creditably, but who do not possess that degree of mental training which fits them to go on toward higher studies side by side with those whose acquirements may be less, but whose grasp of principles is stronger. Proficiency in subjects studied during the few months previous to the examination is at best largely a matter of memory; and it not infrequently happens that such memory is most highly developed in those very pupils who have done comparatively little real thinking for themselves. This difficulty may be lessened by skill in arranging the examination; but, strive as we may, it can never be wholly eliminated. On the contrary, it is a thing which is increased by many of our modern changes, both in courses of study and in methods of examination.

In many of the older subjects of study the difficulty hardly exists at all. Take mathematics, for instance. In this group of sciences proficiency in one grade is almost synonymous with power to go on with the

next. There may be a few children with minds so peculiarly constructed that they are accurate "lightning calculators," and of very little use for anything else; but such children are the exception, and not the rule. In general, the boy or girl who has mastered the simple operations of arithmetic is competent to go on with the more complex ones; while the boy or girl who fails in these simple matters shows corresponding unfitness for what is more advanced. Similarly, knowledge of arithmetic as a whole is a test of fitness to study algebra; knowledge of algebra, a prerequisite to analytical geometry; analytical geometry, a necessity for the student who would go on into the differential calculus. What is true of mathematics is true of grammar, and of those older forms of linguistic study which were based upon grammatical drill as a foundation. With proficiency in the elements, advanced class work was made possible and profitable; without it, the pupil wasted his own time and that of his fellows.

But with new subjects, and with new modes of teaching, this necessary sequence is less marked. In studying literature, or history, or descriptive science, by the methods which are now regarded as most modern, there is no such connection between attainment in what is past and power over what is to come. It is not certain that the pupil who remembers the answers to the questions which are asked in most of our literature examinations thereby proves his fitness to go on with the works which are to follow. It is not sure that power to remember the facts of history which are taught in elementary classes connotes a corresponding power to use those facts in advanced studies. It is even less probable that the results of a course in descriptive science pursued at an early age show any indication of power to pursue these subjects farther. I do not wish to be understood as objecting to modern methods of science study. For those who are not going to carry these matters to a point where power in scientific research is needed they are a very valuable means of general information. But for that minority who do need to develop power in research such premature acquirements are often a hindrance rather than a help. One of the few men in the country who combine high attainments in theoretical and practical physics-a man eminent alike as an investigator, a teacher, and an inventor-is authority for the statement that you cannot make a really good physicist out of a boy who has been put thru a full course of descriptive science before he has studied the mathematical principles which underlie it. I do not know whether this broad generalization can be proved. I am inclined to think it an overstatement. But the fact that such a statement can be made by a responsible man shows that there is no necessary connection, but rather a conspicuous absence of connection, between acquirements in elementary science, as now taught, and power to go on with that science into classes which do work of a really advanced character.

Side by side with this change in subjects there has been a change of

methods of examination. Two generations ago a large part of our tests were oral. Today the increased size of the classes has necessitated the use of written examinations. That the change has been on the whole a salutary as well as a necessary one I do not question. In an oral examination the personal element is so strongly accentuated that it is almost impossible to have a guarantee of fairness in its administration. However good may be the intentions of the examiner, he cannot always keep himself free from his own prejudgments; while the absence of any permanent record to which appeal can be made prevents us from applying any corrective to the wrong impressions of the moment. But the effect of the change has been to make the examination more exclusively a test of proficiency in what is past and less available as a measure of power for what is to come. In the oral method, if it was well conducted, the examiner found some branch of the subject with which the pupil was familiar, and there proved or disproved the thoroness of his knowledge. By so doing, the examiner' could find out what the pupil really thought about the subject, rather than what he more or less mechanically remembered. But the written examination, even in the best hands, is apt to be a test of the range of a student's proficiency rather than of its thoroness. In the majority of the subjects on which we have to examine it is almost impossible to construct a paper which will test the student's reasoning power as adequately as it tests his memory. It is apt to become a mere inquiry as to the extent of the pupil's knowledge. Whenever this is the case, it loses the major part of its value as a measure of fitness for anything which is to come.

The evils thus far described are felt in all examinations, no matter by whom they may be conducted. But they show themselves with peculiar force whenever the student passes out of one school or one stage of educational work and into another. In rising from class to class within the limits of a single institution, the pupil remains under the charge of a head master, who can, to a large degree, correct the evils inherent in the examination system. He can direct his subordinates to base their scheme of promotion on records of special work and other matters outside of the scope of the examination itself. He can so arrange the course of study that entrance to higher grades depends upon merit in particular lines, rather than on general proficiency or faithfulness. When, however, the student passes from the control of one authority to another independent one, it is very hard to carry any such policy into effect. The difficulty is seen at its worst in civil-service examinations, where a student's entrance into government employment is made to depend upon tests of past acquirement which can, at best, very imperfectly indicate his fitness to serve the country in the line which he has chosen. I would not for one moment undervalue the good which has been done by the adoption of the examination system as a basis for appointment in our civil service;