students takes them
many hours a week from their department work. While this has its
disadvantages, it is felt to be more important to improve the physical
condition than to develop skill alone when the health is too poor to
stand the strain of exacting positions. It is often difficult at first
to persuade parents that such close attention to health is necessary.
The results, however, in the majority of cases have proved the wisdom of
this procedure.

Immediately after entering the school and being assigned to a department
each girl must report to the school physician. Beginning with the family
history, a complete record of all the important events relating to her
physical life is taken. She is closely questioned as to all bodily
functions, and a careful record is kept of irregularities. Eyes, ears,
teeth, nose, throat, and feet are likewise examined, and measurements
are taken of height, weight, and the principal expansions. After the
examination, instruction as to treatment is given, if any is needed.

The work in the gymnasium has three purposes: invigorative, reactive,
and corrective. Every girl who is not restricted on account of physical
defects takes the prescribed gymnastic work. Nor has this a physical
effect only, for through the active games such qualities as judgment and
accuracy, self-control, and the harmonious working with others are
developed. Slow, uncertain, vague movements denote lack of mental
quickness and strength. Motor activity, rightly directed, leads to poise
of mind as well as of body. These girls live mostly in crowded
localities of the city, where free exercise is unknown. The school aims,
as far as possible, to supply the lack of wholesome outdoor life and
give joyous active exercise. Talks on hygiene are a regular part of the
work and aim: (1) to give each girl a knowledge of her body and of its
functions which will enable her to care for her health in an intelligent
manner; (2) to show her the relation of food and its preparation to her
physical condition; (3) to establish in her mind ideals of correct
living which can be made practical in her surroundings; and (4),
recognizing the right and desire of every girl for amusement, to create
a love for wholesome and simple pleasures that will take the place of
the too strenuous and often unwise recreations which tend to undermine
the health of the girl who works.

The Lunchroom and the Cooking Classes

From the opening of the school, ho