Light in Relation to School Hygiene
In the Oeuvre nationale de l'enfance, Dr. R. Ledent published an article emphasizing the unquestionable influence of sunlight in various domains: growth of children, development of the adolescent, aptitudes of the adult, preservation of diseases, and treatment of certain diseases such as tuberculosis. From the standpoint of school hygiene, it may be said that rickets presents, according to Woringer of Strasbourg, who collected statistics from many different parts of Europe, a minimum of frequency in June, July, August and September, whereas it increases from October to January and attains its maximum in February, March and April. In older children, general disorders of nutrition appear toward the end of winter and disappear in the spring: loss of appetite, flabby musculature, fatigability, anemia, lack of initiative, depression, nervousness and insomnia. It has been shown also that certain infections fear the sun, as angina, erysipelas, bronchopneumonia and