HYGIENIC DEPARTMENT AT FISK UNIVERSITY.
BY MRS. JULIET B. SMITH
The hygienic classes were to have begun this week, but are of necessity postponed that I may help in the model school until the new teacher arrives. Small-pox being in the city, I have examined the students in all grades and vaccinated all who were unprotected. I have had much pleasure and profit in talking over the matter of the hygienic classes with Miss Parmelee, and she has given me many valuable hints from her work at Memphis. We have fitted up a sick ward to be used in case of severe or infectious disease. It is at the top of the house, with perfect ventilation, and I feel quite happy over its capabilities. Mr. Hawley has been prompt to answer my calls for disinfectants, and I hope to make them tell on the health rates for the coming year.
In the hygienic classes, as full notes as possible are to be taken by the pupils. The magnitude of the task of teaching healthful living grows upon me, but I am glad and grateful to have the chance to go to work in the old field and to be better equipped than years ago. Miss Parmelee and I have it close at our hearts to get strong hold of our city girls, and through them of their mothers with a view toward mother’s meetings sometime and somehow. The health of the school is fair, the most serious ailments being among those who have taught in the swamp lands.