Brookline and Worcester. Mass.; Providence, R. I.: Pittsburg, Pa.: and Chicago, Ill., have also provided municipal baths open all the year. At the Brookline baths, instruction in swimming is given as a part of the regular course in the pub lic schools.
Great wisdom should be exercised in selecting a site for a municipal bath-house, in order that it may accommodate as many as possible of those who most need it. The criticism has been made against English bath-houses that they are so situated and their appliances are so elaborate that they are chiefly patronized by a class who ran well afford a private bath. A. Hessel Till man. in a paper read before the Royal Institute of British Architects in February, IS99, empha sizes this fact, and proposes that a municipal bath department should embrace three types of bathing establishments: (I) The central estab lishments, containing swimming-pools for both sexes, as well as tub, shower, and hot-air baths; (2) the district bath and wash houses, to be much smaller, much nearer together, and located in the poorest and most crowded districts, each building containing not more than 50 shower baths, and from 30 to 50 washing compartments; (3) the people's baths, very small buildings, con sisting of a series of double cells 6 X 314 feet, serving as dressing and washing compartments, the aim being to provide, in the simplest and cheapest manner, baths for the most crowded districts. The question whether or not a fee shall be charged is one much discussed by the advocates of municipal baths. It is contended that a slight fee encourages self-respect, and, on the other hand, that the establishment of even a small fee will debar that class who most need the baths. Many municipal baths, requiring
fees, have free days, and make no charge for school children.
The modern appliance known as the 'rain' or `shower' bath has done much to simplify the operation of the modern municipal bath-house. It requires less space, less water (11 instead of .50 or 60 gallons), and less attendance, and is therefore cheaper. It is also more sanitary. because cleanliness of the eompartment is more easily maintained, and there is no danger of infection from the preceding occupant of the bath. There is also less danger that the bather will take cold.
A recent extension of free baths is their intro duction into the public schools. This movement, like that for municipal baths in general, began in Germany. being established by Professor Fliigge and Mayer Merkel in the schools of the German university town of Giittingen in ISS5. Boston has introduced the institution into this country by constructing a number of palic baths in the Paul Revere School, in the north end of the town, in 1900. It is proposed to extend the system to other Boston schools. Much is to he said in favor of this plan, where the school chil dren come from the more crowded and unsani tary quarters. as attempts to keep school air pure by means of the most complicated appli ances for ventilation will be futile until a higher standard of personal cleanliness is secured among certain classes of school children.