with the Laws relating to Primary Schools, all necessary forms, regulations and instruments for conducting all proceedings under said laws, with such instructions relative to the organization and government of said Schools as he may deem advisable," and believing the work demanded by the importance of the subject, and the increasing public interest in education, he has prepared the following plans for Schoolhouses, furniture, &c., with such suggestions rel ative to warming, ventilation, location, and kindred considerations, as it is hoped will be of service to those who would adopt all true improvements, and avail themselves of every possible means to make the education of the young a leading interest in the State.

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In all well directed efforts of an enlightened people for the improvement of their Schools, the location, size, and construction of the Schoolhouse itself, will claim and receive early attention These local habitations of our Schools are themselves important agencies in the work of instruction. And though silent, they often speak more eloquently and persuasively than the living Teacher. Too much attention, then, cannot be given to the pleasantness and healthfulness of their location; to the comfort and convenience of their arrangements; to the facilities for rendering the School attractive, both as relates to its internal construction and its outward surroundings; to the furniture of the house itself, to the apparatus employed to render the instructions of the Teacher more attractive and impressive; and to the means of securing a genial temperature even during the severity of our winters, and a pure and healthful atmosphere where numbers are congregated. For no proposition can be more apparent than that, if there is one house in the District more pleasantly located, more comfortably constructed, better warmed, and more inviting in its general appearance, and more elevating in its influence than any other, that house should be the Schoolhouse.

LOCATION OF SCHOOLHOUSES.

In looking at the location of Schoolhouses through the country at large, it cannot have escaped the attention of the ordinary observer, that they are usually located with

little reference to taste, or the health and comfort of Teacher or children. They are generally on one corner of public roads, and sometimes adjacent to a cooper's shop, or between a blacksmith's shop and a saw-mill. They are not unfrequently placed upon an acute angle, where a road forks, and sometimes in turning that angle the travel is chiefly behind the Schoolhouse, leaving it on a small triangle, bounded on all sides by public roads.

At other times the Schoolhouse is situated on a low and worthless piece of ground, with a sluggish stream of water in its vicinity, which sometimes even passes under the Schoolhouse. The comfort and health, even of innocent and loved children, are thus sacrificed to the parsimony of their parents.

Scholars very generally step from the Schoolhouse directly into the highway. Indeed, Schoolhouses are frequently one-half in the highway, and the other half in the adjacent field, as though they were unfit for either. This is still the case, even in some of our principal villages, though many of them have, within the last few years, nobly redeemed themselves.

Schoolhouses are sometimes situated in the middle of the highway, a portion of the travel being on each side of them. When scholars are engaged in their recreations, they are exposed to bleak winds and the inclemency of the weather one portion of the year, and to the scorching rays of the meridian sun another portion. Moreover, their recreations must be conducted in the street, or they trespass upon their neighbors' premises. Such situations can hardly be expected to exert the most favorable influence upon the habits and character of the rising generation.

We pursue a very different policy in locating a church, a court house, or a dwelling. And should we not pursue an equally wise and liberal policy in locating the District Schoolhouse?

In this State six hundred and forty acres of land in every

township are appropriated to the support of Primary Schools. Suppose there are eight School Districts in a township: This would allow eighty acres to every School District. It would seem that when the general government has appropriated eighty acres to create a fund for the support of Schools, that each district might set apart four acres-which is but one acre in twenty-as a site for a Schoolhouse.

Once more: one School District usually contains not less than twenty-five hundred acres of land. Is it asking too much to set apart four acres as a site for a Schoolhouse in which the minds of the children of the District shall be cultivated, when twenty-four hundred and ninety-six acres are appropriated to clothing and feeding their bodies?

I would respectfully suggest, and even urge the propriety of locating the Schoolhouse on a piece of firm ground of liberal dimensions, and of inclosing the same with a suitable fence. The inclosure should be set out with shade trees, unless provided with those of nature's own planting, and ornamented with shrubs and flowers. Scholars would then enjoy their pastime in a pleasant and healthful inclosure, where they have a right to be, protected alike from the scorching sun and the wintry blast. They need then no longer be hunted as trespassers upon their neighbors' premises, as they now too frequently are.

SIZE OF SCHOOLHOUSES CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESPIRATION.

Some of our principal cities and villages can now boast as noble structures for Schoolhouses as can any of the older States of the Union, as will appear from the plans and descriptions of those hereto appended. And the work of improvement, in this respect, is perhaps now going on as rapidly in the State of Michigan, as in any of the older States. But as yet, in view of what remains to be done, it can hardly be regarded as more than well begun.

Within the last fifteen years I have visited half of the States of the Union for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the actual condition of our Common Schools. I have therefore noticed especially the condition of Schoolhouses. Although there is a great variety in their dimensions, yet there are comparatively few Schoolhouses less than sixteen by eighteen feet on the ground, and fewer still, perhaps, larger than twenty-four by thirty feet, exclusive of our principal cities and villages. From a large number of actual measurements, not only in New York and Michigan, but east of the Hudson River, and west of the Great Lakes, I conclude that, exclusive of entry and closets, when they are furnished with these appendages, Schoolhouses are not usually larger than twenty by twenty-four feet on the ground, and seven feet in hight. They are, indeed, more frequently smaller than larger. Schoolhouses of these dimensions have a capacity of three thousand three hundred and sixty cubic feet, and are usually occupied by at least forty-five scholars in the winter season. Not unfrequently sixty or seventy, and occasionally more than a hundred scholars occupy a room of this size.

Now let us proceed to consider what changes are produced upon the vital qualities of air by respiration, and the quantity hence, that is essential to maintain the healthy respiration of forty-five students three hours-the usual length of a single session, and half of the length of the two daily sessions of School; and often there is little ventilation during the customary recess at noon.

The quantity of air that enters the lungs at each inspiration of an adult, has been variously estimated from thirty-two to forty cubic inches. To establish more definitely some data upon which a calculation might safely be based, I some years ago conducted an experiment whereby I ascertained the medium quantity of air that entered the lungs of myself and four young men, was thirty-six cubic inches, and that respiration is repeated once in three sec