Because the health of others furnishes a stronger motive for preventive hygiene than our own health, it is probable that the general examination of teachers will come first as the result of a general conviction that unhealthy teachers positively injure the health of pupils and retard their mental development. Children at school age are so susceptible and imitative that their future habits of body and mind, their dispositions, their very voices and expressions, are influenced by those of their teachers. Experts in child study say that a child's vocal chords respond to the voices and noise about him before he is able to speak, so that the tones of his voice are determined before he is able to express them. This influence is also marked when the child begins to talk. Babies and young children instinctively do what adults learn not to do only by study,--follow the pitch of others' voices. Can we then overestimate the effect upon pupils' character of teachers who radiate vitality? The character and fitness, aside from scholarship, of applicants for teachers' licenses are now subjected by the board of examiners of New York City to the following tests: 1. Moral character as indicated in the record of the applicant as a student or teacher or in other occupation, or as a participant in an examination. 2. Physical fitness for the position sought, reference being had here to all questions of physical fitness other than those covered in a physician's report as to "sound health." 3. Satisfactory quality and use of voice. 4. Personal bearing, cleanliness, appearance, manners. 5. Self-command and power to win and hold the respect of teachers, school authorities, and the community. 6. Capacity for school discipline, power to maintain order and to secure the willing obedience and the friendship of pupils. 7. Business or executive ability,--power to comprehend and carry out and to accomplish prescribed work, school management as relating to adjustment of desks, lighting, heating, ventilation, cleanliness, and attractiveness of schoolroom. 8. Capacity for supervision, for organization and administration of a school, and for the instructing, assisting, and inspiring of teachers.