Nor are the schools, in assuming the medical oversight of the pupils, trespassing upon the domain of private rights and initiative. Under medical inspection, what is done for the parent is to tell him of the needs of his child, of which he might otherwise have been in ignorance. It leaves to the parent the duty of meeting those needs. It leaves him with a larger responsibility than before. It is difficult to find a logical basis for the argument that the school has not the right to inform the parents of defects present in the child, and to advise as to remedial measures which should be taken to remove them. The justification of the state in assuming the function of education and in making that education compulsory is to insure its own preservation and efficiency. Whether or not it is successful will depend on the degree to which its individual members are spiritually prepared for modern co-operation. But the well-being of a state is as much dependent upon the strength, health, and productive capacity of its members as it is upon their knowledge and intelligence. In order that it may insure the efficiency of its citizens, the state, through its compulsory education enactments, requires its youth to pursue certain studies which experience has proved necessary to secure that efficiency. Individual efficiency, however, rests not alone on education or intelligence, but is equally dependent on physical health and vigor. Hence, if the state may make mandatory training in intelligence, it may also command training to secure physical soundness and capacity. Health is the foundation on which rests the happiness of a people and the power of a nation. HOW THE WORK STARTED The first work of this kind in Cleveland is described in Superintendent Jones' report for 1900. In that year the schools became greatly interested in the question of defective vision. Tests were made by teachers in different grades, and as a result over 2,000 children were given treatment. In 1906, an agreement was reached with the Board of Health, so that each alternate day a health inspector communicated with the principal of every school. Teachers were warned to be on the alert for symptoms of illness, and children showing signs of measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, or other common diseases of childhood, were reported to the principal, and through her to the Board of Health. Contagious cases were excluded from school as soon as detected, and a systematic campaign started against the waves of disease which were sweeping one after another through the schools.