Statistics compiled during the year 1913-14 showed that more than 20 per cent. of the teachers of the New York public schools were absent at some time on account of illness, and that these absentees averaged 16½ school days. The data obtainable showed four prevalent ailments: diseases of the respiratory organs, 35 per cent.; acute contagious diseases, 16 per cent.; nervous diseases, 15 per cent.; and digestive disorders, 11 per cent. And on the health of the teachers ultimately depends the efficiency of the entire educational system of the country. The Life Extension Institute of New York, in its tabulation of 2000 examinations of young men and women clerks between the ages of thirty and thirty-five years, showed _only_ 3 per cent. normal, _i. e._, free from bodily impairments and from habits of life which were leading to such impairments; and showed 59 per cent. sufficiently impaired to justify their recommendation to the definite care of their family physician. “These statistics were compiled at an age when the human being is supposed to be at the very prime of life. The results prove that the majority of young men and young women in New York City begin to die as soon as they are grown up. Deaths due to degenerative diseases have increased 86 per cent. in the past thirty years; this means an increased death-rate whereby between 100,000 and 200,000 lives are lost every year.” =The Reflex Action of Some of These Various Impairments on the Entire Organism.=—In the normal erect position of the body the trunk is given its greatest length, the head is held erect, the shoulders thrown back flat against the ribs, the chest is high, and the abdomen flat. (See Plate III, Senegalese woman.) In the bad postures noted in 67 per cent. of the entire class, of round shoulders with a stooped position and flabby muscles, we note four distinct and prominent factors in the breaking down of the human organism: _I. The Effect on the Chest and Lung Development and on the Action of the Heart._—In this malposition the upper part of the body is inclined forward, with the result that the chest is flattened to the extent of 1 inch. The restriction which this must mean to the expansion of the lungs is evident; and when it is realized that in the erect position the heart occupies the space between the breast bone and the spine, with practically no space to spare, the resulting interference with the heart’s action is evident.