_Country Holiday Funds and Open-air Schools._--The health of town children sometimes needs a thorough restoration, in default of which the child would become seriously ill in the dusty and contaminated air of our large towns. But in children of school age such restoration is possible only during the summer holidays. This is where the country holiday funds can play a very useful part. These began to come into existence in Switzerland about thirty years ago, and have now obtained a wide diffusion in all civilised countries, and especially in manufacturing countries. As with every new branch of public care for the needs of the poor, and especially with the institutions considered in this chapter, the first steps in this matter were taken by the community at large--that is to say, by private associations. It will be a task of the near future to organise and unify these associations. Such country holidays are an important feature of the campaign against tuberculosis. They have the further advantage, that they provide the child with manifold new experiences. The societies take poor and weakly, but not actually diseased children, and send them to the country for the summer holidays, in some cases boarding them with families, in other cases sending them to special institutions. The advantages of the family system are those of family life in general, and in addition that in such a family the town child will learn much more about the details of country life. Of late some of these societies have gone on to the foundation of permanent holiday homes for the relays of children they send to the country. Inasmuch as the good effect of the summer visit to the country tends soon to pass off, the after-care of the children during the winter is very useful. In the case of children who for one reason or another (for example, because they lack suitable clothing, or because the society does not possess adequate funds) cannot be sent to the country for a sufficiently long time, semi-urban colonies and milk-stations are not without their value. The children during the holiday season are taken by the teacher in large groups (forty to sixty) into the open, are well fed, and, if opportunity offers, given baths, and in the evening taken home to their parents. Of late years has originated the idea of the open-air school, which occupies an intermediate place between the school and the sanatorium for children. During the holiday season the children stay in the forest, and receive every day a few hours’ instruction in the open air. Holiday playgrounds provide opportunities for town children to play, under the guidance of suitable persons, in school-yards and in parks. In this connection may also be mentioned arrangements for the exchange of children during the holiday season between town and country families. Certain weakly and sickly children should during the summer be sent to a spa or a sanatorium. There already exist special spas, Kurorts, and sanatoria for children.