Preliminary Programme

As a part of the Danish kingdom, Iceland obtained home rule in 1904. Compared to Denmark, the public health system in Iceland had developed slowly during the preceding decades. And even if mandatory instruction had been extended considerably it was not based on regular schooling with the exception of the most important towns and hamlets. This situation changed radically during the next few decades which was a period of intense urbanization and development of public health care. Here, as far as children are concerned, an important role was played by the primary schools whose role was strengthened and extended by a law on obligatory schooling in 1908.
In this paper, we will examine the role played by the city school of the capital (Reykjavík) in the provision of public health and medical care for children during the period 1910–1930. Among the issues we intend to address are the following: Which were the circumstances leading the municipal authorities in Reykjavík to establish health control and care for school children? To what extent was it organized at the initiative of female members of the city council and voluntary associations? What kind of health care and medical service was provided for school children during this period? To what extent did school children receive free meals and gouttes de lait? How important was the part played, respectively, by physicians and nurses? To what extent did the city and school authorities try to control and reduce the diffusion of contagious diseases among infants and children at school age? Did the initiatives taken by the municipal authorities in Reykjavik serve as an example that was followed by other towns in Iceland? Is it possible, on the whole, to assess the results attained in the field of public health and welfare by the intervention of the municipal authorities in the daily life of families in Reykjavik? (Show less)

A a subject of own rights, as a little person but also as a main element of the nation (at the demographic, economic and military level), the child is in France, as in all industrialised countries at the time, the subject of renewed attentions at the end of the nineteenth century, which can be illustrated by the creation of two different associations: one in 1896 called ‘Alliance nationale pour l’accroissement de la population française’ and the other in 1902 named ‘Ligue contre la mortalité infantile’. After very long discussions, laws were also passed about the control of day care centres (1897), the protection of abandoned children (1904) or the maternity leave (1913). France welcomed the first Congrès des Gouttes de lait in 1905. In this paper, we will pay attention about efforts made to promote breastfeeding, to facilitate the access to sterilized milk, and to provide free meals for pregnant women. We will also examine the publication of books and booklets dealing with baby care, not only concerning the physiologic side but also the mental and psycho-affective side, as recommended by pedagogics and psychologists. We will focus also on the prime education in day care centres and ‘Ecoles maternelles’ as places where new approaches to the growing up and the development of the infant and the small child were experimented with. (Show less)

The period between the two world wars was a return to independence for the Polish nation after 123 years of non-existence of the Polish State.
It was a time of political, economic, social, cultural, educational, scientific, medical, and health progress in an unprecedented way. The different circumstances in the three parts of Poland (former – Austrian, Russian and German) posed a great challenge to the integration and unification of educational, health and social welfare systems, when, for example, obligatory schooling was introduced in Central and North-East Poland ( former Russian territory) in 1919.
The school hygiene was an area, in which pedagogical and medical circles cooperated during this period. Many factors determined the high level of the school hygiene in secondary schools in Poland and the low level in primary schools. The main aim of this article is to present and compare two levels of schools and different conceptions of school hygiene and their realization in socio-cultural and economic contexts. (Show less)