MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO

Despite enormous progress made of late toward the preservation of a healthy physical condition in the university, some steps remain untried, some barriers intact, some problems unsolved. Harvard has aimed high. In providing for new gymnasiums, swimming pools and compulsory athletics for freshmen the college has advanced far, yet shadowed by such achievement the problem of sugar bowls in the Freshman Dormitories has been sadly neglected. Not only residents but visitors have observed the scarcity of sugar bowls, particularly in Smith Halls, and the vile condition of the remaining minority. The situation has reached a crisis; it demands instant action.

In his recent Medical Report Dr. Bailey stressed the situation. He writes, "The forty percent increase of sickliness among Freshmen in the past year may be traced directly to an insidious cause, the Freshman sugar bowls. In the first place, only twenty percent of the original sugar bowls are now in operation and furthermore careful analysis shows them to be rich in silicacious material, sulphides, oxides and other foreign matter. In some cases the sugar has solidified becoming absolutely indigestible thus adding impetus to the appendicitis epidemic."

In the face of such frank testimony, one must choose between the quick extermination of each successive Freshman class or the purging of adulterated sugar bowls. This issue cannot be dodged, not longer handled, as it has been in the past, with gloves. Furthermore, action must be immediate if the present Fresh man class is to be saved. There is absolutely no alternative.