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74 (i
v. social movements.
of a few sportsmen is becoming more and more evident. Here we will
only-mention that of recent years gymnastics have attracted increased attention,
through the fact that facilities for practice have come to be placed at the
disposal of increasingly greater numbers. Thus, in Stockholm so-called public
gymnastic troupes have been formed, so arranged that anybody and everybody
can join in.
In recent years, there has come into existence an organization for the
furtherance of endeavours for the improvement of public health in Sweden, called The
League for Physical Culture. This organization aims at promoting and diffusing
an appreciation of gymnastics, games, sports, vacation farm-work, etc.; and it
endeavours to awaken a taste for outdoor life in general, in the form of
walking excursions and the like. To this end it distributes literature, arranges
exhibitions, etc., and publishes a periodical.
The combating of certain illnesses found in connection with special occupations
and the promotion of satisfactory factory-hygiene grow in importance as the
country is industrialized. By the passing of the law of 1912, providing for the
protection of the worker and for the development of factory inspection (see
separate article), an important step in this direction has been taken. An
effective contribution to the efforts in this direction was the formation in 1905 of
the Workers’ Protection Society, the object of which is to illuminate the question
of how accidents can be avoided by suitable preventive arrangements, and how
sickness caused by the exercise of certain trades can be prevented. The Society
advances its objects by a State-aided permanent workers’ protection exhibition in
Stockholm and by disseminating literature and arranging lectures.
The measures that are aimed at promoting progress in the housing question
(see special article) are also of a social-hygienic character. Of particular interest
are those enterprises which have the object of providing good and cheap
dwellings for the working classes, as well as of bringing social and moral influences
to bear on the tenants, for example the Stockholm workmen’s homes and the
homes for women workers at Stockholm. The former enterprise, which has
been imitated in many places, and which is due to the efforts of Miss Agnes
Lagerstedt, aims at providing poor families with good and inexpensive dwellings
and affording them personal help by means of the services of the landlord’s
deputy, a lady who lives in the same building. By means of a co-operative
shop, children’s gardens, lectures, and entertainments, efforts are made further to
promote the tenants’ education and well-being. The homes for women workers,
founded by Miss Gerda Meyerson, are intended to afford similar advantages for
unmarried work-women.
In the department of dwelling-house hygiene much remains to be done, not
least in the question of enlightenment. In all larger communities the need for
the inspection of dwellings becomes more and more evident; and in many places
where such inspection does not exist ignorance of the proper methods of
looking after a home can be clearly traced.
In the department of social hygiene can also be included measures for
disseminating knowledge of sexual matters and of sexual hygiene. Efforts in this
direction are still isolated and random. In a number of schools the higher
classes are instructed in such matters by their teachers, addresses have been
delivered at lecturing and other institutions by medical men, and a fairly
extensive literature on the question has seen the day. Yet much remains to be
done before the work of enlightenment in these delicate questions can be said
to be satisfactorily organized.
Measures for combating prostitution and the white slave traffic are also allied
to this work of enlightenment. A branch of the international federation which
has made it its mission to secure the abolition of licensed prostitution has been
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