Teacher: Student Ratio of 1:100!

I just chanced upon a book on Google books entitled Public Elementary School Curricula: A Comparative Study, written by Bruce Ryburn Payne and published in 1905. He compares the curricula of many different countries. One interesting thing I read - in Prussia the maximum teacher:student ratio was 1:80, but in fact it was often closer to 1:100 in rural schools. Can you imagine??? The book is very interesting, and I wish there was more time to browse it, but other things are more pressing...