EDITOR'S table: 



115 



iological teaching in tlie girls' schools 

 of the English metropolis. It seems 

 that the National Health Society, laud- 

 ably desirous of promoting the increase 

 of practical physiological intelligence, 

 offered prizes to be competed for by 

 the pupils of the girls' schools under 

 the coatrol of the London School Board. 

 The response, however, was not very 

 lively. Out of two hundred and thir- 

 ty-four schools only eleveA sent com- 

 petitors, it being presumed that in the 

 other schools physiology is either not 

 taught at all or so poorly taught that 

 there was no emulation. The eleven 

 schools which were represented in the 

 examination, we are to suppose, were 

 the best girls' schools under the juris- 

 diction of the board. Two hundred 

 and fifteen girls attended and competed 

 for the prizes, the examination being 

 conducted by Mr. Mc William, who re- 

 ported the result to the London School 

 Board. 



The " Globe " says : "Many of the 

 children appear to have been utterly 

 unable to understand the terms of the 

 questions. 'Mention any occupations 

 which you consider to be injurious to 

 health, giving reasons for your answer.' 

 This question, Mr. McWilliam says, es- 

 pecially appears to have puzzled them. 

 One girl's complete answer to this 

 question is, ' When you have a illness 

 it makes your health bad, as well as 

 having a disease.' Another says, ' Oc- 

 cupations which are injurious to health 

 are carbolic acid gas which is impure 

 blood.' Another complete answer is, 

 ' We ought to go in the country for a 

 few weeks to take plenty of fresh air 

 to make us healthy and strong every 

 year.' Another complete answer is, 

 ' Why the heart, lungs, blood, which is 

 very dangerous.' The word ' function ' 

 was also a great puzzle. Very many 

 answered that the skin discharges a 

 function called perspiration. One girl 

 says, ' The function of the heart is be- 

 tween the lungs.' Another says : ' What 

 is the function of the heart ? Thorax.' 



Another girl, in answer to the sixth 

 question says, ' The process of digestion 

 is: We should never eat fat, because 

 the food does not digest.' 



"Another class of errors is that of 

 exaggerated statements, one girl an- 

 swering, ' A stone-mason's work is in- 

 jurious, because when he is chipping 

 he breathes in all the little chips, and 

 then they are taken into the lungs.' 

 Another says, ' A bootmaker's trade is 

 very injurious, because the bootmakers 

 always press the boots against the tho- 

 rax, and therefore it presses the thorax 

 in and it touches the heart, and if they 

 do not die they are cripples for life.' 

 Several girls insist that every carpenter 

 or mason should wear a pad over the 

 mouth ; and one girl says that, if a 

 sawyer does not wear spectacles, he 

 will be sure to lose his eyesight. Fi- 

 nally, one girl declares that ' all me- 

 chanical work is injurious to health.' 

 Another child says that ' in impure air 

 there is not any oxygen, it is all car- 

 bonic acid gas.' Another says that if 

 we do not wash ourselves 'in one or 

 two days all the perspiration will turn 

 into sores.' 



" One girl states that ' when food is 

 swallowed it passes through the wind- 

 pipe and stops at the right side, some 

 of it goes to make blood, and what is 

 not wanted passes into the alimentary 

 canal.' Another girl from the same 

 school says, ' Yenous blood is of a dark 

 black color, and when it reaches the 

 heart it is made by the heart a bright 

 red color.' Several girls from the same 

 school repeat this last error. Another 

 girl says, ' The chyle flows up the mid- 

 dle of the backbone and reaches the 

 heart, where it meets the oxygen and 

 is purified.' Another says, ' The work 

 of the heart is to repair the different 

 organs in about half a minute.' An- 

 other says : ' We have an upper and a 

 lower skin ; the lower skin moves at 

 its will, and the upper skin moves when 

 we do.' " 



