r.] EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES. 89 



which it affords to the faculties of observation and com- 

 parison ; and I may add, the exactness of knowledge 

 which it requires on the part of those among its votaries 

 who desire to extend its boundaries. 



If what has been said as to the position and scope 

 of Biology be correct, our third question — What is the 

 practical value of physiological instruction \ — might, one 

 would think, be left to answer itself. 



On other grounds even, were mankind deserving of 

 the title " rational," which they arrogate to themselves, 

 there can be no question that they would consider, as the 

 most necessarv of all branches of instruction for them- 

 selves and for their children, that which professes to 

 acquaint them with the conditions of the existence they 

 prize so highly — which teaches them how to avoid 

 disease and to cherish health, in themselves and those 

 who are dear to them. 



I am addressing, I imagine, an audience of educated 

 persons ; and yet I dare venture to assert that, with the 

 exception of those of my hearers who may chance to 

 have received a medical education, there is not one who 

 could tell me what is the meaning and use of an act 

 which he performs a score of times every minute, and 

 whose suspension would involve his immediate death ; — 

 I mean the act of breath in <r — or who could state in 

 precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is 

 injurious to health. 



The 'practical value of Physiological knowledge ! 

 Why is it that educated men can be found to maintain 

 that a slaughter-house in the midst of a great city is 

 rather a good thing than otherwise ? — that mothers 

 persist in exposing the largest possible amount of surface 

 of their children to the cold, by the absurd style of dress 

 they adopt, and then marvel at the peculiar dispensation 

 of Providence, which removes their infants by bronchitis 



