TEACHING PHYSIOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 509 



TEACHING PHYSIOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



Br A TEACHEE. 



IT will not be amiss at this time, when many of the States have 

 decided that " physiology and hygiene, with special reference 

 to the effects on the human system of alcoholic stimulants and 

 narcotics," must be taught in their public schools, to glance at the 

 reasons for such teaching, at some of the books and methods in use, 

 at some of the results already obtained, and at what might reason- 

 ably be expected to result from proper teaching and proper study. 



Those who study the causes of infant mortality, especially in 

 large cities, of intemperance among the laboring-classes, of the 

 crimes which thrive in the hot-bed of tenement-house life, of the 

 increase of nervous disorders and insanity in this country, can 

 not but see that dissipation (using the term in a general sense) 

 and a disregard of the requirements of health are responsible in 

 a large measure for the evils named, as well as for others which 

 afflict mainly the so-called higher classes of society. The fact 

 that much of the dissipation and the disregard of health laws is 

 due to ignorance rather than to want of thought is sufficient rea- 

 son for the study of health laws. But, as the health of individ- 

 uals is closely related to the health of the village, town, or city 

 in which they live, and as "public health is public wealth," an- 

 other reason is apparent for the popular study of hygiene. Says 

 Dr. H. P. Yeomans, of the Provincial Board of Health, Ontario, 

 Canada : " Practical experience has demonstrated that the work 

 of educating the people in all that pertains to public hygiene is a 

 most important factor in the successful accomplishment of our 

 objects as sanitarians. At every step in our legislative halls with 

 local health authorities, in communities, and in our experience 

 with individual citizens, we encounter more or less opposition 

 arising from a lack of intelligent comprehension of the causes of 

 disease, the best method of preventing the spread of epidemics, 

 and generally of the preservation of public health. ... It is a 

 well-recognized principle, especially in a free country, where the 

 sovereign power is lodged in the body of the people, that popular 

 sentiment must proceed in advance of legislation in order that 

 the successful enforcement of law may be secured." 



The instruction of the adult population in Tiealth matters must 

 be, in the main, through the current literature of the day and by 

 popular lectures. The children who are to be the future molders 

 of the country's welfare should be systematically and properly 

 taught in the schools physiology and hygiene, with only enough 

 anatomy as a foundation for the study of physiology. 



