TEACHING PHYSIOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 511 



geography, arithmetic, and grammar, and the uncommon or orna- 

 mental branches, as French, music, etc.^ within one generation the 

 whole mass of the people would be so enlightened on subjects 

 relating to the hygiene of every-day life that our average longev- 

 ity would be immeasurably increased." Not only would life be 

 prolonged, but better mental and physical work would be accom- 

 plished by the prevalence of health, which to many a worker is 

 more than half the battle, and the poor quality of which holds 

 many an earnest soul down in the toils of poverty and despair. 



Since Dr. Smith's address was delivered, efforts have been 

 made to systematically teach in the schools the principles of 

 physiology and hygiene, but the results have not been as good as 

 we had a right to expect. This has been owing to the character 

 of many of the text-books in use, to the short time allotted to the 

 study of physiology and hygiene in the schools, to the unsatisfac- 

 tory education of the teachers in hygienic matters, to the undue 

 teaching of anatomical details and the use of hard technical terms, 

 and, finally, to the preponderance of so-called temperance teach- 

 ing to the exclusion of other and weightier matters. 



We can not coincide with the view of the distinguished editor 

 of the " Sanitarian," as set forth in an editorial, June, 1877, that 

 " with such a multiplicity of studies the teacher never (italics 

 ours) goes beyond the text-book." But we do agree as to much 

 that follows. He says : " The pupil learns that muscles are not 

 bones, that the liver is a gland, and that the heart is a muscular 

 organ, that the food in some way or other is turned into blood. 

 Beyond this there lies a nebulous mass of learned names, barbar- 

 ously pronounced and ignorantly applied, which the first contact 

 with the world dissipates, as a summer sun does the mist of the 

 morning. . . . The text-books . . . are mere table-books and cata- 

 logues of names, or else their familiar style is so gelatinous that 

 the student is unconscious of swallowing anything. One author 

 treats the subject from a chemical standpoint, another from an 

 anatomical standpoint, while the third combines the two with an 

 unprofitable result." 



The following extracts from some of the books now in use in 

 the schools indicate how anatomy, physiology, and hygiene are 

 being taught in certain quarters, for there are many teachers who 

 will not know anything in regard to any subject outside of the 

 text-book used by them : 



One book says in its preface: "Technical terms have been 

 avoided, and only such facts of physiology developed as are neces- 

 sary to the treatment of the effects of alcohol, tobacco, opium, and 

 other truths of hygiene." A careful perusal of this book will 

 show that the physiological facts developed have little or nothing 

 to do with the treatment of the effects of alcohol, tobacco, etc. 



