514 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lotted time. Five or more pages of this small book are devoted to 

 bones^ especially tlie location and number, but nothing is said as 

 to what is necessary to keep bones in good condition. 



The subject of alcohol is fully treated of, but intemperate eat- 

 ing, exercise, sleep, bathing, etc., are not even referred to. We 

 doubt whether pupils who use this book could answer correctly if 

 questions upon the various subjects were put to them in a differ- 

 ent way from those they have been accustomed to. 



A fourth book endeavors to teach the truths of anatomy, 

 physiology, and hygiene in an allegory. The preface presumptu- 

 ously compares the allegorical teaching of the book with the para- 

 bles of Christ, and says : " If the great truths of Christianity could 

 be taught in allegory, may not less difficult subjects in the same 

 manner be made interesting and instructive." The preface fur- 

 ther states that the authors have " shun abstruse and technical 

 phraseology," have aimed "to give correct and scientific views in 

 simple language with correct illustrations." 



On looking over this book, we notice many poor pictures and 

 the fact that a number of the pictures, though lettered, have noth- 

 ing about them to indicate what the letters stand for. It is no- 

 ticeable, also, that technical and abstruse terms are not infre- 

 quent, such, for example, as " perimysium," " quadrangular papil- 

 lary clumps," " sebiparous glands," " germs of absorbent vesicles," 

 etc. A third feature of this book are the attempts to be facetious. 

 For the most part these attempts are ridiculous and out of place 

 in a school text-book. 



A fifth book, which has a large sale and is in the main excel- 

 lent, has at times evidences of careless teaching; for example, 

 " When milk produces an unpleasant effect upon the stomach, it 

 should be mixed with a liUle lime-water." Italics are ours. In 

 the list of antidotes for poison from fish-eating, appears the fol- 

 lowing: " Ether with a few drops of laudanum mixed with sugar 

 and water may afterward be taken freely." Again italics are ours. 

 In the use of mustard as an emetic not a word is said as to the 

 importance of mixing it thoroughly with the water used, lest sus- 

 pended in mass it may inflame or irritate the stomach. 



We may judge somewhat of how a study is in general taught 

 by the oral or written answers given by a number of pupils, in 

 various schools, in reply to questions upon the study. About a 

 year ago there appeared in the London " Architect " the follow- 

 ing : " If instruction in sanitary matters is to be continued in 

 schools it will be necessary to supplement the lessons with visits 

 to some such place as the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, unless the 

 school boards are satisfied if the children get hold of a lot of hard 

 words, or rather of sounds resembling them. At present it is sup- 

 posed that sanitary science may be taught as easily as morality. 



