5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



should and should not be used, eaten, worn, tasted, looked at, 

 touched, etc., which are rehearsed by little children to their par- 

 ents as coming from the primary teachers or the heads of primary 

 dejDartments, and then it will be perceived that the teaching of 

 physiology and hygiene is not what we have a right to expect. 

 What are the remedial measures ? 



1. Encourage the sale and use only of reliable text -books 

 written by physicians or sanitarians who have had experience as 

 teachers. The mere compiler will magnify the importance of 

 what may be considered by comparison as the non-essentials, and 

 will endeavor to perpetuate absurd and untruthful statements 

 simply because they sound well. 



2. Health boards, health societies, and sanitary associations 

 have instructed by this time a goodly body of physicians in sani- 

 tary matters. These men and women may well be called upon 

 to outline hygienic teaching, if not to be practical teachers them- 

 selves. In addition to instruction in normal and model schools 

 by such special teachers, there should be a sanitary suj^ervision 

 of schools. The physicians appointed to do this work should look 

 after the ventilation, lighting, and cleanliness of the school-build- 

 ings, the spread of contagious disease, the condition of wardrobes 

 and closets, the vaccination of school-children, etc. In some cities 

 the attempt is made to do this work through the health authori- 

 ties, but it is unsatisfactory, as the physicians doing the work 

 are, for the most part, political appointees, and not chosen for 

 their knowledge of health matters. The work should be done 

 by sanitary officers of boards of education. "With proper teaching 

 and proper sanitary supervision of the schools, hygienic subjects 

 would be real to the pupil, and the value of hygienic knowledge 

 would be so apparent that interest instead of apathy would be 

 the rule. In 1873, at the annual meeting of the American Public 

 Health Association, President White, of Cornell University, said : 

 "First, as regards public schools, I would make provision for 

 simple instruction in the elements of physiology and hygiene, 

 either by the use of some short and plain text-book, or, what is 

 still better, by lectures from some competent resident physician. 

 I confess that I greatly prefer the latter method. Not only theory 

 but experience leads me to prefer it. Were it not that we have 

 made a great mistake in our systems of public instruction by 

 severing our common-school instruction from advanced instruc- 

 tion, we should by this time have a body of teachers in our com- 

 mon schools abundantly able to lecture to the pupils without a 

 text-book." It is now seventeen years since these words were 

 uttered, and what do we find in regard to the teaching of physi- 

 ology and hygiene ? Just this, that the number of physicians 

 who teach in the schools is very small, that the average teacher 



