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Just now we hear much about school gardening, having the children 
attend to a small plot of ground. We can readily see how a child may 
learn much regarding plant life, how the soil must be prepared, the seed 
planted at the right time, food and moisture supplied, and enemies of the 
plant held in check, weeds and animals of all kinds. The school boy 
learns that in proportion as attention is given to his plants and they are 
protected from destructive influences they thrive. By pointing out anal- 
ogies between plants and man he can understand why man himself re- 
quires attention. 
It is customary nowadays when any change is proposed to say, Teach 
it in the schools! Teach the Young! Just now there is a demand to teach 
agriculture in order to get away from old-time farming with its wastefui 
methods. Teach it in the schools! Teach the young! Now the same 
may be said regarding causes of common ill health. Teach it in the 
schools! Teach the voung! The young learn readily and remember. Our 
schools already teach physiology but unfortunately it is largely if not ex- 
clusively a book study; often the book used is dry bone anatomy or dry 
as dust physiology.and forced upon the children before they can grasp it. 
The new books on hygiene and sanitation are a great improvement but it 
is still only a teaching from books. If the teacher could take his pupils 
out and point out analogies between plants and weeds and diseases and if 
newspaper accounts were studied in the light of onvironmental influences, 
it weuld not take long until there would be a change for the better. 
But in order that the teacher may be able to instruct the young, he 
must himself be taught. That means the colleges must take up the work, 
and since our Academy is mainly made up of college people, shall we say 
the work comes home to the Academy? 
But, some will say, educating the people in regard to sanitary matters 
is work for the physicians, the physician should educate the people. That 
may be true theoretically but practically it is wholly false. Physicians 
treat sick people. Under present conditions that is all the people demand 
and all they are willing to pay for. Many have no use for the physician 
until they are actually disabled, sick or diseased, and then it may be too 
late to talk of education. 
It may be asked, Why do not physicians at least eall attention to 
these matters and to environmental influences, how people become. sick 
and diseased on account of unsanitary surroundings? There are several 
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