tf INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



what earnestness would he have urged that every child should be 

 taught the golden laws of Hygiene, be trained to practise them, 

 and be instructed in their why and wherefore, that he might 

 practise them intelligently, and of course more thoroughly and 

 satisfactorily ! 



But there is a very marked and important distinction be- 

 tween health and a condition best adapted for use and appear- 

 ance ; though the latter must of course include the former. In- 

 deed, within the boundaries of health there is a wide latitude 

 for the activities of the different parts of the body and the dis- 

 play of taste and refinement in its culture. Laws, therefore, 

 which govern the use of the various parts of the body, and pro- 

 mote personal appearance laws of physical perfection are evi- 

 dently required. As they are obtained from the same sources, 

 at the same time, and are often the same as the laws of health, 

 they are classed under the same head. 



Hygiene is not, therefore, and should not be, restricted as its 

 primary meaning would signify ; for it teaches not only how to 

 keep the body (1st) in health, but (2d) in the best condition for 

 desirable use and appearance. 



As Addition enters into every arithmetical operation, so is 

 Hygiene elementary in every pursuit, being of hourly utility 

 to every person and in every possible circumstance in life 

 really most useful to the most healthy ; and as if the Divinity 

 had intended that what is so essential to man's welfare should 

 be neither difficult to teach nor to learn, the mind has been so 

 constituted and the body so constructed that a sufficient knowl- 

 edge of Hygiene, if properly presented, can be easily acquired, 

 and remarkably early ; for, 



In the first place, the mind has the greatest "natural cnri- 

 osity " to learn the structure and use of its own body : it is the 

 child's earliest wonder, and the old man's latest care. 



In the second place, no other subject has such close practical 

 relations to life, which alone would make it intensely interesting. 



