TO TI1E TEACHER. Xlll 



The very common term " blood vessel " is exceedingly in- 

 appropriate. It suggests a receptacle, not a tube, as it really 

 is. Especially with children we ought to employ terms that 

 are significant, instead of terms that are either meaningless or 

 actually misleading. So the term " alimentary canal," while 

 less objectionable, is not so appropriate as digestive tube or food 

 tube. These reforms are especially desirable when we intro- 

 duce the study of the human body into the lower grades of 

 school work. If the terms used are full of meaning they will 

 help to fix the idea, instead of calling away the attention in 

 effort of memory to keep its grip on a new word. A flood of 

 new and meaningless terms tends to discourage the child, and 

 to deaden his interest. Foster (one of the very foremost of 

 physiologists) sets the good example of substituting spinal bulb 

 for the long and cumbersome term medulla oblongata. Tho- 

 racic should be substituted for dorsal in such cases as " dorsal 

 vertebrse ; " we ought to say thoracic vertebrae. Precaval and 

 postcaval veins we should say, instead of anterior vena cava, 

 posterior vena cava. 



Relative Value of Topics. The relative value of the 

 different topics ought to be considered. For instance, most of 

 the elementary text-books of physiology pay an undue amount 

 of attention to the bones, when we consider to what a slight 

 extent a knowledge of bones aids in preserving health. It 

 would seem sufficient to have the skeleton present (or some 

 of the separate bones, if the whole skeleton cannot be ob- 

 tained), and to refer to it in connection with the study of 

 the more important organs. The bones, for the most part, 

 play a wholly subordinate part in the work of the body, be- 

 ing passive in their action, serving as levers, for protection, 

 etc. Therefore, when the muscles arid motion are studied, 

 let the bones be introduced, to show that they act as levers 

 in applying the force of the muscle ; when the brain is 



