INTRODUCTION IX 



4. A course that should prepare the way for any 

 further systematic science study that may attract him 

 or be needful. 



5. A course that should conform to the Illinois state 

 law which requires that all pupils below the second year 

 of the high school and above the third year of school 

 work shall study physiology and hygiene (including the 

 nature of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics) for not 

 less than four lessons a week for ten or more weeks of 

 each year. 



Though several text books in General Science have pre- 

 ceded the present one in date of publication, the present 

 course was in successful operation for several years 

 before any of them appeared. 



The original idea was that of the present writer, but 

 the credit for the work done belongs, of course, to the 

 zeal, loyalty, patience, and skill of the several specialists 

 who, from 1899 to the present time set themselves to the 

 solution of the problem set forth above. While several 

 instructors did much in the earlier years to clear the 

 ground, the book itself, as it stands, is the work of the 

 authors named on the title page. They are abundantly 

 entitled to the credit that will be given them for making 

 real a vague idea which was in the mind of another when 

 they were little children. 



The test of actual class-room experience with from ten 

 to nineteen classes a year has only confirmed all con- 

 cerned in these beliefs: 



1. That certain preliminary science study of some 



