352 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



perance we might overlook their less desirable results. But the 

 youth can not be made virtuous by sentimental gush nor by sci- 

 entific bug-a-boos. Just in proportion to his ignorance of the 

 subject will be the teacher's willingness to undertake the teaching 

 proposed by the New York law. Hence arise the penalties laid on 

 teachers and trustees, a thing unheard of in relation to any study 

 that justifies itself. 



As already stated, it is evident that the value of the study of 

 physiology is weakened or destroyed by neglecting its scientific 

 aspects and by throwing its conclusions out of perspective. We 

 might as well ask that our histories of the United States should 

 devote a fifth of each chapter to the effect of the spoils system 

 on the events described. The spoils system is to our politics 

 what alcohol is to our bodies, and a wonderful field would be 

 open to reformers if their doctrines could be forced into all his- 

 torical text-books. And if one class of reformers is admitted, 

 there would be room for many others. It will not be long before 

 we hear from the Baking Powder people, while the manu- 

 facturers of oleomargarine will claim the ear of the schools for 

 their product, which is free from the microbes of tuberculosis 

 that infest the dairies. In so far as science yields the basis for 

 any class of reforms, let the facts be known. But these demands 

 should stand in clear relation to the facts on which they depend. 

 Injunctions to temperance may be derived from scientific knowl- 

 edge ; but science should not be distorted for purposes of argu- 

 ment. Confusion and verbiage add nothing, and the teaching of 

 positive untruths works constant injury to the cause of education. 



The success of " scientific temperance " legislation, in spite of 

 the combined protest of all intelligent teachers, is really not sur- 

 prising. It is pressed mainly by committees of women, and by 

 women who are very much in earnest. Politicians are always 

 glad to humor women when a sop like this will serve to do so. 

 So long as nothing substantial is asked for they are wonderfully 

 complaisant. The mercantile interests have no objection to laws 

 of this sort, which can in no way harm the liquor traffic either 

 present or future. If the temperance movement spent itself in 

 such ways only, it could count on the help of its enemies. The 

 opposition to "scientific temperance" comes mainly from theo- 

 rists who regard meddling of this kind as outside the province of 

 good government, and from teachers who know by experience 

 that text-book virtue enforced by penalties works only mischief 

 in the schools. The more stringent the penalties on teachers and 

 school officers, the more certainly do such influences fail as agents 

 for good. 



The whole matter has been thus strongly stated by Dr. J. G. 

 Schurman, President of Cornell University, referring to the New 



