43 2 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



called liberal culture is no adequate protection against nu- 

 merous fallacies and impostures which are current in so- 

 ciety ; and to so great an extent is this true that it is com- 

 mon to question whether, after all, for our real needs, edu- 

 cation is better than ignorance. But there is an " educated 

 ignorance," which, for the great end of guiding to action 

 and ruling the conduct, is as worthless as blank ignorance. 

 Take the charlatanries of medical treatment ; take the 

 question of so-called " spiritual manifestations," and we 

 find persons of reputed culture and good sense venturing 

 opinions, adopting practices, and professing to " investi- 

 gate," in the completest ignorance of all the conditions of 

 thinking all the canons of inquiry which have conducted 

 to truth in this high and complex range of subjects. 



To meet these and kindred emergencies of our social 

 experience, we require an education not merely in dead 

 languages, mathematics, and physics, with perhaps a super- 

 added smattering of physiology and geology, but such a 

 training in the fundamental organic sciences as shall con- 

 stitute a thorough biological discipline. 



The direct and powerful bearing of biological studies 

 upon an understanding of the nature and relations of man 

 has been so well stated by Mr. Mill, in the address already 

 referred to, in speaking of the educational claims of physi- 

 ology, that I cannot forbear making another extract : 



The first is physiology ; the science of the laws of organic and 

 animal life, and especially of the structure and functions of the human 

 body. It would be absurd to pretend that a profound knowledge of 

 this difficult subject can be acquired in youth, or as a part of general 

 education. Yet an acquaintance with its leading truths is one of 

 those acquirements which ought not to be the exclusive property of 

 a particular profession. The value of such knowledge for daily uses 

 has been made familiar to us all by the sanitary discussions of late 

 years. There is hardly one among us who may not, in some position 

 of authority, be required to form an opinion and take part in public 



