86 ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY. [LECT. 



IV. 



ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN 

 PHYSIOLOGY. 



THE chief ground upon which I venture to recommend 

 that the teaching of elementary physiology should form 

 an essential part of any organised course of instruc- 

 tion in matters pertaining to domestic economy, is, 

 that a knowledge of even the elements of this subject 

 supplies those conceptions of the constitution and 

 mode of action of the living body, and of the nature 

 of health and disease, which prepare the mind to 

 receive instruction from sanitary science. 



It is, I think, eminently desirable that the hygien- 

 ist and the physician should find something in the 

 public mind to which they can appeal ; some little 

 stock of universally acknowledged truths, which may 

 serve as a foundation for their warnings, and pre- 

 dispose towards an intelligent obedience to their 

 recommendations. 



Listening to ordinary talk about health, disease, 

 and death, one is often led to entertain a doubt whether 

 the speakers believe that the course of natural causa- 

 tion runs as smoothly in the human body as elsewhere. 

 Indications are too often obvious of a strong, though 



