PHYSIOLOGY. 89 



their right time. I say " will not likely be learned," because 

 there is no saying how far some teachers and pupils may pursue 

 an investigation. I have sometimes been astonished at the clear- 

 ness and definiteness of the knowledge of a horse's skeleton 

 possessed by a farmer's boy. His interest in the horse had 

 led him to ask his father the names and uses of the parts when 

 the skeleton had offered the opportunity or had caused him to 

 pay close attention when it was described and discussed by 

 others in his presence. Desired parts of the skeleton of the 

 horse, the sheep or other domestic animal can usually be got 

 in most of the rural school sections by inquiring among the 

 boys. Some one among them usually knows where a skeleton 

 is lying in the woods. 



The practical study and hygiene of the sense organs as 

 prescribed in the Manitoba course may be taken to mean the 

 morphology of the parts visible without dissection and their 

 proper care, testing and exercise. Most people get little more 

 sense-training than nature gives them not because art is help- 

 less to increase the acuteness of the senses but because it is 

 not known how to use it or not thought worth while to take 

 the trouble. The trained blind distinguish objects by touch, 

 trained musicians, sounds, — trained artists, colors, — among 

 which most people discern no difference. Training to increase 

 the acuteness and usefulness of the senses must be done in 

 youth if at all. Little if anything can be gained in this line 

 after adolescence. Apperceiving may continue improving 

 with experience, but it is doubtful that the power of perceiving 

 does so after youth is passed. It is generally held, although 

 the ground is debatable, that what sense-training can be done 

 in the public schools is not very important and not worth the 

 time it would take. If it be done at all it should be done in 

 this grade. But whether or not sense-tests and exercises be 

 taken for the purpose of sense-training excellent Nature Study 

 lessons for the training of the mind through the senses and 



