PHYSIOLOGY. 189 



Physiology. — The best modern text-books on physiology 

 for public schools make liberal use of the Nature Study 

 method ; the latest Canadian work — Knight's " Introductory 

 Physiology and Hygiene" — may be cited as an example. 

 Objective instruction in this subject should not be limited to 

 the amount indicated in even the best of books. Some means 

 may be found in nearly every lesson to appeal to observation 

 or experience. The teacher who causes his pupils to learn 

 as much of this subject as practicable by the investigation 

 method is doing two good things for them — namely, giving 

 them excellent training, and leading them to the acquisition 

 of highly useful knowledge, learned in a way to be remembered 

 and applied. 



Objective Aids. — Means of objective illustration may be 

 grouped as follows : — The children's own bodies ; articles 

 obtainable at the meat market or from the butcher; the 

 living and dead bodies of the smaller vertebrates ; physical and 

 chemical experiments ; models and experimental apparatus. 



The Children's Own Bodies. — From the beginning to the 

 end of the subject, opportunities to refer to the children's own 

 bodies will come very frequently. A number of good lessons 

 may be taught by the observation of the hand alone. The 

 movements of the different kinds of joints can be discovered 

 by experiment and comparison. As the bones and other parts 

 are learned and named, their positions may be pointed out on 

 the body just as rivers and mountains are pointed out on a 

 map. As was stated on page 13, it is better to teach lessons 

 on the teeth, tonsils, and other parts of the mouth cavity, by 

 the aid of mirrors than from descriptions and definitions in a 

 text-book. When studying breathing, the pupils may time 

 and count their respirations, measure with a tape-line the 

 chest, expanded and depressed, and test to some extent the 

 impurities in expired air. 



