PHYSIOLOGY AS A SUBJECT OF GENERAL EDUCATION 481 



The health and development of present and future citizens of the country 

 are concerns of the greatest importance for statesmen, teachers and parents, 

 and indeed for every member of the community. The natural physical 

 endowments which come to us from our parents may be frustrated in their 

 development through lack of knowledge or proper care during the years 

 when the body is plastic and capable of cultivation. If it is to develop to 

 the limits imposed by heredity, all its needs for growth must be adequately 

 met. We need not attempt to produce heavy-weights out of children whom 

 nature intended to be jockeys, that would be futile ; but we can see to it 

 that the requirements for food, clothing, shelter and nurture of all children 

 are adequately met, so that they may attain that measure of physical per- 

 fection which is their natural heritage. While we cannot ignore the import- 

 ance of economic factors in achieving this ideal, it is true to say that the 

 matter is otherwise mainly one of applied physiology. 



There is justijfication for the complaints made by scientists in recent 

 years of the application of their discoveries to purposes other than the 

 universal good of mankind. Although these criticisms have mostly referred 

 to discoveries in physics and chemistry, the physiologist can also complain 

 that many of his discoveries are misunderstood or else the good which they 

 are capable of conferring is abused through over-indulgence or, perhaps 

 more frequently, through lack of judgment. I do not claim that physio- 

 logists always practise what they preach any more than the rest of mankind, 

 but it is nevertheless their duty to point out misapplications of physiological 

 discoveries whether or not they themselves are deserving of criticism. A 

 recent discovery which is undoubtedly abused at present is that of the 

 health-giving effects of sunshine. The ultra-violet rays of the sun tone up 

 the body generally and lead to the formation in it of vitamin D which is 

 essential for normal metabolism of calcium and phosphorus. Like other 

 good things in the world, this one should be used with discretion and 

 wisdom, but the trend of fashion at seaside resorts, and elsewhere, gives 

 increasing evidence of disregard of these precautions. These benefits can 

 be obtained without overstepping the bounds of propriety or without 

 exposing the body to the extent of causing pyrexia, hyperasmia, and des- 

 quamation which are definitely harmful. Good health does not necessarily 

 depend on the presence of these effects or even on intensity of pigmentation. 



Self-discipline is essential for health but it may be misdirected. Good 

 examples are to be found in the self-imposed dietary restrictions of many 

 modern young women. Deposits of fat in the body so excessive as to 

 interfere with normal functions are harmful, but irrational abstention from 

 certain articles of diet in order to attain slimness of figure may be even more 

 harmful. There are many inconsistencies in the dietetic preferences of 

 the modern devotees of the present slimming craze. Many of them abstain 

 from wholesome and health-giving foods, such as potatoes and even milk, 

 and yet consume relatively large amounts of sugar in the form of con- 

 fectionery, sweet cakes, and biscuits. Again there is apparent a growing 

 distaste (not confined to those who would be thinner than nature intended 

 them to be) for animal fats as such, and at the same time an increasing 

 desire for pastry and sweetmeats rich in fats so refined and processed as to 

 be practically devoid of all the natural fat-soluble vitamins. It is a curious 

 fact that this prejudice against animal fats exists at a time when the con- 

 sumption of fat in all its forms is higher in this country than has ever been 

 reported. A little knowledge of dietetics, tempered with common sense, 

 would most probably result in the elimination of many of the prevailing 

 dietetic absurdities, with a consequent improvement in health and, certainly, 

 economic betterment of large numbers of people. The numerous varieties 



