482 DISCUSSION 



of slimming foods (a contradictory designation, for no food per se can reduce 

 body weight) are generally more expensive than less refined natural foods. 



Exercise is essential for health, but it should be taken with due regard to 

 the physical capabilities of the person concerned, and, to be beneficial, 

 exercise demands suitable amounts of food and rest. In the present 

 enthusiasm for physical culture, a sense of proportion is essential, otherwise 

 the desired improvement in health and physique may be attained at the 

 expense of the culture of the mind. It may, therefore, be necessary to 

 remind ourselves from time to time that the mind and its faculties are of a 

 superior order to the physical body, and that character and grit are derived 

 from mental rather than bodily culture. The ancient Greeks, with whom 

 culture of the body was almost a national gospel, recognised the need for 

 subordination of athletics to mental culture. Plato, for example, was not 

 complimentary to professional athletes when he said, ' Have you not 

 observed that they sleep through their life and if they depart but a little 

 from the appointed regime at once they are quickly and seriously ill.' The 

 civilisation which produced Achilles, Lysander and Alexander also produced 

 Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. There is room for both athletes and sages 

 in civilised society. Physical exercise should be regarded as recreation in 

 the literal sense of the word, the re-creation of mind and body in order that 

 they may be the fitter to cope with the more serious matters of life. 



Finally, I wish to refer to the official attitude towards instruction in 

 physiology and hygiene. The Board of Education has issued compre- 

 hensive directions for instructing children in the ways of health in an 

 'excellent little book. Handbook of Suggestions on Health Education, which 

 deserves to be more widely known. The main purpose of the book ' is to 

 encourage teachers to create in the minds of boys and girls during the years 

 of adolescence, an understanding and cultivation of health. It presents 

 health as an ideal, the inculcation of which is no less important for national 

 life than is that of the ideals of truth, goodness and beauty.' It deals, 

 amongst other things, with the relations between body and mind, nutrition, 

 ventilation, exercise, mothercraft and infant welfare. The existence of this 

 book may come as news to some, and to those who feel inspired with apostolic 

 zeal for the teaching of these subjects, it might be as well to suggest that 

 they should seek for converts elsewhere than in the Board of Education. 

 This book proves that the Board is already converted. 



The standard of excellence in the teaching of these subjects in many 

 schools I have visited throughout Great Britain would probably surprise 

 most people, as it did me, and augurs well for the health of the next genera- 

 tion, provided the knowledge now imparted to the mothers of the future 

 is used with wisdom and prudence. 



Finally, a tribute is due to the British Broadcasting Corporation for the 

 good work it is doing in health education and in general culture by means 

 of its talks on biology and physiology to children. 



Prof. R. C. Garry.— Human physiology in the teaching of Biology. 



The health of the individual and of the community depends to a large 

 extent on the proper application of physiological knowledge. In the past, 

 medical and public health authorities, from their knowledge of advances 

 made by physiologists, issued dogmatic statements for the guidance of the 

 public. The public, on their part, usually accepted such ex cathedra 

 pronouncements quite uncritically. 



Such methods, however, savour more of a dictatorship than of a democracy, 

 and they are probably inefficient. 



To take one example, all the slogans and posters of the Milk Marketing 



