January 10, 1902] 



SCIENCE. 



49 



own times, 'temperance physiology,' and 

 very likely, with some old-fashioned people 

 of to-day, he regarded ' temperance ' as 

 chiefly a moral question. 



The discovery of this new and entirely 

 modern branch of ' science ' and ' education ' 

 seems to have been the jointwork of Dr.(af- 

 tei'wards Sir) Benjamin W. Richardson of 

 England, an able but erratic physician, and 

 ]\Irs. Mary H. Himt, formerly of Hyde 

 Park, Massachusetts, and noAv of Boston. 

 At any rate, Mrs. Hunt refers to Dr. Rich- 

 ardson as the author from whom she drew 

 some of her original inspiration, but her 

 own achievements, in organizing and direct- 

 ing the i3ropaganda now associated with 

 lier name, have so far outrun anything done 

 for it at the outset by Dr. Richardson that 

 we must regard her, and not him, as the 

 true creator of this astonishing movement. 

 Mrs. Hunt says that her mind was turned 

 to the subject in the early seventies andthat 

 she soon found in Dr. Richardson's ' Can- 

 tor Lectures on Alcohol in its relation to 

 Man,' the exact data she had been groping 

 for. These lectures seemed to her to prove 

 ' the dangerous difference between the 

 demonstrated fact that it is the nature of 

 a little alcohol to create an uncontrollable 

 appetite for more, and the popular idea of 

 the harmlessness of using alcohol in small 

 quantities, ' and the corollary seemed to her 

 to be ' that intemperance could never be 

 prevented until the people were taught to 

 really know the effects of alcoholic drinks, 

 and that this must be done through the 

 schools.' From 1880 until the present time 

 this really remarkable woman has given her 

 life with intense devotion and extraordi- 

 nary success to a national, and even world- 

 wide, propaganda of her faith. 



The movement is variously called ' scien- 

 tific temperance instruction, ' ' temperance 

 physiology ' or ' physiological temperance, ' 

 and it has now grown to such proportions 

 and has gained such power as to dominate, 



almost absolutely, all instruction in ele- 

 mentary physiology and hygiene in Amer- 

 ica. It is of course right and proper that 

 pupils in all grades of the public schools 

 should be taught the dangers of alcoholic 

 beverages as fully and as earnestly as other 

 dangers lurking in food or drink. We may 

 even grant that more stress should be laid 

 iipon this subject than upon some others. 

 But an examination of the present status of 

 elementary education in physiology^ and 

 hygiene in the United States shows that in 

 many cases the instruction demanded by 

 this propaganda, and given according to 

 law, in reference to alcohol goes much fur- 

 ther. It even appears that all instruction 

 in physiology and hygiene in the public 

 schools has passed to a great and unjusti- 

 fiable extent into the virtual control and 

 under the subjection of the ' temperance 

 physiology' propaganda. Mrs. Hunt, as 

 early as 1888, boldly announced : ' ' We are 

 the recruiting officers, and the teachers the 

 drill-masters, for training the coming total- 

 abstinence army that is to banish alcohol 

 from human beverages." 



Authoritative sources of information for 

 testing these statements are easily accessible 

 to all. They consist of the statutes of the 

 several States requiring instruction, often 

 of prescribed and peculiar kinds, regarding 

 alcohol; of the text-books on elementary 

 physiology and hygiene actually in the 

 hands of the pupils; of the teachers, — 

 many of whom groan in spirit even when 

 they do not dare to complain openly; and 

 last, but not least, of the boastful 'his- 

 tories ' of the propaganda prepared by 

 Mrs. Hunt herself and published, one in 

 1891 (or earlier) and the other in 1897.* 



*1. 'A History of the First Decade of the De- 

 partment of Scientific Instruction in Schools and 

 Colleges of the Woman's Christian Temperance 

 Union.' By Mary H. Hunt, Superintendent for 

 the United States and the World's W. C. T. U. 

 Second Edition. Boston, 1891. 



