730 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 384. 



effects of alcohol and tobacco, and more 

 time in a treatment of the question from 

 the moral and economic standpoint. The 

 report is signed by Professor Irving P. 

 Bishop, Buffalo Normal School; Dr. Burt 

 G. Wilder, Cornell Univei'sity ; Dr. Gaylord 

 P. Clarke, Syracuse University ; Dr. Eli H. 

 Long, University of Buffalo ; James E. Pea- 

 body, Peter Cooper High School, New 

 York. 



Alcohol Physiology in the Public School: 

 Professor W. 0. At water, Wesleyan 

 University, Middletown, Connecticut. 

 Professor Atwater, after disclaiming, any 

 desire to have his own experiments or any 

 set of experiments taught in the schools, 

 when there is so much of great importance 

 to teach in the way of conclusions, said: 

 The amount of teaching of temperance 

 physiology and the space given to it should 

 be much less than is required by the legisla- 

 tion of a considerable number of states, in- 

 cluding your own. The kind of teaching 

 should be that which agrees most closely 

 with the attested principles of physiological 

 science; that wliieli is both scientifically 

 and pedagogically most reasonable. This, 

 in my judgment, means a material modifi- 

 cation of the legislation in many states, and 

 an equally important change in the char- 

 acter of a large amount of the text-book 

 instruction. These changes I believe to be 

 called for in the interests of sound science, 

 sound pedagogy, sound morals and effect- 

 ive temperance reform. 



He would have some of the time and 

 space now devoted to alcohol physiology 

 given to the subject of food and nutrition 

 in general, since a large part of prevent- 

 able disease is due to errors in diet. 



Referring to the state laws again, he 

 said : Thus it comes about that we have in 

 the United States a great educational move- 

 ment which is attempting to build moral 

 reform upon a basis of scientific doctrine 



which the best scientific authority disap- 

 proves. 



Perhaps the matter has not occurred to 

 you in just this light before, but is not this 

 a fair statement of the case? 



A large and increasing number of men 

 of science are coming to realize that scien- 

 tific error has found its way into the cur- 

 ricula of the schools and are earnestly con- 

 sidering what shall be done to correct it. 

 A large and increasing number of intel- 

 ligent and conscientious teachers are com- 

 ing to feel more and more deeply the harm 

 which comes from what they consider to be 

 false science and wrong pedagogical 

 methods, and are earnestly considering 

 how they may be freed from the responsi- 

 bility of the teaching and the children in 

 their care may be freed from the harm 

 that it brings. Over and against this is a 

 great body of people, profoundly interested 

 in education and morals, tremendously 

 earnest in their self-sacrificing efforts 

 to promote temperance reform, convinced 

 that the present teaching is called for and 

 proper, and determined that it shall be en- 

 forced. There is a clash between physiol- 

 ogists and teachers on the one hand and 

 moral reformers on the other. Both seek 

 the same end. They differ as to method. 



After discussing the literature of alcohol 

 physiology, and his own experiments, he 

 presented his conclusions, a few of which 

 follow : 



We should not teach that alcohol is a 

 food in the sense in which that word is 

 ordinarily used. We should not teach that 

 it is a poison in the sense in which that 

 word is ordinarily used. We may say, and 

 with truth, that alcohol in large quantities 

 is poisonous, that in large enough doses it 

 is fatal, and that smaller quantities taken 

 day after day will ruin body and mind. 

 But it is wrong to teach our boys that 

 alcohol in small quantities, or in dilute 

 forms in which it occurs in such beverages 



