750 



SCIENCE. 



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



message for the prevention of evil and the 

 establishment of right should be given 'to 

 every creature' in 'all the world.' That in- 

 clusive command and precedent not only 

 justify all pupils getting this education, but 

 imply neglect of duty if it is excluded from 

 any. 



If Professor Sedgwick's objection is to the 

 requirement of the study through specified 

 grades, as his reference to the Illinois law im- 

 plies, we answer: 



The formation of right habits is the object 

 sought. The child's habits are rapidly formed, 

 new ones each year. It is therefore self-evi- 

 dent that progressive instruction which will 

 guide in the formation of right habits should 

 be given, especially during the primary and 

 grammar years and the first year of the high 

 school, in order to keep pace with and guide 

 the child's development. The boy or girl who 

 leaves school at any point in the school course 

 with as much knowledge as he can comprehend 

 of the laws of health, including those which 

 warn against the use of alcoholic drinks and 

 other narcotics, has thereby a most valuable 

 equipment for the battle of life. 



The diffusion of this knowledge in our 

 country is now as universal as the schools. 

 It does not, we grant, add to the value of brew- 

 ing stock, but evidence is not lacking that it 

 is proving of great value to the human stock 

 in the increase of health due to better knowl- 

 edge of sanitary laws, consequent lengthening 

 of life, increased sobriety of the American 

 workman, which sobriety is acknowledged to 

 be one cause of the commercial supremacy 

 of this country in the markets of the world, 

 etc. 



Professor Sedgwick says he was 'shocked,' 

 'much disturbed to find that an author had 

 actually felt bound to weave in a lesson on 

 alcohol with his discussion of the physiology 

 of muscle, of nerve, of digestion, of vision and 

 each of several other sections of the subject.' 



Why should not the deleterious effects of 

 alcohol on muscles be taught in connection 

 with the study of the physiology and hygiene 

 of the muscles? Professor E. Destree, M.D., 

 University of Brussels, by actual experimenta- 

 tion proved that the 'total work product 



obtained from the muscle with the use of 

 alcohol is less than that obtained without it.' 

 Our boys and girls need to know this fact. 

 Why should not the fallacy of the idea that 

 alcohol is an aid to digestion be pointed out in 

 connection with the hygiene of digestion, 

 when Professor Chittenden (one of the Com- 

 mittee of Fifty) distinctly says of his ex- 

 periments, 'The results obtained suggest a 

 tendency toward prolongation of the period 

 during which the meat remains in the stomach 

 when alcohol fluids are present'? Why is not 

 the treatment of the physiology and hygiene of 

 the nerves the proper place for pointing out the 

 effects of alcohol upon them when H. J. Berk- 

 eley, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University, re- 

 ported as a result of the experiments he per- 

 formed for the Committee of Fifty that 

 alcohol 'possesses the quality of destroying the 

 protoplasm of the nerve cells and annulling its 

 functions'? Why not, in teaching the care of 

 the eyes, mention the danger from the use of 

 alcohol when the senior surgeon of the New 

 York Ophthalmic Hospital, editor of the 

 Journal of Ophthalmology j says, 'The respect- 

 able moderate drinker who never takes too 

 much or oversteps the boundary line of decency, 

 but goes round half full all the time, exposes 

 himself to the risk of losing his eyesight, 

 which in this case is incurable'? 



To Professor Sedgwick's complaint that 

 some laws require text-books on this subject 

 for pupils' use and specify the amount of tem- 

 perance matter they shall contain, etc., we 

 reply : 



The tendency of careless, unsympathetic 

 school boards to fail in providing well-graded 

 text-books on this subject, books that contain 

 the matter the law requires taught as one 

 source of information for pupils sufficiently 

 advanced to use text-books on other subjects, 

 induced the National Congress and many 

 states legally to require that such text-books 

 shall be provided. This requirement has led 

 to the preparation of a valuable school litera- 

 ture by men of acknowledged scientific stand- 

 ing and to the revision of nearly all the im- 

 perfect books. Why should Professor Sedg- 

 wick complain ? No one has proved these books 

 inaccurate, nor that their use in the schools 



