May 9, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



751 



has not contributed to individual and public 

 good. The old, unrevised, ungraded, and there- 

 fore unindorsed books contain such teaching as 

 the following, for children in primary grades : 

 'The tendon of Achilles is the tendon of the 

 gastrocnemius and soleus muscle,' a statement 

 as clear as mud to the primary child. The 

 people want better books for their children 

 and hence have so legislated that better books 

 are produced. 



Professor Sedgwick further charges me with 

 being a follower of the teachings of Sir Benja- 

 min Ward Richardson, M.D., of London 

 (whom he styles an 'able but erratic physi- 

 cian') and with being 'the creator of this 

 astonishing movement' for temperance educa- 

 tion. The late Dr. Richardson was not only 

 a Doctor of Medicine, but a Doctor of Laws 

 and Fellow of the Royal Society and held 

 many offices of distinction. I happened to 

 have had enough previous study in chemistry 

 to enable me to appreciaite the reports of his 

 experimental work on alcohol, and no one has 

 proved his findings inaccurate. Although I 

 never saw Dr. Richardson, he taught me much 

 which I have tried to pass on. 



As to being the 'creator' of this movement, 

 I do not deny nor apologize for having 

 tried to serve my country through helping to 

 get this education for its children. But I hasten 

 to say that without the aid of the hundreds of 

 thousands of consecrated women in the 

 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the 

 organized motherhood of this and other lands, 

 whom it is my fortune to represent in this 

 matter, without the cooperation of the good 

 men in this and other countries, in the Na- 

 tional Congress, state legislatures and parlia- 

 ments, every state in the United States would 

 not now have a temperance education law nor 

 would the movement have become, as Professor 

 Sedgwick admits, world-wide. 



Professor Sedgwick, in referring to Com- 

 missioner Harris' connection with the advisory 

 board of this department, says: 'As to the 

 propriety of the commissioner's connection 

 with this movement I make no comment.' The 

 advisory board of this department consists of 

 eleven members, six of them physicians, three 

 of whom are professors in medical colleges, 



three men eminent in education and two in 

 ethics. The committee from this advisory 

 board, whose duty it is to examine and pass on 

 text-books, consists of five of the physicians 

 mentioned above, one of the educators, two 

 representatives of ethics, and the Superin- 

 tendent of Scientific Temperance Instruction 

 of the World's and JSTational Woman's Chris- 

 tian Temperance Union. Dr. Harris, the Na- 

 tional Commissioner of Education, and Dr. 

 Barrows, President of Oberlin College, mem- 

 bers of the advisory board, are not on its text- 

 book committee. Hence there is no occasion 

 for Professor SedgTvick's subtle reference to 

 Dr. Harris' position on this board. The Amer- 

 ican people will feel it just and right that 

 their national commissioner of education 

 should be an adviser of a department of edu- 

 cation which has been legally adopted by the 

 whole people. 



If Professor Sedgwick had quoted entire the 

 recommendations passed by the Superintend- 

 ents of Schools at their national meeting in 

 Chicago last year, the readers of Science would 

 have seen that their action was positively on 

 the side of temperance instruction, and not 

 mere 'guarded paragraphs' as he claimed. 

 They repudiated Professor Atwater's teachings 

 of the year before as to alcohol being a food, 

 and put themselves squarely on record on the 

 whole subject as the following paragraphs 

 from their report, not quoted by Professor 

 Sedgwick, show: 



"The department of superintendence agrees 

 cordially with the special advocates of the tem- 

 perance cause in holding that everything which 

 public instruction can do in the battle against 

 intemperance ought to be done, and that both 

 physiology and hygiene should be so taught as 

 to leave in the minds of children and youths 

 an adequate and proper knowledge of the ef- 

 fects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and nar- 

 cotics on the human system. 



"Since the last meeting of this department 

 there has been considerable discussion of the 

 question as to whether alcohol under any con- 

 ditions is properly to be defined as an article of 

 food. Medical authorities are quoted in sup- 

 port of both sides of this question, but no 

 authority has been found to maintain that 



