Decembeb 31, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



925 



the sick or injured person, how to perform 

 herself the remedial operations, how to 

 feed the patient, and how to prevent the 

 communication of the disease to other per- 

 sons; and this teaching function of the 

 nurse is quite as important as her curative 

 or comforting ministrations. The social 

 worker who follows up the out-patients 

 of a great hospital, sees them at their 

 homes, studies their surroundings, and 

 gives them sympathetic counsel, has a sim- 

 ilar teaching function, which often takes 

 strong effect on whole families and even 

 larger groups. Like the district nurse, 

 she also frequently obtains family his- 

 tories which are of value to students of 

 inheritance, good or bad, and of eugenics. 

 The same is true of the school nurse and 

 medical inspectors who are employed by 

 American cities in which the health de- 

 partment is strong and well-organized. 

 These nurses and doctors not only detect 

 defects and diseases in school children, but 

 indicate to parents or friends the remedial 

 measures that are demanded, and give 

 much instruction to parents and guardians 

 about keeping children well. The same 

 educational function is performed by the 

 dentists who are being employed in a few 

 American cities to make periodical inspec- 

 tions of the teeth of school children. These 

 large-scale examinations and teachings call 

 for knowledge of bacteriological informa- 

 tion and methods only recently acquired, 

 and for skill in the use of diagnostic tools 

 and appliances only recently invented. 

 These new applications of biological science 

 promise great reduction of human suffer- 

 ing and distress, and significant additions 

 to average longevity and average efficiency, 

 so soon as they come into general use. 



Biological science has made possible sev- 

 eral other kinds of widespread teaching 

 which are certain to have beneficial effects 

 on the productiveness of human labor, par- 



ticularly in agriculture, the fundamental 

 industry. Thus, the whole work of the 

 International Health Commission is essen- 

 tially educational. It teaches the people 

 in hookworm disease districts by demon- 

 stration, first, that they have the disease; 

 secondly, that it can be cured in the indi- 

 vidual and eradicated from the community ; 

 and thirdly, that the embryos of the dis- 

 ease live by thousands in soil that has been 

 befouled by an infected person, and are 

 there ready to infect any person with 

 whose bare, soft skin they come into con- 

 tact. These demonstrations combined 

 teach the people how the disease may be 

 avoided in the future by an individual or 

 by a community. As a result of this edu- 

 cational work, the common people and the 

 health authorities cooperate effectively in 

 both the work of treatment and that of 

 prevention. 



Another illustration of the broad edu- 

 cational processes now at work in conse- 

 quence of the achievements of applied bi- 

 ology is to be found in the short courses 

 given by many state universities to farm- 

 ers and their grown-up sons on the prin- 

 ciples of agriculture, the choice of seeds, 

 and stock-raising, and in the itinerant 

 teaching for adults now carried on by the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture through- 

 out the Southern States on similar sub- 

 jects. This instruction is supplemented 

 by the offer of prizes, and the setting-up 

 of model farms, or model acres, in great 

 number as lessons and incitements to neigh- 

 borhoods. The effects on the productive- 

 ness of American agriculture, especially 

 in cotton and corn, are already remark- 

 able; but the promise of these educational 

 methods for the future is more precious 

 still. Several colleges and universities of 

 high standing now provide short courses 

 which run from six to twelve weeks, some 

 in winter and some in summer, expressly 



