360 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. will. Xo. 455. 



uomics and civics with some reference to 

 the future life of the public school pupil 

 as a citizen. Our teaching of hygiene 

 should keep in view the same great end, 

 and if this paper draws attention to the 

 lamentable inadequacy of our present in- 

 struction in that subject to this purpose, 

 our object will have been accomplished. 



But much more is needed. We need a 

 clear conception of the true place of phys- 

 iology and hygiene, but we need also the 

 proper teachers to realize that conception. 

 If the subject is as important as we have 

 represented, it should be taught by teach- 

 ers specially trained. In the higher grades 

 of our schools we often have special teach- 

 ers of languages, of history and civics, of 

 mathematics, of the natural sciences; but 

 it is rare indeed to find physiology and 

 hygiene in the hands of teachers who have 

 had special training in these subjects. Too 

 frequently they are imposed upon the least 

 experienced member of the staff', whose 

 connection with the school is too recent or 

 whose tenure is too precarious to allow 

 refusal. All this must be changed. The 

 exact method of securing the trained in- 

 structor may often be left to local condi- 

 tions. At times, medical examiners, the 

 demands of whose practice are not distract- 

 ing, and who are at the same time good 

 teachers, may fill . the position ; at other 

 times, teachers of the biological sciences 

 should be encouraged to prepare themselves 

 for the work. 



A method which especially commends it- 

 self to us is to combine this work with that 

 in physical training. The teachers of phys- 

 ical training, of all the instructing staff 

 of the school, stand in closest relation to 

 the work of preservation and prrmotion of 

 sound health. At present their work is 

 somewhat narrow and suffers from the 

 lack of any direct explanation of the prin- 

 ciples of physical training. It would 

 broaden the work of these teachers and 

 make their present efforts moi'e effective. 



if physiology and hygiene so oliviously re- 

 lated to tlieir other worl< were placed in 

 their liands. True, it would require a 

 bi-oader preparation and an extension of 

 the work of our normal schools of physical 

 training in both time and scope; but this 

 is really an argtiment in its favor. Nor- 

 mal schools of physical training ought to 

 extend and enrich their coitrses, especially 

 in view of the fact that so many of their 

 gradixates must occupy positions in the 

 higher .grades. 



There is a widespread feeling that the 

 present training in physiology and hygiene 

 in the public schools is a failure. But 

 signs are not lacking of a strong feeling 

 among prominent educators that these 

 subjects can and should rank in dignity 

 and usefttlness with langitages, mathemat- 

 ics, physics, chemistry, biology, history and 

 civics. Physiologists have long protested 

 against the domination and excesses of 

 'temperance physiology.' Educators have 

 complained of the bad pedagogical require- 

 ments often placed by law upon the teach- 

 ing of the subject. We appeal to the mem- 

 bers of the American Social Science Asso- 

 ciation to aid us in bringing about a re- 

 form, not as parties to either side of a 

 dispute on questions of scientific fact about 

 alcohol, nor from the standpoint of peda- 

 gogic theory and practice, but because the 

 stibject is one which profoundly affects 

 social conditions and is closely related to a 

 more intelligent and a more successful con- 

 duet of individual and social American 

 life. William T. Sedgwick, 



Theodore Hough. 



i[.\s.sAcnisETTS Institute 

 OF Tectixotxgy. 



PRELIMiyAKY REPORT ON THE MARfXE 



BIOLOGICAL f^VRVEY WORK CARRIED 



ON BY THE ZOOLOGICAL DEI'ART- 



MEXT OF THE VXIVERSITY OF 



CALIFOKXIA AT ^■.l .Y DIEGO. 



The marine biological work of the De- 

 partment of Zoology of the University of 



