July 10, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



33 



If in closing I may briefly epitomize, it 

 seems to me, that the best results may be 

 obtained in physiologic instruction in the 

 schools as follows : 



1. Text-books written by able teachers 

 who know the subject at first hand should 

 be provided. 



2. The fact should be emphasized that 

 physiology is very real, and that every one 

 may demonstrate upon himself many of the 

 most striking and fundamental phenomena; 

 for example, how quickly will the pupil see 

 that it is not necessary to go to the teacher or 

 to the book to find out the number of heart- 

 beats and respirations per minute, and that 

 both are greatly accelerated by exercise or 

 excitement. 



3. Anatomy should not overshadow 

 physiology, but nice structural adaptations 

 whereby specific functions are performed 

 may be pointed out and worked upon with 

 great advantage ; for example, the valves in 

 the heart, the veins and lymphatics, the 

 forms of the joints, etc. Such knowledge is 

 interesting and would aid all. Perhaps 

 also it might arouse some slumbering genius 

 whose future efforts would reveal adapta- 

 tions now hidden. 



4. The teacher should inspire his pupils 

 with respect for the human body and its 

 powers, and with due sympathy for all liv- 

 ing things. Lastly, he should impress upon 

 them with solemn earnestness the fact that 



at the University one in eight was dropped, showing 

 that the more poorly prepared were those who came 

 for examinations including physiology. Physiology 

 papers of 195 of the latter class have been looked over 

 with reference to determining the quality and kind of 

 preparation made, as taken from answers to ques- 

 tions. 



The average standing of the 195 was 53% 



The average standing of those having dissection 



and drawing 59% 



The average standing of those having nothing but 



books 47% 



The average standing of those self-prepared 59% 



The average standing of those having previous 



college training 66% 



their physical and moral health is largely 

 in their own hands, and that the physical 

 and moral laws of their being are inexor- 

 able. 



Simon Henry Gage. 

 Cornell Univeesity. 



DISCUSSION OF PBOF. GAGE'S PAPER ON 

 PHYSIOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS. 



It is fitting that the address on physio- 

 logic instruction should be given by a Cor- 

 nell professor. For, in 1868, at the sugges- 

 tion of the first president of that institution 

 (the Hon. Andrew D. White) the entire 

 Freshman class attended a course on 

 physiology and hygiene during the first 

 term ; the examination questions were such 

 as were asked in medical schools at that time, 

 and diagrams were required of both macro- 

 scopic and microscopic structures. The 

 choice of the speaker was equally happy ; 

 for the year of his graduation, 1877, was 

 memorable in the annals of Cornell, in that 

 then first physiology became a requirement 

 for admission. Furthermore, Prof. Gage is 

 a master in the elucidation of the fine ana- 

 tomy of animal tissues which aids so mate- 

 rially the comprehension of ftinction, and his 

 address last summer as President of the 

 American Microscopical Society, 'A Plea 

 for Physiologic Histology,'^ well merits 

 mention in this connection. 



If I commence with an emphatic corrobor- 

 ation of his complaint as to the inadequacy 

 of existing text-books, it is because no other 

 want has been more constantly and keenly 

 felt by me during the twenty-eight years in 

 which I have delivered 40 courses of lec- 

 tures upon physiology (one-fourth of them 

 in medical schools), and have addressed 

 upon the subject more than 4,000 individ- 

 uals. 



From the nature of the case a text-book 

 can never be complete. But the other four 

 of what I call the five C's may surely be 



^Science, August 23, 1895. 



