428 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



very little regarding the causes or the nature of diseases. That is 

 partly true and partly not true. Unquestionably, the true theory of 

 disease is yet to be wrought out, although every thing leads us to sup- 

 pose that science is at last upon the right track ; but, unquestionably, 

 in relation to the germ of disease, great conquests are yet to be made, 

 and it is a matter of great satisfaction to me, and, I doubt not, to all 

 of you, that one of the most careful of American investigators is to 

 speak on that subject this evening. 1 So, too, the relations of ozone 

 to various diseases is a matter in which conquests are still to be made. 

 There are multitudes of questions yet to be solved, but still many 

 have been solved already. And a very great conquest was made 

 when it was found that zymotic diseases had relation to physical 

 causes, and that the causes were ascertainable and removable. So, too, 

 we have made conquests, as I have stated already, in sanitary engi- 

 neering. There is material for study. We have made great advances 

 in the study of vital statistics — there is another object of study. I 

 think that this objection, feeble as it is at present, should rapidly be- 

 come more feeble as science advances, and it can have but little weight 

 among thoughtful men. 



But there is another class of objections which are more constantly 

 made — the same objections that have been made to every change in 

 the curriculum of study, from the days of Erasmus until now, and to 

 any liberty in the choice of studies. Those objections are on the score 

 of Discipline and Culture. I remember once that, when this objection 

 was made in the presence of the late Horace Greeley, he cried out, 

 " Discipline ! I hate the word." Nor was this exclamation unnatu- 

 ral. Few words have done more harm to the progress of education 

 than this. I am the last to say any thing against what is now known 

 as the older system of education, or of classical education in general. 

 I prize it ; I love it ; but, if there were no other argument to show 

 that it is by no means the only mode of discipline or study, the return 

 made by the Commissioners of the English Government, after their 

 examination of the English public schools, is certainly proof on this 

 point. It is there shown that seventy per cent, of the students under 

 the old system, carried out as it is to its very highest point, failed to 

 make any worthy use of their advantage. 



What are disciplinary studies ? I maintain simply that they are 

 those which for any reason whatever a man takes hold of, and which 

 take hold of him. It matters not whether the study be in obedience 

 to natural tastes, or whether it be forced upon the student. This is 

 the thing — that the study be taken hold of, and that it take hold of 

 the mind of the person studying. Now, in our primary instruction, 

 the studies which I here advocate take hold of great numbers of pu- 

 pils ; take hold of them by virtue of their being a relief from other 



1 President Barnard, of Columbia College, presented a paper on " The Germ Theory 

 of Disease in its Relations to Hygiene." 



