606 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the- home can be educated to deal more wisely with the situation than 

 it has yet done it will be necessary for us to follow the example of Italy 

 and certain other countries by placing part of this responsibility upon 

 the schools. 



For these and many other reasons, a biological view of human prog- 

 ress counsels us to give more heed to matters of domestic and personal 

 hygiene. Under the present conditions of civilization, more than ever 

 before, man's body, mind and morals are being subjected to difficulties 

 which they were not evolved to meet. Among primitive men, morals 

 were natural and easy, intellectual strain was intermittent and of short 

 duration, while the body throve in its natural habitat of fresh air, sun- 

 light and varied muscular activity. The problem of existence reduced 

 itself chiefly to obtaining food and avoidance of becoming food for 

 others. To-day, conditions are quite the reverse. Possessed of the 

 same animal and egoistic instincts so necessary for the very existence of 

 our ancestors we are required to overcome these in the interests of a 

 higher and more difficult moral standard. The complexity of indus- 

 trial and social life, with its rivalries, competition and absurdly arti- 

 ficial standards of living, has brought the necessity of continuous 

 mental and physical exertion. The body has been exiled from its 

 Garden of Eden to the unnatural and unwholesome environment of 

 house, office, factory and mine. The human body is not exempt from 

 the consequences of the biological law that the existence of an organism 

 is jeopardized whenever it is exposed to conditions widely different 

 from those which directed its evolution. Fortunately we are' not re- 

 duced to a choice between extinction, on the one hand, and a return to 

 nature, as advocated by Eousseau, on the other. A diligent application 

 of the laws of personal and social hygiene will preserve us from this 

 dilemma. Nothing else will, and the contribution of domestic science 

 to this end is absolutely essential to its ultimate success. 



Almost if not quite as much can be said for that branch of the 

 manual arts technically designated as manual training. 



Ever since Seguin's classical experiments with manual training in 

 the education of feeble-minded children, nearly three quarters of a cen- 

 tury ago, the school has moved rapidly toward a clearer recognition of 

 the close inter-relation between mind and body. For hundreds of 

 years education had been controlled by a bifurcated educational aim, 

 with most of its emphasis on the side of mind. In the last few years, 

 however, the psychologists have learned a great deal about the motor 

 aspects of mental activity. They have demonstrated that almost any 

 simple act of attention involves muscular innervation and, contrari- 

 wise, that motor exercise quickens intelligence. Psychology teaches 

 that body and mind have grown up together and that the latter has no 

 raison d'etre apart from motor adjustment. When educational practise 



