February 5, 1886.1 



SCIEXCE. 



115 



another, in all directions ; and still farther down 

 is Medulla. He has charge of the life department, 

 and keeps working the bellows, and running the 

 fire of life. And through this allegory you are to 

 • know* more about the contents of your knowl- 

 edge-box tbiin you did before.' Only a reading of 

 the article itself, and an enjoyment of the grotesque 

 illustration, will convey an idea of its extreme 

 clearness ; and, after such a reading, no excuse 

 will be necessary for calling attention to this effort 

 as an illustration of modern elementary science- 

 teaching. Joseph Jastrow. 



TOTAL-ABSTINENCE TEACHING IN THE 

 SCHOOLS. 



In 1884 the legislature of the state of New York, 

 in response to forty thousand petitions, passed an 

 act by which all schools supported by public 

 money or under state control are required to in- 

 struct their pupils in physiology and hygiene, 

 ' i with special reference to the effects of alcoholic 

 drinks, stimulants, and narcotics, upon the human 

 •system," and prohibiting the granting of a certifi- 

 cate to any person to teach in the public schools 

 except after passing a satisfactory examination in 

 physiology and hygiene with special reference to 

 the effects of alcoholic drinks, etc. A similar law 

 has been passed in at least fourteen states of the 

 union. This action, it is claimed, is due to the 

 Woman's Christian temperance union. 



It was at one time questioned whether such a 

 law was constitutional, and how far it could be 

 enforced. The state superintendent, W. B. Rug- 

 gles, in a letter to Commissioner Perrigo, at Pots- 

 dam, says that it is the duty of the local school 

 authorities to provide for such instruction ; the 

 duty of the teachers to give the instruction : and 

 * the duty of parents to cause their children to con- 

 form to the course of study in these subjects, as in 

 any other studies prescribed under the law. He 

 goes still further, in declaring that a persistent re- 

 fusal of a pupil to receive instruction in physiology 

 or hygiene may justify the school authorities in 

 excluding such pupil from the benefits of the 

 public schools. A similar question has arisen in 

 reference to the vaccination law in the state of 

 New York, passed in 1860. In that law the legis- 

 lature distinctly authorizes and directs the exclu- 

 sion from the public schools of children not pro- 

 tected from small-pox ; and, so far as we know, 

 this power and duty have never been abridged or 

 questioned by the courts. It would seem, there- 

 fore, that the conditions under which children 

 may participate in the benefits to be derived from 

 being educated at the public expense are lawfully 

 w ithin the power of the legislature to prescribe, 



provided always that constitutional provisions are 

 not violated. 



The immediate result of the passage of these 

 compulsory laws has been to cause a remodelling 

 of the text-books of physiology and hygiene in 

 order to meet the requirements of the legislatures. 

 Some of these have been but little changed, except 

 to be enlarged by a few chapters on alcohol and 

 tobacco ; while others have been entirely rewritten 

 with the special object of making them conform 

 to the new demands. It is the opinion of at least 

 one lawyer, reputed to stand high in his profes- 

 sion, that the main object of these statutes is to 

 provide for scientific temperance instruction in the 

 schools ; that the use of works on physiology and 

 hygiene is a mere method of accomplishing this 

 result ; and that any instruction which, while 

 making physiology and hygiene its leading fea- 

 ture, only incidentally bears upon alcohol and 

 narcotics, is not a compliance with the law, and 

 therefore school authorities are only justified in 

 using as text-books those which make the effects 

 of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon 

 the human system their special object. If this 

 opinion is correct, very many of the books which 

 have been recommended for introduction into the 

 schools since these compulsory laws were passed 

 would be discarded, as the}- are primarily works 

 on physiology and hygiene, and secondarily teach 

 temperance. The number of books which have 

 thus far appeared to meet the new demand 

 exceeds twenty. 



One of the most prominent temperance writers 

 thus explains the failure of temperance move- 

 ments hitherto, and points out what he thinks to 

 be the hope of the future. 



"The temperance efforts of the past failed 

 because all temperance decrees proceeded from 

 the sovereign, and were as changeable as his 

 whims and caprices, and also because it was not 

 known that alcohol was always a poison. The 

 modern temperance movement is based on knowl- 

 edge and on a sentiment of fellowship and fra- 

 ternity. The great advance made in physiological 

 science has been applied to the study of the effects 

 of alcohol upon the human system, and from this 

 the most beneficial results may be expected. 

 Based upon the statement of Tschokke, that all 

 laws are powerless for extinguishing an evil 

 which has taken root in the life of the people, 

 it is from the people itself that the reform of 

 morals must proceed, but no government is strong 

 enough to bring it about." 1 



It is as yet too early to judge of the wisdom of 

 this new departure. The teachers themselves 

 must first be taught ; and the movement towards 

 1 Gustafson, iu ' The foundation of death.' 



