388 PHYSIOLOGY : ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION. 
too much -to ascribe in great measure to the influence of the 
popular teaching of natural science by the philosophers, the 
elaborate care which the ancient Greeks and Romans 
bestowed on the public health, as manifested in their 
numerous and excellent sanitary regulations ? 
The incidental and indirect benefit, then, of physiology as 
a mere philosophical study would, we believe, be very great. 
But our special duty is to point out the good, in regard to 
sanitary matters, which would arise directly from the dif- 
fusion of this branch of knowledge. 
Prominent among the advantages that would arise, is the 
death-blow which would be struck at that power of impos- 
ture over ignorance, by which health and life are so ruth- 
lessly sacrificed. Dr. Acland — whom we hail as a zealous 
and enlightened fellow-labourer — has a few very true words 
on this subject. 
u I look to the increase of a general knowledge of phy- 
siology (and of hygiene which it implies) as one of the 
greatest benefits which will accrue through science to the 
temporal interests of mankind. Every form of quackery and 
imposture in medicine will in this way, and in this way only, 
be discouraged. It is, in great part, on this ground — on the 
ground of the future benefit to the people through the dis- 
semination of a true perception of the groundwork of practical 
medicine, that I have laboured for many years to promote 
physiological knowledge in this university, among students 
holding whatever rank, and destined for whatever occu- 
pation.”* 
It is on ignorancfe, on the want of means of distinguishing 
truth from falsehood, or certainly from speculation, that the 
success of charlatans is supported. To a populace possessing 
a mere knowledge of the existence of the component parts 
of the human frame, and of their functions, but with little 
or no idea how these act on each other, or how they are 
affected by external influences, the extravagances of the 
quack sound as gospel ; and he profits accordingly at the 
expense of his victims. The acceptance of absurd doctrines 
in physiology or in any other science is not, we think, due 
so much to a desire of receiving the doctrines themselves, as 
of receiving something which shall satisfy the natural craving 
of the mind for knowledge — true or false. Then, in the 
name of all honesty and common sense, let men’s minds be 
filled with a knowledge of what is true. Let them be taught 
in simple language what is known, and practically useful, 
regarding circulation, respiration, digestion, the physiological 
* ‘ Note on Teaching Physiology/ p. 5. 
