PHYSIOLOGY : ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION. 
391 
instance, the American medical periodicals some months ago 
noticed an instance, where of the twenty-four hours, twelve 
were devoted to study, seven to sleep, three to meals, and 
two to exercise. And many are doubtless familiar with 
instances no less flagrant, in this land, and even in this 
metropolis of civilisation, where nature is degraded to the 
position of a snubbed, ill-fed, ill-warmed, ill-clad maid-of-all 
work, in humble attendance, at a respectful distance, on 
gentility. We may be supposed to refer to extreme in- 
stances ; but we believe that, in general, children in schools 
are treated rather as machines to be charged with knowledge, 
than as members of the animal kingdom, living under the 
same physiological and physical laws as the young of any 
other species of the organized creation. 
The possession of physiological knowledge would be useful 
to all classes of 'manufacturers and persons engaged in trade. 
It would give them some guidance as to the means of pre- 
venting or diminishing many of the diseases which commonly 
attend certain occupations, and which raise to a high rate the 
average mortality among the persons employed. It would 
teach how the labour must be proportioned to the capacity 
of the body for its endurance. “ National health is national 
wealth,” both generally and particularly ; and a healthy body 
of workmen is obviously far more valuable than a set of 
semi-animate overworked imbeciles. 
Many other examples of the practical application of a 
popular knowledge of physiology might be given : but the 
following quotation from Dr. Acland must suffice. 
“ General physiological questions will, in a few years, 
become so universally understood, that much ordinary 
literature will be unintelligible to those wholly unacquainted 
with them. Advanced physiological problems are already 
discussed in reviews, in this and other countries. Sanitary 
inquiries of all kinds come now within the range of town- 
councils, vestries, guardians, police, registrars, and officials 
in every class of society. Cceteris paribus, therefore, one 
versed in such subjects or intelligently grounded in them, 
is better prepared for office than one who is not.” 
W hen and how should the instruction in physiology 
which is here advocated be given ? Obviously the best time 
for imparting an amount of information, at least sufficient 
for all ordinary purposes, is in youth. Physiology ought to 
be introduced as a branch of education into all our colleges 
and schools, public and private, for the female as well as for 
the male sex; and if the movement which has begun to be 
* * Note, &c., pp. 4-5. 
