PHYSIOLOGY : ITS PLACE IN EDUCATION. 393 
mass of education at present imparted— if the hours required 
for healthy corporeal exercise were to be abridged. But 
what is demanded is, that physiology should occupy a fair 
share of the time now devoted to the acquisition of know- 
ledge less practically useful, and not at all superior as a 
means of mental discipline. 
Again, it may be argued that a knowledge of physiology is 
necessary only to the physician — to him whose special duty 
it is to aid nature in repairing the injuries suffered by the 
body. Without doubt, to the man of physic is requisite the 
most intimate knowledge which can be attained of the struc- 
ture and functions of that body, on which, when it is diseased, 
he employs the resources of his art ; but this by no means 
precludes that every man should know so much of his own 
mechanism as is necessary for maintaining himself in health. 
To the physician belongs especially the task of attending to 
the repair of a deranged mechanism : to every possessor of 
that mechanism belongs the duty of preserving it, as he best 
can, in working order. 
Popular instruction in physiology should aim at imparting 
a correct knowledge of leading facts and principles rather 
than of details. Dr. Lardner well says — 
ee It is not necessary to a liberal education to be able to 
pronounce upon the nice distinctions which separate species 
from species, nor to trace the course of each artery and 
nerve which traverses the organs of the body. Such details 
would encumber the memory of the general student, without 
leaving upon it any durable or useful traces. The know- 
ledge which is desired is of another kind. The general 
structure of the human body and its organs; the principal 
functions by which they are sustained and nourished ; the 
most striking relations between them and the corresponding 
organs of inferior species ; the manner in which the functions 
are exercised ; and the relations between the varying struc- 
ture of the organs and the habitudes of life of the species to 
which they belong, constitute knowledge which, once well 
and soundly acquired, can never be forgotten, and which, 
while it suffices for those whose pursuits of life do not 
necessarily connect them with the prosecution of the natural 
sciences, serves as the base of the special studies of those 
who engage in professions, with which these sciences are 
inseparably connected.”* 
Before concluding, a word remains to be said on the 
several works which have been alluded to at the beginning 
of this article. 
XXXI. 
* * Animal Physics,’ p. 2. 
52 
