IV 
PREFACE 
Now, after years of experience, the author has rewritten 
the text and included in it discussions of the most important 
of the scores of topics which the pupils ask about. In fact 
there is not a topic discussed in these pages which is not 
commonly called up by the pupils in class discussion. Thus 
the book is made to meet the needs of the inquiring minds 
of the boys and girls. 
The degree to which the lessons meet the approval of the 
pupils and their parents is shown by the voluntary expres¬ 
sions of gratitude received, by the eager questions with which 
the pupils would prolong the class hour, and by the im¬ 
proved moral tone of the pupils who have the lessons. Also, 
to test out the pupils’ reaction, we have a number of times 
asked them to express, in an unsigned ballot, their opinion of 
the value of the lessons or to tell whether we should give them 
to the classes coming next year. The votes, almost unani¬ 
mous, have been that the lessons are valuable (many pupils 
say the most valuable of all their work) and should be given 
to the new pupils. 
The illustrations of the book are newly designed and 
drawn by an expert illustrator of medical and anatomical 
text-books, Miss Mary Dixon, of the Illinois University 
Medical School. 
Though a few parents (fortunately an increasing number) 
give their children some instruction in sex matters, most boys 
and girls entering high school know little about the subject, 
except the vulgar phrases and inaccurate accounts current 
among those who have been exposed to debasing influences. 
In these aspects of the matter some children have become 
quite sophisticated. We aim in Health as a Heritage to 
restore the subject to its proper, honorable place. It is pure 
to those who come to it with clean minds; it is intensely 
interesting in its scientific as well as in its social aspects; it 
is inextricably interwoven with the most intimate strands 
of life. We must understand it, if we are to live intelli- 
