PREFACE 
Health , Public and Personal was written to help pupils 
understand the functions of their bodies and to lead them to 
give proper care to their health. Pupils are taught to look at 
the subject from the point of view of their own hygienic 
habits and also from that of the community organization. 
There is one aspect of the subject, however, which it seemed 
better to leave for a separate volume. Hence this little 
book. 
Much of good health or ill health is determined by what 
the child inherits from his parents. Children cannot attain 
an excellent state of body or mind unless they are born of 
good stock, with the possibilities of a vigorous physique and 
a high intelligence, free from the blighting influences of 
degeneracy and race-destroying disease. Therefore, if we 
would have healthy children, we must study inheritance, 
learn what qualities of parents arc transmitted to offspring, 
discover or devise methods by which the evil factors can be 
avoided and the good promoted. 
Fifteen years ago the writer of Health as a Heritage, after 
several experimental trials, began giving to his classes in 
physiology and hygiene, as part of their regular work, the 
lessons which are here presented in book form. At first the 
lessons were given as lectures; but in this as in other subjects, 
the lecture method proved ill adapted to pupils of Junior 
High School age. Then the lessons were printed without 
illustrations. The teacher was driven to use the black¬ 
board and stereopticon to make clear the anatomical refer¬ 
ences. A later edition of the lessons included illustrative 
figures. 
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