Abstract
THERE is an old saying, “that every man when he gets to be forty is his own doctor unless he happens to be a fool;” by which is meant that the pains and discomforts of ill health will, in the long run, convince most men that some knowledge of the facts of physiology and of the laws which govern the human body, is, after all, a desirable thing for the comfortable conduct of life. The main object of Dr. Lankester's pamphlet is to urge the question, “Why leave these lessons to chance and the fourth decade? Why not steal a march on bitter experience, and by making physiology a branch of general education, forewarn and forearm everyone against bodily indiscretions and against transgressions of sanitary laws?” Leaving on one side altogether the value of physiology in its scientific aspect as a means of training the mind, and taking his stand on the ground simply of the importance of it as mere information, the author works out his plea with unflagging zeal and energy. Indeed, all the pages bear tokens of almost the enthusiasm of a crusade. Into town and country, into girls' schools, boys' schools, infants' schools and universities, into corporations, vestries, and town councils, into the functions of clergymen, householders, lawyers, and domestic servants, the flag of physiology is most gallantly carried; and we can hardly imagine an impressionable general reader finishing the little work without at once rushing off to order “Huxley's Elementary Lessons” and the “School Manual of Health.”
What shall we Teach? or, Physiology in Schools.
By Edwin Lankester, &c., &c.
A School Manual of Health.
By Edwin Lankester, &c., &c. (London: Groombridge and Son.)
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What shall we Teach? or, Physiology in Schools A School Manual of Health. Nature 2, 272 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002272a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002272a0