Physiology and Laws of Health.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5258, 14 May 1895, Page 2

Physiology and Laws of Health.

These are subjects in our public schools for the more advanced pupils, but there seems to be a lack of simple and comprehensible lessons for the younger children ia matters essential to the preserration of health. Teachers might remedy this by giving a few plain directions whenever oocasion arose. To show how imperfeotly public school pupils assimilate the lessons in physiology, the English paper Health lately published a selection of answers upon that subject. Here are a few on the subject of disease and health:—

Disease is more common to seine people than to others. Disease is sickness caused by the introduction of some foreign, generally insect, substance, as cholera. All mechani^l HZ*- ia inJwfo" t0 the health. Neuralgia is caused uj nemß trying to pierce the bones. The bones^ need constant oiling. This oil is called cartilage, and runs from all the glands in the body.

Take, again, the following on the comparatively simple topic of digestion : —

Digestion belongs to the lower animals. Dgeation ia reducing our food to plump. The organs of digestion are the stomach, liver, spleen and utensils. The etomach is a small pear-shaped bone situated in the body. The- gastic juice keeps the bones from creaking.

It U not very seriou3 to find children mistaking a word and writing about the abdominal "canopy," or saying that th« blood ia " putrefied " in the lungs ; but it is alarming to find such misunderstanding of facts as is betrayed in the following replies .—

"When the intestines become congealed they are followed by icstant death. The heart, lungs and blood is very dangerous. A cow has no pulse, but the higher Animals sometimes do. The molars are the teeth that grow outside- the head. The growth of a, tooth begins in the back of the mouth and extends to the stomach.

Physiology taught or assimilated in that fashion cannot be productive of any good, and may indeed lead to very disastrous consequences. Instead of trying to stuff youthful minds with abstruse facts and learned terms, it would be much better to impress upon them in plain language the simple everyday rules for the prevention of disease.