The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-08-14 00:00:00

HUMOROUS PHYSIOLOGY.

A report on the examination of girls in Board
Schools for the prizes offered by the National Health
Society has been presented to the London School
Board. The examination was attended by 215 girls
from eleven schools at four centres, viz. :—Medlum-
street, Saffron-hill, Ben Jonson School, and West-
moreland-street. It is suggested as the reason why
out of 234 girls' schools only eleven sent competitors,
that physiology is taught as a specific subject
in so very few girls' schools. And even in the
representatives from these schools Mr. McWilliam,
who held the examination, noticed an abundance
of faults. Many of the children appear to have
been utterly unable to understand the terms of
the questions. "Mention any occupations which you
consider to be injurious to health, giving reasons for
your answer." This r :Lion, Mr. McWilliam says,
especially appears to have puzzled them. One girl's
complete answer to this question is, "When you have
a illness it m. 'ls your health bad as well as having a
disease." Aor.other says, "Occupations which are in-
jurious to health are carbolic acid gas which is impure
blood." Another complete answer is, "We ought to go
in the country for a few weeks to take plenty of fresh
air to make us healthy and strong every year." Another
complete answer is, Why the heart, lungs, blood,
which is very dangerous." The word "function" was
also a great puzzle. Very many answered that the skin
discharges a function called perspiration. One girl
says, "The function of the heart is between the lungs."
Another says, "What is the function of the heart?
Thorax.' i Another girl in answer to the sixth ques-
tion says; "The process of digestion is :—We should
never eat, fat, because the food does not digest."
Another 'lass of errors is that of exaggerated state-
ments, one:girl answering, "A stonemason's work is
injurious, ecause when he is chipping he breathes in
all the little chips, and then they are taken into the
lungs." Another says, "A bootmaker's trade is very
injurious, because the bootmakers always press the
boots against the thorax, and therefore it presses the
thorax in and it touches the,heart, and if they do not
die they are cripples for life':" Several girls insist
that every carpenter or mason should wear a pad
over the mouth, and one girl says, that if a
sawyer does not wear spectacles he will be
sure to lose his eyesight. Finally, one girl de-
clares that "all mechanica vork is injurious to
health." Another child b.. that "in impure air
there is not any oxygen, it is all carbolic acid gas."
Another says that if we do not wash ourselves "in
one or two days all the perspiration will turn into
sores." One girl states that " when food is swallowed
it passes through the windpipe and stops at the right
side, some of it goes to make blood, and what is not
wanted passes into the alimentary canal." Another
girl from the same school says, Venous blood is of a
dark black colour, and when it reaches the heart it is
made by the heart a bright red colour." Several girls
from the same school repeat this last error. Another
girl says, "The chyle flows up the middle of the back-
bone and reaches the heart, where it meets the oxygen
and is purified." Another says, "The work of the heart
is to repair the different organs in about half a minute."
Another says, "We have an upper and a lower skin,
the lower skin moves at its will, and the upper skin
moves when we do." In many of the papers errors of
spelling are very numerous. One child says, " The
heart is a comical shaped bag." Another says, "The
upper skin is called eppederby, and the lower skin is
called derby." Another says the organs of digestion
are, "Stomach, utensils, liver, spleen." Another
speaks of the " elementry cannal. ' Another says,
"Digestion is reducing our food into a plump."
Another says that in the heart "There is a fleshy
petition, and it is divided into four parts, called left
oratory, right artilary, &c." Of the simple word
" chew ' the inspector noted three distinct varia-
tions. One girl says, "First we put the food into
our mouth then it is skewed; some people say
our food is sh,ewed twenty-seven times." Another
says, "The process of indigestion is that when we
do not schrzo our food enough it gives us indigestion.'
"The loss of teeth is a serious matter, as we cannot
schew our food enough." Another says, "First before
we can swallow any food it as to be jawed, and their
is a substance which helps to Jew it called saliva, and
in that saliva their is a substance which is called
Ptyalin." The errors, of which those mentioned above
are samples, are confined for the most part to the
papers of Standard IV., and in a less degree to those
of Standard V. On the other hand, Mr. McWilliam
says the papers of Standard VI. and Ex-Standard VI.
girls are many of them very well written indeed.—
lobe.