Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-09-28
OUR PUBLIC scHOOLs.-No. XII.
BY 3. 8. RANDALL.

An early and intelligent acquaintance with the
constitution, structure, and functions of the hui
man frame, of the laws in obedience to which
only health may be preserved and secured, and
the mind enabled to accomplish its noble mission
undepressed by the disheartening influences of
debility and pain; of the organic functions of the
various muscles, bones, nerves, vessels, and lga-
| lures which are distributed throughout the body,
and the principles in conformity to which the
action of each, and the combined operations of
all are regulated, is indispensable to an enlight-
ened development and judicious cultivation of
our whole nature.
"The laws of health and life," observes the
Hon. Horace Mann, in his Sixth Annual Report
as Secretary of the Massachusetts, Board of Edu-
cation, care comparatively few and simple.
Every person is capable of understanding them.
Every child, before arriving at the age Of eigh-
teen years, might acquire competent knowledge
of them, and of the reasons on which they are
founded. The profession Of medicine, on the
other hand, is mainly conversant with the laws
of disease 1t is these which are so numberless
and complex to defy the profoundest talent,
and the study of the longest and most assiduous
life for their thorough comprehension. Human
physiology, or the science Of health and life, may
be written in books; for pathology, or the science
of disease thousands and tens of thousands of
books have been written, and yet the subject at
the present time seems to be hardly nearer cx-
haustion than in the age of Galen or Hippocratcs
| A proper regard to the quantity and quality
of diet, of clothing of air and exercise, scru-
pulous attention to cleanliness; temperate and
discriminating use of all the blessings of Provi-
dence whether conferred upon US for the susie
nance and support of animal lfe or for the varied
purposes of social intercourse and moral and in
telectual progress and an intelligent appreca-
ton of the diversified effects Of temperature
climate, and atmospheric changes upon different
constitutions, and at different periods of life,
should be carly inculcated upon the pupils of our
public schools; and the elementary principles
of physiology accompanied with suitable charts
and illustrations taught among the very first les
sons of the course Of instruction aud continued
throughout the whole.
That this important branch Of education has
hitherto been so generally overlooked in our sys-
TENS of public instruction, argues an inexplicabe
blindness to the cardinal interests Of human
knowledge, and strange infatuation, which in its
zeal for the promotion of Interior objects has ne
elected the first and most obvious means for their
successful accomplishment. We may develop to
preternatural activity the intellectual faculties
Of our children, and by species Of hot-house
discipline, stimulated by premiums and public
displays and the excitement Of competition, be
able to exhibit to the wondering gaze of our
friends youthful prodigies Of genius and talent
uuI INC pltOeI eAperlenceoI many M ap0nlzed ana
bcreavcd parent has demonstrated that triumphS
like these are too cvanescent, and may be too
dearly bought. Exhausted nature soon asserts
her supremacy and vindcates her violated laws.
The oyer-tasked brain gives way before the un-
natural supply Of nervous energy forced to it,
and n premature grave claims the victim OF
misdirected education.
Instead Of encouraging ii is obviously tho
part of true wisdom to rpresS the undue manies-
tation Of Intellectual power at an age when the
physical organs have not yet attained that con-
sistency and strength which alone can fit them
for cooperating with the mind The foundations
Of knowledge TO be permanent and durable must
consist in systematic, thorough, and iudicious
IMMIGRATION of the physical constitution. Igno.
rance of these elementary principles which regu-
late this portion of our common nature is no
longer excusablc in those who undertake the task
Of instruction, whether ms teachers or heads of
families.