Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-05-25
PHYSIOLOGY N PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Dr.. Hammond ~Denuuncss The Present
System of Instruction. .DeIeterlous
Effects Of Imperfect lnfOrma-
tion on Youthful Minds.
New York Herald.l

I AVN ARAR ANAuAN
Zone of the evils of the present
time is the superficial knowledge OF
things that people pick up," said DR..
Hammond yesterday, as he walked out
of the University medical college, to a
Herald reporter, who was waiting to
get his views on certain points in pop.
ular~ education, land not the least OF
these evils is teaching anatomy and
physiology to boys and girls as parts OF
a common school education"
why, doctor?" d,
1T does a great deal Of harm and
scarcely any good" i,
But, surely, doctor, anatomy and
physiology are good things to know
Eyes, for those who hare to apply
them, but certainly not for infants,
and, above all, not for girls"
swell, that is rather a new idea, is
it not?"
by no a It is one held by
many physicians aud others who have
given attention to the subject, and
there is scarcely a day that | do not
see in my practice the deleterious re-
suits of giving a superficial insight
into these sciences to young men and
women"
For ~instance?"
In the first place, the books used
are necessarily mere outlines, and
therefore give very imperfect views of
the subjects TO which they relate.
Anatomy and physiology can only be
properly taught by dissection and ex-
periments under the direction of
skilled teachers, such as we have in
our medical colleges. OF course the
pupils get no such instruction as this.
They are given some one Of the popu-
lar school books on these sciences to
study and then to recite to teachers as
ignorant az they are themselves, for
these teachers know nothing more
than what they got out of the same
works, probably the day before. The
consequence is that scarcely the
shadow of anything worth knowing
falls on the pupils mind. The good
that is done is nothing at all"
But besides this negative result
there is a positive one of more i'm
p%ortauce. The boy or the girl learns
just enough to excite curiosity and
apprehenslon-curiosity relative to
matters Of which it is better that
they should be instructed by parents
instead Of picking up knowledge in
regard to them from all sorts Of im-
promptu sources, and apprehension
based on insufficient information of
the existence of diseases Of the vari-
Gus organs Of their bodies. A young
lady scarcely fifteen years old inform
ed me a short time ago that she was
sure her pancreas was diseased"
MY dear child" | exclaimed, what
do you know about your 'pancreas?' /"
ITS the organ, doctor, that emul-
SITES the fat. i am sure the fat [ eat
is not emulsifed, and so | have stopped
eating all kinds of fat things"
WAS she very stout?'
"She was as thin as a rail, and was
actually half starving herself from a
mistaken idea based on the little smat-
tering of knowledge she had that her
'~pancreas' was diseased. She had no
symptom whatever of pancreatic dis.
ense, and her emaciation was the re.
suit of her morbid fancy"
Actual disease is, however, often
induced by the imagination excited by
imperfect knowledge. The stomach,
the liver, the heart, are thus peculiar
ly liable to be affected. 1t is even
common with medical students when
they begin to study anatomy andphys-
iology, to imagine they have diseases
Of the organs of which they read, and
to which their attention is directed
and it is only after fuller information
that they get rid of abnormal notions.
Sometimes actual disease is produced
in them"
KEEP CHILDREN IN IGNORANCE.
But. doctor, you would not keep
boys and girls in entire ignorance Of
the anatomy and physiology of their
own bodies2"
Eyes, l would, except in regard to
one or two matters, which they don't
learn in school, and Of which their
fathers and mothers should impress
them. As to telling them about the
hearts and lungs and livers and spleens
and pancreas and kidneys in the su-
perfcial way in which they are told
about them in schools, | would stop it
altogether. Perhaps anatomy and
physiology should be thoroughly
taught in colleges to young men who
have reached adult age, but young
women should be taught nothing of
the kind at any time. There are
much more suitable things for them
to learn. 1t does a woman harm to
know where her liver is for instance,
| am quite sure that the large increase
in the diseases of the nervous system
among women in recent years is to a
great extent due to the pe~rnicious
system Of calling their attention to
organs 10 school that they had better
know knothing about. | know that
such attention deranges their health,
mentally and physically"
TIlden and the Star ROute-A
Doubtful story.
Special 10 Cincinnati Enquirer.
1t is current history that when Tom
Brady was being pushed hard by those
making an investigation Of the star