The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-04-01
THE United States senate has intro :

dHced bill similar in character to Q law
enacted by the legislature of Wisconsin
at its last session in reference to narcotics
and stimulants. The senate bill provid-
es for the teaching in the schools of the
District of Colambia and the territories,
the effects of narcotics and stimulants on
the human system. The law in this state
has done some good, but not in the
direction which the originators of the bill
had in visw,-oreating a temperance
sentiment. (The word Temperance" is
here used in the factional sense not in
the legitimate accsptation of the word.)
If knowledge of physiology be at all
desirable it is because it aids in the
understanding of laws of health and
makes more probable obedience to
hygienic rules. If through the indulg-
ence of any bad habit health is injured,
the effects of that habit on the human
system should receive as much attention
from the students of physiology as any
other not more common or injurious. A
knowledge of physiology and hygiene
should have for its object the prsserva-
ton of bodily health which necessarily
includes moral restraint, and not the pres
ervation of health by special attention to
two items, no more important than many
others. Just as proper would it be TO
require that special attention be given
the teeth at the dictation of party of
dentists.
Physiology and hygiene are now very
properly, part of the common school
course. If taught properly, more i'm
mediate good will result to the people,
than from the study of any other common
school branch. People have given some
attention to the proper means of raising
stock, and have studied reasons for Ger
tain lines of procedure in their care.
But children bave been allowed to grow
up without any attention to their phys
ical well-being except in SO far as i'm
mediate suffering is prevented. "Sufi-
Gent for the day is the evil thereof" 30
far as the child is concerned and no effort
is made to inculcate habits upon which
future happiness depends. The narrow
ness of the law which bends study of
the greatest importance to the further
ance of a political scheme,-for that pro-
hibition has becomes reprehensible.
The study of physiology and hygiene is
only partial if it does not consider the
effects of narcotics and stimulsnts; but
to lay particular stress upon these is to
make the schools take part in what is
now a partisan struggle. The extremists
on both sides are crerks, and their argu-
ments are much like the advertisements
of patent medicines. The inventor of
some remedy shows clearly that all the
ills of the body result from that par
ticular disease which his nostrum is Ger
tain to cure if taken in time. The free
whiskey fanatic insists that there is
nothing which should be dearer to the
public heart than the saloons; that they
are the palladium of our liberties and
when they are in any way harassed per
sonal liberty is attacked. The temper
ance fanatic argues that when the sale of
liquor is stopped the greatest evil of the
times will be removed and that the tap
root of all evil has been severed. One
would teach that an increase in the number
of saloons, the utmost encouragement by
the laws of the traffic, and sentiment
favorable to indulgence are the greatest
blessings people can enjoy, and the
best evidence of the federation of that
personal liberty which to deny is tyranny.
The other would teach that to taste
liquor is to deserve damnation; that to
deal in it is evidence of degree of i'm
morality truly shocking and that no man,
no matter what his strength of purpose,
shall be allowed any freedom of action in
regard to this matter. He may use fire
arms, deal in poison, keep dog, but
must touch not, taste not, handle not the
mug of flowing beer. And here we have
the two extremes, equally illiberal, in
tolerant, coercive. 1t is fully as i'm
proper to allow one to use the public
schools as the other. Some teachers of
the state have dared to state in their
schools that indulgence in alcoholic
drinks was commendable; and they were
very properly denounced. Must we
! express approval of the other who teaches
that to taste alcoholic beverages is to be
placed outside the pale of decent society