Introduction.
Nothing need be said concerning the importance of the study of good health. The first lesson that a child should learn is the law of his being. Hitherto the aim has been mainly to train the mind regardless of the requirements of the body. The vital connection of the two has been ignored with a persistency little short of criminality.
Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene have their places in the curriculum of our leading schools, but the knowledge too often is simply technical and without practical results. What greater travesty than to listen to a glib discourse on nutrition, digestion, circulation, respiration, the muscles, nerves, bones or brain by a pupil with thin chest, lack-lustre eye, sallow complexion, and weak frame?
With no wish to slight the value of a thorough knowledge of Physiology, this little volume seeks to give the fundamental laws of health, in such simple language that every boy and girl advanced enough to read, can understand them. Accompanied and supplemented by the earnest words of the teacher, who shall estimate the good that may be accomplished?
In the preparation of these pages, the author is glad to acknowledge the valuable assistance received from C. Shepherd, M.D., Superintendent for many years of Public Schools, Trenton, N. J., and Washington Hasbrouck, Ph.D., Principal of the New Jersey State Normal School.