Excerpt from The Human Body and Its Enemies: A Textbook of Physiology Hygiene and Sanitation
An examination of school physiologies published within the last four or five decades discloses the changing viewpoints of teachers of this subject. First anatomy was emphasized, then physiology became prominent, while in recent years, leaders in educational thought are agreed that hygiene is of paramount importance. Within this recent period there has been a shifting of accent from dress and diet to the prevention of germ diseases. The most generally accepted course of today, for elementary physiology, is one which does not minimize any of the phases of the subject, but preserves a correct proportion among them.
The essential principle of hygiene has ever been cleanliness. The race has developed an instinctive horror of the unclean. Since the discovery of microorganisms as the causative agents of disease, however, our adherence to cleanliness has become specific and intelligent. There are, for example, many harmless substances far more revolting than human blood containing malarial parasites. But modern hygiene teaches that the blood of a malarial patient, taken in conjunction with a certain species of mosquito, makes a combination which is, from a health standpoint, very unclean. There is, therefore, a well-founded demand that children be taught the essentials of germ diseases and their prevention. The authors of the present volume have placed this material first, believing that its importance justifies this order of treatment.
In some quarters a certain timidity prevails in dealing with the topics of health and disease, on the ground that increased knowledge along these lines will lead to a more pessimistic point of view. The important role of optimism in the preservation of health is well recognized.
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