RIOTISM, AND RELIGION

XXXII. DO-NOTHING AILMENTS 329

XXXIII. HEREDITY BUGABOOS AND HEREDITY TRUTHS 335

XXXIV. INEFFECTIVE AND EFFECTIVE WAYS OF COMBATING ALCOHOLISM 343

XXXV. IS IT PRACTICABLE IN PRESENTING TO CHILDREN THE EVILS
OF ALCOHOLISM TO TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH? 357

XXXVI. FIGHTING TOBACCO EVILS 363

XXXVII. THE PATENT-MEDICINE EVIL 369

XXXVIII. HEALTH ADVERTISEMENTS THAT PROMOTE HEALTH 378

XXXIX. IS CLASS INSTRUCTION IN SEX HYGIENE PRACTICABLE? 384

XL. THE ELEMENT OF TRUTH IN QUACKERY; HYGIENE OF THE MIND 391

XLI. "A NATURAL LAW IS AS SACRED AS A MORAL PRINCIPLE" 398

INDEX 405

CIVICS AND HEALTH

PART I. HEALTH RIGHTS

CHAPTER I

HEALTH A CIVIC OBLIGATION

In forty-five states and territories the teaching of hygiene with
special reference to alcohol and tobacco is made compulsory. To hygiene
alone, of the score of subjects found in our modern grammar-school
curriculum, is given statutory right of way for so many minutes per
week, so many pages per text-book, or so many pages per chapter. For
the neglect of no other study may teachers be removed from office and
fined. Yet school garrets and closets are full of hygiene text-books
unopened or little used, while of all subjects taught by five hundred
thousand American teachers and studied by twenty million American
pupils the least interesting to both teacher and pupil is that forced
upon both by state legislation. To complete the paradox, this least
interesting subject happens also to be the most vital to the child, to
the home, to industry, to social welfare, and to education itself.

Whether the subject of hygiene is necessarily dull, whether the
statutes requiring regular instruction in the laws of health are
violated with impunity, whether health principles are flaunted by
health practice at school,--these are questions of immediate concern to
parents as a class, to employers as a class, to every pastor, every
civic leader, every health officer, every taxpayer.

Interviews with teachers and principals regarding the present apathy to
formal hygiene instruction have brought out the f