the race may see what are the alarming tendencies, what are the threat-
ening dangers, withwhich our educational systems have to cope. Is it
♦Probably the actual increase, tliou<;h great, is not so large as the above figurea would.
neem to indicate. The later statistics are doubtless more correct than those of thirty years
ago ; and, moreover, the real increase is more iu the foreign population, transferred to our
shores, than among our native inhabitants. We also venture the inquiry whether the term
idiocy does not now include imbeciles, etc., not reckoned as idiots thirty years ago.
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78 TEE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
as true now as two thousand years ago, that " our people perish for lack
of knowledge " ? Thus queries the educator of to-day. He is not a
recluse from life's activities ; not a cloistered book-worm, dwelliog
always among the mists of history, the vapors of philosophy, the ab-
stractions of mathematics, the mysteries of tongues, or the wonders of
physics. He is *' a man of afl'airs '* ; she is *' a woman of views."
They enter the activities, the charities, the philanthropies, the econo-
mies of the living, rushing present. They are not flippant nor arro-
gant: they have zeal with knowledge, courage with patience.
The development of the nation's material resources, the practical
application of scientific methods to the every-day needs of the common
people, the ever-increasing and complex questions of social economy
and political life, — these each demand a place in current curriculums,
and find varied expression in educational subjects and methods. To
the three R's of our fathers are added such liberal acquirements as
shall fit the cbild for citizenship in this best government the sun
shines on. Lest any need be forgotten, or any refinement of our
civilization neglected, physical, industrial, and military training,
schools of technology and applied science, with music and art, are
added.
And now, to the heart of the home comes the answered plea for
scientific temperance instructit)ii in all schools supported by public
money or under state control. This last departure is in the same up-
ward trend of educational effort which gives us the improved, compre-
hensive, and beautiful textbooks in the hands of our children, rather
than the primer and the Murray our grandmothers used; and the
modern schoolhouse, with appliances for health, comfort, and ele-
gance, in contrast with the log-cabin and rude benches wliich consti-
tuted the training-school for **8hooting ideas" a half century ago.
This touch of the people's life has been felt on the door of the school-
room and at the desk of the teacher.
DRINK HABITS.
A history of the drink habits of the race shows them to be almost
co-extensive with the entire period of its existence, more or less ample
in detail, as the text is lull or meager. It is a record of misapplying the
fruit of the ground ; misdirecting man's ingenuity, — wasting his vital
force ; disturbing social relationships ; destroying national life. The
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SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 79
*' head lines " of the tale read misapplication, misdirection, waste, dis-
turbance, sorrow, destruction, death. Race habits, climatic conditions,
legislative theories, and governmental administration modify the details
of this tragedy, but its foundations are ever the same, — the use and
the abuse of alcoholic liquors and narcotics.
Mythology, tradition, inscription, and song represent the votaries of
Bacchus chanting their unholy lays before a divinity who mocks his
subjects and outrages his courtiers. Thousands of years ago the Bible
said, "Wine is a mocker"; and history and science unite in declaring
Alcohol to be a deceiver everywhere, betraying his victims with the
kiss of sensual delight. Though known from prehistoric times, never-
theless alcoholic fermentation was not well understood. Alcohol, when
discovered by distillation from wine, was christened aqua i;i7^,-^water
of life ; the science of our day condemns it as the water of death.
Here, as always, science is the laggard, where religion and philan-
thropy have been the pioneers. Political economy was fully abreast of
scientific data, for the legislation of Christendom condemned the traf-
fic in intoxicating liquors long before science had declared the essen-
tial principle of those liquors to be an irrUant poison,
REFORM INCEPTED.
The human mind approaches abstract truth in physics and philoso-
phy through the underbrush of expediency; this scientific truth was
reached by the same circuitous route. Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D. D.,
of Massachusetts, the eminent statistician of religious progress and of
the temperance reform in this century, writes of the inception of this
reform. " It has generally been the case that many bold, struggling,
isolated efforts of individual minds have characterized the earlier
stages of great reforms, until some single soul, towering above all the
rest, drew the forces into a solid, advancing column, and led the way
to victory. Dr. Benjamin Rush very largely answers this description,
though death overtook him just as the movement became effectively
and permanently organized. His antecedents indicate that he was a
fit man for such a work. It is said that when a member of the Pro-
vincial Assembly of Pennsylvania, in 1774, he moved the first resolu-
tion in favor of our national independence ; and that on the 2od of
June, 1776, while a member of the Continental Congress, he was ap-
pointed chairman of the Committee on Independence." His unchal-
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80 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
lenged position among the scientists of the medical profession is at-
tested by the institutions which bear his name, and the wide-spread
acceptance of his teachings.
In the year 1785, Dr. Rush published the first edition of his cele-
brated essay on *' The Efifects of Ardent Spirits on tlie Human Mind
and Body." This essay, a small pamphlet, was a potential factor in
the history of this reform. The next year it was republished in Eng-
land in the Gentlemen* s Mascazine^ and also in the Gazette^ a Philadel-
phia newspaper. It was again republished in 1789, and many editions
later were issued, under his personal supervision, as late as 1811. It
also appeared in several editions of Dr. Rush's works. *' It was read
by tens of thousands of people, and was the great and only temperance
document of that early period. It exerted a potent influence as the
testimony of one who confessedly stood at the head of the medical
profession of his day.''
Prom this essay we chronicle the formal inception of the temper-
ance reformation of this century. This reformation has determined
the scientific standing of alcoholic drinks. It has extensively remod-
eled social drinking customs, so that alcoholic beverages are now ban-
ished from the best American society. It has given to the world cor-
related statistics from eminent sociologists and political economists,
showing the relation of drink habits to pauperism, crime, idiocy, and
insanity. It is rapidly and radically revolutionizing legislative theories
and enactments in relation to the drink traffic. And last, and best of
all, it is incorporating into the educational system of the country the
verdict of science against the deceiver of mankind.
" Verily the heart of the fathers is turned toward the children^ and
a little child shall lead them^
LAW OF GROWTH.
In the study of this subject we are reminded anew of God's law in
the natural and spiritual world : " Pirst the blade, then the ear, after
that i\iQ full corn in the ear." People often say, as they speak of the
recent movement for the enactment of Scientific Temperance Instruc-
tion Laws, " Well, now, that is a sensible work ; now, that is beginning
right." As they rejoice over '*the full corn in the ear," they little
realize what a history could be written of the unnoticed toils of those
who first sowed the seeds of the now rich, maturing harvest which
gladdens our eyes ; of the prayers and efforts that bedewed the sprout-
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SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 81
ing *' blade," and watched the forming " ear." Thus, in due time, under
the refreshing rains sent by Providence, and the invigorating sunshine
of God's Spirit, the cheering harvest and the divinely appointed har-
vesters are brought together.
A prominent cause of intemperance has always been the lack of ac-
curate scientific temperance information generally diffused among the
people. Following the pioneer essay by Dr. Rush, as early as from 1830
to 1836, Dr. Justin Edwards, in his annual reports as Corresponding
Secretary of the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance,
produced numerous carefully collected facts and weighty discussions of
the nature and effects of alcohol upon the human system, by himself,
and also by such eminent physicians as Drs. Reuben D. Muzzey, S.
Evelyn, Thomas Sewell, John 0. Warren, etc. Those reports were
published in a respectable octavo, under the name, *' Permanent Tem-
perance Documents," for the wide dissemination of these valuable
truths among the people.
The earliest recorded eflFort to utilize the public schools in this direc-
tion was in a large children's temperance meeting held in the Odeon,
in Boston, February, 1837. The officers of six temperance societies
petitioned the Mayor and School Committee of Boston for a recess of
the public grammar schools, to enable the pupils and teachers to attend
this meeting. The petition was granted, and about 2,500 children
were present. To every teacher was given a volume of the Permanent
Temperance Documents, and to each of the children one or more
temperance tracts. At a later date, 800 of these Temperance Docu-
ments were placed in the public-school libraries of New York, and 500
of them in Ohio school libraries.
MISS COLMAN.
In 1869, Miss Julia Colman, a well-known, able writer of essays
upon scientific and temperance subjects, was invited to address a teach-
ers' institute in Fulton County, N. Y., upon the importance of teach-
ing physiology. At that early day she presented the great need of
teaching scientific temperance truth in connection with physiology.
Doubtless Miss Colman^s varied efforts as a writer of temperance sto-
ries for children and a worker in Bands of Hope, quickened her per-
ception of the importance of this method of inculcating temperance
principles among the children. In the winter of 1870 and '71, in a
series of lecture engagements in the state of Maine, she introduced
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82 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
this thought very promiuentlj into her lectures, although she fully
realized that such instruction could not be made immediately practi-
cable, because there were at that time no suitable textbooks. Nor
could authors be led to write, or publisliers to publish them, until there
was a demand for them among those interested in the children and
the schools. In the address of the Hon. Joshua Nye, at the Annual
Temperance Convention of Maine, at Augusta, January, 1871, it was
Miss Colman's pleasure to hear the views presented by her in lectures,
to which Hon. Mr. Nye had listened, publicly approved. Mr. Nye said
** he would like to see the fads about the nature and effects of alcohol
more fully taught ; yes, he would like to see them taught in the public
school.'* All through the year of 1872, Miss Colman was engaged in
writing the Catechism on Alcohol, for the Youth's Temperance Ban-
ner, This was at that time a laborious work, requiring much study
and research. It was soon published in the form of a small pamphlet
or tract. It was not designed as a textbook for public schools ; yet
the more than 200,000 of those catechisms tliat have been sold have
doubtless done a great work in preparing teachers and people for the
more recent wondrously successful efforts to secure compulsory scien-
tific temperance instruction in the public schools.
NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.
«
The National Temperance Society at its Seventh Convention in
1873, passed the foHowiug resolution : —
That inasmuch as education is essential to the removal of the prevailing
i^orance of the nature and effects of intoxicating liquors, the National Tem^
perance Society is hereby respectfully requested to issue a work on physiology
that will show the origin and nature of alcohol, and its effects upon the human
system, for the use of schools, and we urge its introduction into public and
private schools. »
In 1874*came the Woman's Temperance Crusade. The sorrows of
civil war had spent their force ; broad prairies and rich mines invited
adventurers, and commerce and industry beckoned to the multitudes
in over crowded Europe. There came to our shores peoples of all
races and conditions : they brought all habits, all customs, all discon-
tents, all vices, Drinking-habits, and the usual concomitants, with
consequent moral degradation, found a soil only too well prepared, and
rapid growth of evil followed, — the legitimate fruitage of the demoral-
ized condition of society after the great war.
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SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 83
W. C. T. U.
A new empire, a new oligarchy, mightier than that of African
Slavery, so lately overthrown, had arisen under the flag. The Crusade
was a great uprising of American Womanhood, a protest of American
homes against the l^^aloon Oligarchy. It crystallized in the organization
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which early instituted
far-reaching plans for the distribution of temperance literature, and
called Julia Colman to superintend, originate, and direct their plans
in this phase of the work. She was eminently qualified for this posi-
tion, by long years' acquaintance with literary and scientific pursuits,
and by her connection with the National Temperance Society, organ-
ized in 1865, of which Hon. Wm. E. Dodge, of New York, the mer-
chant prince, the Christian philanthropist, the consistent total abstainer,
and influential temperance reformer, was the President, until tlie time
of his death, in February, 1883. This society, under the able man-
agement of its Corresponding Secretary, J. N. Stearns, had already
issued a vast amount of reliable temperance literature, presenting the
social, religious, economic, and scientific phases of this alcohol ques-
tion. Thus, providentially, an arsenal of weapons, a storehouse of
ammunition, was already prepared for the army of women to be recruited
by the W. C. T. U., — a living illustration of the words in Psalm
Ixviii. 11 (R. v.), " The Lord giveih the word : the women that
publish the tidings are a great hostJ^
In 1875, Miss Colman sent her Temperance Catechism, with a.
copy of Story's ^'Lectures upon the Nature and Effects of Alcohol," to
the editor of the Indiana School Journal^ asking his co-operation in
getting the subject before the Indiana State Teachers' Association ;
and they passed a resolution recommending temperance as a study in
the public schools, which was published in the Journal^ in September,
1875, accompanied with a short article in relation thereto. In 1878,
Miss Colman published the Juvenile Temperance Manual ^ — a book con-
taining essays, incidents, and facts illustrating more fully the lessons of
the Catechism. This Manual was introduced into many public schools,
and is still very helpful, for the use of teachers, in oral instruction.
About this time there was republished in this country the Temf)erance
Lesson Book of Dr. B. W. Richardson, which had been prepared for
the express purpose of teaching scientific temperance truth in* the pub-
lic schools of England, and successful efTorts were made in some
localities to have them introduced into the schools of this country.
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84 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
Thus, little by little, by varied agencies, was the work of securing
compulsory temperance education for the children of this country being
prepared, so that it became only a question of time as to when it
should be done ; and when that time came, God raised up the needed
special worker.
MRS. MARY H. HUNT.
In the year 1880, the National Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, at the suggestion of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, of Boston, created
the " Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in Schools and
Colleges." Mrs. Hunt was elected Superintendent. She had been
prominently connected with educational work, Professor of Natural
Sciences in one of our colleges, a careful student of the scientific
phases of the temperance question. She saw, with prophetic eye, that
if the children of the whole land can be taught in the public schools
that alcohol is a poison, how, and why, the next generation will believe
it too. For the terrible evils of intemperance she saw in that belief a
remedy, growing more and more powerful, as the army of children
thus taught come forth from the schools into the ranks of men and
women.
In the first year of her work in this Department of the National
Woman's Christian Temperance Union she made one hundred and
eighty-two public addresses, in ten different states, including addresses
before thirty-one school boards, eighteen colleges, two normal schools,
four teachers' conventions (national and state), before Sunday-school
assemblies and other deliberative bodies. The .year before the school
board of her own town, through her instrumentality, had placed tem-
perance textbooks in the regular course of study — the first action of
school authorities in this direction on this continent, so far as known.
Her appeals for the scientific method of teaching temperance met,
almost everywhere, a cordial and enthusiastic response from educators
and directors of educational matters. In many localities, through the
action of school boards and the co-operation of progressive teachers,
temperance textbooks were adopted for. use in many schools. At that
date the Temperance Catechism, Alcohol and Hygiene, and Dr. Rich-
ardson's Lesson Book, were the works used.
In some schools the work was done faithfully, with gratifying
results ; in others, the enthusiasm, which led to the introduction of
textbooks, soon subsided ; teachers grew indifferent, lessons were
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SCIENTIFIC TEMPEBANCE INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, S5
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recited at irregular intervals, and in many cases the books were used
only for reference. The teachers claimed that the regular work in the
branches required by law took up all the time, and the temperance
lessons had to be neglected. The conviction thus grew upon Mrs.
Hunt that as no study stays long in the public schools which is not
required by law, if the children of the whole land are to learn in the
public schools the evil effects of alcoholic drinks, this branch must be
placed among the regular studies required by law to be taught to all
pupils. Out of this conviction grew the methods of agitation and
organization which have accomplished such sweeping and far-reaching
results.
The text of these Statutes, in the order of their adoption, is as
follows : —
VERMONT.
November, 1882.
[Adopted by a good majority.]
No. 20. AN ACT relating to the study of Physiology and Hygiene in the
Public Schools.
It is hereby enacted, etc.:
Section 1. Section 558, Chapter 33. of the Revised Laws, is hereby amended so
as to read as follows: one or more schools shall be maintained in each town, for
the instruction of the young in good behavior, reading, writing, speUing, English
grammar, geography, arithmetic, free-hand drawing, history, and constitution of
the United States, and elementary physiology and hygiene, which shall give
special prominence to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon
the human system. Text-book committees shall select and recommend a text-
book on elementary physiology and hygiene, for use in their respective towns.
Sec. 2. No teacher shall be required to pass an examination in Physiology and
Hygiene before November 1, 1883.
Approved Nov. 13, 1882.
The above enactment was the first Statute passed in this counti*y on this subject.
Chair. Pub. Com.
MICHIGAN.
Mabch, 1883.
[In the House 68 votes for, and 13 against. In the Senate two adverse votes.]
Section 1. The people of the State of Michigan enact : That Section 15 of
Chapter 3, and Section 4 of Chapter 12, of an act entitled ** An act to revise and
consolidate the laws relating to public instruction and primary schools, and to
repeal all statutes and acts contravening the provisions of this act," being Act
No. 164 of Session Laws of 1881, be amended so as to read as follows:
Sec. 15. The district board shall specify the studies to be pursued in the
schools of the district: Provided always, that provision shall be made for instruct-
ing all pupils, in every school, in Physiology and Hygiene, with special reference
to the ^ect of Alcoholic drinks, stimulants, und narcotics generally upon the human
system.
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86 THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
Sec. 4. No certificate shall be granted to any person, to teach in the schools of
Michigan, who shall not after September 1, 1884, pass a satisfactory examination
in Physiology and Hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks,
stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
June, 1883.
[Passed without opposition.]
AN ACT to amend Sections 4, 5, and 10 of Chapter 89, of the General Laws.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of RepresentativeSy in General Court convened:
Section 1. That Section 4 of Chapter 89 of the General Laws be, and is,
so amended as to read as follows:
Teachei*s of common schools shall be examined in reading, spelling, writing,
English grammar, arithmetic, geography, and the elements of history, and in
physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks,
stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system ; and in other branches usually
taught in said schools.
Skc. 3. That Section 10 of Chapter 89 of the General Laws be, and is, so
amended as to read as follows :
The school committee may prescribe suitable rules and regulations for the
attendance, on management, studies, classification, and discipline of the schools,
whenever it deems the same necessary: Provided, that the Physiology and Hygiene,
with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics
upon the human system, shall bo prescribed in all schools sufficiently advanced;
and said regulations and rules, being recorded by the town clerk, and a copy
thereof given to the teachers and read in the schools, shall be binding upon
scholars and teachers.
Sec. 4. This act shall take effect from and after March 1, 1884.
NEW YORK.
Winter of 1884.
[In the House 92 for, and 2 a'jaUist, Senate 22 voted for it. ]
AN ACT relating to the Study of Physiology and Hygiene in the Public Schools.
The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact
as follows :
Section 1. Provision shall be made by the proper local school authorities for
instructing all pupils, in all schools supported by puWlic money, or under State
control, in Physiology and Hygiene, with special reference to the effect of aicuholic
drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system.
Sec. 2. No certificate shall be granted any person to teach in the public schools
of the State of New York, after the first day of January, eighteen hundi*ed and
eighty-five, who has not passed a satisfactory examination in Physio/ogy and
Hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and
narcotics upon the human system.
RHODE ISLAND.
April 24, 1884.
AN ACT in relation to the giving of Instruction in Physiology and Hygiene in the
Public Schools.
The School Committees of the several towns shall make provision for the in-
struction of the pupils, in all schools supported wholly or in part by public
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SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 87
money, in Physiology and Hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alcoholic
liquors, stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system.
ALABAMA.
February, 1885.
AN ACT relating to the Study of Hygiene and Physiology in the Public Schools
of this State.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Alabama: That provision
shall be made by the Superintendent of £ducation for instructing all pupils, in all