CONTENTS IV. TIRED BRAIN AFFECTING MUSCLE POWER V. TIRED MUSCLE AFFECTING BRAIN POWER INTRODUCTION In four respects we have attempted in this series to do what, so far as we know, has not been attempted before. 1. We have endeavored to present to children a series of texts in which the central theme shall be hygiene. The current school text-books treat of physiology and anatomy primarily. The reason The reason we have placed this special emphasis on hygiene is that we believe the first purpose of such study in the elementary schools should be to influence children definitely towards more intelligent and better habits of living. We also believe that the study of physiology and anatomy as such is of little use or even intelligibility until the high-school or even the college age. 2. It is the purpose of the series to treat each subject in a purely scientific, as distinguished from a philosophical manner; for instance, as far as possible genuine experiments by the child are urged, and the results of such tests are given. The child's own action, experience, and observation are constantly drawn upon, so much so that the blunt facts of actual experience, rather than those of any philosophical argument, constitute the plea. 3. We have presented a new point of view in each volume. The body has been viewed from the standpoint of a. General health, b. Accidents and emergencies, c. Social relations, d. Physical efficiency, e. Mental and moral control. Under each of these rubrics it has been necessary to discuss many of the same sets of facts, but they have new meaning because of their relations. In the first volume (Good Health) alcohol is discussed in its general relations to health; in the second (Emergencies) as a factor in injuries and accidents; in the third (Town and City) in its relation to the community as a whole; in the fourth (The Body) in its effects on the bodily organs; while in the fifth (Control) it is discussed in its relations to character and morals. This mode of treating a subject I believe to be a fundamental necessity to good pedagogy. The teaching of essentially the same physiology with merely increased details from year to year seems to account in some measure for the distaste with which it is so often regarded by both teachers and pupils. 4. These little volumes have been prepared with the same kind of utilization of original works as if they had been intended for adult scientific workers. LUTHER HALSEY GULICK CONTROL OF BODY AND MIND CHAPTER I MOTION AND SENSATION My friend was a football player on the college team, and an all-round athlete. But when they took him from the wrecked train he was paralyzed from thigh to heel. He could not move a muscle in either leg; he could not bend his knees, and, although he used all the will power he had, he could not pull a single toe either up or down. Fortunately, however, he could use his arms as well as ever. His mind, also, was perfectly clear, and he understood the doctor when he said: "Two or three of the lower vertebræ of your backbone are somewhat crushed; they are crowding against the spinal cord which runs through them, but if we can get the pressure lifted, you will be able to move your legs as well as ever." A few days later, even while the legs were still motionless, they became wonderfully sensitive; so much so, that even the weight of the bedclothes pained them, and |