session of the State legislature, of a bill, with stringent provisions, for teaching in our schools the facts concerning the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and narcotics upon the human system. I am not able to state how universally in our schools the provisions of this law are complied with, but I aprehend that the matter has not received in all places the thorough attention from school officers and teachers which it should. Its provisions are not too strict when we consider the importance of the subject.

After June 1, 1891, teachers are required by this law to be examined with special reference to their knowledge of the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and narcotics. As the questions heretofore prepared by the state department have quite thoroughly covered this ground, the teachers and schools are presumably in full harmony with the spirit of this law, and the only change will be that of the text-books that do not comply with the provisions of the statute. Statistics 1890.-Number of pupils, 66,250; number studying physiology and hygiene, 26,732.

VERMONT.

Let the children be taught to form good habits.—State Superintendent Justus Dartt (1886): The startling fact that so large a number of school boys are forming the habit of using tobacco by smoking cigarettes, thus retarding physical development, disordering the nervous system, and weakening their mental power, is a sufficient incentive to all the effort that has been or can be put forth to forearm the children against this evil. Above all things else, let the children be taught to form good habits.

V.-AN INQUIRY INTO THE RESULTS OF TEMPERANCE TEACHING IN MASSACHUSETTS.

REPORT OF GEORGE H. MARTIN, AGENT OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. [The following report of Mr. Martin was taken from the Massachusetts School Report of 1890-91, pp. 312-326.]

Under the law of 1885,' which requires physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of stimulants and narcotics, to be taught as a regular branch to all pupils in all schools, there is great diversity of practice. I have made it a subject of special inquiry, and have gathered a large amount of ma terial in the form of written papers. These papers have been furnished by the most advanced classes in the grammar schools. The pupils have been asked to write for me what they could recall concerning the effects of alcohol and tobacco on the human body. They were not required to put their names to the papers, so that they wrote without constraint, usually taking all the time they wanted. To judge of the work most intelligently, one should read all the papers; but in this report I can use only enough to illustrate the classes of work, or special features of the instruction. Read with the allowance which all written papers need, they are useful. They are printed as written.

The cities and towns within my inspection may be roughly grouped in four classes: (1) those in which oral instruction is given during three or four years of school, with the use of text-books during the remainder of the course, from four to six years; (2) those using text-books only in the last one or two years, confining all earlier work to oral instruction; (3) those using no text-books, but having regular oral instruction throughout; (4) those having only oral instruction, of an occasional, desultory sort. The first three classes might each be subdivided into those having regular oral and written examinations, and those having none. For the use of the teachers in giving oral instruction one or more books are usually furnished, from which the teachers gather material for talks, or from which they read.

Of the work of the schools in the fourth class, it is perhaps enough to say that it does not meet the requirements of the law. Physiology is to be taught as

1 The Massachusetts act of 1885 provides that "physiology and hygiene, which, in both divisions of the subject, shall include special instruction as to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimu lants, and narcotics on the human system, shall be taught as a regular branch of study to all pupils in all schools supported wholly or in part by public money, except special schools maintained solely for instruction in particular branches, such as drawing, mechanics, art, and like studies. All acts or parts of acts relating to the qualifications of teachers in the public schools shall apply to the branch of study prescribed in this act, and all penalties now fixed for neglect to provide instruction in the branches of study now prescribed by law shall apply to this branch of study."

a "regular branch." This can mean nothing less than it shall have a permanent place in the programme of school exercises. How frequently the periods given to it shall recur, the law does not attempt to prescribe; but that they should recur at stated intervals, and frequent enough for teachers and pupils to consider them essential parts of the school exercises, there can be no doubt.

The word occasional is so elastic that the results attained in schools of this class may vary widely. In some schools few facts have secured a lodgment in the pupils' memory, though there is a decided impression of the harmful character of alcohol; for example

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO.

The effects of alcohol is bad because it injures your health and body and in a little while it will kill you. When you are cold and take alcohol in liquor it will warm you up for a while and in case of sickness the doctors will give it to you in liquor.

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL.

I have heard that the effects of alcohol on the human body is a ruination to the person who uses it It burns the person in side and doen't him any good but does him harm. They say it is good for medicine but I do not know. I think we could get along with out it. If it is good they abuse it by puting it into intoxicating drinks which is very injuriou to the human body.

TOBACCO.

If the persons smoke it will make cancers come on their lips and will make the cancer in the stomach. Tobacco often leads to drinking. Tobacco is sometimes made in filthy places and is not good for persons to use.

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In other schools of this class the best pupils are are able to write as intelligently as when more formal work is done:

Alcohol is a stimulant when taken in small quantities, in larger quantities it is a narcotic. Its immediate effect is exhilerating but after working through the system it stupefies the brain and makes the body unfit for use. It destroys many of the small glands of the stomach and alimentary canal and makes those that are left hard and ropy. It makes ulcers on the small intestines. It destroys pepsin which is the fluid that digests the food taken into the stomach, It makes the blood flow much faster than is necessary and consequently wears out the heart much quicker than it naturally would," It makes a man a beast, It in time takes the place of food, and makes the stomach a good pouch for holding alcohol, but useless to digest food. The poison in tobacco is called nicotine, a drop of this fluid will instantly kill a dog. The general effect of tobacco is the same as that of alcohol although it is not so violent, it produces ulcers in the throat.

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO ON THE HUMAN BODY.

When a boy begins to smoke young his growth is stunted, his complexion is sallow, his teeth become yellow, and his breath bad. It also works on the brain. It does not effect one right off but by degrees The man who drinks a little at a time does not think he is doing any harm to his body, but he is, His stomach is burning by degrees and finally when he becomes a drunkard he has no stomach at all, (so to speak). It works on his nerves and his muscles, and he finally looses all his power.

The weaker ones have little to say, but contrive to express their feelings:

ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO.

The effect of alcohol on the human system is to produce raw sores in the intestine. In time it produces a disease of the brain known as delirium tremens. A man who drinks intoxicating liquors is slowly poisoning himself and if he keeps on he will die. Tobacco contains a deadly poison called nicotine. When the young use it, it dwarfs the body more or less.

ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO.

Alcohol makes any one nervous and irritable. If any one begins to drink, it is very hard to leave off. It irritates the stomach and heart.

In schools where the instruction is all oral, but regular, the pupils write more fluently than in schools of the fourth class. Their knowledge of the subject is apt to be more comprehensive, but it is still general. The effort to be specific is not often successful:

THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM.

Alcohol is one of the worst enemies of mankind, yet many people, falling intɔ the habit of drinking this disastrous spirit, could not live without it. If they could see the picture of their system before and after using the alcohol they would not care to drink another drop. When it passes down the throat it burns off the skin leaving it bare and burning. It causes the heart to beat many unnecessary times and after the first dose the heart is in danger of giving out so that it needs something to keep it up and therefore the person to whom the heart belongs has to take drink after drink to keep his heart going. This unnecessary work soon wears the heart out. The liver is also effected by alcohol. Before the use of it, the liver is smooth and velvety. After long use of it, the liver is turned to a different color, and there are large pimples growing out on it. These look like nails and the liver is called "Hob nail liver."

THE EFFECT OF ALCHOHOL ON THE SYSTEM.

Alchohol poisons the human system. After a man has been drinking alchohol his brain becomes cloudy and he is unfit for work. Many people think that alchoholic drinks help men to do their work better, but after they get used to drinking alchoholic drinks, it is hard for them to work without it, and they do not do their work so well.

Statements like the following abound in the average papers: "Makes the mind dizzy;" "The skin on the organs cracks out;""Before alcohol is put into the body, the liver is soft and flat, but after a person drinks it for two or three years. that organ becomes hard and full of holes like a sponge, and instead of being flat. it is round;""Every drop that is taken rushes to two little cups in the brain." The more illiterate pupils here, as in the other schools, are firmly impressed that alcohol is an evil.

Alcohol, to those who drink it makes great blotches on it red. If you drink much of it, it will make you drunk. like leather, and is called the hob-nailed liver. It affects makes you die sooner. It affects your heart the most.

your face, and makes Its makes your liver your whole body and

THE EFFECT OF ALCHOALL ON THE HUMAN SYSTOM.

When aman gets adrinking rum, which contains alchoall, it goes to his brain, and makes him unsenseable. Alchoall will quicken the pults, and the hart will beat faster than usual Alchoall is poision, and will poision the blood.

In some schools the moral and social side of the drink question seems to be made more prominent in the oral instruction than the physiological side. Some of the best papers, from a literary standpoint, are from these schools. Such are the following, which are scarcely better than the average of the whole class:

THE USE OF ALCOHOL.

Alcohol is a spirit of wine. It is very injurious to the system, and sometimes causes paralysis of the nerves, which also leads to blindness. The use of alcohol by grown up people, sets a bad example to the young, who surely can not help from seeing intoxicated men and sometimes women staggering along the street. It seems as if young people might resist the temptation of what they know will be an injury to them, when they see the effects; poverty, cruelty, murder, suicide and many others.

A man who comes home under the influence of alcohol, with his mind dazed, is often cruel to his family, and what might be a happy home is an unhappy one, on account of the father's habit of drink.

In many homes wine is on the table daily, and the children see it drank before them, and some are even allowed to taste it.

I think the whole country suffers from it. and it should be put down as it has in some places. Attempts have been made in Boston, but the prohibitionists have not succeeded. Some of the business men say it will hurt business, but I should like to have it tried.

THE USE OF ALCOHOL.

Alcohol is a kind of ardent spirit. It will paralyze the nerves when taken as a drink. Alcohol is generally used to put in drinks, such as rum, ale, and lager. When once a man begins to drink things in which alcohol is put, it is very hard for him to stop. A man who drinks, almost invariably, is robbing his family of the money which they aught to have and which he is spending for his cravings of liquor.

It is one of the great topics of the day whether or not drinks, which contain alcohol shall be sold, made or imported into this country.

Young men who begin to drink do it because they think it a smart thing They do not look forward to what will become of them when they grow up to be men. They perhaps do not think or know that nations have been ruined by this

curse.

Every day this curse is getting a stronger hold on our nation. Every day it is growing larger and larger. Shall we allow this curse to ruin our nation. No! Somehow it must be stopped but how.

THE USE OF ALCOHOL.

The pure alcohol is a liquid of about the color of water. biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."

The Bible says "It

It is mixed with wine and sold to people as a beverage. To such people the ordinary food is not strong enough to satisfy their appetites. They sometimes eat garlic with their food.

A liquor saloon is a very poor thing to have in a community. It is generally brilliantly lighted in the evening to attract the young men. They will stay away from home for the sake of being in this gay company. They may loose their position in business if found intoxicated. It is the ruin of a man to take liquor as a beverage.

Drunkenness leads to many evils. When intoxicated murder may be committed, rash acts, stealing, and sometimes suicide.

A large part of the money spent in the Union is for liquor, wines, and tobacco. Good could be done in every way with the money spent for these purposes.

In the effort to have the pupils receive their information in more definite form and retain it, some teachers arrange the leading physiological facts in form and order and require the pupils to memorize the statements. In classes where this practice obtains, the papers are essentially alike:

Alchohol is a drug of very great power It weakens the nervous system and often leads to paralysis. It causes a disease of the liver, stomach and kidneys, and often leads to dyspepsia, which is caused by indigestion. It lessens the mental powers, so, that a child using would not be able to learn or think as quick as he otherwise would. It often dwarfs the body.

It weakens the whole nervous system and often causes paralysis, epilepsy or insanity. When used in small quantities it is a stimulant, when used in large quantities it is a narcotic.

The higher faculties are first paralyzed leaving the victim under his lower and meaner nature.

Alchohol weakens the muscles of the heart causing it to beat more rapidly, distending the blood-vessels, and overcharging them with blood.

Alcohol, irritates, weakens, and inflames the stomach, liver, and kidneys and often causes fatal diseases in these organs.

Alcohol weakens the muscle of the heart causing the blood to flow too rapidly and thus distending the blood-vessels. By use of alcohol the brain is first excited, then paralyzed. The higher faculties are first paralyzed leaving the victim under control of his lower and meaner nature. It weakens and exhausts the nervous system and sometimes causes paralysis, epilepsy and insanity.

EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON THE SYSTEM.

Tobacco is very injurious to the young and no child which uses it is ever a good scholar. It dwarfs the body and lessens the mental power when first used by the young it makes them feel sick, stupid and drowsy, and gives them a yellowish or sallow look. It hurts the action of the heart, persons using it are hardly ever if ever healthy. Tobacco is a drug of very great power, a drop oil extracted from it placed on a dogs tongue will kill him nearly as quick as spru

cid asic.

EVIL EFFECTS OF TOBACCO.

Tobacco is a drug of very great power a drop of oil exacted from it placed on a dog's tongue would kill him nearly as prusic asid.

Tobacco when used by young is always injurious. It oftens duarfs the body and always lessens the mental powers. No child usuing it is ever as good a scholar as he otherwise would be.

Tobacco also causes diseases of mouth and throat.

Passing to consider the schools where text-books are used for a longer or shorter time, the character of the papers presented seems to depend more on the general character of the school and the ability of the pupil than on the number of years spent in the study of alcohol.

If we select a number of schools in which the subject is studied from text-books one, two, three, or more years, we shall find the best papers presented will cover essentially the same facts in all the schools. On the other hand, the average papers, after one year's use of the book, may be better than other schools will furnish after five or six years' study. For example:

A.-Text-book one year; two lessons a week.

EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL.

Alcohol at first acts as a stimulant, but when the stimulant has spent its force it leaves the body in a very weak condition It paralyzes the nerve centres, and causes a fatty deposit around the heart and enlargement of the liver. When alcohol is first taken into the system it quickens the action of the heart and afterwards leaves it very weak so that it cannot perform its work properly Continued use of alcohol produces delirium tremens which sometimes ends in death. The appetite for alcohol may be inherited In persons who use it the nerves are so weak that they cannot resist the temptation to drink.

B.-Text-book one year; four lessons a week.

EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM.

When a person first tastes any alcoholic liquor, as a rule, they do not like it; but they often try it again just to see if they don't like it. Gradually they learn to like it. Some persons drink to such excess that their whole system is saturated with liquor and it would kill them to go without.

Alcohol weakens the muscles and makes them flabby. When alcohol is first taken into the system it exhilarates the person and makes them lively; but it soon produces a stupor. Alcohol weakens the heart, so that it is not able to perform its work thoroughly. It eats out the coats of the stomach, and of course the stomach is not able to perform its work of digesting the food thoroughly, thus causing indigestion. Nothing will quench the thirst of a man who drinks alcohol but alcohol.

C.-Text-book two years; two or three lessons a week, with written examina

tions.

EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM.

Alcohol drys the blood, weakens the mind, deadens the nerves, causes sickness, sores, cancers and in every way weakens and poisons the body. It has a great craving for water and therefore it takes the most necessary thing from our body. It weakens the blood-vessels so much that the blood, which flows with much force when alcohol has been taken into it, burst them, this causing death. The blood often stagnates in the blood-vessels near the skin, causing it to have a red appearance.