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It is not so much, however, the patient observation of nature, as good
training in the home and in the school, that enables some women to
accomplish so much more than others, in the development of human beings,
and the promotion of human comfort. And to do this efficiently, women as
well as men require to be instructed as to the nature of the objects
upon which they work.
Take one branch of science as an illustration--the physiological. In
this science we hold that every woman should receive some instruction.
And why? Because, if the laws of physiology were understood by women,
children would grow up into better, healthier, happier, and probably
wiser, men and women. Children are subject to certain physiological
laws, the observance of which is necessary for their health and comfort.
Is it not reasonable, therefore, to expect that women should know
something of those laws, and of their operation? If they are ignorant of
them they will be liable to commit all sorts of blunders, productive of
suffering, disease, and death. To what are we to attribute the frightful
mortality of children in most of our large towns--where one-half of all
that are born perish before they reach their fifth year? If women, as
well as men, knew something of the laws of healthy living, about the
nature of the atmosphere, how its free action upon the blood is
necessary to health--of the laws of ventilation, cleanliness, and
nutrition,--we cannot but think that the moral, not less than the
physical condition of the human beings committed to their charge, would
be greatly improved and promoted.
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