Chemistry and its terms have become almost as familiar as household words; and in our employments, and in our domestic operations its principles are not usually violated. But the principles of Physiology have been regarded as belonging to one of the occult sciences, which might interest the student, but had nothing to do with the practice of every-day life.

We therefore see men managing their farms and carrying on their mechanical operations in wisdom, while they manage their own bodies in folly. Before a man assumes the care of a machine, he examines its parts, he learns its uses, the means of its movement, and the purposes to which it is to be applied. With this knowledge he is ready for his responsibility. He provides the proper material, with which it is to move; and that, upon which it is to operate. But for the management of his own vital machinery he makes no preparation. Hence he makes such mistakes in the conduct and use of his own body, as he would be ashamed to show in regard to his wagons, his water-wheels, or his spinning-jenny.

If a man, when he has woven his web, should put into his loom a parcel of sticks and wire, and then set the loom in motion, just for the pleasure of seeing it move, or perhaps in the hope that the loom would, out of these hard materials, make cloth as well as out of cotton and wool, he would do a very foolish act; but not more foolish than, when he has eaten enough for nutrition, he eats indigestible and innutritious matters, just for the pleasure of eating. No engineer

would pour upon the gudgeons and pistons of his engine acids instead of oil, just for a change, because this would be in opposition to his knowledge of the laws of mechanics, and spoil his machine. Yet he will pour wine and brandy, and tobacco juice into his stomach, and tobacco smoke into his lungs, which are infinitely more delicate organs than any thing of wood or iron.

If a dyer should use his old dyes over and over, and expect to produce fast and deep colors, or if the chemist should use acids over and over and expect to produce good salts, he would show himself so ignorant of his business as to lose employment. Yet men will breathe air over and over, and seem to expect that, by these imperfect means, they shall purify the blood.

If the laws of life were as well understood as the laws of matter, we should see no more mistakes in the management of our bodies, than we do in the management of our machinery; and if Physiology were as well taught in school and elsewhere as Natural Philosophy, its principles would be as familiar, and as ready for use.

The remedy then, for these evils and errors, is to incorporate the study of Physiology in the course of universal education. Give this science a prominence in all our schools, in proportion to its importance, to its bearing upon human health and human life. Then will men be saved great suffering, and be so far prepared to fulfil their natural destiny on earth.

NOTE. On account of the great length of the preceding Lecutre, and want of time, part of it was omitted at Hartford.

The readers of the Christian Examiner will here recognise many of the sentiments and some entire paragraphs which I published in that Journal for July, 1843, and which are here taken without acknowledgment. E. J.

DORCHESTER, Mass., Oct. 17, 1845.

LECTURE V.

ON

INTELLECTUAL ARITHMETIC.

By F. A. ADAMS,

PRINCIPAL OF DUMMER ACADEMY, BYFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

In saying to you what I may be able to offer on the topic allotted to me, I need not occupy your time with remarking in general on the importance of the study of Arithmetic in schools: a study whose results are of universal application in common life; and the pursuit of which furnishes in a higher degree than any other one study, an easy and sure means for the discipline of the mind. Its various stages, too, are fitted for every variety of age, and for all degrees of mental power. Arithmetic, therefore, holds and should hold a prominent place among the studies of the common school. Perhaps it is not too much to say, that on an average one half of the time spent in study in our common schools is occupied with this branch. Besides the

liberal share of time uniformly allotted to it in the regular arrangements of the school, this study is a kind of reservoir into which are thrown the fragments of time not taken up with other things. It is the residuary legatee; or the old official, entitled to all the waifs and strays; so that in supposing that one half the time in common schools is occupied with arithmetic, I may have estimated it below, rather than above the truth. From this fact alone, if from no other-from the amount of time employed in this branch of study- the subject before us invites our sincerest interest, and the best thoughts we can bring to it. A small saving in a boy's time, when he is one of a million, and the saving may be applied to the million as well as to one, becomes an immense gain : in the first place, because "time is money," and, secondly, because that time employed in vain, without fruit, is worse than the absence of money; it is counterfeit money.

The terms in which my subject is expressed, Intellectual Arithmetic, at once suggests to us the great change that has been wrought in the whole department of arithmetical instruction, within the recollection of most of those who are present. It is not many years since Intellectual Arithmetic began to receive any attention as a distinct object, in the studies of our schools. The only apparatus for arithmetical study was the slate and the old book, full of mysterious questions, and bristling with rules. In most cases the analysis of the principles involved in the operations was not attempted. The pupil was given