ness the interference of the health officer is often met in cases of this kind. Only a few weeks ago I learned that an epidemic of measles was in progress in a certain part of my county. I had on file at my office the official reports of twenty cases then in progress there and had reliable information of several cases not then officially reported.

I learned that a young lady lay at the point of death with it (she died next day), and that a neighboring lady of average intelligence was proposing to send her child. over there that it might catch the disease. Humanity and official obligation prompted me to call the lady to the 'phone and to suggest to her the danger and responsibility she was about to risk. The quick and blazing response I received made my 'phone feel like a live wire. A good neighbor lady on the same line whose ear happened to pick our controversy off the wire, joined in the chorus, and I-fled. I had learned, though, that that crop of measles was the common property of that neighborhood and that these families had determined to have their share of it before the supply was exhausted, without regard to consequences. I reported the facts to the state health officer, and they got into print. The next week an anonymous writer assailed me through the neighboring paper as a slanderer, a meddler and liar, and offered to prove by the same doctors whose certificates I had on file that there was no such malady in the neighborhood. Do you ask, "What can the health officer do, where such a disease invades the school in a neighborhood like this?" He can only strike at the symptoms-for the malady is located outside the schoolroom and in the minds of the parents.

Quarantine and the prosecuting attorney may aid, but perversity will prevail when backed by the approval of the community. The real remedy is an educational one. We must break down the fixed and false conviction that every child is foredoomed to have these diseases. We must make it thoroughly understood that there is no more excuse for having these diseases widely prevalent than there is for having smallpox an universal scourge. Could these good people be made to know

that there are communities without number where these maladies are almost as rare as smallpox, where nine-tenths or more of the people live and die without ever contracting them, simply by observing a degree of prudence not at all onerous, we will have established the beginning of reform. We can't make people quarantine against death from senile decay. People solicit the aproach of these diseases to their children simply because they regard them as inevitable and think the period of youth is the safest period to encounter them, and when death or other serious consequence follows they resignedly accept it as unavoidable, a dispensation of divine providence, a natural death.

Following our instruction that these diseases can be avoided, we should strive to make the people understand how very serious they are. If some velvet-footed animal were stealing through our state year after year and each year marking his path by thousands of cases of sickness, more or less severe and protracted, by large expense for medical aid, by anxious hearts of parents, by loss of time to the laborer, by interruption of schools and business, by hundreds of bright eyes destroyed or dimmed, by hundreds of quick ears ruined or dulled, by the prophetic hectic on scores of cheeks, by the hollow cough telling of the fatal wound, by about 500 fresh graves every year, our help would not be needed to drive the whole people into arms against the marauder. But such is the annual record that measles is writing against itself in our commonwealth. And yet fond and foolish mothers coddle and toy with this malignant beast and invite it to become their guest.

We have been clothed with some measure of official authority to battle against diseases like this, for the life and health of our fellow men. I have tried to be diligent and faithful in the exercise of this trust. But as often as I have been called to meet these scourges the autocrat's aphorism comes back to me. My visitation is too late. Some one, alive to duty and opportunity, should have been sent to the grandfathers and grandmothers of the children of the present day to teach them that all these pests are largely sub

ject to the dominion of man and that man himself, in most cases, is responsible for them. I am more and more impressed with the belief that the burden of this fight against them must be borne, not by our profession, but by the educational forces of the country, and I include in those forces, not the schools alone, but the press, the pulpit, the rostrum, all the agencies for the dissemination of knowledge. Ours is the surgical and relief corps, which gathers up the wounded; ours is the pioneer corps that pilots the way; but teaching, teaching, teaching is the need of the hour. Until the teaching forces are made to realize that the laws that send the blood through the body, and the air through the lungs are from the same source that sends the planets around the sun and speaks redemption to a soul, and fully as worthy of study and application, the war against these diseases will continue to be a series of guerrilla skirmishes. I do not underestimate the importance of the office which we hold, nor the beneficence of the statutes which assign our duties. They are already excellent and productive of a rich return to the public; they will be still further improved and enlarged; but I feel that the step to be taken which is now most important is

the bringing of at least the elements of sanitary science into our system of school laws. I do not forget that we have textbooks on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, which some of the pupils reach and study if they hang on long enough. But the ABC of personal habit has been acquired and fixed before that period is reached, and the lore of these text-books bears much the relation to personal guidance and training that geography has to the raising of crops. But in addition to the instruction of pupils in the laws of health and their training as to bodily habits, I would have the whole educational force charged with the duty of cooperating with health officers in the performance of all such of their functions as are connected with public schools. I would put the physical man in evidence in these schools much more conspicuously than he is to-day. The laboring forces of the future might have less to forget about Plato and his republic, but they would have a better equipment of muscles and rear a healthier brood of children, and even the future scholar would carry a better body and more capable brain into the fields of higher learning. Spencer, Ind.

The proverbs already given predict weather changes that may be expected to occur within a short time. Some of them are contradictory, but most of them are trustworthy, may be verified by careful observation, and are easily explained. In another group of proverbs the originators were more ambitious, attempting to predict changes in the weather for weeks and months ahead.

"A favorable January brings a good year."

"A January thaw is a sign of a July freshet."

"If February gives much snow,
A fine summer it doth foreshow."

"If Candlemas day (Feb. 2) be fair and bright,

Winter will have another flight." "On Candlemas day, the bear, badger or woodchuck comes out to see his shadow at noon; if he does not see it he remains out; but if he does see it he goes back, and cold weather continues six weeks longer."

"As it rains in March, so it rains in June."

"Rain in March, a poor harvest." "March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion, and vice versa.'

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"A dry May is followed by a wet June." "If it rains on the first of May a fertile year may be expected to follow."

"A cold and wet June spoils mostly the whole year."

"If the first of July be rainy weather,
"Twill rain more or less for three weeks
together."

"As July, so the next January."
"As August, so the next February."
"If the first week in August is unusu-
ally warm,

The winter will be white and long." "Fair on the first of September, fair the entire month."

"As September, so the coming March." "Much rain in October, much rain in December."

"As October, so the coming March." "When it freezes and snows in October, January will bring mild weather."

"As November, so the coming March." "Thunder in November indicates a fertile year to come."

"A warm Christmas, a cold Easter." "The first three days of any season rule the weather of that season."

"The last twelve days of January rule the weather of the whole year."

"The first Thursday in March, the first Thursday in June, the first Thursday in September, and the first Thursday in December are the governing days for each season."

These and hundreds of similar proverbs are quoted and considered trustworthy by many people everywhere. In general it is not claimed that any casual relation exists, only that certain weather on a certain day of a certain month indicates that there will be some particular weather at some time during some subsequent month. In some, as, "A moist April is followed by a dry June," the principle of averages seems involved; in fact, that idea is manifest in many of the proverbs quoted. It seems possible that the weather phenomena of the year should be so related that particular weather at one time should be followed by some particular weather at a subsequent time, but as yet science has discovered no such relations.

"When the bushes are full of berries a hard winter is on the way."

"A double husk on corn indicates the coming of a hard winter."

"If the leaves are slow to fall, expect a cold winter."

These in reality are much like the others. How many know the average number of husks on an ear of corn or just when the leaves should fall?

"Before early and long winters the beaver cuts his winter supply of wood and prepares his house a month earlier than before late and mild winters."

"When squirrels and other small animals lay away a larger supply of food than usual, it indicates that a long and severe winter will follow."

"When geese are supplied with a very heavy plumage in the fall, it indicates the aproach of a cold winter."

Careful scientific investigations do not encourage us to trust these proverbs, plausible as they may appear. The behavior of plants and animals may indicate changes of weather for two or three days in advance, but hardly for three or four months ahead.

A large number of long distance proverbs relate to the moon.

"Two full moons in a calendar month bring on a flood."

"Go plant the beans when the moon is
light,

And you will find that this is right."
"Plant the potatoes when the moon is
dark,

And to this line vou will always hark."

"The farther the moon is to the south, the greater the drouth; the farther west, the greater the flood; and the farther northwest, the greater the cold."

"A new moon far in the south indicates dry weather for a month."

"If the new moon appears with the points of the crescent turned up, the month will be dry. If the points are turned down, it will be wet." "There will be as many snow storms during the winter as the moon is days old at the first snow storm." "A change of the moon on Saturday is always followed by a severe

storm." "The Thursday before the moon changes rules the moon."

"If the moon changes with the wind in the east, the weather during that moon will be foul."

"The old moon seen in the new moon's arms is a sign of fair weather.

"Five changes of the moon in one month denote cooler or colder weather."

The attraction of the moon causes tides in the ocean and doubtless causes great movments in the atmosphere. The radiant energy reflected from the moon to the earth doubtless modifies atmospheric phenomena. The attraction is constant and its effects must vary with the motions and position of the earth. The quantity of radiant energy must also vary with the motions of the earth and moon. But no one has yet been able to tell just what changes in the weather are due to the influence of the moon. The moon waxes and wanes so gradually that it seems impossible that the influence should be concentrated at certain times so that there should be changes of the weather at the time of the changes of the moon, that could in any way be caused by the moon.

The dark and the light of the moon may have some influence upon growing vegetation, but it can not be very powerful. Persons succeed in agriculture who plant their beans and potatoes when the soil and the weather are favorable without reference to the phases of the moon. It is impossible to see how the moon's position, north, south, east or west, should influence the weather. And no one is able to explain how the position of the points of the moon could have any influence upon the rainfall. Scientific investigations indicate that changes in the weather following changes of the moon are, in the main, simply coincidences. Moon haloes are primarily due to conditions of the earth's atmosphere, and seem to be trustworthy indications of rain. But most other proverbs relating to the moon are of little or no value.

"If it rains on Easter, it will rain on the seven following Sundays." "First Sunday in month rain, it will rain every Sunday of the month." "As the Friday, so the fol

lowing Sunday." "Wednesday clearing, clear till Sunday."

These and many others suggest that weather phenomena are periodic. That idea is present in many of the proverbs relating to the moon. The chief of the weather bureau says that an area of high pressure follows a low pressure area in about three days. There are cold waves, that persist for several days; heated terms that continue for many days; droughts that last for weeks, but the idea is common that the weather will change within three days. It really is exceptional for one set of weather phenomena to continue for more than three days. The great weather phenomena are periodic, season follows season, day follows night, and it seems natural to expect other climatic phenomena to be periodic. But no such law has yet been discovered.

These proverbs are in general old, the work of uncultured men. Whether good, bad, or indifferent, they represent a great amount of careful observation, expressed in quaint, vigorous forms. Many unlettered men, farmers, hunters, sailors, with their stock of proverbs and personal observations, are almost as trustworthy weather prophets as the weather bureau, with all the helps of refined instruments, extensive records and scientific methods. The great body of these proverbs, involving almost every object and circumstance familiar to the people of long ago, not only emphasizes the idea of careful observation, but gives some idea of the importance which our forefathers attached to the phenomena of the weather. With the growth of cities and the multiplication of indoor and sedentary employments, many are losing sight of the importance of the weather. Climate is the most important set of physical phenomena, the most important thing, in the world. It conditions the existence of life and all its activities. It ought to be studied more generally in the schools. It is one of the most interesting and important of the nature studies. No laboratory is necessary, no costly apparatus, no expense for material; the phenomena are universal, crowding themselves upon every one.

It is hot or cold; it is calm, breezy, windy, or there may be a tornado; it is clear, fair or cloudy; it is dewy, frosty or foggy; it rains, hails, or snows. Apparatus necessary, a cheap thermometer, a notebook, and, if possible, a barometer. Observe the

phenomena, read the instruments, make notes, compare notes, and when facts enough have been gathered, or toward the close of the term, discuss the facts and draw conclusions. Terre Haute, Ind.

This paper, as well as those which are to follow in the series, is based upon some investigations made a few months ago under the auspices of the historical seminary of Indiana university, and to which a considerable number of the teachers of the state have contributed by supplying the necessary data. For the benefit of those who did not attend the meeting of the historical section of the State Teachers' Association last June, it may be explained that early in the year a circular setting forth a variety of questions regarding history teaching was sent to two hundred high schools of the state, with the design of securing from principals and teachers of history such information as might be of service in making an estimate of the extent and character of the work now actually being done in the history departments of these schools. Of the two hundred circulars distributed, only one hundred were returned bearing evidence of such care in their preparation as to warrant their use for the purpose in hand. This was somewhat discouraging, yet but little more so than the apathy which, on a larger scale, the committee of seven had to meet, a few years ago, when conducting a similar investigation; so that the results. here to be presented can make no claim to completeness-even if that had been intended. Data from but 35 per cent. of the high schools of the state have been obtained. But on the ground that they are thoroughly representative, the facts to be cited are worthy of consideration. They are based upon reports from schools in all parts of the state-all but ten counties

being represented-schools of every size, condition, and influence. There is no reason to believe that if statistics were to be obtained from the 150 schools not represented in our present report the essential facts revealed would be in any way modified.

What, then, of our teachers of history? The fountain head of high school work in history, as indeed in any subject, is the teacher. In making inquiry concerning high school teachers it was proposed to ascertain (1) the total number of teachers in all departments of all the schools included in this report, (2) the number of teachers giving their entire time to history, and the number giving only a part of their time to that subject, (3) the preparation of history teachers for their work -both academic and professional.

The total number of teachers in all departments of the 100 high schools upon which our conclusions are to be based is 394, having under their instruction 10,352 pupils. Of this total enrollment, 28 schools have each fewer than 50, 39 schools between 50 and 100, 26 schools between 100 and 300, and 7 schools more than 300. Of course the 394 teachers are distributed approximately after the same. proportion as the ten thousand pupils. But the vital question with us is as to the number of these teachers who are engaged, either wholly or in part, in the teaching of history. That number is 128. Of these 128, however, a surprisingly small proportion are teachers of history exclusivelythe number of such being only 22. That is to say, 32 per cent. of the total number