The Combe lectures on physiology / lectures by William Stirling.

  • Stirling, William, 1851-1932.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Combe lectures on physiology / lectures by William Stirling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    able man, much in .advance of his age and time in all that concerned the education an<! physical well- being of humanity. His guiding principle through- out life was that there is a great divine, moral government of the world, and that its laws were witten in nature for the guidance of man. He was an earnest man, and, above all, a deeply and sin- cerely religious man. He was sincere in his conWc- tions, and wlien once tliey were formed he acted fearlessly upon them, undismayed by the opposition of men, of which lie ha<l ample experi- ence during his life-time. He was a man much hi advance of liis time. His views on education, although ridiculed when he gave ex- pression to them, were the very views wliicli every one now regarded as being just and tnie views of the principles of education. Combe desired tliat educa- tion should be practical, and that chihhen oiight to be tauglit tliat wliicli woulil be useful to them in after-life, and tliat the tencliing sliould be by objects 2)lacfid before the pniiil, and that, above all, instruc- tion in tlie physical conditions necessary to health sliould form part of a general education—(apjilause). The laws of health, he considered, ought to be taught to women, because the lives of chiMren depended almost exclusively on tlie care of the motlier— (applause). He strongly advocated a compulsory system of education. This was more than 40 years before compulsory education became Jaw in England —(applause). Combe was born in Edinburgh on October 21st, 1788, the day of the victory of Trafal- gar, and very early in life his attention was dii-ected to tlie necessity of those physical conditions being strictly abserved whicli were necessary to obtain a sound mind in a sound body. In his auto- biography he remarked that in 1800, the family, his parents. 13 children were crowded into a few looms of small dimeiuiions. Tlie laws of health depending on ventilation and ablution were wholly unknown. The mind was regarded as independent of the body, and evei-yone acted on this hyi)otliesis. Comhe was educated at the High School and also at the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, and on completing his studies he obtained a i)artnershi]) in a legal firm in FJdinbnrgh, and passed as a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet. The ])hilosoi>hy of the human mind early attracted his attention, and he thought he had found in phrenology, of which nothing was lieard Bow-a-days, a system which would guide him in all