Wisconsin tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1847-1854, 1850-07-05
Physical Education.


y The following is an extract from the
ScalPel, medical journal published in n. Y.
by DR.. Dixon:
Z" Let us look little after their early train
ing. We will take for example a sister and
brother; the girl of eight years the boy OF
six.
We give the girl two years the start of the
boy, TO make her condition equal to him at the
outset. Both have endured the tortures Of
bandaging, pinning and tight dressing at
birth; both have been rocked, jounced upon
the knee, pap'd, laudanum'd, paregoric' 4 cas-
ter oiled, and suffocated with blanket over
the head, sweltered with a cap and feather
bed, roasted by fire of anthacrite, and poi
soned with foul air of an unventiated cham
Der, accordiugto to the universal formula of som G
superanuated doctor, or experienced nurse,
probably both, for these people usually hunt
in couples and are very gracious to each 9TH
er. We give the girl enough start to make
up for the benefit the boy has derived from
chasing the cat, and an occasional tumble in
the hall yard, and the torture she has endured
from her sampler, and being compelled to
% sit up straight and not be a hoyden''
Our little couple start for school, with such
a minimum lungs as the unnatural life they
have led viii allow, and a stomach that is yet
fresh enough to endure bad bread, plum cake
candies and diseased milk. The reader viii
remember that nature is benefcient, and will
endure much abuse before she succumbs.-
Well, they're of for school observe how
circumspectly my little miss walks; soon she
chides her brother for being rude. He, moth
ing daunted, starts full tilt after stray dog
or pig, and though he often tumbIes in the
mud, and his clothes get spoiled, the result IS
soon visible in increase of lungs and ruddy
cheeks. He cannot run without more breath,
he cannot continue to run without increased
dimensions and power Of lungs he cannot
have good large lungs without good digestion,
he viii feed well and thrive apace.
They are now at school, seated on a bench
without back, and often with their legs
hanging down, so that the poo. back bone has
no earthly support. Thus sits the wTetched
child, with book in hand, from nine to twelve
or one o'clock, and sometimes three. The boy
with the aid Of sticking pin now and then
In his ncjghbor, and occasionally falling asleep
and tumbling from his bench, from pure nerv-
Gus ezhaustation, 30 the great relief of his
half staguaut bloodvessles, and torpid nerves,
endures it till another mercifUl pig or dog
chase makes him feel that he is alive.
Bat our unfortunate little Miss is in dis
tressed condition. She is charged to walk
straight home,' where she is allowed to Sc
lect her dinner from those articles that afford
the least nutrition, such as pastry, cake, rich
puddiugs, and apples. This, by the way, IS
her second meal of the same character, hav-
ing taken one either at breakfast OF lunch
Indeed, she requires no better food I; forshe has
had no exercise to consume the azeotic meat
she ought TO eat. Remember that her mus
cles move her limbs, and are composed chiefly
Of azote; and il is the red meat or muscle OF
beef or mutton that she wo'd eat if she had
any appetite for it, that is to say, if her stom-
ach and bIoodvessles would endure it; the
fact is, the child has fever, loathes meat.
After dinner she either sits down to heT
sampler, or the Piano, and in all probability
finishes the days feeding with tea preserves.
She is then posted of TO feather bed in an
.unventilated room, with the door shut for fear
the little darling viii take cold. A MOTIFS
stove or furnace keeps the upper chamber
from IS to 100 degrees, and the feather bed
and blankets, retaining all the heat of the
body, swelter the wretched little creature till
morning What wonder that she gets spinal
curveture, if not actual deposites Of tuberciea
in the hody of nor varfehraa or Iuursl All this
we have explained at length in the article on
Consumption. We have shown, that alth'c
strongly predisposed to that form Of scrofula,
consumption, as well as spinal disease, car
often be overcome by exercise, air and strong
meat diet: and though child be actually free
of scrofuIa, that It may be produced by such
a barberous and wretched mode Of life as We
have painted above one that we grieye tl
say. is extremely common in this city. Boys
often escape these evils by parental neglec
and a prcci Gus boon for them it is; but the
poor girls are deprived of natures only meth
cd ofkeePing the pale faced monster at bay.
Now if this picture be denied, take you two
children Of common parents, at common
country school, two miles from home, and II
they have sufficient clothing and good food
even the benches have no backs, and The
school-house be overheated and little better
than pig pen, tell me, if at twelve years o
ethe girl cannot often wrestle withheT broth
CT, and ask no favors ofhim."
Small Sweet COurtesies Of Life.