Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-01-13
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KEEP STRAIGHr.-One can hardly walk
half mile in any of our streets, without per-
celVlng an abundance of painful testimony
that our people are sadly negligent in regard
to the erectness of the human frame. Round
shoulders, stopping postures. and curved
splnes, COMPRISING the chest so that the
lungs cannot perform their office, are rather
the rule of than exceptions to the physical
developement of our population; and the Sc
dentary and cramped occupations of the pres
ent day, are rapidly perpetuating the evil
An exchange paper thus discourses upou
this subject
'Chlldren and youth should be straight.
1t would not be strange, if to very many it
had never occurred that not one man or woman
III ten thousand is straight. A straight an
erect-man or woman is a curiosity. Henry
Clay VIII ever be memorable in the eyes Of
all who ever saw him, for this quality; aud
the same is always particularly remarked Of
Andrew jackson. But how could we DO
otherwise than crooked nation when, ''as
the twig is bent, the trees inclined :" When
l go into school, and stay awhile, till after
the first Strengthening up is over, the scholars
always seem to me like SO many branches of
a weeping willow. Their backs are like the
outer arch ola bow bent for use. How could
1t be otherwise when with their soft bones
and flexible muscles, they are confined so
long? And where ale their lungs; Squeez.
ed into the smallest possible compass. Now,
i but three school hours a day were had. and
the scholars never confined to the room but
an hour at a time, all this could be changed.
The teacher could explain perfectly the
science of the matter, and by the mere hint
when necessary, secure compliance with the
requirements to sit "as straight as all arrow"
The benefit I need not recount to those who
know the human body has lungs
Such hints ought to be sufficient to intro-
duce reform in the management of children
IN our schools. 1t is perfectly true that the
benches, with back, now used. are superior
to the stools which were in vogue many years
ago; but still, the confinement of young chill
dren to their desks or forms for two or three
consecutive hours, or even for single hour
at time, is very injurious to their frames.
When engaged with their books or states.
children, it not watched, will inevitably &C,
quire STOPPING curve of the back, and thu.
lay The foundation for stopping gait and
narrow chest.
| And when further advanced in life, the
matter is not bettered. The clerk sits at his
desk upon high stool, and while writing. his
back describes tho segment of circle. Half
our mechanics bend over their work to such
an extent that they necessarily become round
shouldered. Girls in sewing, or evenin prsc-
ticing upon the piano forte, generally take
position which is injurious to the spine and
the writing pupils in our schools are about
always found with curved backs and distorted
shoulders.
CurYatures are acquired in youth when the
physical system is flexible, and thus those
curvatures become chronic. In later life
there are but three means of reforming the
error, this side of medical treatment. The
one Of these is particularly engrossed by men,
the other may be participated IN by both men
and women. We mean the military and the
dancing. The former is objected to by old
fogies who think their sons may expend too
much money, or get into injurious company
by trequenting the drills of our military COM
panies and the latter is objected to by the
sanetlmonious as device for driving their
children straight to the
1t parents would use proper care over their
children none of their exercises nor amuse-
ments need to be injurious. But more than
half the parents of the present day are utterly
unit, by nature, habit and inclination, to
have charge of children. Parents have amuse-
ments and occupations of their own, in which
they are too much engaged to pay any atleu-
ton to their children. All they require Of
those children is TO keep OUT of their way, be
silent and give them as little annoyance as
possible. The children, of course, betake
themselves to such amusement as they can
find, They keep away from home, and per-
haps get contaminated by improper company.
Then the parents complain OF the perverse-
ness of their children, and complain of the de-
pravity of human nature. Depravity, for
sooth Children are rendered thus evil by
criminal neglect on the part of the parents,
who are as much bound to provide and over.
see proper recreations for their children as
they are to clothe and feed them. ssi
2 Since the use of chloroform COM
menced in the London hospitals, the mortali-
ty following operations has increased from 81
to "a per cent.