Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1859-02-10
Mental Hvgiene

from the report of the proceeding,
OF the Association of Superintendent,
OF American Hospitals for the Insane
at their late meeting in Quebec, we ex
tract the following remarks made b,
III. lac, IN the course of discussion
which followed the reading of q pane,
on Mental Hygiene. The statement,
thus made deserve the most careful at
tention from all who are engaged in the
training of the young, if they woulc
AVOID an error widely prevalent, nc
doubt, III most of, our communities.
l see no cause in operation more
calculated to deteriorate the power O.
endurance, both physical and mental
Ih nan our system Of education. It's a
matter OF common observation, and
none the less so, fear, on account Of
the opposition it has encountered from
every one who has the least idea of the
mischief 1t has produced Still we can.
not avoid the duty Of bearing our testi.
mony against it on every suitable occa-
sion.
Children are put into school almost
as soon as they can go alone, and kept
there six hours a day, and as they ad
vance the work increases. If fortunate
enough, they reach the age of twelve
uninjured; then the great physiological
evolution IN the system takes place, and
renders it more sensitive under the
strain to which it is subjected. They
go into the high schools, where the SEES
slons are five or six hours long, and not
Tor the purpose Of study alone; some
DO not study in school at all, the time
being occupied solely in recitation. Out
OF school they are kept at their studies
frequently until ten or eleven o'clock at
night. | am astonished every little
while at some new revelation respecting
the extent of these practices. A few
weeks ago was informed that many OF
the girls attending the high school in
Proyldence-girls who ought to be in
bed by nine o'clock--were habitually.
until eleven or twelve, getting up their
exercises for the next day
The number Of youth that break
down In consequence of excessive cere-
bral activity is countless. The disease
may pass under some either name, even
dysentery, as in case that came under
my notice only last week. A lady in
formed me that her only child, a daugh-
ter, fourteen years old, had died at
school Of dysentery, though the disease
seemed light, and her physicians had
declared, an hour or two before she
died, that there was no danger. I as
certalned, however, that she was one of
those intellectual children who are fond
OF study, and that she had been encour-
aged to use her brain to the utmost ex-
tent, with none of those exercises and
recreations which might have checked
the rulnous effect Of such course. In
this condition she was attacked by a
disease which, under other circumstan-
ceS, would not have been serious. and
she wanted the nervous energy to resist
1t. This case illustrates an effect of ex-
cesslve cerebral exercise too much over
looked. | mean the inability to bear
the least shock of disease in any other
organ, as if the vital forces had all been
used up in supplying the demands of
the brain. The ordinary manifestations
OF this condition are so common that,
IN consequence of their very common
ness, they fail to make an impression
upon US. Foreigners coming among us
see it and speak of it. Sir Charles Fox,
one of the commissioners of the Crys-
tai Palace, while in Boston, not long
since, visited one of the high schools
for girls. On coming away he remarked
to his friend, You seem to be training
your girls for the lunatic asylum Such
was the impression made upon an intel
ligent stranger by their intellectual
achievements i'll connection with their
pale and sallow faces.
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