Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-03-04

get any nearer than twenty feet of
ne - So saying, he fed in terror.
After a while the old woman died,
and when size applied for admittance
to the lower regions, the Devil would
not let her in, for fear she might de-
throne him, as she was so much his SUI
perior. So the old woman is yet. com
PEELED to wander over the world, Great
ing quarrels, strife in peaceful families
and reighborhotds.
Would you know her name?
1t is Madame Scandal. When she
died, Ter children, the young Scandal
izcrs, were left orphans, but the Devil,
in consideration of past services done
BY their mother. adopted them, and so
you see he is the father Of that respect
able class called scandalmongers.
MENTAL HYGIENE.-From the re-
port of the proceedings Of the Ass cia-
ton of Superintendent Of American
Hospitals for the Insane, at their late
meeting in Quebec, we extract the fol-
lowing remarks made by DR.. Ray, in
tie course of discussion which fol-
lowed the reading of paper on Men
tai Hygiene. The statements thus made
deserve the most careful attention from
all who are engaged in the training of
the young, if they would avoid a fatal
error widely prevalent, no doubt, in
most Of our communities:
81 see no cause in operati n more
calculated to deteriorate the power of
endurance, both physical and mental,
than our system of education. 1t is a
matter of common observation, and
none the less so, l fear, on account of
the opposition it has encountered from
every one who has the least idea of the
mischief it has produced. Still we can
not avoid the duty of bearing our tes-
timony against 1T on every suitable
occasion.
"Children are put into school almost
as soon as they can 50 alone, and kept
there six hours day, and as they ad-
vance the work increases. # fortunate
en- ough, they reach the age of twelve
uninjured then the great physiologic-
al revolution in the system takes place.
and renders it more sensitive under the
strain to which it is subjected. They
| 90 into the high schools, where the ses-
sions are five or six hours long, and not
for the purpose of study alone some
do not study in school at all, the time
being occupied solely in ROTATIONS
Out Of school they are kept at their
studies frequently until ten or eleven
O'Clock at night. l am astonished ev-
cry 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 Providence-girls who ought
to be in bed by nine o'clock-were UP
habitually until eleven or twelve, get
ting their exercises for the next day.
"The number Of youths that break
down in consequence Of excessive cere-
bral activity is countless. The disease
may pass under some other name, ever
dysentery, as in case that came under
my notice only last week. A lady in.
formed me that her only child, a
daughter fourteen years old, had died
at school of dysentery, though the dis,
ease seemed light, and her physician
had declared, an hour or two before she
died, that there was no danger. l as
oertained, however, that she was one of
those intellectual children who are fond
Of study, and that she had been en-
couraged to use her brain to the utmost
extent, with none of those exercises
and recreations which mi ght have check
ed the ruinous effects of such course.
In this condition she was attacked by a
disease, which under other circumstance
es, would not have been serious, al d
she wanted the nervous energy to resist
it. This case illustrates in effect Of
excessive cerebral exercise too much
overlooked. [ 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 de-
mands Of the brain. The ordinary man.
ifestations Of this condition are so
common that, in consequence Of their
very commences, they fail to make an
impression upon US. Foreigners COM
ing among us see it and speak Of it.
Sir Charles Fox, one of the commits
sioners Of the Crystal Palace, while in
Boston, Lot 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 impress
sion made upon an intelligent stranger
by their intellectual achievements in
connection with their pale and sallow
faces"