The Portland daily press., 1879-07-09
Hardening" Children.
Sensible Words From Noted Physician.

[Dr. b. w. Richardson in the Gentleman's Maya
zine.l
1 was at swimming bath, where some 20
boys, all under II years of age were swimming
or learning to swim. There was no comparison
between these lads in matter of physical out
line. One, short lad, had narrow and
pointed chest, fragile form, and almost trans
parent skin, chilly surface of body and blue
lip; another, tall, broad-shouldered, broad
chested youth, had full and ruddy complex
ion, a warm surface and firm muscular build.
The others varied between these two STAN
dards. Such were the physical conditions Of
the swimmers, and so constructed physically
they commenced their recreation. Swimming
is a healthy recreation, when properly carried
out, as well as useful and necessary. But here
was the mischief from it in the case of the
boys in question; there was no discrimination
in the amount of the recreation. The boy
with the pigeon chest and blue lip had quite as
much of it as was safe for him at the end Of
five minutes; but, to keep him up to the same
standard as the swimmer with the broad chest,
who had such buoyant lungs that he could
hardly sink even if he tried, the boy was en-
couraged and almost driven to go on and keep
on, until he had passed through the same
ordeal as his more favored comrade. The re-
suit was that the weak boy came out of the
water blue all over, an hour later was as blue
as bilberry in the lips and cheeks, and was
cold, shivering, feeble and sleepy. 1 could see
those boys as plainly as if had followed them
going back to school and at the afternoons
work. could be as sure as 1 could be of any
physiological fact that it would require six
hours, under the most favorable of circum-
stances in relation to food, rest and warmth, to
fully reyitalize that feeble boy up to his own
imperfect standard, while no number of hours
would ever bring his vitality up to the STAN
dard of his more fortunate fellow-student.
Look now at the error, at the long series Of
errors, committed by this mode of recreation
on the feeble boy. His animal warmth had
been robbed unduly, and he was therefore
languid and unhappy. His blood was aerated
less freely than it should be, and he was there
fore circulating blood more slowly than he
ought, and breathing with excess of labor. He
was more susceptible to every depressing influ-
ence and his nervous system was dulled in the
same manner as it would be from sitting in q
close and badly-ventilated room He would
be drowsy, and perhaps the master of his
school would say idle or apathetic. For this
he would be rated at his lessons, compared
with other boys who got on better and if not
punished corporeally, made irritable and anx-
ious in mind which is another form of punish
ment. This nervous lad, never over-strong,
would be again unduly taxed And now, what
else must follow as results? When the ner-
vous system is low and depressed, the digestive
power is enfeebled. When the digestive power
is enfeebled the nutrition of the body is de-
graded in every part. Then the vital organs,
on which life depends, and in which the ac-
tivity of nutritive changes ought to be most
rapid and regular are the first to suffer, while
even such passive parts as those which make
uD the skeleton do not escape scot-free See,
then, what modification of healthy life may
be easily effected by one apparently trifing
error OF recreation. Let that error be repeated
many times, or lot some equivalent error be
performed and repeated many times, and what
is the almost necessary result? The almost
necessary result is the institution of that feeble
body in active form, of the phenomena Of dis
ease toward which it had proclivity, on which
the feebleneSs depended
1t will possibly be urged by some that the
process of making these feeble boys compete
| with the stronger boys is intended to invigor-
| ate the feeble. For similar reason, these
| same naturally enfeebled children are often
| sent out of doors in cold weather "to harden
them" The ignorance is beyond pardon.
| AS you cannot gather grapes of thorns nor figs
| OF thistles, so you cannot out Of weak animal
frame extract strength except by taking it out
| of the bank Of life, to the premature shorten
| ing of the inherited store of life.
Mothers know of these facts better than
| fathers, and mothers are often laughed at be-
SNNNDN
love, and passion and anxiety rather than
of cold, calculating, reasonable-I had almost
said, commercial : expectation. But the
mothers are none the less right and indeed,
men know better when they are dealing with
| lives that have to be bought and sold. The
| great breeders of hocks and herds do not try to
| harden or overtax the young lower animal
they want to perfect. They use a wise dis
| elimination, and they succeed in what they do.
| At the same time they are often indiscrimin-
| ate about their own children. A country sur
| geon, whom much esteemed for his quick
| insight, once brought to me for consultation
| feeble boy with consumptive tendency, in or
| der to settle the question whether the mothers
fostering or the fathers hardening system
| should prevail. "The father" said my friend,
| sis clever man; he is most successful in the
management of cattle, and if he would only be
| half as clever in the management of his chill
dren, all would be we'll. But he is very hasty
on this point, and the other day-a day bitterly
| cold-he did two of the most inconsistent
| things l ever knew a man to do. He quarreled
| like fury with his poor wife for sending Char
| lie to skate with his legs in warm stockings,
| and five minutes later dismissed his groom for
taking colt out for exercise without clothing
| it in horse blanket.