Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-06-11


nearly two to less than one per cent"
The bones are said to contain about
81 per centum of phosphates, and, since
increase in height depends upon increase
of bone, it is clear that nature, having
such great need of phosphorus for bone,
cannot in such cases, spare the usual
amount for the brain.
Thus the passing attacks of stupidity
above referred to in the case of those
boys that shot up suddenly may be
readily understood.
A newspaper recently quoted cer-
tain physician as saying that there were
sometimes cases of unequal growth in
which the brain grew faster than tie
skull, and that the pressure thus pro-
duced by the brain upon itself necessa-
rally affected it until the expansion of
the skull took off the pressure.
My landlord, Mr.. S., lately informed
me that when a boy he lost an elder
brother who was very bright and prom
ising. The physicians being in doubt,
considered it necessary to examine into
the cause of his death, and found it to
be excessive growth of the brain.
Either of these causes would account
sufficiently for the effects, but l should
incline most to the want of phosphorus
as the usual cause, for the amount re-
quired in the rapid growth of bones,
more than half of whose bnlk is made
up of phosphates, must be very great,
as in the case of Alfred r., whom I
have quoted, and who now, at the age
of twenty-five, rejoices in height of
six feet two inches, and weight of one
hundred and sixty-five pounds.
In other cases, however, of very great
and long continued mental inertia, such
as was shown by Alfred Y, Harry T.,
Harry NJ, and my own son, there was
not only great demand for growth of
bone, but also, as they spread out, for
growth of muscle. This naturally and
necessarily drew away blood from all
other parts, including the brain. If the
brain has not its full supply of blood it
cannot do its work, and no demand for
work should be made upon it. When
man eats hearty dinner, and then tries
to use his brain, while the blood is
drawn away to assist the digestive or
gans in their important labor, nature
kindly sends a friendly drowsiness that
shuts up his brain in sleep. The drow-
siness and sluggishness that come from
growth are perfectly analogous to this.
Dr. Flint says:
"The Uranium forming a closed box
capable of resisting the pressure of the
atmosphere, and the substance of the
brain not yielding much to the pressure
of blood within the vessels, it follows
that whenever the supply of arterial
blood is lessened a suction force is ex-
erted upon the blood in the veins, and
more or less passive congestion of the
brain is consequence. In general
cerebral an9mia (scantiness of blood in
the brain) the symptomatic effects are
drowsiness, inability to sustain mental
efforts, pain in the head, ringing in the
ears and sometimes mental hallucina-
tions and illusions"
can testify that my sou has had all
these symptoms except the ringing in
the ears. The hallucinations are for
tunately very mild III their character,
consisting entirely of fixed idea that
he has said thing when he has not, or
that he has not said certain thing when
he has, and in this connection the fol-
lowing remark of DR.. William A. Ham
mond, about cerebral anemia, may be
quoted:
"The loss of memory in such cases
seems to be due in the main to the fact
that the power of concentrating the at
tention upon any subject is very much
diminished"
Perhaps also the self-suficiency that
has been spoken of as often accompany
ing this "growing age" may justly be
regarded as a sort of continued hallu-
cination.
Of course when q boy is suffering
from such q morbid condition of the
brain, all that can be done is to have
any amount of patience, and to keep
him employed at something so as not
to allow him to get into any bad habits
from idleness. A dentist to whom
sent my son said: '"The best thing
you can do with that boy is to turn him
loose in ten acre lot until he gets done
growing"
Sending boy out ON farm, or let
ting him travel with a tutor, and learn
what he can, or giving up his books and
making him clerk somewhere, are
among the methods of bridging over
this difficulty.
For man to find that his son is get
tALlS lnOIc anu uOI0 IdA1 tuC uScIcSS
that he sticks to it that he did say
thing when he did not; that he prom
ises to do work and does it not that he
becomes more and more indifferent to
the most earnest appeals to him to do
his duty-all these are about as aggra-
waiting and alarming things to consci-
entious parent as can well be imagined;
but if these physicians tell the truth,
and the cause of all these actions is
cerebral anemia if, when the boy
promises, his brain cannot perform,
why should we expect him to make
bricks without straw? Let us rather
bear patiently with him until boon
Nature, turning in due time from her
task of growth, gives again its regular
rations to the brain, so that the young
soldier may march once more along the
path of duty and delight us with his
progress. II his brain be well cared for
he will soon, with added energy, make
up what has been lost and press for
ward with increased vigor in the race
of life.