Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-08-26
SCHOOLS AND CHlLDREN's HEALTH
IDr. Richardson in Frazer's Magazine.

IDr. Richardson in Frazers Magazine.
said in my address at the health con-
gress at Brighton what was quite true,
thai l had never in my life seen child
so healthy that it had not in it some
actual or latent constitutional disease.
Touching the subject now in hand, it is
equally true TO say that it is all but i'm
possible to find IN the board schools of
our large towns any semblance, critic
ally viewed, of health. Constitutional
taints, which under favorable circum-
stances may often be concealed, and
which may or may not be apparent, are
there. Various conditions of disease
are there Independently of the tendency
from heredity; there of themselves, in
some irregularlty of body or limb, in
some imperfection of sense, in some de-
ficiency of quality of blood, in some
feebleness of respiration, in some nerv-
Gus irregularity of function, in some
shade of mental alteration. The field
of disease which is presented in some of
the schools situated in crowded locali-
ties is indeed sight at once for anxiety
and pity. To the eye of physician
who, like myself, has spent many years
in hospital practice, it tells story
which is absolutely painful, if he per-
mits the result to be calculated out in
his mind at leisure hours; if, that is to
say, he compares what he has witnessed
in his survey with what he has learned
from long observation of the meaning
of the phenomena in the history of life.
1t is not necessary for him to strip the
children, percuss and sound the chest,
examine the spine, or practice any OF
those refined arts of diagnosis with
which he is familiar. He reads from
the indications of temperament, or ex-
preston of countenance, of color of
skin, of position of limb, of build Of
body, of gait, of voice, sufficient out.
ward manifestation to discern what is
the true physical state, what is the
stamp and extent of disease, what is the
vital value of the lives generally that
are before him. Tell the physicians
those lives are to be valued for some
monetary purpose as they stand and as
they are to go on, according to the
present system, and he will give in brief
time an estimate of value which the
keenest man of business might readily
accept and act upon. Foremost among
the evils which are thus presented are
those common conditions of disease
known as anamia and cachexia.
Strictly these are not diseases, like
diabetes, bronchitis, or defined affec-
tions running regular course, bat they
are states of diseased form which by
their presence indicate faulty nutri-
ton at the period of life when good nu-
triton is most required, and which can
not long go on without insuring the con-
struction of an impaired bodily organ
ization. The blood is not being duly
oxygenated, and food, therefore, though
it be even fair IN quality or quantity, is
not properly applied. The nervons
system is imperfectly built up; the
skeleton is imperfectly built up; the
muscular system is imperfectly built up
and sustained How can the improve
ment which is called scholarship be
turned to fitting account in such recip-
tents of it Z? / watched recently the af-
ternoon working of a large class of
scholars, and counted one-third of them
under the most decisive influence of
these conditions of disease. OF the af-
fected there would not be, in the ordi-
nary averaging of life, 20 years of exist
ence under the course that was being
followed. The one saving clause in
their case was development by physical
training, and that was withheld. The
one destroying clause in their case was
over.mental work without physical
training, and that was assiduously and
regularly supplied. With or without
the an@mia and cachexia, there is the
constitutional disease, struma or scrofu-
la presented in these classes. The in
stances OF this kind in varying degrees
of intensity are most numerous. This
condition again is NAL or bad nutri-
tion. 1t, as much as cachexia or an9-
mia, with which it is so often allied, is
fostered by the prevailing system of
mental pressure. With these condi-
tions before the eye there is to be seen
also, here and there, in the classes of
both sexes, but of the girls especially,
the specimen of the phthisical or con-
sumptive subject. In class of fifty 1
pick out three thus doomed, if their cir
cumstances be not changed-6 per cent.
certainly a moderate proportion. The
disease has not positively developed, but
the probability of its development is
all but certain, but unless it be checked
by the one only remedial or preventive
method-freedom from nervous exhaus-
tion, combined with physical exercise in
open breathing space. Such preven-
tives are not supplied, bnt undue ner-
vous exhaustion and confinement are
both supplied, and so the fatal disease
is systematically famed from latency
into activity. Spinal deformity and ir-
regular construction of the skeleton is