Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-14
Dangers at School.

8 broader scale, and further developments are awaited with interest.
 Dangers at School.
 Dr. Richardson in Frazer's Magazine.]
 I said in my address at the health congress at Brighton what was quite true. that had never in my life seen a child so healthy that it had not in it some actual or latent constitu- tional disease. Touching the subject now in hand, it is equally true to say that it is al- of our large towns any semblance, critically
 viewed, of health. Constitutional taints,
 which under favorable ciroumstan-
 ces may often be concealed,
 and which may or may not be appar-
 rent, are there. Various conditions of dis
 case are there independently of the tendency
 from heredty; there of themselves, in some
 irregularity of body or limb, in some imper-
 lection of sense, in some deficiency of quail
 ty of blood, in some feebleness of respira-
 tion, in some nervous irregularity of func-
 ton, in some shade of mental alteration.
 The field of disease which is presented in
 some of the schools situated in the crowded
 localities 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 permits the result to be calcu- lated out in his mind at leisure hours; if, that is to say, he compares what he has wic- messed in his survey with what he has learned from long observation of the meaning of the phenomenon in the history of life It is not necessary for him to strip the children, per cuss and sound the chest, examine the spine or practise any of those refined arts of diag- nosis with which he is familiar. He reads from the indications of temperament, of expression of countenance, of color of skin, of position of limb, of build of body, of gait, of voice, sufficient outward manifestations to discern what is the true physical state, what ia hA eYt6nf 0ISaaSG the vital value of the lives generally that are before him. Tell the physician those lives are to be valued for some monetary purpose as they stand and as they are to go on, cording to the present system, and he will give in brief time estimate of valus 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 anenlia and cachexia. Strictly these are not diseases, like diabetes bron- chitis, or defined affections running a regular course, but they are states of diseased form which by their presence indicate S faul- ty nutrition of the period of life when good nutrition is most required, and which cannot long go on without insuring the construction of the impaired bodily organization. The blood is not being duly oxygenated and food therefore, though it be even fair in quality or quantity, is not properly applied The nervous system is imperfectly built up; the skeleton is imperfectly built ap; the muscu- lar system is inperfectly built up and sus. called scholarship be turned to fitting account in such recipients of it? I watched recently ! the afternoon working of large class of scholars, and counted one third of them un ' der the most decisive influence of these conditions of disease. Of the affected { there would not be, in the ordinary averaging of life, twenty years of existence under the course that was followed. The only 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 ansemia and cachexia, there is the constitutional disease, struma or scrofula, presented in these classes. The in stances of this kind in varying degrees o1 intensity more numerous. This condition again is nal or bad nutrition. It, as much as cachexia or ansemia with which it is sc ! often allied, is fostered by the prevailing sys tenn of mental pressure With these condi \ tions before the eye there is to be seen also I here and there in the classes of both sexes 1 but of the girls especially, the specimen o1 ! the phthiscal or consumptive subject In I class of fifty pick out three thus doomed, ii I their circumstances be not changed-6 Pel cent, certainly moderate proportion. Int | disease has not positively developed, but tn. ! probability of it's development is all but cer
 tain, unless it be checked by the one only
 remedial or preventive method-freedon \ from nervous exhaustion, combined witt ! physical exercise in open breathing space
 Such preventitives not supplied, but un ! due nervous exhaustion and confinement art ] both supplied, and so the fatal disease ii
 systematically famed from latency intt I activity. Spinal deformity and irregula
 construction of the skeleton is another con
 dition of disease, or actual disease, readil, | 6etect9bIa in these classes