The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-07-21
HEREDITY AND INSANITY.

HEREDITY AND INSANITY.
w. W. Golding, NJ. d., superintendent
Of the government hospital, read the
following address to teachers before the
National Educational association at 8
recent session:
GENTLEMEN:-You take the mind
young and fresh in life's morning and
send it, aspiring to become godlike. on
its upward flight; receive it torn and
bleeding as it comes futtering down; is
there anything In common between our
studies that l should ask you to pause for
fifteen minutes in the important labors
OF your session t. listen to me? I doubt
it, unless you consider it in the light of
q ffteen-minutes recess. How shall I
teach the teachers? The germ
of insanity lies back of the
education, and / question if the inexor-
able law in nature which we know as
that of ''the survival of the fttest" will
not, in spite of any or all education.
send q considerable per cent. of weak
brains to moulder and become moss
grown within asylum walls. This
seems but reasonable deduction from
the facts within my own observation
bur then / reflect that the sources of
life and reason are not in our hands. r
know how little more or little less of
that subtle something we call common
sense makes The difference between the
wise man and the fool; remembering
too, how sage physician, by sudden
flash of sunlight thrown from a mirror
upon an idiot boy in a darkened room.
awakened CLEAN of intelligence, dis
closing mind where it had hitherto
been supposed to have no existence. I
realize what teaching III the hands of
master may accomplish, then, standing
among the melancholy ruins where nv
studies bring me, think that perhaps q
different education would have spared a
fathers anguish for his only son. could
have saved this demented girl
70 have been some mans delight.
might have still kept eloquent that
dwelling tongue; and SO I am here.
From my standpoint the first mistake
that we make in the education of the
young Is that We do not pay sufficient
attention to the temperament of the
child; we are not all cast in the same
mould, even if we do bear the same i'm.
age: This lethargio youth, whose men
Ssl lntegumerts are like the wrappings
OF rhlnoceros, needs all our goading
"a brain fever is hardly possible to
such an organization; but this girl, with
clear skin, spare neck, intellectual fore
bead, and speaking eyes, whose lessons
are always perfect, whose answer antici-
pates almost your very thought, whose
nervous susceptibility quivers through
every fibre If she fancies your reproof of
the above mentioned blockhead is meant
for her-it is not study ont of
school that she requires, but the gym
nasiunl, the rest of long vacations in the
summer fields, with nights of repose un-
broken by any dreams of school prizes.
know ofttimes your bright scholar is
such an oasis In desert of aboundine
1ullness that there is sIstrong temptation
20 the teacher to give him free rein:
lence it often occurs that your valedic.
'orlan is never heard of afterwards. IT,
. staying power that you want more
han briiliancy of mind.
Are we not asking too much of our
'hildren? Lay the foundations broad =
he broader the better-in physical
lealth, and let the mental growth be
natural without forcing. like the open.
'lr summer schools; even in our climate |
Ve should be gamers with more of the |
'ut door life of the old Greeks; I wish |
Ve had again the forum and the grove of |
Academia; In such schools our children
you'd gain In vigor to more than |
ounter balance their loss in the exact
Methods OF book teaching. Yes; the ad-
ance In all kinds of knowledge is some
hing wonderful. They tell me it is nec-
ssary that my son should begin at
he age of seven to fit for college, if he
to enter Harvard; it is true he begins
D shed his milk teeth at that time. but
9 will only see of Harvard the outside
the buildings. for, college or no col
'ge, do not intend to make him the |
ast OF my race. You say, and probably
'uly, that the student now must know
lore when he enters college than I did
'hen graduated, and, may add, than
ever have since. And what do you ac
ompllsh by providing all this accumula.
on OF wisdom into one little brain?
Why, you have increased the cerebra-
on, you have intensified the nervous
elton, but you have not enlarged the
ranium, or, if you have, the chances
re you have done so at the expense of
1e physical vigG.
But you say by your education we
ave moved forward the limit of the in.
ividual life. For thirty centuries, and
know not how much longer. the
salmist's three score years aud ten have
cen the inexorable horizon of earthly
We cannot change this, but we
practically extend it by enlarging its
sta; our life keeps quick step to the
onderful march of science; we ride with
le storm, we write with the lightning.
8 paint with the sunbeam; everything 4
by the instantaneous process. As Poe
i'd of the singer Malibran, "She 1
DIVIDED ages into hours; she left the |
orld at twenty mine. having existed her
ousands of years." I grant you, if /,
is were the final age, nothing could be
ore desirable; if this was the closing
enc and no coming time. no children I
inherit our exhausted vitality and to |
II us anything but blessed.
In bookstore, the other day, the first {
'lumne that met my eye was "a New t
orm OF Nervous Disease" Nav form?