Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-02-14

EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
DR.. 7. S. Clouston, in the Popular
Science Monthly takes the position that
if our females were thoroughly healthy
in original constitution, the education
alists and their present overenthusiastic
methods would not hurt our daughters
permanently. But as few persons have
faultless constitutions, there must be q
great care as to individuals Pointing
out bodily defects, he says:
The first bodily defect to which [
shall refer, as the result of overstimu-
lation of brain, is what we doctors call
anamia or, in other words, bloodless-
ness. The girls look pale about the
lips and have no rosy cheeks. This is
manifestly most common in school
girls. Any one can see it.
The next faulty bodily condition that
may be caused by wrong methods of
education is that of stunted growth. /
have seen girls, the daughters of we'll
grown parents, who simply stopped
growing too soon. They are more or
less dwarfish specimens of their kind,
this being caused, as | believe, by the
vital and nervous force being appropri-
ated by the mental part OF the brain in
learning its tasks and by the conditions
of life in the school rooms not being
good, the air bad, insufficient play
hours, no playground, no play-room,
no walking in the fresh air and sum
shine.
[ have seen other girls who grew tall
enough, but wouldn't fatten. They re-
NAMED thin and scrawny. Now, this
| -la+ ~
age if it can be helped.
The next condition sometimes pro-
duced is best described by the word
nervousness. That is q condition of
mind and body in which there is want
of stability and tiXity, undue excitabili-
ty, bodily restlessness, want of solidity
and calmness of constitution, unground-
ed fears, deficient power of self-control,
oversensitiveness in all directions, and
q very great many other unpleasant
things, far too numerous to mention
here. This nervousness is commonly
hereditary, but may he greatly aggra-
waited or coUnteracted by the condi-
tons of life, especially in youth. Such
a constitution is great curse to wo-
man, and renders her liable to many
diseases. 1t means a brain wanting in
reserve or surplus energy. Such
brain is like 8 galvanic battery that
does not work steadily, but gives out
too much power at one time, then sud-
denly is exhausted, and is always need
inc replenishing. There can be but
little doubt that the tendency of our
modern life is toward the development
of the -fvous type of constitution. OF
diathesis. American physicians and
socialists are unanimous that this con-
stitution is very common in their coun-
try. [ think there can be little doubt
that if we wish our descendants to
multiply and cover the earth, we should
try by all means and counterfeit this
tendency to the nervous constitution in
a morbid degree. 1t is most heredita-
~ in all its forms. There are few
families among the educated classes
| nowadays free from some faint of it,
and it is easily increased. In the fam
lilies that are now free there is much
risk of it's being developed in the peri
Cd of adolescence in the girls, through
the present system of education. All
our modern ways of looking at life
help to develop nerves in bad sense.
the ideal of man and woman has
changed from strength to culture, from
| body to brain. The great brawny-
| muscled man, who knows nothing of
sickness, but has few ideas, is looked
down on; the rosy mother of a dozen
healthy children, who has no taste for
books, is little thought Of It may be
that the time will come when such
people will be more highly appreciated.
Out of the nervous diathesis may arise
all the forms of nervous disease, when
their exciting causes are put in opera-
ton.
Strongly connected with nervousness
is the tendency to suffer from pain
without any actual disease being pres
ent to account for it; that is, to be the
subject of headaches and neuralgias.
Headache is the most common thing
suffered by schoolgirls, and originated
by the condition of school-life. DR..
Truchler found that in Darmstadt,
Paris, and Nuremburg, one-third of
the pupils in the schools suffered more
or less from headaches. l think we
should find this proportion in our adj
vanced girls schools in Edin burgh.
He concludes that it is caused by the
intellectual eXertion, combined with
bad air, with the annoyances and ex-
| elements and worries, the wasting
and rasping anxieties of school life.
Nothing is SO terrible as severe neural
gia, and beyond a doubt girls acquire
it often enough by the condition of
school-life. Headaches in schoolgirl
usually mean exhausted nerve power
through overwork, overexcitement,
oVeranxiety, or bad air. Rest, o good
laugh, or country walk will usually
cure it readily enough to begin with.
But to become subject to headaches is
a very serious matter, and all such
nervous diseases have a nasty tendency
to recur, to become periodic, to be set.
up by the same causes, to become an
organic habit of the body. For any
woman to become liable to severe neu-
ralgia is most terrible thing. It
means that while it lasts life is not
worth having. 1t paralyzes the power
| RI xyort- If dorriVaS her of tho