Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-12-11
DETRIMENTAL WORK.
People Who Wear Themselves Out by q
due Exertion of the Brain.

People Who Wear Themselves Out by Un-
due Exertion of the Brain.
Any person, who has moved in the
usual circles of society, must have mo-
ticed that children rarely reach the
growth and stature of their parents.
They possess poorer health, and so are
less able to endure the wear and tear
of life. The parents may have led
lives not exactly in harmony with the
laws of health. They may have had no
regard to ventilation, nor cleanliness,
yet are stout and firm, and duly reach
old age. Their children were well
bred, and faithfully observed the laws
of health and growth. They were care
full to obtain full supply of fresh and
invigorating air, and yet were less able
toendure the cares and tolls of life than
their parents. The generation of girls
coming upon the stage of life at the
present period are likely to be less
healthy. less robust, less able to en-
dure the activities of life than their
mothers. Many causes exist for
this condition of our girls.
But a leading one is that
they have less physical exercise, and
more mental than the mothers. One
hundred years ago girls We're limited in
their studies to reading, writing and
arithmetic as far as the Rule of Three.
They were allowed to run and scream;
to rest and sleep, to spend their days
cheerfully, and their nights quietly.
But now girls spend ten years of their
time in school, urged forward and COM
PEELED to exert their minds more and
more. Every hour of the day and
evening is occupied in studying music,
the languages. history, and the various
branches of mathematics. Some have
no time for proper sleep, their minds
are so full of thoughts that are useless
force is consumed in mind work that
they have but little left for exercising
the functions of the body. Their APP
petite often fails, or if they consume a
small amount OF food, it does not easily
digest or nourish them. One cause,
then, is that our girls nowadays are
subject to greater mental strain than
were their mothers. So many of them
really break down physically, and even
mentally long before they reach their
growth.
The proper purpose of education is to
develop the intellectual powers-to Gull
tivate them in such a way as to give
them strength and to store them with a
certain amount of knowledge. Now
the general law in all nature is that
moderate exercise of mind or body pro-
NOTES their growth and strength, while
excessive exercise debilitates them. Our
girls, very often, are compelled to keep
their minds in excessive exercise, and
so, instead of strengthening and en-
larging them, actually weaken and be-
little them. The most distinguished
scholars in our seminaries for females
are not usually those who are the most
useful in the ordinary walks of life. We
may find among the graduates Of these
Summaries many illustrations of this
fact. We have known professionally
many girls who were nearly, if not
quite, ruined by over-straining of the
mind, and we have rarely known them
entirely to recover. The usual result of
over-tasking the intellectual powers is,
ordinarily, chronic disturbance OF the
brain and general feebleness. Wehaye
known some girls who were completely
ruined for this world by over-exertion
of the mind and undertaking OF the
body. School girls rarely consume food
enough, if over-tasked In mind, to sus-
tain the functions of the body.
"A Young lady of unusual strength
and beauty, the daughter OF robust
parents, was nearly ruined years ago
by this wicked process Of everlasting