, 1888-12-09
RIGHTS OF CHILDREN.
ENTITLED TO A SOUND MIND IN A
SOUND BODY.

our ONerNOfkeu anu nutElt bOys anu
GIrIs-Hours of study-IrreguIar Eating
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Results of Ignorance.
Real Education.
Children have not only a right to the
wisest education, but they have a right
to be such by birth and heredity that they
can be educated to some purpose. 1t is
astounding, as one walks through a low
neighborhood, to see what a vast numbe
of heads of a truly inferior sort are be-
gotten. Or if you will ride with me up u
back country road you shall find an i'm
mense preponderance of badly shaped
faces and peaked or pinched brain caps
There are neighborhoods where this is
not so. Large heads, well shapen, and
handsome features are the rule. What
makes the diferance2 Biology will tell
you that the thoughts of parents and
their emutions-in other words, their
habits and habitual feelings-shape the
child. Not only do sudden rights go to
mark the unborn, but the every day
thoughts and ways Of living do the same.
Responsibility runs far back. and some
day the matter will get a full and popular
discussion. Physicians of intelligence
understand it. Every one should be made
to understand it. Every child has a
moral right to enter life under at least ia.
vorable circumstances
OvERwORKED AND UNDERFED.
Overworked and underfed children are
far more common han is supposed. And
this occurs in families above the average
in this country-more often than in those
under the average. | do not believe one
half the damage is now being lone by
overworking bodies that is lone by over
working braiIl9, The factory for children
under - is not so dangerous as the school
house. I'M now speaking of the school
house for young children with good brains
and fine nerves that are capable of very
large a~ttainments. No child should ever
be compelled to undertake book learning
before it is 6 or Z years of age. and until
u one hour at a time is all it should be
allowed to study. Set your boy down to
IN interesting book, n story, or whatever
he enjoys. Let him read it for three
hours, and then call him OF. You may
now diagnose him.
He is dazed as he walks. lie Is very
likely irritable with other children. EN-.
anime his tongue. and you will find his
digestion is impaired. Put your hand on
his head; it is hot, His eyes are full, and
touched with Inflammation Sitting for
n long time, he has grown weak in his
back, and is leaning in his shoulders.
The boy every day is tired and unstrung.
If his is a habit. or II he is accustomed
to five hours in school, with possibly
study and reading out of school, he is
already an invalid-he Is on the road to q
breakdown. Mark you. | do not say he
will become diseased; lie is diseased In
stead of being built up to his best estat,
physically. he is being pulled down. Anc
this is true of the majority of our schol
arly boys and girls. Almost at the be
ginning of life they are started on inva
lidism.
HABITS OF EATING
But | said they are underfed. So they
are, the children of our best families; they
arc ov~erstuffed and underfed. They be
gin life almost at once on cookies anC
meat and other foods that do not nourisl
them at all, and serve only to destroy tn,
digestive organs. They eat at all time
and whatever they choose, and are thereb,
underfed even when gorged. 1t Is wei
known that only that food which is assim
Hated and used by the blood becomes
nutrient or nourishing matter. The chilli
may nave far too little Of this when con
stantly eating. This is peculiarly true /
allowed to overtax the brain. The chile
has none too much blood to do the build
ing work, but this is taken away to, tn,
brain to do a vast deal too much thinking
and imagining. That is what | mean b.
undertaking and overworking. | sin
cerely believe that at present we are NOR
in need of laws forbiddlng the overbraiI
tasking of children than of laws forbid
ding their employment under 12 in facto
ries and for undue hours. We shall
shortly come to see that our educating
process needs safeguards for the children
instructed to 1t.
1t will be well when We come to Her
bert Spencer's idea that real education
shows lin what way to treat the body; IL
what way to treat the mind; in what wa,
to manage our affairs; in what way t,
utilize all the sources of happiness whicl
nature supplies; how to use all our facul
ties to the greatest advantage to our
selves and to others; how to live com
pletely." In all these respects the right
of children extend, and If the state 4
right in Interfering at all to secure com
mon education it is obligated to interior,
to the extent that will secure for tn,
child all that q true education involves
Does our present system cover the case
or ever pretend or purpose to cover it
Take, for instance, the one item, "Hov
to treat the body" Is it not a fact tina
90 out of 100 children are left to End on
whatever they do find out about the bod,
and how to use it by stumbling upon fact
through bitter experience of disease anC
painy And when, after a wretched AM
miserable career, they die, what is don
to make another generation wiser thai
the last?-M. Maurice, M. D., in Globe
Democrat.