Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-09-07

Until Uctober-How Infant Minds Arc
Stunted--HomeS study should Not
he Aliowed-Current Failaclesin
Regard to Malaria-Sewer
Gas Not an fiicient Cause
The Country health
Ter than the city
During septem-
Der.
Many people who have been sensible
enough to spend the summer in the cOun-
try look forward to September as the
month in which they are to return to
town and resume the labors from which
they sought to escape in the early sum
mer. Year after year they 20 through the
same experience of heat scarcely less
intense than that of July, to which is
superadded a degree of mugginess far in
excess of any that midsummer afforded.
They resolve each time that neXG year
they will stay away until October, but
each season sees the resolution broken.
In fact, our social customs are such that
it is almost impossible, t. o. with those
who have nothing to do - main away
until the autumn has fairly begun. 1t is
uer hour; we find it very inconvenient
unless we follow the custom of the place
in which we live.
One of the principal excuses for coming
home early Is based upon the fact that
most of the schools resume work III Sep
TENDER, and that the education of John,
Mary, Tom and Lucy must not be neg
lected, and cons queutly the physical
health of the children must be disregard
I'd III order that they may learn the dis
lance from New York to Constantinople,
and plod away at other studies not much
more calculated to be of advantage to
them in their future struggle for exist.
ence. A good deal of observatiOn has
convinced me that the difficulty Is not so
much with school commissioners and
academy principals and college presidents
AS it is with the parents themselves, who
act in total oblivion of the fact that men
tai health is absolutely dependent upon
physical health that strong muscles,
large lungs and a sound stomach are
among the best possible factors of good
brain. am very sure, too, that school
children, other things beng equal, would
learn more ard learn it letter III he nine
months from October TO July than they
would with September added to the num-
Der. SO long, however, as it is the ambi
ton of parents to overeducate their child
rem, without reference to the particular
course of life or business which the child
rem are to pursue, we shall have infant
minds stunted with excessive work at a
multiplicity of studies, not one of which
is thoroughly learned. The sons of
shoemaker, or of a tailor, or of a banker,
or of Il lawyer are put into the same hop
per and are ground out with the same de
gree Of fineness, to the disadvantage and
dissatisfaction of those who are compelled
by force of circumstances to play compar-
atively insignificant parts in society They
have received just enough education to
develop in them the yearning for some
thing better, which not one in 10 OF them
can ever realize, even in this country of
almost unOOunded opportunity for ad-
vancement
Not only do our schools begin too early
in the season and too many studies are
pur~ ued in them, but the hours devoted
TO school work are more than shonld be
required, due regard being had for the
welfare of bOtn mind and body. So far as
the time usually given TO study in the
school room is concerned, there Is very
little fault TO be found. Six hours day,
with an iutermiSslon of half an hour n
noon, is an amount of time with which no
fault can reasonably be found with child
rem who have passed their 18th wear. But
it is rarely the case that the work ends
with the dismissal from school AT o'cloc>
in the afternoon, for it is carried on with
rs much, If not more, aSSidulty at nome
and during hours that should be devoted
TO recreation. Teachers have often told
me that they do not require their pupils to
study at home. Doubtless they spoke the
truth. They should have gone farther
they should not allow their pupils to study
at home and if their injunctlons TO that
effect were not sufficient they should have
made them known to the parents and have
insisted upon their enforcement. Many
children are ambitious to excel in their
knowledge, the result of an abnormally
developed brain. They should no more
be allowed to use that organ to excess
than they should be permitted to overload
their stomachs with a variety OF food.
Yet parents who would unhesitatingly
cut off the extra piece of pie for fear OF
indigestion will not hesitate TO encourage
the effort to absorb some additional branch
of knowledge. There Is a mental dyspep-
STA, the result Of redundancy, AS surely as
there is that form which results from re-
pletlon of the digestive organs.
Another point which demands attention
during the month of September (and il is
one which concerns nearly every part OF
the United Statesl is that of malaria. 1t
is common idea that greater RISK Is run
from this cause OF disease in the country
than in towns and cities, but there are
strong reasons for doubling that such is
the case, so far AS any unhealthy infiu-
ence of the country itself Is concerned.
If Il farm house be placed in low,
swampy situation and a town in similar
locality the jewellers in the one will be no
more liable to malariOus diseases than the
inhabitants of the other. In large cities,
where the ground is being constantly
turned up for the purpose of laying water
and gas mains, constructing sewers or for
any one of the 100 other purposes
for which II continual upheaval of the
pavements goes on, diseases of malarial
origin will almost constantly abound.
Some parts of New York city, or of Phil
adelphid, for Instance, are nearly As full
of malaria as are the worst parts of Flor-
da. There is nothing, therefore, to be
gained in this respect by an early return
from the seashure or the mountains to the
pent-up atmosphere of a large town in
which excavations of some kind or ether
are al this season OF the year carried on
with more than usual vIgor.
There Is an idea very prevalent that
sewer gas is one Ut the most efficient of
all malarial influences. No belief is, how
ever, more erroneous than this. 1t Is quite
| doubtful thai se"tr gas such rs we ina
| II in our residences il at all poisonous to
those subjected t. Its influence. IL is quite
| certain that it d es not give rise to any
| form of malarlal disease. Malarial germs
are certain kinds of hacilli which come
from the soil and which cannot be evolved