The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1893-04-01
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pr Thomas NJ. Ballet, superintend-
eut OF schools at Springfield, Mass, de
livered an address on Saturday even
ing at No. lO2 North Nineteenth Street
Philadelphia The question he dis
Cussed was "Ihe motor functions of
the BRAIN lie said i'm part: ave
commonly think of the brain as only
the organ of thought, but it is equally
the organ Of muscular movement. The
nerve energy which causes voluntary
movements is generated i'm and dis
charged from the motor cells i'm the
brain. The cells which move parti-
Guiar group of muscles are grouped to-
gether and are called "a centre There
are, therefore, centres for the hands,
arms, legs, trunks, etc.
"The motor functiuu-of the brain is
in animals the most important. The
elephant and the whale have finely
cOuvOluted brains, because they have
"A large mass of muscles to move. Mans
brain is large partly because it must
generate the nerve energy TO move a
complex muscular system IL follows
from these facts that all manual work
involves brain work. and the distiuC-
tiou between hand work and brain
work is not true. 1t requires brains
to have physical energy. Laziuess
means defect Of brain power. Savages
are as lazy as they are untutored
"Ihe motor cells in the brain are
connected by the motor nerves with
the muscles. Physical exercise devel-
ops both these cells and their muscles.
The first question in regard 10 system
of gymnastics is, What is its effect on
the nerve Ceutresg The nerve centres
degenerate If not used. Gudden, a
Swiss Psychologist, has shown that if
you cut out the eye of a pigeon the
visual centre soon wastes away. Post
mOrtem examinations have shown that
IN the case of bed ridden people, long
deprived of muscular exercise, the en-
tire motor area of the brain is more or
less atrophied and waterlogged. An
idiot shows his lack of brains quite as
much in his walk as in his talk The
one is shamble, as the /other is "A
ramble.
at is easier to move or iunervate a
large group of muscles than small
one-to move the whole arm than one
finger. Skilled movements require
small groups ofmuscles and the coordi-
nation of groups. Manual skill, how
ever, resides not i'm the hand, but in
the brain and in the mind. You can
not develope skill in the hand of an
idiot. Manual training is, therefore,
not hand training but training of
brain and mind Not all hand work is
educational only that which appeals
to small grOups,of muscles, and invol-
YES the greatest number of muscular
movements. As the wrist and fingers
are capable of the greatest number of
movements, manual training ought to
appeal especially to them. This de
termines both the kinds of exercises
adapted to manual training and the
kinds of tools to be used
"When q muscular movement is first
learned unless it be reheN-it is done
by the brain; after it becomes habitual
it is relegated to the lower automatic
centres. This marks the difference
between the manual training school
and the trade school, The former
stops when "A process or movement is
thus relegated to these lower centres;
the latter continues so AS to produce
skill which can produce quantity of
finished products. 1t is an important
question today whether system of
gymnastics ought to appeal to the
motor centres in the brain or to the
lower automatic centres. The Swedish
system rests on the former assumption
many others on the latter. The whole
question is, in fact, an open one"