The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-15

ing since the growth of the study of
school hygiene. The general death rate
has been decreased in half a century
more than so per cent.
The great obstacle to hygiene reform
is the great cost, but it costs less to
stay well than to be sick. 1t pays the
community to keep the children we'll
If we could reduce the prevalence of
typhoid one-half. as has been done in
England, we should save the cost of
epidemics and of shortened school
terms.
Some definite facts can be adduced
that the morals of a community are af-
fected by hygiene. DR.. Chadwick said
that he could build a city with any de-
gree OF death rate; Frances White says
in connection with this, that city
could be built with any degree of mo-
rality as well. DR.. Ware Mitchell said:
Il no longer wonder that the ancients
worshiped health. l hold so much for
wholesomeness that 1 believe health
means virtue
Moral failure and blunted intellect go
together The average criminal is an
abnormal man, with deformed head
and repulsive features.
Teachers may do much to arouse in
terest in the study of hygiene Hygiene
has to do with artificial conditions pro-
duced by society. A distinction should
be made between pedagogical hygiene
and school hygiene in the narrow sense,
determined by sanitary conditions of
the school houses
We shall speak on the broader sub
Ject If there were time, we should
begin with the nerves.
Most of the handbooks in school hy-
giene begin with school house and sur
roundings, but 1 purpose to begin at
the other way, for it begins with the
child. The basis of school hygiene is
that of the physiology and psychology
of development. 1t is as necessary for
hygiene as for psychology to know that
the child is different from the adult.
They are entirely different in all as
poets. In a word, the organism in
childhood is unstable, provisional. Dur
! ing growth there are great changes in
the gross of the brain as well as in the
microscope. MERCER has attempted to
point out the difference of brains in
the child and adult, though he is not
satisfactory. THE younger the indi-
vidual the greater-hiS store Of nervous
energy and hence he is not so liable to
be changed by external influences as
is the adult" Many Illustrations might
pc given. The child owes its freedom
from many diseases to the fact of its
balance. The nervous system is less
definitely organized; it is more plastic
and influenced by good or bad more ca
| silly. The endowments-oft the adult are
potential in the infant This lack OF
development is shown in the lack Of
nervous diseases in children MERCER
has point of some Importance in her
edity. The child is especially liable te
former influence. In the adult this
| Is held in check by environment. The
| child is in the process of rapid develop.
ment, and is more liable to be affect
ed by external causes. child il
subject to-accidents.- but is more easil1
cured. In certain periods of the child
changes are so sudden as to be liabI,
to cause nervous disorders. All this
Is very general and very unsatisfac
tory
We coddle children and fuss owe
them. In general, we are too mucf
afraid of accident and not enough
afraid of arrested development There /,
considerable evidence to show a differ
ence between the adult and child in the
distribution of nervous energy. If tn,
/ brain prefers to work longer than il,
normal period, it does so at the expens,
of other organs. In adult, excessiv,
waste cannot be repaired while in the
| child, the brain may develop at the ex.
pense of other organs.
Some very important studies in re-
gard to physical growth have beer
made during the last years.
Or. Burke in Journal of Psychol
ogy, says that so many conditions af
feet physical growth that it is Difficult
| to follow it. When we come to stud,
! the development Of the nerves. we car
do comparatively little. We know the
order and rate of development, but mo-
how. But beyond such general facts
we cannot GO far. Even the obvious
facts of physical growth are of The
greatest Importance
Few schoolmasters could answe,
questions wh:ch they should know re.
garding the development of children
physically.