Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-04


tally he says: THE brain is
the mind. When the brain is sick the
mind is sick. But the brain Is part
of the body. We see, hear, smell, feel
and taste with the brain. 1t is only q
figure of speech to speak of the mind
and the body as distinct from each
other. We know that illness or
WEAKNESS turns sweet temper sour
makes a patient man impatient ana
grateful one ungratefuL
DR.. Lydston tells us that Flesch ex-
amined the brains of fifty criminals
and found imperfections in all. On
page 172 of his Diseases of society
we find this: Ceases of moral turpl-
tude, mania furiosa and other mental
disturbances are met with in Whlch the
patient was harshly treated because OF
supposed moral perverseness and only
the autopsy has shown how undeserV-
edly the patieut has been condemned.
When a tumor or other disease OF the
brain is found in a punished criminal
the case is most pathetic" And on
page 221 we find: IF the foregoing
premises concerning vice and crime
through autotoxemia) be correct, vice
and crime will be shown more defnlte-
ly than ever to be matter for medical
science rather than law"
Mr. Blatchford cites the well-known
fact that when the human system is
out of order it secretes poison, which
affects the brain, excites the baser
passions or Injuries the moral sense.
One result of self-poisoning is BRAIN
sickness, often resulting in vice, or
crime. He says: "A gunshot wound
or sword cut on the head may so in
jure the brain as to change mans
moral nature" On the same lines he
quotes the great criminologist, Lom-
brOsO as follows.
TT has frequently happened that In
juries to the head and acute diseases
those frequent causes of insanity, have
changed an ordinary individual into
man of genius. Gratry, q
mediocre singer, became great master
after a beam had fractured his skull
A fall downstairs, at 26 years of age
with a consequent skull fracture and
trepanning, made genius of Mabillon
Wallenstein, heretofore a fool
fell out of a window and ever after
showed remarkable ability"
Dealing next with the alimentary
part of environment, Mr.. Blatchforo
quotes DIR. Hall of Leeds:
whether a child be born and bred
in palace or in cottage--of pure
pedigree or mongrel-if he does not
receive a proper supply of bone-mak-
ing food, he will not make good bony
framework, the first essential of true
physical well-being." And he goes on
to impress the fact that incorrect and
insufficient feeding Of children cannot
be laid to the children's own fault; II
is due to the poverty or ignorance, OF
both, of the parents.
DR.. J. r. Collie, treating of the men,
tally defective children of the London
board schools, is quoted as saying that
in many instances after the careful in
dividual attention and midday dinner
at the special schools, they are re-
turned, after from six to eighteen
months, to the elementary school with
a new lease of mental vigor; which
again, the author caps with Dr. Lyd-
ston's assertion that ''tbe quantity
quality and assimilation of food pabu-
lum is the keynote of stability of tissue
building"
Under the general heading: Poverty
Labor and Overcrowding," the gray
ness and monotony of life. in un.
clean and sordid surroundings, with
tedious and soulless toll, are instanced
as soul-starving and consolidating
agents. 1.-THE very pleasures and re
creations Of the poor--the only ones
within their reach, and comprehension
are coarse and coarsening."
They have no refinements in their lives
no flowers, no trees, no streams, nc
books, no art; and, receiving neither
honor nor respect, they are without
pride, ambition, ideals and hope. Ant
such conditions make for neither health
nor morality" Continuing in this
graphic strain, the author says:
1 have seen much, of the poor-the
slums, the mines. the factories, the
warehouses; and the police, where the
poor are unfairly tried and unjustly
punished" Then, speaking of the wo-
men Of the London poor, Mr.. Blatchforo
pictures them plying then
needles on slop garments, Shaving at the
washtub, drinking at the bars
with the men, and he utters these
words, than which can conceive moth
ing more terribly expressive OF tnt
awful conditions which call them forth.
what would these poor creatures dc
without the gin? that hellisn
liquor that blurs the hideous picture OF
life and stills the gnawing pain.
when the child lies dead of the ricketts,
or the sticks of (alleged) furniture ar.
sold for the rent what Woulc
these women do without the devils
usury of peace-the gin?"
Mr.. Blatchford tells us of a certain
bridge across a kind of a dock where
a constable has been placed on fixed
point duty to prevent the women from
committing suicide. Yet still tney
come, using all sorts of ruses to dis
tract the policeman's attention ana ge'
at the water. Most of these women
are mothers; what kind OF ENVIRON
ment what kind of stamina can the,
give their children?
Then, shifting the location from tne
great metropolis, he follows the women
and children still: "In the cnaln-snops
of the Black country, in the shops. IN
the 'homes'-old women, young girls
wives and mothers, working as II ioi
dear life. Little children crouchlng IN
the cinders-no time for nursing ano
housewifery in the chain TRACE. AND
their houses are not homes: tney nave
neither comfort nor beauty, out are
mere shelters and sleeping pens.
Speaking of education the author
says: I'VE all know (though some OF
us forget) that good educaFon makes
ms better and that bad education
makes MS worse: and we have to be ed
heated BY OTHERS. Even so-called
self-education must be got from books
written by other men. 1t is all en-
vironment. And since we are born
NOT with morals, nor with knowledge,
nor with capacities, but only with
the vudiments of such, what we be-
come must depend largely upon the
Teaching we get. Noting by the way
that every church and chapel, every
school and college, every teaching
hoolr every moral lesson, every chap
eron and teacher. is an acknowledge
,oent az the power of environment
M Rlatchford declares: "In practice
we all fear or prize the influence OF