Year: 1879

cause he is an Indianian, and the state
needs all that. J. H. s.


'Ha dentnss" Children.


/ was at a swimming bath where some
twenty boys, all under twelve years years
of age, were swimming or learning to
swim. There was no comparison between
these lads in a matter of physical outline.
One, short lad, had a narrow and point.
ed chest, a fragile form, and almost traas.
parent skin, a chilly surface OF body, and
blue lip; another, tall, broad-should-
cred, broad -chested youth, had a full and
ruddy complexion, a warm surface and a
firm muscular build. The others varied
between these two standards. Such were
the physical conditions OF the swimmers,
aud so constructed physically they COM
menced their recreation. Swimming is q
health recreation when properly carried
out, as we'll as useful and necessary. But
here was the mischief from it in the case
OF the boys in question; there was no dis
elimination in the amount of the recrea-
ton. The boy with the pigeon chest and
blue lip had quite as mucn of it as was
safe for him at the end of five minutes /;
but to keep him up to the same standard
as the swimmer with the broad chest,
who had such buoyant lungs TINT he
could hardly sink even if he tried, the boy
was encouraged and almost driven 10 go
on and keep on, until he had passed
through the same ordeal as his more
favored comrade. The result was that the
weak boy came out of the water blue all
over, an hour later was as blue as bill
berry in the lips and cheeks, and was
cold, shivering, feeble and sleepy. /
could see those boys as plainly as if had
followed them going back to school and
at the afternoon work. could be as sure
as 1 could be of any physiological TACT
that it woulS require six hours under the
most favorable of circumstances in rela-
rcvitalizc that feeble boy up to his own
imperfect standard, while no number OF
hours would ever bring his vitality up to
the standard of his more fortunate fellow
student.


Look now at the error, at the long series
OF errors, committed by this mode of rec
reation on the feeble boy. His animal
warmth had been robbed unduly, and he
was therefore languid and unhappy. His
blood was aerated, less freely than it
should be, and he was therefore circulat-
ing blood more slowly thah he ought,
and breathing with excess OF labor. He
was more susceptible to every depressing
influence, and his nervous system was





from sitting in q close and badly-ventila-
ted room. He would be drowsy, and
perhaps the master of the school would
say idle or apathetic. For this he would
be rated at his lessons, compared with
other boys who got on hotter, and if
not punished eorporeally, made irritable
and anxious In mind, which Is another
form of punishment. This nervous lad,
never over-strong. would be again unduly
taxed. And now, what else must follow
as resultss When the nervous system is
low and depressed, the digestive power is
enfeebled. When the digestive power is
enfeebled, the nutrition OF the body is de-
graded in every part Then the vital or
gans, on which life depends, and in which
the activity of nutritive changes ought to DC
most rapid and regular, are the first to
suffer, while even such passive parts as
those which make up the skeleton do not
escape scot-free. Seen, then, what mod
ification of healthy life may be easily ef-
fected by one apparently trifiing orrOr of
recreation. Let that error be repeated
many times, or let some equivalent error
be performed and repeated many times,
aud what is the almost necessary result? !?
The almost necessary result is the institu-
ton of that feeble body, In active form, of
the phenomena of disease toward which
it had a rroclivity, on which the fcebleness
depended.


It will possibly be urged by some that
the process of making these feeble boys
compete with stronger boys is intended to
lnvigorate the feeble. For similar reas-
on, these same naturally enteebled child
rem are often sent out of doors In cold
weather "to harden them" The ignor-
ance is beyond pardon. AS you can not
gather grapes OF thorns nor figs of thistles,
so YOU can not out of weak animal frame
extract strength except 10y taking it out of
the bank of life, to the premature shorten
ing of the inherited store of life.


Mothers know of these facts better than
fathers, and mothers are often laughed at
because their knowledge is the knowledge
of love, and passion, and anxiety, rather
than OF cold, calculating, reasOnable-I
had almost said neutrality-suspicious.
But the mothers are none the less right,
and, indeed, men know better when they
are dealing with lives that have to 5e
bought and sold. The great breeders of
flocks and herds do not try TO harden r
overtax the young ami i--al they want to
perfect They use n Wise discretion, and
they succeed In what they do. At the
same time they are often indiscriminate
about their own children. A country
surgeon, whom l much esteemed for his
quick insight, once Drough 10 me Tor CEN
sultation feeble boy with consumptive
tendency, in order to settle the question
whether the mothers fostering or the
fathers hardening system should prevail.
"The father" said my friend, ''is clever
man he is most successful in the manage
ment of cattle, and if he would be only
half as clever in the rearing Of his chill.
dren all would be well. But he Is very
hasty on this point, and the other day-a
day bitterly coid-he did two of the most
inconsistent things ever knew a man to
do. He quarreled like fury with his
poor wife for sending Charlie to skate
with his legs in warm stockings, and five
minu es later dismissed his groom foI
taking a colt out for exercise without
clothing it in horse cloth."-[Dr. B. w
Richardson in the Gentleman's Maya
zine.
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