CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE EDUCATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



The nerve cells alone educated Development of central system 

 precocious Education, natural and formal The developing 

 system Anatomically Psychologically Aphasia Basis of 

 intelligence Limitations of formal education Discrimination 

 Fatigue Memory Muscular power Habits Rhythms 

 Individual variations Those of race Class Sex Precocity 

 and the ripening of the faculties Training first for association 

 Second for power The ideal The double object : vigour 

 and poise. 



EDUCATION consists in modifications of the central 

 nervous system. For this experience the cell elements 

 are peculiarly fitted. They are plastic in the sense that 

 their connections are not rigidly fixed, and they re- 

 member, or, to use a physiological expression, tend to 

 repeat previous reactions. By virtue of these powers 

 the cells can adjust themselves to new surroundings, and 

 further learn to respond with great precision and 

 celerity to such impulses as are familiar because im- 

 portant. 



In its size and development the central system is 

 precocious. Long before birth all the cells destined to 

 compose it are already formed, though by no means all 

 are developed in the sense that they have acquired the 

 form and connections characteristic for those at maturity. 

 At the close of embryonic life the sensory nerves rapidly 

 extend, and the connection of the central cells with 



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