PRODUCTION OF STUPIDITY IN SCHOOLS. 143 



contemned pursuit have received unexpected illumination from the 

 study of the nervous centres. The painstaking researches of Bell, 

 Marshall Hall, and less conspicuous fellow-lahorers, endowed with 

 value and stamped with currency by the lofty generalizations of the 

 living philosopher who has so long been facile princeps (the admitted 

 chief) among all inquirers into the functions of the nervous system, 

 have already produced a psychology that is available for practical pur- 

 poses, and that promises to increase daily in importance. In the mean 

 while education has spread enormously, but educators persist in trav- 

 ersing the broad old road. The larger the field for their efforts, the 

 more conspicuous becomes the poverty of their results. At one time, 

 learning by rote was the great obstacle ; and they attacked, as the last 

 difficulty in their path, what was but the first aspect of a Proteus. At 

 present (with the scheme of national education all but a confessed and 

 palpable failure ; with numerous individuals in all ranks displaying 

 powers developed late in life by circumstances, but never suspected 

 before ; and with a waste of the national intellect that may possibly be 

 equivalent to the daily loss of a century's progress), the office of pre- 

 ceptor is still confided to persons who have never bestowed a single 

 thought upon the faculties, or the mechanism of the mind, and who 

 cannot distinguish between sensational and intellectual action, if the 

 former be veiled by the smallest complexity. 



Toward the carrying out of any improvement in education, the first 

 step must be to demand from teachers, either a knowledge of mental 

 philosophy, or, at least, of a scholastic art founded upon the principles 

 which mental philosophy would inculcate. We believe this demand 

 must inevitably be made in process of time ; but we feel also that it 

 would be greatly promoted if the medical profession would recognize, 

 and strive to impress, the distinct bearing of physiology upon the de- 

 velopment of the mind, as well as upon that of the body. 



The practical difficulties, which it is easy to foresee, all resolve 

 themselves, pretty clearly, into one. An inquiry after intelligent and 

 intelligible teaching has not yet issued from the public. They are 

 content with something else. "Whenever this contentment ceases, tha 

 means of supply will spring out of the want. And, until then, we 

 would urge upon individual parents that they may accomplish much 

 by encouraging in their little ones a spirit of curiosity, and a habit 

 of comprehension. Whether the fire of intellect shall blaze, or smoul- 

 der, will depend in many cases upon the manner in which it is kin- 

 dled ; and this kindling is among the things that can be done, most 

 effectually, under the mild influences of home. London Journal of 

 Psychological Medicine. 



