386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of geological study, and the constitution of the sky, the aim of astro- 

 nomical research. These two parts of human knowledge reflect com- 

 plementary lights upon one another. Translated for the Popular 

 Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes. 







T 



THE CAEE OF THE BRAIN. 



By Professor AMBEOSE L. EANNEY, M. D. 



HERE is a natural tendency on the part of most parents to aim at 

 -J- precocity in their first child. They love to boast of its progress, 

 and to draw favorable comparisons between it and the children of 

 friends. Sometimes, as we all know, they overdo the matter, and pro- 

 duce a mental deformity, or a mental dwarf, or an idiot, or a grave in 

 which their hopes as well as their error are buried. 



No question is more difficult for a parent to decide than this : 

 " When and how shall I begin to train the mind of my child ? " 



Unfortunately, the advice of teachers or physicians upon this topic 

 is not always the same. Some answer such a question hastily ; some 

 from preconceived opinions that are not always free from bias. Oth- 

 ers, again, fail to investigate, before answering, the hereditary tenden- 

 cies of the child, whose future they are called upon to be instrumental 

 in molding. Finally, most teachers and some of the medical frater- 

 nity are more or less ignorant themselves of the later discoveries made 

 in cerebral physiology, and are therefore not always well fitted to be 

 advisers respecting the best means to develop the organ of the mind 

 properly. 



The human brain is more wonderful and delicate in its construction 

 than any invention of man. Few of those who have children seem to 

 appreciate the care that should properly be exercised in promoting its 

 natural growth and the best development of that organ especially 

 during the early years of life. 



Parents who watch with anxiety against the possibility of bodily 

 deformities in their children are often unaware of the harm that may 

 be done to young brains by ignorance or neglect on the part of those 

 who have them in charge. They know nothing themselves of the 

 organ of the mind, but they think themselves justified in believing 

 that a system of training which has produced good results in some 

 children is applicable to each and every one. 



Now, it should be remembered that minds, like faces, are not cast 

 by Nature in the same mold. The quality of workmanship and the 

 material is finer, so to speak, in some brains than in others. Some 

 children are congenitally predisposed to nervous excitability or debility. 

 Certain of the component parts of the brain become perfected during 

 their development before others. Some of these parts are capable of 



