388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



acquisition of memories of such things as the part in question has 

 been specially designed to appreciate. This is particularly true of the 

 parts related to vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, etc. 



5. The higher mental faculties, such as judgment, reason, self- 

 control, etc., require the concerted actio?i of different parts of the 

 brain's surface. This is because all such acts are based, of necessity, 

 upon our recollections of past events. These recollections may have 

 been acquired by the aid of sight, hearing, general sensibility, smell, etc. 



6. The cells of different areas of the brain do not exhibit in indi- 

 viduals the same aptitude for the acquisition of knowledge some peo- 

 ple remembering most easily what they see, others what they hear, 

 others what they handle, etc. 



7. In case some parts are deprived of their functions, other parts 

 are rendered vicariously more active. We see this illustrated in the 

 extreme sensitiveness of the ear and touch in the blind. 



8. Prolonged disease of any part of the brain may cause a wast- 

 ing-process (atrophy) within the brain-cells of that part. 



With these deductions as a basis, we are prepared to discuss intel- 

 ligently what may be regarded, in the light of existing science, as our 

 guides toward promoting the best welfare and growth of this impor- 

 tant organ. The views which I shall advance here are based upon the 

 physiological facts enumerated. These have been satisfactorily dem- 

 onstrated within the past decade. 



In the first place, I would raise my voice in strong protest against 

 the popular fallacy that every child, who presents no apparent de- 

 formity of limb or evidence of physical or mental weakness, " should 

 be sent to school early to keep it out of mischief." 



During the period of early childhood (from four to seven years of 

 age) most of the knowledge gained by the brain is acquired chiefly, if 

 not exclusively, through the organs of sight, of hearing, and of touch. 

 The brain is thus kept in a state of healthy activity receiving all 

 manner of impressions, and storing up memories of what is conscious- 

 ly imparted to it. Of the special senses, sight is by far the most im- 

 portant to the child, because it is the most used. 



Now, congenital and acquired deformities of the eye are not infre- 

 quent. They are among the most common of malformations although 

 too often unrecognized. Very often a serious defect of vision in a 

 child is not suspected by its parents.* Again, the fact is frequently 

 dismissed, even when the existence of such a defect is known, with the 

 remark that " glasses are a disfigurement to a child, and that any child 

 is better off without them than with them." I have been pained 



them to an article contributed by myself to "Harper's Monthly Magazine," April, 18S5, 

 and to the popular work of Luys upon the " Human Brain," D. Appleton & Co. 



* Far-sighted subjects hare remarkably acute vision in spite of the fact that the eyes 

 are too shallow. They see entirely by the aid of muscular effort, and sooner or later suffer 

 from the effects of " eye-strain " unless the proper glasses are worn. 



