338 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I had to work or teach all day, I would not eat a crumb between 

 breakfast and supjier, and pass the dinner-hour under a shade-tree ; but 

 parents who can afford to educate their children at home should give 

 them either an all-summer vacation or a half-afternoon recess let them 

 rest from twelve till three, or sleep if they prefer ; in the evening, do 

 not send them to bed till they are really tired, and till the night-wind 

 has revitalized the air of their bedrooms ; but make them rise with the 

 sun if tliey are drowsy they will go to bed earlier the next evening. 

 There is no danger of a child's especially a boy's oversleej^ing him- 

 self, unless the hardships of his waking hours are so intolerable that 

 oblivion becomes a blessing ; but it can do no harm to make the 

 health-giving morning hour as attractive as possible : provide some 

 out-door amusement, a prize foot-race, a butterfly-hunt, or gathering 

 windfalls in the apple-orchard ; if the desire for longer sleep can out- 

 weigh such inducements, there must be something wrong plethorific 

 diet, probably, or over-study. The requisite amount of sleep depends 

 on temperament and occupation as well as on age ; with children 

 under ten, however, too much indulgence would be an error on the 

 safer side : let them choose their allowance between eight and ten 

 hours ; in after-years, seven hours should be the minimum, nine the 

 maximum for healthy children ; sickly ones ought to have carte 

 hlanche, both as to quantum and time of repose ; consumptives, espe- 

 cially, need all the rest they can get. Profound sleep in a cool, quiet 

 retreat is Nature's own specific for all wasting diseases, a panacea 

 without price and money. 



ISTothing can be more injudicious than to stint children in their 

 sleep with a view of gaining a few hours for study. " That plan," 

 says Pestalozzi, " defeats its own purpose, for such children are never 

 wide-awake ; you can keep them out of bed, but you can not prevent 

 them from dozing with their eyes open. A wide-awake boy will learn 

 more in one hour than a day-dreamer in ten." 



Habitual deficiency of sleep will undermine the strongest consti- 

 tution ; headache, throbbing, and feverish heat are the precursors of 

 graver evils, unless a temporary loss of mental power compels an ar- 

 mistice with outraged Nature. King Alfred, Spinoza, Kepler, Victor 

 Alfieri, Madame de Stael, and Frederick Schiller killed themselves 

 with restless study ; Beethoven and Charles Dickens, too, probably 

 prepaid the debt of Nature by their habit of fighting fatigue with 

 strong coffee. Sleeplessness may lead to chronic hypochondria, and 

 even to idiocy ; without their long vigils, the monks of the Thebais and 

 the fathers of the Alexandrian Church could hardly have written such 

 stupendous nonsense. It is a curious fact that comjoulsory wakefulness 

 combined with mental activity often induces a state of morbid insom- 

 nia, an absolute inability to obtain the sleep which it was at first so 

 difficult to resist. In such cases, the only remedy is fresh air and a 

 complete change of occupation. During sleep the brain is in a com- 



