WHEN CHARACTER IS FORMED. 659 



She is an irresponsible child, acting upon every impulse without 

 much regard to the outcome of her actions. This lack of inhibi- 

 tion or forethought or considerateness is characteristic of her 

 intellectually as well as temperamentally. One day she may do 

 fair work in school, and the next day fail utterly, being appar- 

 ently attracted by everything but the work before her. She 

 would pass in most schoolrooms as a stupid, willful pupil. A 

 cousin, a boy of seven, has somewhat the same qualities. He 

 fatigues more readily than other children of his age, and when 

 in this condition he is impulsive, quarrelsome, and even vicious 

 toward his companions. His attention wanders in school, and 

 while bright in some ways, he has little power of continuous 

 application to hard work. He is spoken of by his teachers as 

 a " peculiar " child, a term so extensively used as a cloak for 

 ignorance respecting the causes which make one child different 

 from another. 



III. 



Imperfect nutrition is not the only source of brain fatigue in 

 childhood. When the energy of the cerebral cells is consumed 

 too rapidly by overwork, worry, or intense excitement of any 

 kind, the same unhappy effect is produced. One would not ex- 

 pect to find any of these brain-fatiguing conditions in the golden 

 age of childhood, since one would think the struggle for exist- 

 ence with its terrific strain in our day might be left until later 

 life, where doubtless it must be encountered by every individual. 

 But while our children may not be troubled by the social and 

 financial problems of daily life, yet in many homes and schools, 

 especially in our cities, they are from the cradle up subjected to 

 continual over- stimulation, which is as inimical to the right de- 

 velopment and hygiene of the nervous system as the whirl of 

 society or the crush of business. According to the American 

 fashion in most households, infants of a few months as well as 

 children of maturer years are permitted to be in the presence of 

 the older members of the family much of the time. Guests 

 always expect to see the baby, to hold it, and to stimulate it 

 in all sorts of ways to see how prettily and intelligently it re- 

 acts. This practice would not be so objectionable if it were not 

 that when the average adult has a little child in his arms he is 

 always intense and restless in voice and actions. Few people 

 seem to appreciate how such treatment taxes the nervous strength 

 of an infant. But let an older person imagine what a strain it 

 would be to have excited people about him constantly, tossing 

 and patting him, and making all manner of facial and vocal dem- 

 onstrations for his entertainment. How much more it must wear 

 upon a child to whom these things are new and strange, all arous- 



