7 24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be growing, is, I believe, salutary, and to be encouraged. Good 

 fruit is practically within the reach of all at all seasons, and we 

 are probably the only nation out of the tropics where fresh fruit 

 is a staple article of diet every day in the year. The temptation 

 and tendency in the diet of children is toward an over-indulgence 

 in animal and saccharine food, and in elaborate made dishes ; and 

 the practice of allowing children to eat at the same hours with 

 their elders, and substantially the same things, is liable to result 

 in a trying regimen for the child. 



In regard to fresh air, the youthful citizen of the metropolis 

 is not likely to get too much of it indoors, and the few hours 

 a day spent on the sidewalk or in a perambulator are a sorry 

 substitute for rolling over the grass or tumbling about the 

 door-yard. When the child is a few years older the difficulty is 

 increased. Young children are in constant motion, and this is 

 Nature's method of educating the muscles and nerve-centers in 

 the selection and development of those complicated associated 

 movements and correlated reactions which finally form the auto- 

 matic groundwork of our life. We are brought by these means 

 into contact with all kinds of natural objects, in order that we 

 may become aware of their attributes and react promptly and 

 advantageously to their stimulation. The city child, however, 

 instead of soil with its diversified coverings, has hard and mostly 

 level ffoors or pavements ; instead of grateful greenish, bluish, or 

 brownish tints, the patchwork surface of our houses and streets ; 

 and instead of restful silence or simple and harmonious sounds, 

 the irritating jar of complicated, intense, and discordant noises. 

 We may compare the conditions to which the city child is sub- 

 jected to the life of a trainman, who is hampered in his move- 

 ments and at the same time subjected to storms of auditory, 

 visual, and other impressions in unending succession. 



I recently had occasion to compare the development of a typi- 

 cal city boy of eighteen months with that of a little girl of fifteen 

 months brought up in a small inland town. The boy was the 

 only child of cultivated city parents ; the little girl was the young- 

 est of several children, and her parents were plain trades-people. 

 Though the girl had congenital club-foot and had never walked, 

 she had remarkably good control over the movements of the arms, 

 legs, head, and trunk. She placed her finger on or grasped an 

 object with exactness, threw a ball with force and precision, and 

 hitched herself about the floor with great dexterity and rapidity. 

 All her movements were well planned and well executed, and 

 many of them complicated, such as putting a tin cup upon the 

 end of a stick and shaking it without letting it fall off. She could 

 speak only a few words, but had a great deal to say in her baby 

 language. The expression on her face was placid and contented, 



