240 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fruits of our dominant, high-pressure, 

 machine system of culture that the mass 

 of teachers and of education journals 

 pooh-pooh the notion of overwork in 

 school. 



It is not to be expected that all 

 teachers will be physicians, but it is a 

 part, and a most essential part, of their 

 business to inform themselves with some 

 thoroughness in regard to the mechan- 

 ism, normal workings, laws of endur- 

 ance, and morbid indications, of the 

 nervous system. They should read so 

 widely and carefully upon this subject 

 as to induce caution, and not become 

 the heedless instruments of an inexo- 

 rable policy, that takes no account of 

 physiological circumstances, hereditary 

 defects, abnormal temperaments, con- 

 stitutional dullness or precocity, and 

 various other conditions that ought 

 often to qualify school-room manage- 

 ment. Familiarity with such subjects 

 would go far to protect from rash judg- 

 ments and the various evils that are 

 liable to follow. Parents are often great- 

 ly to blame in this matter, but teachers 

 ought to be qualified intelligently to 

 withstand the interferences that are 

 due to parental ignorance and vanity. 



The first number of Brain contains 

 the description of a case, by Dr. A. 

 Hughes Bennett, which, although it 

 was so obscure as to baffle the physi- 

 cians, is yet well calculated to enforce 

 the cautious reserve we have insisted 

 on, and the necessity of greater general 

 familiarity with this class of facts. A 

 tall, full-grown, well-developed, healthy- 

 looking young woman, aged sixteen, 

 consulted the doctor in 1876, complain- 

 ing of blindness, deafness, and loss of 

 power in her lower extremities. She 

 had not a very good reputation, that is, 

 she had always been a very "naughty 

 child," who took special delight in an- 

 noying and playing malicious tricks on 

 her companions. She had a reputation 

 for willfulness, cunning, and bad temper, 

 though she could make herself amiable 

 and agreeable when she pleased. In 

 school her behavior was characterized 



by indiscretions, lack of modesty cus- 

 tomary in persons of her position in 

 society, and general misconduct, and 

 from one school she was expelled. She 

 pretended to become suddenly blind, 

 but, as this was immediately after cor- 

 rection for mutinous conduct, the school- 

 mistress thought she was malingering, 

 or feigning illness. She declared herself 

 deaf, but it was found that she could 

 hear ; she asserted that she had lost 

 the power in her lower limbs, and could 

 not walk, which was supposed to indi- 

 cate her desire to avoid the daily walks 

 which she disliked. She had nervous 

 attacks, and shouted, laughed, and 

 threw herself about, striking the nurse. 

 Physicians were consulted, who said 

 nothing ailed her but hysterics, and 

 ordered her to be placed under strict 

 " moral control." Dr. Bennett ascer- 

 tained that her father was of excitable 

 temperament and had had several at- 

 tacks of mania. Her mother died when 

 she was an infant, and nothing was as- 

 certained concerning her health, but an 

 aunt was said to be of unstable mind. 

 Her sisters were all nervous and hys- 

 terical, and one of her brothers seemed 

 to inherit her father's mental disposi- 

 tion. She consulted Dr. Bennett April 

 1st, but grew worse, becoming fitfully 

 blind, deaf, unable to walk, restless and 

 excited ; wandering, delirium, and wild 

 raving followed, and she at length be- 

 came suddenly comatose, and died on 

 the morning of May 1st. Dr. Bennett 

 had the greatest difficulty in obtaining 

 an autopsy, but on opening the brain a 

 tumor was found in the right cerebral 

 hemisphere, about the size and shape 

 of a hen's-egg. The cause of the inter- 

 mittent blindness, deafness, muscular 

 feebleness, and various other derange- 

 ments, was now apparent. As the tu- 

 mor had been growing, probably, for 

 years, pressure was exerted upon the 

 surrounding parts, the circulation was 

 impeded, the nervous connections dis- 

 turbed, and the disorganization of cere- 

 bral structure and functions produced 

 insanity of conduct. It is in the high- 



