O'SHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 187 



All that can be attempted here in this discussion of seating is 

 to direct the attention of the student to the importance of the 

 matter in the hope that he will try to arrange his chair and desk 

 so as to save nervous wear and tear to the fullest possible extent. 

 One suggestion may be made, however, that there should be a 

 back-rest to the chair, and it should support the back under the 

 shoulders and above the hip-bones. In Saxony there is a state- 

 regulation to the effect that school seats must be provided with 

 shoulder rests and cross back-seats. The distance of the chair 

 from the edge of the desk should be such that the student while 

 sitting ereot can place the fore-arms on his desk without stooping 

 or without elevating the shoulders.. In order to meet this re- 

 quirement the top of the desk should overlap the seat by two 

 or three inches — there must be a "minus" distance, in technical 

 phraseology. This is rarely found, in my experience, in stu- 

 dents' rooms, for the reason that it involves some bother getting 

 free from the desk; but the greater comfort thus ensured, and 

 the energy conserved would more than outweigh the slight trou- 

 ble which such an arrangement would occasion. 



The matter of seating is of consequence not simply from the 

 point of view of saving energy, but it has an important influence 

 also upon the generation of force. A student leaning over his 

 desk, with his lungs constricted and the arteries leading to the 

 head compressed, is in a good way to foster mind wandering and 

 napping. The organism then becomes clogged, as it were; it 

 does not receive its due of oxygen, as a result of which the brain 

 must certainly become seriously handicapped. 



§2. The Daily Program. — During the past decade a great 

 deal has been said, alike in the educational and in the secular 

 press, regarding over-pressure in education. Physicians and 

 educators have noted with great apprehension the apparently in- 

 creasing number of pupils in the higher schools who are defi- 

 cient in that vigor and robustness of body and mind which are 

 essential for success in the battle of life. We are told that 

 nervous diseaises are much, more frequent in youth today than 

 they were a generation ago, and the fault must lie with the 



