THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



APRIL, 1887, 



BRAIN-FORCING IN CHILDHOOD.* 



By WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M. D. 



~VT~OT very long ago a lady of this city brought her little daughter, 

 -1-N twelve years of age, to see me professionally. The child was on 

 her way to school, and had with her a large satchel full of books. She 

 was pale, tall, and thin. The muscles of her face twitched convul- 

 sively, and she could not keep her hands and feet still. She w T as suf- 

 fering from chorea, or St. Vitus's dance, and, in addition, had almost 

 constant headache and other symptoms of nervous derangement. In 

 the course of my examination I asked her to empty her satchel of the 

 books it contained, and which, as she informed me, she had been 

 studying that morning and the night before. This is the list : 



1. An English grammar. 2. A scholar's companion. 3. An arith- 

 metic. 4. A geography. 5. A history of the United States. 6. An 

 elementary guide to astronomy. 7. A temperance physiology and hy- 

 giene (whatever that may be). 8. A method of learning French. 9. A 

 French reading-book. 



Nine in all — nine different subjects of knowledge which that poor 

 child was required to study between the hours of three in the after- 

 noon of one day and nine in the morning of the following day ! Allow- 

 ing one hour for dinner, half an hour for breakfast, an hour for un- 

 dressing at night and dressing in the morning, an hour for going home 

 and returning to school, and eight hours for sleep (and less than this 

 will not suffice for a growing boy or girl — it had better be nine or 

 ten), and we have six hours and a half left in which to study nine dif- 

 ferent branches of learning ! Now, suppose either one of you ladies 

 and gentlemen should retire to some quiet nook, and, with your well- 

 developed and trained brains and experienced minds, should try to 

 study nine unfamiliar subjects of knowledge in six hours and a half, 



* An address delivered before the Nineteenth Century Club, January 25, 1887. 

 vol. xxx. — 46 



