722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



would you think it strange if at the end of that time you should some- 

 what mix matters, and imagine that Hong-Kong is the name of a lunar 

 volcano, that the Continental Congress is one of the parts of speech, 

 and that the ductus communis choledcchus is situated on Passama- 

 quoddy Bay ? She showed no such confusion of ideas. She had 

 studied her lessons well, but she had done so at the expense of her 

 brain-substance. In a little while, and English grammar, geographies, 

 and temperance physiologies, would have been like the " subsequent 

 proceedings " in Bill Nye's poem ; they would have " interested her 

 no more." I say that she had learned her lessons at the expense of 

 her brain-substance. This is no flower of speech, but a sober fact. A 

 very simple examination enabled me to satisfy myself that she was liv- 

 ing on her brain-capital instead of her brain-income. Her expenditures 

 were greater than her receipts, and brain-bankruptcy was staring her 

 in the face. 



An instance like this, in which disease is directly the result of ex- 

 cessive use of the brain, is only one of the many that are constantly 

 coming under the observation of physicians. It is not at all likely 

 that any remarks of mine, or the lessons that experience is daily giv- 

 ing to parents, will for a long time yet do much in the way of making 

 such cases fewer. We are living under the reign of the schoolmaster. 

 The impulse to have children acquire learning that can never be 

 made available for any purpose of life is so powerful that it may al- 

 most be regarded as morbid. And this is especially the case relative 

 to girls, who are made to spend years in getting a smattering knowl- 

 edge of subjects which, if they knew them well, would not enhance 

 their loveliness or render them any happier ; but which, as it is, befog 

 their minds with a multiplicity of ideas no one of which they clearly 

 comprehend. Do not misunderstand me. I am not underrating the 

 advantages of learning. If a person wishes to study the differential 

 calculus, not with a view of benefiting his fellow-man, but for the 

 object of conducing to his own happiness, let him do so. He will be 

 wiser and better, and, whether he intends it or not, his fellow-man will 

 be benefited. He has a right to judge for himself, and to seek his own 

 happiness in the way that seems best to him. But for children to be 

 reduced to one common level, as they are in our schools almost with- 

 out exception, and to have studies crowded upon them in advance of 

 their brain-development, are crimes against Nature, which Nature in 

 her blind way expiates by punishing the wrong person, but which 

 those who know the right should promptly expose. 



The brain of a child is larger in proportion to its body than is that 

 of the adult. A fact which is somewhat astonishing to those not aware 

 of it is, that the head of a boy or girl does not grow in size after the 

 seventh year ; so that the hat that is worn at that age can be worn 

 just as well at thirty. In the mean time the rest of the body has more 

 than doubled in magnitude. Not only is the brain larger, but it is 



