16 THE TONER LECTURES. 



limited capacity in every individual brain for education to any ex- 

 tent, in any directic^n, and that after you have strained the power 

 of the mental medium to its utmost there is plenty of energy left 

 for growth, nutrition, and reproduction, w-hile nothing is more cer- 

 tain than that every brain has at starting just a certain potentiality 

 of education in any one direction and of power generally, and that 

 it is far better not to exhaust that potentiality. 



Children varying in age and original capacity, in previous prepa- 

 ration and in home surroundings, are forced to the same molds and 

 grooves. The slow must keep pace with the fleet, the frail with the 

 sturdy, the children of toil and deprivation with the sons and 

 daughters of Avealth and luxury. 



A child is always liable to suffer from mental over-work when 

 the effort is made to force its education beyond its receptive powers. 

 Education is not individualized enough. The mind of the child is 

 often confused by a multitude of ill-assorted studies. Recreation 

 is neglected and unhealthy emulation is too much cultivated. Some 

 account has been given of the method in vogue at one time in Phila- 

 delphia, and wliich some are unwise enough to wish to revive. In 

 many communities, outside of Philadelphia, admissions to the vari- 

 ous grades of public schools are regulated entirely by the averages 

 obtained at examinations, instead of on the general record of the 

 pupils in connection with proper, but not too severe, examinations. 

 In consequence, often after the campaign of over-work and confu- 

 sion, called an examination, we see children developing serious dis- 

 turbances of health, or even organic disease — paroxysmal fever, 

 loss of appetite, headache or ncckache, disturbed sleep, temporary 

 albuminuria, chorea, hysteria, and hystero-epilepsy. 



Premature disease, even in the medical profession, sometimes has 

 its origin in student days. Such education as medical students re- 

 ceive is often obtained under the most trying circumstances. In 

 some of our most celebrated medical schools many of the students 

 are expected to attend lectures or do laboratory work for seven 

 hours in the day-time, and in addition to dissect in the evening. 



