544 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G 
deficiency of light, or some such neglect of the laws of 
health. There can be little doubt that many nervous 
diseases have their origin in the schoolroom, and are due 
in part to the ignorance and neglect of teachers who do 
not understand the importance of watching for the signs 
of incipient mental fatigue in their pupils. There is a 
widespread opinion in the medical profession that nervous- 
ness, as a disease, is largely on the increase; indeed, it has 
been confidently affirmed that thirty per cent. of the school 
children of Europe suffer from nervous affections. This, 
like many another general statement of the kind, will 
require substantial backing before it can be accepted, but 
it is safe to say that there is much nerve destruction in 
children brought on by the exhaustion of school life—by 
the failure to proportion the amount of work required 
from any individual child to the strength of that 
child. Actual malformation of the body, too, may possibly 
be caused by remediable unhygienic conditions. For 
example, there are many cases of pigeon-breast and curva- 
ture of the spine amongst the children attending school 
in New South Wales, and there is a strong suspicion that 
many of these are caused, or at least aggravated, by the 
faulty positions in which the children have to sit at their 
lessons. 
Apart from the detection of pathological symptoms or 
malformation, the light which anthropometry sheds on the 
law of growth and the significance of the physical changes 
incident to puberty is peculiarly interesting. Investiga- 
tions made in various countries have demonstrated that 
boys and girls differ in their rates of growth with respect 
to stature and weight. It as been shown, for example, 
‘that a depression which occurs in the growth of (English) 
males from 10 to 15 years of age does not occur in the 
growth of (English) females at corresponding ages, nor is 
there any similar depression at any other period of the 
growth of girls.” It is possible, but does not seem prob- 
able, that the accession of puberty checks the growth of 
boys, for previously to the advent of puberty there are 
no physiological differences in the two sexes. It would 
have been an argument against the assumption that the 
accession of puberty checks the growth of boys had it 
been found that the boys of New South Wales exhibited 
no retardation of growth between 10 and 15 years. The 
New: South Wales evidence is not conclusive. Up to 104 
years there is no sign of retardation; and from 10} to 12 
years the growth is greater than at any previous period; 
