SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF THE CHILD. 771 



Oil automatically, and its will is released gradually from exercising 

 control over coarser muscular movements, and can begin to exercise 

 greater control over those finer muscles which are used as the instru- 

 ments of the higher mental functions. It is this level, then, which 

 is developed before the age of seven or eight, and which has little to 

 do with the higher mental processes. The child's muscular education 

 must precede the mental. In a rabbit, for instance, almost the whole 

 of its brain consists of a system of this level. The highest level is the 

 organ of the higher activities of mind which are involved in conception, 

 judgment, and reasoning. This level has itself been subdivided into 

 layers. Some of these layers develop about the eighteenth year, and 

 from this fact it appears that the development of this highest level 

 has its proper period at the time of adolescence. 



We often overlook the fact of brain growth and development and 

 the fact that there is an accompanying development of mind. Dr. 

 Clouston, Lecturer on Mental Diseases in Edinburgh University, in 

 his book, " The Hygiene of Mind," says : " Any attempt to forestall 

 Nature in developing the higher mental or moral qualities is apt to 

 be afterwards followed by the paralysis of the qualities fostered by a 

 forcing-house treatment." Hall's view of the proper treatment of the 

 child from eight to twelve is, I think, contrary to the view commonly 

 held. We like the child to think for itself. A child hates thinking 

 because, I think, it feels that it cannot. It does reason early in life, 

 but it is not forced reasoning; it never attempts to reason beyond its 

 power. Hard thinking obviously is not easy for anyone, and hard 

 thinking on an empty brain is not generally of much use. The mind 

 must have material to work on, a great and varied stock of ideas, 

 instantaneously obedient to the call of the thinker, and by the laws 

 of association coming before his mind into the " wave of conscious- 

 ness" from every point of his mental horizon. 



It is at this age, from eight to twelve, that cells are growing and 

 accumulating fast, and this fact is the physiological basis of a mental 

 stock of ideas. The growth of cells necessitates a drain upon the blood 

 supply, sufficient without an extra drain involved by too much 

 hard thinking. Season, love, true morality, religion, esthetic enjoy- 

 ment all involve intellectual processes impossible without ideas and 

 their associations. That is why I think Hall insists more on drill, 

 repetition, memory, and dogmatic methods. See that the child gets 

 ideas. This is by no means the final word on the matter. There is a 

 big field for investigation in child psychology, esj)ecially up to the 

 age of puberty. 



It must not be forgotten that the brain requires an enormous 

 blood supply. Each cell has a capillary near enough to allow it to 

 absorb from the blood the nourishment it requires. The capillaries 

 are more numerous and their walls are thinner than those of any 

 other tissue. This means that the nourishment must pass from the 

 blood vessels to the cells more quickly than anywhere else. The 

 demand for blood in the brain is more urgent than it is elsewhere. 

 Now only a certain quantity of blood is manufactured by the body. 

 If blood goes to the brain in excess there is a diminished supply else- 

 where. 



