264 , PHYSICAL EXPRESSION. 



indicating the condition of nutrition * of the body 

 at large, of which the brain is a part ; we note the 

 present size and proportions of the body, the fullness 

 and fatness of the face, its paleness or colour. In 

 looking for causes of ill nutrition of body and 

 brain, we should, of course, examine for the signs 

 of disease, consumption and heart-disease may 

 cause ill nutrition of body and brain ; but, as this 

 is not a medical essay, we pass over such matters 

 here. 



While looking to the general trophic conditions, 

 the observer should look out for the signs of any 

 special diathesis. In chap. xvi. a description of 

 the signs of the scrofulous diathesis is given ; to 

 detail the signs, which indicate certain physical 

 tendencies, is important in analyzing a child's 

 condition. 



If there be signs of good nutrition, with ^the 

 absence of movements, we may suspect that the 

 kinetic function is inhibited. Inhibition of spon- 

 taneous movements upon due occasion is a very 

 important result of school training and discipline. 

 A certain degree of inhibition of movements is 

 necessary to the display of intellectuality ; it is a 

 valuable result of training when the self-contained 

 power of the child stops its movements, and makes 

 it sit or stand still. It is obviously a very different 

 matter to find, as the result of analysis, that a 

 child's movements are inhibited at will, to what it 

 is to find that they are absent from ill nutrition. 



To examine the child's nerve-muscular system 



* See expression of nutrition, p. 230. 



