HRPLifKA] PHYSIOLOGKWL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 85 



them. The school chilch'en appear on the averatj:e better nourished 

 than those of tlie whites. Accordmg to the o;eneral testimony of the 

 teaoliers, and from ])ersonal ol)servation, they are easily mana^^ed; 

 but owin^- to lack of attention at home, they require considerable care 

 in the matter of cleanliness. Like white children, they manifest an 

 or<j;anic need of abundant and varied physical exercise, without which 

 their health suffers. 



Mentally, as a rule, Indian children appear to possess somewhat 

 less initiative and to be slightly less bright than white children, but 

 there are numerous exceptions. They show much natural patience. 

 They learn well, though more by memory or imitation than by the 

 exercise of reason. Here, however, there are again exceptions, and 

 the fact that the Intlian children have to learn in a language different 

 from that in which they are brought up may be largely responsible 

 for their apparent shortcomings. They are apt in learning English, 

 and those who are long in school speak it without unusual accent. 

 Not a few learn more than one language, particularly the languages 

 of other tribes. They generally make raj)id progress in drawing, 

 music, history, and geography, and were it not for their peculiar ways 

 of viewing things, acquired from their elders, they would show apti- 

 tude for natural science; but they find difficulties with grammar, 

 and especially with higher arithmetic. 



The school children, particularly the girls, are by nature fond of 

 dressing nicely. They are not, in general, quite as demonstratively 

 affectionate, emotional, impatient, and sentimental as white children 

 of similar age, and have not yet to the same degree the white child's 

 ambitions, but most if not all of these differences are the result of 

 home training and influence. Really vicious children seem to be un- 

 known among the Indians here dealt with. The chief transgressions 

 are untruths, little thefts, and fighting, while among the children 

 attending school not far from their parents' homes there is some 

 truancy. Among the older pupils — those above 16 — transgressions 

 are also comparatively rare, although serious wrongdoing, as insub- 

 ordination, violence, loss of chastity, and other oftenses, now and 

 then occur. "Bad habits" (self-abuse) have not been observed 

 among the Indian school children by any of the teachers or matrons 

 questioned on that point. 



The foregoing observations are applicable to the children of all 

 the tribes studied. A few special notes concerning the Apache and 

 the Pima children, particularly those attentling school, were made 

 by the wiiter on his last expedition. 



At San Carlos the chihlren generally learn to walk before they can 

 speak more than a few simple words; but thereafter they quickly 

 learn to talk. Children between 1 and 3 years of age are occasionally 

 seen to go about on the grountl on their hands anil knees. Walking 



