158 Ar-FEED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ., M.D., M.R.C.S., ETC.^ ON 



with Weissmann, that habit formiug simply brings out ah^eady 

 existing tendencies in the individual, which are not transmissible, 

 it appears to me that our responsibility is equally serious. In any 

 case, we do know that habits are eminently contagious, if I may use 

 the expression ; and most of us will agree that in the case of some 

 physiological modifications producedbyacquired habit,it is most cer- 

 tainly true that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. 



Take the instance of intemperance, opportunities of studying 

 which are only too easily obtained in professional work ; if the 

 habit has passed beyond the stage of a mere mental preference, 

 and has become a physiological habit, actually impressed upon 

 the brain by pathological changes, we must confess that it be- 

 comes transmissible, up to the time when the mental proclivity 

 becomes a physiological change^ the case is best treated by moral 

 means, and after that point, by the physician. 



The immense importance of this subject in the light of both 

 physical and mental or moi^al education cannot be over-estimated. 

 I have to do, in professional work, with the treatment by gym^- 

 nastics of weakly and deformed children ; and I could give ample 

 evidence of the difficulty of eradicating physical habits formed in 

 early childhood ; even the habits of correct standing and breath- 

 ing, being often things which have to be taught with difficulty, 

 after eradicating incorrect habits. 



In the physical education of children one sees the value of 

 teaching co-ordinate movements, and the way in which such co- 

 ordination is gradually attained is interesting in the light of the 

 remarks of Dr. Schofield with regard to the formation of actual 

 nerve paths and connectious between various groups of cells. 



Rev. Canon R. B. Girdlestone, M.A. — I should like to say one 

 or two words on this interesting subject, though it is really so 

 full of matter for thought, that it is rather difficult to concentrate 

 one's mind on any one particular phase of it. On page 140 of 

 the paper a question is laised which is certainly a most im- 

 portant one, viz. : Whether mind can exist apart from body. 

 I suppose the writer of the paper means mind in man and 

 not mind generally, for the phrase may include beings that are 

 various. There are some that are pure spirit and have not a 

 body at all, but the writer means, I presume, whether the mind can 

 be imagined as separable from the body, and I cannot help thinking 

 that although we may view the matter rather diifereutly, yet that 



