346 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
physical development of their age should be capable of more 
than the mean labor. Yet the management of this latter 
class presents but few difficulties, whereas the former class 
cannot be too carefully protected. 
The consequences of continued overstrain in a growing boy 
or girl are most unhappy. The curves of growth in height 
and weight of the mean child are characteristic. The quick 
rise to age 7 or 8, the slower ascent to age 11 in girls and 13 
in boys, the remarkable three years of accelerated develop- 
ment preceding puberty, and, finally, the rapid decrease in 
the rate of growth as full development approaches express 
the normal development of the type and, presumably, the 
normal development of the individual. Overwork may cause 
a temporary or a permanent deviation in these curves. It is 
probable, though not certain, that a temporary loss consequent 
on a slight overstrain may not lower the final outcome of the 
development, but there can be no doubt as to the result of a 
prolonged strain. In such a case, the probability is strong 
that the whole subsequent curve will be turned out of its 
course. A prolonged strain in a growing child harms for 
life and leaves a mark which can never be effaced. The 
danger is greatest in the periods of quickest development, 
particularly great in the prepubertal period. It is a sufficient 
commentary on the evils of the present educational methods 
that during these very years the undiscriminating routine of a 
system devised for the average pupil is most inflexibly applied 
to weak and strong alike. 
Overstrain can often be recognized both by subjective and 
objective symptoms. Subjective symptoms, however, are 
frequently obtained with difficulty, especially in pupils who 
are unusually ambitious and who overstudy from choice. An 
objective symptom must therefore be found—a symptom 
easily demonstrated and almost never wanting. Such a 
symptom is the failure to gain weight at the normal rate. A 
persistent loss of weight in an adult is regarded as a matter 
of grave concern: the persistent failure of a child to make 
the normal gain in weight isnoless grave. Itis not pretended 
that the failure to gain weight always restrain 
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but it is claimed that the number of exceptions is small and 
