Keme.—On the Medical Aspects of Education. xxix 
energy, both mental and physical; there is such a demand made upon 
nature to supply sufficient blood for the growth of the body, that she cannot 
at once do it, and so, the supply of blood being less than the demand, as a 
necessary consequence follows more or less impaired health in proportion 
to the demands ‘put upon the natural resources of the individual. 
These injurious abstractions of energy take place as certainly when the 
undue demands are slight and constant, as when they are great and sudden. 
Hence, if, during youth, the expenditure: in mental labour exceeds that 
which nature has provided for, the expenditure for other purposes falls below 
what it should have been, and evils of some kind are surely entailed. The 
abnormal advance of any organ in structure involves premature arrest of its 
growth—(I mean by structure, increase in quality ; by growth, increase in 
size). The brain, which during early years is comparatively large in size 
but imperfect in structure, will, if required to perform its functions with 
undue activity, undergo a structural advance greater than is appropriate to 
its age; but the ultimate effect will be a falling short of the size and power 
that would else have been attained. When the brain becomes altered in 
structure, we have, as a necessary consequence, imperfect nutrition or 
growth of the whole body. For perfect nutrition there are certain con- 
ditions absolutely necessary :— 
1. A proper state and composition of the blood, from which materials 
for nutrition are derived. 
2. A constant supply of such blood to every part. 
8. The healthy influence of the nervous system. 
4, A natural state of the part to be nourished. 
Of the first two and last, I do not purpose to say anything, though it 
might be shown how they are affected by impaired nervous influence. I 
only purpose saying a word or two upon the influence of an unhealthy 
nervous system upon nutrition. I have endeavoured to show you that 
premature or excessive demands put upon the brain, cause it to undergo 
alterations in structure; this unfits it for the healthy performance of its 
functions ; the processes of circulation, respiration, secretion, assimilation 
of food, etc., are all under the direct influence of the brain and nervous 
system, and as this is not in a state of perfect health, it follows as a logical 
sequence that they cannot be carried on as they ought to be ;—to the injury 
of the whole constitution. 
We might, I think, with advantage, copy somewhat the educational 
system of the ancient Greeks and Romans, barbarians though we are wont 
to call them. Amongst the former, education was divided into two parts : 
musie and the gymnasium, or mental and physieal training ; that is, they 
made physical as well as intellectual training, a science, as well as a study. 
