Kemp.—On the Medical Aspects of Education. XXxi 
the principles that should guide them, and how frequently is failure the 
issue. 
I had intended, had time allowed, to have spoken of the influence of 
schoollife upon the sight and figures of children, showing how they are 
injured from ignoranee of the proper size and position of seats, desks, and 
windows. I must, however, pass them over in silence, though it ought to 
be carefully considered in all schools, as the seeds of short sight and curva- 
tures of the spine are almost always, I might say always, laid at school. 
In conclusion I wish to guard myself against the charge of undervaluing 
education and mental training ; I value it in the highest degree ; all I wish 
to insist on is that it shall be carried on pari passu with physical training, 
and that the peculiar tendencies possessed by individual children shall be 
more carefully studied, and the amount of work given to those children 
ordered accordingly. 
The last time I had the honour of addressing you in this room on the 
subject of the education of children, I tried to point out to you some of the 
evils which are attendant upon the present system of school training—how 
it fails to make any allowance for differences of temperament and disposition 
in children ; what little chances a boy or girl, who has an inherited ten- 
dency to nervous disease, insanity, consumption, or heart disease, has, 
under present existing school life, to outgrow such tendencies ; indeed, there 
is almost the certainty of developing them into activity; how, during school 
life, so little attention is paid to physical training, the great aim being to 
develope the mental powers to the utmost, at the expense even of physical 
health ; how the high competitive examinations of advanced schools and 
colleges are fraught with infinite danger to those who engage in them, 
because they demand more of their pupils than they can be expected to give, 
without at the same time injuring their brains and nervous systems; and 
how much more strain and demand is put upon the mental powers of 
growing children than ought to be put upon them. I purpose this evening 
to pursue the subject further, and endeavour to show you when pressure 
may with safety be put upon children, and also to show how sight and figure 
are injured, from ignorance of those laws which should be observed in order 
to preserve school children from affections of the eyes and spine. 
The first question, then, that presents itself for our consideration is, 
When may we with safety put pressure upon a child? It is obvious that 
no answer can be given to this question, which shall be of universal appli- 
cation; for so many circumstances have to be considered, that each case 
must i carefully studied and our answer — accordingly. We all know 
that probably no two children are exactly ali p t, habits, power 
