Kemp. — On the Medical Aspects of Education, xxiii 



if the nervous system should suddenly or prematurely give way under the 

 excessive strain put upon it. What wonder, then, that the nervous hahits 

 and excitable manner of the parents appear so frequently in the children, 

 thus making them more liable to disease and premature death than others 

 born under more favourable circumstances. Parents are greatly to blame 

 in enforcing a course of study, or system of training, which is likely to 

 induce disorders from which they suffer themselves. The hkeness which a 

 child bears to a parent, in outward form and feature, ought to teach us how 

 transmissible is every taint and peculiarity, which it should be our constant 

 desire to avoid and prevent. That such taints can be stamped out is a 

 matter of daily experience, but it can only be done by placing the child 

 under the most favourable circumstances, and watching over him with the 

 most assiduoiis care, until the liealth is so thoroughly established that the 

 taint or constitutional tendency to disease may be looked upon as being in 

 complete abeyance. 



As a natural oiitcome of these remarks, will arise the consideration of 

 the question. Whether all children should be set the same tasks ; or whether 

 natural differences and temperaments should not be more carefully studied 

 than they are at present ? It is clearly the duty of parents to consider 'well 

 these points, for they alone have the opportunity of studying the habits and 

 dispositions of their children ; and surely the cautious parent ought to con- 

 sider the cheerful or mournful nature of his child — his mental as well as his 

 physical strength— and be guided in his management accordingly. To take 

 a boy who has an inherited tendency to consumption, or heart disease, or 

 insanity, and to expect him to do as much hard work as another boy who 

 has none of these tendencies, but is of perfectly healthy parentage, is 

 obviously as opposed to common sense as it is to daily experience, and will 

 probably tend to bring into activity the latent poison, to the premature 

 destruction of mind and body. And when it is considered that, in all pro- 

 bability, the mental powers of the healthier boy are being taxed to the 

 utmost, perhaps over-taxed, it is not difficult to see that the same amount 

 of work imposed on those who are not absolutely healthy, makes it well-nigh 

 impossible for physical and mental training to progress and flourish together. 

 The quantity of work and the hours of labour ought to be carefully con- 

 sidered, according to the capacity of each child. What greater error could 

 possibly be conceived than to enforce close attention to work when the brain 

 feels a sense of weariness and the bodily strength is weak ? The application 

 is imperfect ; the attention cannot be given for any length of time, because 

 the vigour of the brain is failing and the intellectual functions are being 

 spoiled. We must not, however, fall into a possible error by supposing 

 that every child who learns easily and without labour is therefore healthy. 



