Kemp. — On the Medical Aspects of Education. xxv 



earthly paleness. If you watch the eyes, you will observe that they gleam 

 with hght at one time, and are heavy and dull at another, while they are 

 never laughing eyes. Their brightness is that of thought and strain, a 

 passing and dangerous phenomenon. If you inquire into the way in which 

 these children sleep, you will hear that it is disturbed, and oftentimes broken. 

 In a healthy child sleep comes on at an early hour, and when the eyes are 

 closed and the body composed, it is continued till waking-time in a calm, 

 peaceful manner, often without a change, even in position. You ask the 

 healthy child about his sleep, he says he is simply conscious of having 

 closed his eyes, and opened them again. But these unhealthy, over-taught 

 children have no such joy. They sleep, perchance, to dream during half 

 the night, and to be assailed with all the horrors and pressures of dreams ; 

 not unfrequently they become somnambulists. The bad sleep naturally 

 leads to a certain amount of languor and tiredness the next day ; but, 

 strangely enough, it interferes with the natural advent of sleep the next 

 night, so that sleeplessness becomes a habit. Now it is that stories must 

 be told to the child, and thus it falls into slumber fed with the food of 

 dreams, cares, and frights." 



This picture may seem to you overdrawn ; unfortunately it is not ; indeed, 

 more might with perfect truth be added to it, as daUy observation proves. 

 While on the subject of sleep, let me say a few words. The old saying, 

 that " Six hours sleep is enough for a man, seven for a woman, and eight 

 for a fool," is to my mind a great fallacy. I believe that a healthy person 

 of from 30-40 years old should take not less than eight hours sleep out of 

 the twenty-four ; and children from ten to twelve, according to their ages. 

 A grown-up person, whose brain is active dming the day, requires at least 

 eight hours rest, in order to make good what has been lost, and fit it to 

 undertake its work on the foUowmg day. With a child, who has not only 

 to make up the loss, but also to add to the size of its brain and whole body, 

 much more is necessary ; and unless slee^D is taken in sufficient quantity 

 the physical health as well as the mental energy must suffer. A child 

 with any such unnatm'al aptitude for learning should be carefully watched, 

 and when any signs of brain-fatigue begin to show themselves, all books 

 should be at once put aside, and the child placed under the most favour- 

 able circumstances for improving the physical health. 



Hitherto, I have spoken chiefly of the effects of modern school-life and 

 training upon the mental and physical health of children predisposed to 

 disease, owing to some taint transmitted to them by their parents. I now 

 turn for a few moments to the consideration of the effect they have upon 

 children who are of healthy parentage, and who are themselves in good 

 health. Is it too much to say, that the present generation are on the whole 



