EDUCATION AND CO-OKDINATION OF FUNCTION. 15 



knowledge of them is very limited, but from a physician's point 

 of view the recognition that health depends upon a perfect 

 co-ordination of the chemical processes in the cells of which 

 the various organs are composed is one of the greatest moment. 

 In the old days it was known that certain drugs, given even in 

 minute quantities, produced wonderful therapeutic results, and 

 they were called sedatives, or stimulants, or alteratives, or some 

 other name indicating, not the true pharmacological action, but 

 their clinical effects. Now, the inter-relationship which exists 

 between the plant and the animal is placing a new complexion 

 upon some forms of therapeutic actions which are known to be 

 in the direction of restoring the chemical inco-ordinations which 

 express themselves in disease. The same principle holds good 

 in the administration of the internal secretions and of extracts 

 of organs of various kinds, which contain some of the chemical 

 substances necessary for healthy metabolism. 



In childhood these metabolic changes are very active. The 

 tissues are growing, organs are developing, the intelligence and 

 all the functions of cerebration are advancing, and the amount 

 of chemical change going on in the body must be enormous. 

 In addition to the general daily routine of metabolism, if one 

 may so speak of it, there are periodical or cyclical or climacteric 

 periods, all of which involve a change of chemistry to meet the 

 requirements of the developing organs, and we can hardly feel 

 surprised that in this period of life many of the diseases are 

 related to cellular instability, due to faults in chemistry — in 

 other words there is inco-ordination of chemical function. 

 Many of the neuroses and psychoses of childhood are related to 

 this kind of change, and symptomatically they express them- 

 selves in some of those diseases of inco-ordination, such as the 

 climacteric chorea, so common at puberty, and which often has 

 mental symptoms attached to it. Want of brightness in school 

 children is frequently due to these chemical disorders, and by 

 giving attention to their metabolic wants, it is possible sonic 



