EDUCATION AND CO-ORDINATION OF FUNCTION. 21 



energy is released, as I have previously explained ; and the 

 giving of the child something to do, not only in the way of 

 learning to walk, but also in the way of manual occupation and 

 other objective education, further stimulates its intelligence, 

 and leads to control of co-ordination of the various centres. 

 Such a case furnishes a single example of which many other 

 types are familiar to us. 



Illustrative case shown : — 



F. M. — Aged 5. A case of spastic paralysis. The child was practically 

 an imbecile until two years ago — i.e., when she was three years of age she was 

 quite unable to speak — she moved her limbs about in an aimless kind of way. 

 The legs were paralysed, and the paralysis has been put right by Mr. Robert 

 Jones. Almost immediately afterwards a brightening of the intelligence took 

 place and she has begun to speak and to stand. This is an example of 

 deflected energy being released, and the general backwardness which is 

 associated with these cases has been greatty relieved by giving thyroid gland 

 substance, which she has taken from before the time of the operation. 



Illness promotes self-consciousness, because constantly to 

 know a thing is to become self-conscious of it, and this frame of 

 mind means that other forms of knowledge than those affecting 

 or appertaining to the illness are apt to become dwarfed, and a 

 kind of backwardness results, simply due to a lack of cultivation 

 of faculties which may be potentially quite active. The child 

 may possess knowledge unawares, and education draws out this 

 unknown knowledge and leads to the lessening of self-conscious- 

 ness and to a healthier and more co-ordinated intelligence. 

 It is on this account that at the Royal Liverpool Country 

 Hospital for Children we have favourably considered the 

 question of adding certain types of education to our armamen- 

 tarium. Tissue metabolism, growth and nutrition, all of which 

 are necessary for the processes of repair, are favoured by the 

 constant open-air life which our children lead at Heswall. The 

 change of scene and the beauty of the surroundings also bear 

 their share in working the oracle of recovery, and now we have 

 added the stimulants for the intelligence which are provided 

 by the Board of Education. The methods are not of a worrying 



B 



