498 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IV., No. 95. 



largely from the standard by which the results are 

 periodically estimated, which standard is an a priori 

 conception of the powers and capacities of the young. 

 This is not the only, and possibly not the best, means 

 of estimating a process of growth; but it is the only 

 one encouraged under the English code, and the only 

 one that is likely to be employed among us, so long 

 as the majority of parents demand, not that their 

 children shall grow, but that they shall overtake 

 some one else's children in the race. 



Wherever an artificial stimulus is employed, there 

 will be over- pressure to a greater or less extent; 

 and it is this fact which Dr. Crichton-Browne has 

 brought out most effectively. The backward chil- 

 dren, whom he judges to be incapable of accomplish- 

 ing an ordinary year's work without undue strain, 

 include the dull, the delicate, and the half-starved. 

 In this country the last-named class are virtually 

 outside the operation of the influences that produce 

 over-pressure; but of dull and delicate children we 

 have a full quota, and it is well for parents to con- 

 sider the risk tbat attends the endeavor to force such 

 to keep pace with those whom ' God has made full- 

 limbed and tall.' 



It is difficult to establish a relation between edu- 

 cational processes and vital statistics; but there is 

 reason to infer the connection, whenever, as Dr. 

 Browne expresses it, " diseases due to nervous con- 

 ditions, identical with those that educational over- 

 pressure sets up," are on the increase. That this is 

 the case in England is shown, Dr. Browne believes, 

 by the statistics of mortality from hydrocephalus, 

 cephalitis, diabetes, and kindred diseases. Nor does 

 he stop here. "We have signs," he says, "which 

 can scarcely be misinterpreted, of the tendency of 

 education, when not safe-guarded by physiological 

 discretion, to overthrow mental equilibrium. Sui- 

 cide, which is the crowning symptom of one type of 

 insanity, has been spreading portentously during 

 the last hundred years. A startling revival of it has 

 occurred all over Europe; and the rate of suicide 

 calculated on the entire population seems to have 

 quintupled in the last century. It is," he says 

 further, " an indisputable fact, that the revival of 

 suicide in almost every country of Europe has coin- 

 cided in time with the modern extension of educa- 

 tion, and that suicides are now most numerous in 

 the very regions where education is most widely 

 diffused. The number of children under sixteen 

 years of age in the list of suicides, although still com- 

 paratively small, is swelling annually; and the age 

 at which the maximum number of suicides occurs in 

 England has receded considerably in the last half- 

 century, showing that the disposition to self-destruc- 

 tion arises now earlier in life than it was wont to 

 do in former times." 



Dr. Browne's personal investigations in the schools 

 were directed to ascertaining the extent of headache, 

 sleeplessness, neuralgia, etc., among school-children. 

 It is sufficient to note the line of inquiry, without 

 going into the tabulated results, more especially as 

 the author admits that they are merely tentative. 

 Attention has already been drawn in the pages of 



Science to the action taken by several German states 

 with reference to overwork in the Gymnasien and 

 Realschulen. More recently, in accordance with the 

 commands of the Prussian minister of instruction, 

 a report on the subject has been prepared by the 

 'Royal scientific commission on medical affairs,' 

 including Professors Virchow and Hofmann, and 

 ten other members of almost equal note. The com- 

 missioners go into a detailed discussion of the ob- 

 servations submitted to them by the government, 

 touching suicide and insanity among scholars, head- 

 ache, bleeding at the nose, congestion of the brain, 

 and general physical and mental weakness. In view 

 of all the information attainable, they state " that 

 the requisite data are wanting for a scientific esti- 

 mate of the extent of over-pressure among the pupils 

 in higher schools;" and they express the opinion, 

 that, for the collection of such data, " the co-operation 

 of competent medical men is indispensable." They 

 do not, however, overlook the fact that there are many 

 essential points involved in the inquiry, of which the 

 teachers alone are the proper judges. The commis- 

 sioners especially insist that teachers must not meas- 

 ure the strength of their scholars all by the same 

 standard. 



The agitation of the subject of over-pressure is 

 not confined to England and Germany. Information 

 reaches us that the minister of public instruction in 

 France has reduced the hours of study in secondary 

 schools. In Switzerland, where the evidences of 

 over-pressure are startling, the cantonal governments 

 are considering the best means of counteracting the 

 evil. At the recent international medical congress, 

 Copenhagen, Dr. Kjellberg of Upsala made a pro- 

 found impression by his statements concerning the 

 effect of study upon the health of children. The 

 symptoms of excessive brain-work on the part of 

 the young, which he had noticed, were headache, 

 sleeplessness, intellectual torpor, muscular weakness, 

 and spasm, culminating in hallucination, and often in 

 sudden loss of consciousness. 



Little or no effort has been made in the United 

 States to collect data bearing upon the subject, but 

 there is reason for supposing that over-pressure is not 

 so common here as in countries where education is 

 more highly developed. It would, however, be well 

 for us to take warning in time, and seek to forestall 

 such effects as those described by the various experts 

 who have investigated the matter in Europe. We 

 should be particularly cautious about advocating 

 European systems of education before we have as- 

 certained their ultimate effects. 



NEW-ENGLAND ORCHIDS. 



The orchids of New England: a popular monograph. 

 By Henry Baldwin. New York, Wiley, 1884. 

 158 p., illustr. 8°. 



Lovers of flowers have always wondered at 

 and admired the beauty and oddity of orchids, 

 which are sure to form the most interesting 



