1885.] 
225 
Analyses of Books. 
time as the Committee of Council on Education comes to its 
senses. Why should not our conscience be equally respedted 
with that of the Anti-Vaccinationist? 
High Pressure Education. Being an Exposition of the Evil 
Effects upon the Rising Generation of Hurry and Worry at 
School, with Suggestions. By F. Churchill, M.B., 
F.R.C.S. London : Harrison and Sons. 
This pamphlet scarcely justifies the hopes which its title seems 
to inspire. It contains, indeed, much of which we cordially 
approve, but at the same time it is not free from matter against 
which we must emphatically protest. Sometimes, too, the 
author is silent where outspeaking would have been the more 
excellent way. 
He begins by reference to the observations of the medical 
staff of children’s hospitals, concerning the “ multiple forms of 
brain-mischief,” the increase of headache, lassitude, pallor and 
sleeplessness, with biain irritability and chorea, which appear 
among their patients during recent years. From these evils he 
says, with perfect truth, that “ the children in our Board Schools 
have suffered under the existing system of payment by results.” 
This— and we wish Dr. Churchill had emphasized it more 
strongly— is the plague-spot on our system of National Edu- 
cation. 
The author’s personal experience warrants him in speaking 
with authority. He has had fifteen years’ constant experience 
in children’s diseases, with an average attendance upon over 
one hundred Board School children weekly, at the Victoria 
Hospital for Children. 
As additional evils he refers to the want of systematic inspec- 
tion of the sanitary arrangements of school-rooms. He speaks 
of the children sitting listlessly under the tyranny of “ iron- 
bound codes.” 
He notes the frequency with which boys from 16 to 20 come 
under his care with nervous twitchings of the face, and he in- 
variably finds that such boys “ are undergoing a. course of 
cramming.” 
Dr. Churchill next explains the modus operandi of over- 
pressure upon the brain and upon the entire system, and enforces 
a training for the body, pari passu, with that of the mind. He 
glances at the high percentage of insanity in England, and 
quotes the conclusion of Dr. Connolly, drawn from the statistics 
of insanity, that whilst “ priests, painters, sculptors, poets, and 
