LADIES' COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 66, 15 September 1906, Page 11

LADIES' COLUMN.

1 • "NAUGHTINESS," OR BRAINFATIGUE. What is the difference between the brain of a child and the brain of a grown person ? This is a question which many parents can answer, bat in the vaguest manner. It is a. question, however, which it is of the utmost importance that they should' be able to answer correctly, for if it was properly understood we should not have | our children subjected to the treatment that so often leads to the modern malady fag — in other words., over strain of the mental powers, brought on by giving an undeveloped organ work that is too heavy for it. The brain of a child is much heavier, in proportion to the weight of its body, than the twain of a grown person, and it is also in a state of active growth. The brain of a new bom baby is about 14 per cent, of itfe entire body weight, while a grown person's brain is but 2.37 per cent, of their entire weight. During tflje first year of life the brain doubles its weight at birth. All through youth the brain shares in the growth of the body, though brain growth is, of course, less rapid, just as body growth is less rapid, after the first year. All- through childhood the brain is growing, and its substance does not attain to a proper consistency until adult life. / To put tho matter orudely, a child's brain is of more watery consitence than a grown person's. We can easily understand, therefore, that) overtaxing it while in this undeveloped state is more likely to do it permanent damage than when it arrives at maturity. We can 'induce curvature of the spine by making a child carry weights on on<» side while its bones aro still soft and undeveloped ; and we can also induce brain fag, which may lead to permanent mental distortion, by compelling children to perform tasks either so prolonged or so ddfficulfc that) they overtax tho brain beyond its power while it is still undeveloped. . "All minds that are made mere receptacles for knowledge arc only jerry built, and unable to withstand the tests of lime," said the senior physician of the Bethlehem Royal Hospital* lately. "We are," ho added, "months learned and years demented. Learning by rote is ono of the most vicious causes of brain fag." Learning by roto (i.e.,, by frequent repetition without attention to tho meaning) has much tlie same effect on the mind that exeTciso on the treadmill lias on tho body. It exhausts without exhilarating. We all know that we can do mucH. more work without feeling fatigued if we are interested in the work than if we are not. Any forewoman of a dressmaking room will tell you tfliat she "can get much more work out of the girls" in a given time if they aro making a trousseau than if they are executing a "mourning order." Tho ssimc thing naturally holds truo with children. Set tlhem down to learn a column of spelling, to commit to memory a string of words of most oi which they don't know the meaning, and you impose upon them a task which exhausts their minds withoutl calling forth any interest in what they are doing. There is no more pleasure in suck work than there is in the tramp's task of breaking half a hun-dredweight of stones. It doesn'tl stimulate the thinking faculties, but it tires them ; and to t:re them in irritating work does serious nmchief to tho brain. ,' , One of the first) symptoms of bralnfatipue is irritablencss. Wo all , know how "impossible" children are at tunes. There are day 3on which nothing pleases them; they quarrel with their companions, their nurses, their toys, and their pets, until nt last they are sent to bed in disgrace, and generally they are quite .reformed next day. Now, in young chikucn this kind of "naughtiness" generally proceeds from a disordered stomach, whicb .shows itaelf, by reflex action, in ■irritability of the brain, for the stomach 'and the brain act add react upon each other to a surprising extent. In old*r children the brain-irritation set up by fatigue caused by urging the memory t© remember long strings of dry facto in a given time manifests itselt also-'in outbursts of irritable temper. Many of us have noticed how short-tem-pered schoolgirls become when they are cramming up for exams. Schoolboys, too, at times; but girls give this evidence of nervous exhaustion more frequently than boys, partly because girls generally take their studies with more •deadly "seriousness than do boys, and also because girls' brains are supj>lied> by_ nature with a poorer quality of blood than she bestows upoD boys. This kind of irritability should always be taken as a warning- that a rcstl is needed. The "ill temper" of the small child, which is the result of brain-irrita-tion is cured by a dose of magnesia and some extra resfc in bed. Work after nine at night should be interdicted, and early going to bed' insisted on, even at the risk of failing to pass the exam. Of what use is it s to pass if the result is brain-fag, with its chance of leaving a permanently-damiiged bram? Remember the specialistfs words about "jerry-built brains. They are far worse than jerry-built houses. — The World and His Wife.