THE CRUSADE AGAINST CRAM

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 May 1906, Page 4

THE CRUSADE AGAINST CRAM

mi KING'S LECTURE. YOUTHFUL OVER-STUDY. The public utterances of Dr Truby Ivin*;, the superintendent of tho Scaeliff ’Asylum, the largest institution of (he kind in (he colony, are always interesting and instructive, and attract considerable attention throughout the colony. The doctor's latest declaration concerns the youth in onr schools, who - he declares freqennlly suffer mentally and physically through over-study. In a lecture delivered at Ihe I'T'ohcl Club, Dunedin, last week, Dr King touched dramatically (.11 Ihe effect of over- exertion of the mind on a child's future, as was re-

ported by onr special correspond! n at the time. Fuller reports show the. Dr King said that people expressei pity for the hardened brute who afie years, during which he constantly ill treated his wife, at last murdered her and was haneed. Rut it never oc

curivd to them to pity those who were allowed to kill themselves with overwork-, which killed them body and mind. Ike had to quote tho case of two persons sent to .Seacliff in the one year—that of a boy who was dux of the Boys’ High School once, and a girl who attained a similar lienor at the Girls' High School. These two people lay in the asylum hopeless lunatics. And they had a right to protect these people rendered insane for life. Not only had human lives been blasted; if appealed in an economic way, 100. Every person sent to the asylum cost the State an. average of £R3CO. ‘'Fancy," said the doctor, “sixty years of life spent in an asylum because of I your system of education!” fu his I report to the Minister in 1897 Dr King drew attention to the fact that in the apparent causes of insanity among patients admitted into tho asylum that of “over-study” was of special interest. Tt was extremely important, he said, that parents and guardians .should clearly recognise that, prolonged and excessive mental strain and neglect of exercise, recreation and rest, especially among girls, during the period of rapid growth and development, could not be continued without an ultimate dwarfing of both mind and body, and grave peril to tho integrity of the organism. In (ho stress of competition for honors and prizes tho brain was so often worked at the verge of breaking point, to the neglect of everything else, that one was inclined to wonder that entire mental collapse did not result moro frequently. In (ho secondary efforts m over-pressure among girls, impairmg the potentialities of reproduction and healthy maternity were moro widely known, he thought it would possibly prove a greater incentive to modulation than tho more striking hut comparatively rare casuation of insanity. Concerning .the hoy and girl above referred to the doctor’s report was as follows; THE GIRL.

“No hereditary diseases in the family ; parents temperate, and not nervous ; no tendencies to insanity; clever ; great powers of concentration ; was dux of the High School ; used to work till three o’clock in the morning, and get up again at 6 a.m. ; good memory; very strong will; good powers of self-control; affectionate; very energetic and ''industrious with regard to everything, study, house-

work, etc.; had good health, hut was ' very sedentary in her habits; did not 20 in for games or any recreation.” THE boy. "He was very irregular in his at- . tendance at school as a young boy on . account of living on an out-of-the-way . station. Passed his.,first standard .at . nine years nine months; passed his . second standard a year later; passed . the third a -year later; passed the . fourth standard at twelve years and eight months ; passed the fifth standard when thirteen years and five months. Took a scholarship four months later. The master of the school said ho did not think there would be a parallel case in the- colony —it rarely happens that a scholarship of this kind is taken before the hoy has passed his sixth standard. Ho worked extremely hard, how hard I really never knew, beeause he wds very reserved. But I remember that I got up one morning between four and five o’clock, and found him at work with his books. Ho did not go in for games or companionship. He passed his fifth and sixth standards at thirteen years and five month and fourteen years and three months respectively. Ho thus passed * three standards in eighteen months, , and the whole course in four years and a half. When fourteen years and seven months old he had rheumatic fever. Ho was at that time working for a scholarship at Port Chalmers school. When fifttcen years and nine months ho took the senior Education Board scholarship at Port Chalmers, topping tlio list by a large majority. Then ho was for three years at the Dunedin High School, and from there took a University scholarship when aged eighteen years and nine months. From that time until lie became insane ho was working at the University.” Referring to the latter case, the doctor said that some five years before he went to the asylum ho was sent for by the boy’s parents, who said ho had become paralysed. He went to see him. and found him in bed, very feverish. His mother said ho fainted on (he way to school. To (ho doctor's surprise, on examining him lie fuind him to be suffering from acute rheumatic fever. The doctor , said : “ I ins did not come on suddeni ly ?” To this the mother replied : “Oil 1 yes; ho fainted going to school.” After she had gone (ho doctor questioned the boy, and lie admitted that he , had been suffering for some time. “Oh yes,” he said, “but I was going for a scholarship, and I tried to walk to school.” “Rheumatic fever,” dramatically added the doctor, “causes (he most damnable agony, and it 0 hardly bearable by an adult ; and this Imv tried lo walk to school with that damnable pain, because his one amhi--1 lion was a scholarship.” Continuing. the doctor pointed out that those were I extreme cases. The injury done to s the (lions,-in.ls of others was apparent: in impaired mental and bodily eapaer' ity. and in the ease of women in - wealth- oftsiii-ing or no offspring at all.

, : .1 : "Success in life il,•pends mi,re mi ciicrgv than infonnalioii." And no system which sacriflccd energy for information was Rood, in this life the physical underlay the mental, and the mental must not he developed at the expense of the physical. lie would make some practical suggestions for a start. The si ll•<hus should la' greatlv rut down; no child should be taught a let of subjects at once. ’I here should he teachers abreast of modern and fundamental requirements. There were certain thiiißs whir'll every teacher ought to do in physical examinations of the children under his charge. For example, every child otii'h(, to he weight'd at least every three months; if possible, every month. The children could weigh each other. In that, wav they would get to be proud of their physical condition and ashamed of any falling away from if. From (his examination (he teacher would know when (here was any great change in his children's weight, and would have to seek the cause. Then (lie eye of a (earlier properly (rained would notice in an instant the flagging interest, or the jerky movements, or any other signs which could apprise the teacher (hat something was wrong. The doctor concluded by remarking that lie had visited a kindergarten that day, and could not understand how they could fail to do good. The system was absolutely right.