EDITORIAL JOTTINGS.

Thames Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 10591, 8 September 1906, Page 4

EDITORIAL JOTTINGS.

THE EVILS OF CRAM.

In Ms annual report to the Inspector-. Genei'al of Asylums Dr F- Truby King, medical superintendent of the Seacliff Asylum, makes reference to thiei evils of cramming in the schools and to other matters bearing on the children of the colony- "If women in general were rendered more fit for maternity," he -states, 'if instrumental deliveries were obviated ais far .as. possible., if infants were nourished by their mothers, and if boys- andi girls wetre given ai national education, the main supplies of population for our asylums, hospitals, benevolent institutions, gaols, and slums would be cut off iait their source- Further, Ido not hesitate to say that a very re--markable iaiiprovemient would take place in the physical, mental, and moral condition of the whole community- It must be borne in mind regarding young people* belonging, to the higihi school and university class that the majority would not h& sont to an lalSiyluni at all, but would 'be treated at home or in." private housesFurther, we hia,vei not means available for tracing the factor of past, eduoationlal over pressure mi the causation of insanity occurring: in adult . life., although we have every reason to conclude that thjiis is a leading factor 1 ' It is obviouis thiat the ultimate effects, of crams will operate' increasingly in this direction, 'as. the '.adult population comes to be more «md more composed of persons who hflive been over-press-ed in mind and neglected in body- It is sufficiently graive to> slay that, say, fro.m. 20 to 30 or more per cent of oases of acquired insiainity occurring during youth in people .not born be- | low tliio 'average of intelligence should be attributable to faulty educin.tiion, as well as an indefinite unaisoeirtainiable proportion of those occurring im adult life- However, as I, have. always miaitaiined, it is not a® a cause of actual insanity that school over-pres-sure concerns vis most, but as a. potent factor in giving rise tc widespread degeneracy -and a, .more or less universal dwftirfing of the ultimate physical, mental and moral stature of th.c whole comnmnity-