MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5855, 24 April 1897, Page 3

MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT.

THE BABY.

Mrs Morse Hudders, when lecturing recently at the Brooklyn Institute on " Health and Exercise," thus explained the restlessness of infants : — There is, she. said, no creature so helpless in the first part of its life as a baby. It makes many motions, throwing about its hands and feet, motions which seem, to be meaningless, but which are the efforts of Nature to develop the muscular tissues which will- later be brought under the control of the will: The baby seems to have a tendency to throw things on the floor. Some mothers think it is naughtiness, and slap the baby's hands. The baby is trying' to grasp an object, but it is not capable of doing it?. It grasps at it and lets it fall. If you do not wish ink bottles thrown on the floor, keep them out of the baby's way ; but do not put them within reach and then punish the little one. It will soon learn to measure distances. The baby pounds on the table with a spoon. People think the child likes to hear the noise. That is not the case. The child is not so sensitive to sound as its elders. Its actions, as I said before, are only the continued effort of Nature to develop the muscles. Some mothers give their children narcotics when they are too active. It is a dangerous thing to suppress the activity of a child. There would be fewer unhealthy women if there had been fewer children with repressed activity. There is a tendency in children to grow broad. If they are given nourishing food they will develop, symmetrically. No nervous persons should ever have the care of children. They do not allow them proper freedom. We must use our muscles or lose them. When an arm is broken the muscles, which arc unused dwindle away. Wo very rarely lose anything, but Nature carries away the unused tissue to another part of the body.