Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/674

658 the diet. She was given a food rich in materials to nourish the nervous system, and within a week it was observed by all who knew her that there was a marked improvement in her temperament. After two weeks of proper nourishment she had regained her former restfulness, sleeping peacefully a good portion of the time; and gradually the expressions of irritability and moodiness disappeared. Her face would now light up as formerly with pleasant smiles whenever any one she knew was about, and once more she appeared to every one as a very good-feeling, happy child. From that time on care was taken with her food, keeping it rich in albuminous elements, and her intellectual and emotional development was most satisfactory in every way. Some time after her diet was enriched it was learned definitely that the food she had been getting just previously was quite deficient in nutritive elements.

Brain fatigue in childhood, as physicians well know, is sometimes due to pathological conditions wherein the peculiar elements needed to nourish the brain are not assimilated from the food. X and Y are two children of the same family, who at the ages of five and seven respectively came under the writer's notice. They were then giving their parents a great deal of trouble. They were highly organized, irritable children, with whom no one seemed to get along pleasantly. While at home nothing was permanent in its interest for them, and discipline was a serious problem. When they began going to school matters grew worse. While apparently bright children, they did not make rapid progress, and always seemed utterly fatigued at the close of the day's work. When they reached home at night any little thing which crossed their paths would so greatly annoy them that they were much of the time in tears and passions. After every effort had been made by the parents to discover what was the matter, an analysis of the blood was finally decided upon, and it was found that it lacked the right proportion of elements to properly nourish the nervous system. A special diet was then begun, and other treatment resorted to to supply this deficiency. After seven months of this special care sleep had been largely restored, the tendency toward irritability had decreased, and the children could now remain in school all day without becoming unbalanced thereby. They were in reality quite different children keener—intellectually, and expressing more estimable traits of character.

Lately a group of similar cases has come to the notice of the writer. The members of a family for several generations have been afflicted with anæmia of the brain, and the children show easily all the evidences of cerebral fatigue. One girl of twelve is characterized by willfulness and carelessness, as her teachers say.