Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/675

Rh She is an irresponsible child, acting upon every impulse without much regard to the outcome of her actions. This lack of inhibition or forethought or considerateness is characteristic of her intellectually as well as temperamentally. One day she may do fair work in school, and the next day fail utterly, being apparently attracted by everything but the work before her. She would pass in most schoolrooms as a stupid, willful pupil. A cousin, a boy of seven, has somewhat the same qualities. He fatigues more readily than other children of his age, and when in this condition he is impulsive, quarrelsome, and even vicious toward his companions. His attention wanders in school, and while bright in some ways, he has little power of continuous application to hard work. He is spoken of by his teachers as a "peculiar" child, a term so extensively used as a cloak for ignorance respecting the causes which make one child different from another.

Imperfect nutrition is not the only source of brain fatigue in childhood. When the energy of the cerebral cells is consumed too rapidly by overwork, worry, or intense excitement of any kind, the same unhappy effect is produced. One would not expect to find any of these brain-fatiguing conditions in the golden age of childhood, since one would think the struggle for existence with its terrific strain in our day might be left until later life, where doubtless it must be encountered by every individual. But while our children may not be troubled by the social and financial problems of daily life, yet in many homes and schools, especially in our cities, they are from the cradle up subjected to continual over-stimulation, which is as inimical to the right development and hygiene of the nervous system as the whirl of society or the crush of business. According to the American fashion in most households, infants of a few months as well as children of maturer years are permitted to be in the presence of the older members of the family much of the time. Guests always expect to see the baby, to hold it, and to stimulate it in all sorts of ways to see how prettily and intelligently it reacts. This practice would not be so objectionable if it were not that when the average adult has a little child in his arms he is always intense and restless in voice and actions. Few people seem to appreciate how such treatment taxes the nervous strength of an infant. But let an older person imagine what a strain it would be to have excited people about him constantly, tossing and patting him, and making all manner of facial and vocal demonstrations for his entertainment. How much more it must wear upon a child to whom these things are new and strange, all