"FINE OLD SAYINGS."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1590, 6 November 1912, Page 3

"FINE OLD SAYINGS."

training,of children.

X DOCTOR'S DENUNCIATION,

Addressing the International Health Congress at Washington recently. Dr. Woods Hutchinson, formerly of England, now oho of America's foremost authorities on hygiene, gave a knock-out blow lo some papular fallacies equally current on both sides of tho. Atlantic. He spoke humorously of medicines, and emphasised Wiiau most Americans aro just beginning to appreciate, that "Nature, even unaided, tends to healing, and not totdisease." J n prehistoric t.inifts, he said, people plucked tilings from trees, uiul dug others lrom the earth. Things that tasted good they labelled food, and their judgment was pretty sound. , Things that tasted nasty they dubbed medicines. i'llß nastier' Hie taste tho more likely it was that the article was a medicine, and if it was quite altogether vile in its taste., it was surrounded by a sort of glory, and made into a health specific." In discussing, the health of children, Dr. Hutchinson asked his brother scientists to regard with suspicion "fino old sayings," There, is a fine old saying that one should' rise from the table wanting just a little bit more. This, according to the lecturer, lis au .exploded theory. Be it a largo meal or a small tidbit "that a child craves for, in nine l imes out of ten it ought to have it. Tho rigid rule that three meals a day are enough for anyone, young or old, active or inactive, is ail nonsense. A healthy child can enjoy, and assimilate, and very often needs six meals a'day. In fact the human stomach is geared for continuous performance. Another saying equally old and equally fine is "early to bed and early to rise." ] Dr. Hutchinson declares that experience shows that- a child does not benefit by being bustled off to bed. early-so that his parents may havo a quiet time for the. remainder of' the" evening. Tho child' knows what it. wants better than ■ its parents, and. the main thing is that a child should have enough sleep, indeed plenty of sleep, _ for sleep is the greatest of all cures. Next to food a child needs sleep. The more it- sleeps the better. Early to bed is bad enough for most of iis, for all the most -enjoyable things wo do happen about 'ten o'clock at night, but early to rise is whore the old proverb hurts the youngsters. Let them sleep and nt-voi forcibly awaken them. After food and sleep Dr. Hutchinson places play, healthy outdoor play, which builds up the body, mind, and judgment. A child's instinct for play is God-given; so is his hatred for school. The lecturer continued: ■ "Let a child make his own moral code. Do not prehcli. • If you do not practise your preachments—neither will the'child. If you practise there is no need of preach* ing.' We think we aro older than' eur children when, as a, matter of fact, they are older than we, at least, racially, speaking. His instincts have been growing for eight or nine million years, ruul they must mean something. Let the child develop in accord with his instincts. The process of putting' old heads on to young .shoulders, -if it could be carried out ..literally, would be one of the most disi astrous* things that conW happen to us. • None of Us ever would grow up under tlios? 'circumstances." ' . . Snnib.members of the Congress expressed the opinion .that, Dr. Hutchinson's views were a' trifle ahead of public opinion', but all agreed that there is n danger nowadays of attaching too much importance to "fine old' sayings,'.' becSinse most of tliem have not kept abresist. of modem science, and in some cases are diametrically, opposed; t& it.