CHILDREN AND NERVES,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1722, 12 April 1913, Page 4

CHILDREN AND NERVES,

DR. PLATTS-MILLS'S "LECTUEES. The usual monthly moeting-of tho Moral and Physical Health: Society .was held ou Thursday evening in tho' Council Boom at tho Museum.! The lecturer was Dr. Platts-Mills. and' her subject was "Tho Nervous Elements of Childhood." Tho lecturer limited her remarks to tho difference an mental'development. between children of tho 6ame age, excluding feeblemindedness and. imbecility, and treating only of preventable nervousness. Sho divided them , into " three groups, viz., backward, precocious, and'hysterical children. Backwardness is. usually duo to one of two pauses}, either.a removable physical defoct, adenoids,', or , defective sight or hearing, which cap'.bo cured by suitable treatment bf the ilndcriying cause followed by tho accessary ,caros or else absolute want of attention in infancy ahd early childhood,- wliioh leaves a child dull for want of tho proper development of its faculties ,of observation and,-Attention^ Precocity in children is duo to heredity from nervous parents, and also to tho direct, over-stimulating effect of a nervoug mother, who nover leaves her child to , itself at all—the' reverse of tho previously described class.: Another-important point is, that a nervous mother often cannot liurso her baby, and tho minds of . tho Ixittlc-fcd children aro not so well developed nor so well balanced as those, of children nursed at tlio breast. This class of children aro especially liable to fear and fear of tho dark, of bogies, of pain' etc., and to night terrors., Fear should be eliminated in tho training of children, and this point was illustrated by a case in which a child lost its reason by ■ a mother's threats. 'Children of this class should bo treated iiy a rational method of upbringing; there,should bo no forcing nor over-stimulating of mind or body, but careful hygiene, especially careful feeding, no lato dinners, nor late hours. Sometimes precocity of this kind is produced bv undue repression of the. natural lines of inquiry arising in the child's mind, and also by repression of the physical boistcrousness natural to children. ■■ In such cases the child's mind broods or preys on itself, and tho .result is abnormal, one-sided mental development, or even religious mania. 'TJnwiso feeding, not only feeding on unwholesome food, but feeding on food which tho particular child, owing to somo idiosyncracj;, is unable to digest, is often responsible'for sovcro nervous symptoms and somotiniea evon for pure hysteria, a striking ea6o in point being adduced. For puro hysteria exists in'children, and its treatment consists in rational training of tho ■ mind and hygionic treatment of tho'body. : The lecturo was followed by a very interesting discussion, several Radios belong- - ing to the teaching profession being present and contributing very suggestive remarks. Ono of the ladies said that in her expcnlenco half tho children wero abnormal at the age of six and seven, alia should not bo in tho publio schools. This was not due to scholastic over-pressure. What, then, was tho causo? Another blamed late hours and for much of .tho evil, and said that the early-rising and milking, about \vluch so much fuss had been made, were far less injurious to children than late hours and pictures. Ono teacher said that tho great difficulty in tho way of teachers was llOt committees nor school boards, lior pxamiiners, but parents wanting their children's learning to mako a show, oho furtlier said that children should not bo tau°ht nbstract number work under ten vears old; they would then in' ono year learn as much as they now leorn ill a period of five years to ten; rhero was nls-o an earnest discussion of the ovil results in later Mo of tho hard 'rearing of halves, and tho meeting closed with a voto of thanks to tho lecturer.

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