Physical education; or, the nurture and management of children, founded on the study of their nature and constitution

Front matter

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION;

Preface

The Author of the following Essay considers little apology necessary for offering it to public notice. It treats of a branch of Education unquestionably of great importance to the well-being of our species, though one hitherto unaccountably neglected.

Notwithstanding the admirable Treatises of Drs Combe, Southwood Smith, and other individuals eminent in their profession in this country, — and of Drs Brigham and Caldwell in America, — the Author conceives that a Treatise, more especially confined to the Nurture and Management of Children, is yet, in some measure, a desideratum in Popular Educational Literature. It is in the hope that he may in so far contribute to supply this supposed want, that the following pages are now produced ; and to his readers, without farther preface, he begs most respectfully to submit them.

Contents

Page

INTRODUCTION. — the importance of the proper

MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN TO THEIR HEALTH, HAPPI- NESS, AND MENTAL IMPROVEMENT, . . 1

Chapter I

PECULIARITIES OF THE INFANT CONSTITUTION 5 AND ORDER OF ITS DEVELOPMENT.

Sect. 1. — Grrwth by Means of the Nutritive Functions, 16

2. — Development of the Relative Functions, . 22

Chapter II. The Digestion Of Infants And Children

Sect. 1. — Organs and Phenomena of Digestion, . 28

2.— Food of Infants, ... 31

3 Teething, . . . . 42

4 Causes of Danger from Teething :

a. DEFECT OF VIGOUR IN CONSTITUTION, . 45

b. IMPROPER NOURISHMENT, . . 47

C. OVER-FEEDING, . . . . 49

5. — Of Animal and Vegetable Diet, . 51

6. — Regulation of the Meals of Children, . 56

7. — Propriety of giving Medicine to Children ? 63

Chapter III. Respiration Or Breathing

Sect. 1 — Organs and Phenomena of Breathing, . 71

2. — Objects effected by Breathing, . . 74

3. — Animal Heat produced by Breathing, . 77

4. — The Importance of a Proper Management of

the Functions of Respiration, . 78

a. FREE SUPPLV'OF PURE AIR, . . 81

b. FREE EXPANSION OF THE CHEST AND LUNGS

IN BREATHING, . . .89

C. EXERCISE OF THE ORGANS OF BREATHING, 93 vm

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. Page

OF THE SKIN.

Sect. 1 Structure of the Skin, . . 102

2. Functions of the Skin, . . . ]05

a. touch, ... . . ib.

b. ABSORPTION, . . . 107

C. EXCRETION OF PERSPIRED FLUIDS, . 108

3. Effects of Cold on the Infant System, . 110

5. Air and Light, • . . 123

6. Cleanliness, ... . 126

Chapter V. Voluntary Motion

Sect. 1. — Of the Organs and Function of Voluntary

Motion, and their Development, . 133

2. — Proper Nourishment necessary for the Health

and Growth of the Physical Frame, . 139

3. — Exercise necessary for the Health and Growth

of the Physical Frame, . ' . 143

4. — Varieties of Exercise, and its Management, 148

5. — The Advantages of making Physical Exercise

subservient to the Mental Education of Children, . . . . 163

6. — Consequences of Infringement of the Laws of

the Constitution regarding Exercise, . 172

CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSION. — physical education the basis of

MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL CULTURE, . . 189

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

Introduction

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPER MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN TO THEIR HEALTH, HAPPINESS, AND MENTAL IMPROVEMENT.

It is a melancholy but an undoubted fact, that of the whole number of children born in this country, considerably more than one-third die under five years of age ! This statement is appalling enough to excite the least reflecting to inquire into the cause of such excessive mortality among the young of our species ; if there be any cause to which it may with justice be referred ; or whether it be rather an unavoidable fatality of our race, that must patiently be submitted to as the will of Heaven without murmur or regret.

That it is not, however, the design of our Creator, we are justified in inferring, from the perfection of structure observed in the human frame — its admirable adaptation to external nature — and the efficiency of the laws provided for its healthy existence ; and that it is not an unavoidable event is obvious from the greater mortality of children that occurs in one

A

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locality than in others ;* among the poor rather than the middling classes ;+ and from its great diminution even within the last century.^ To what then can it he referred other than to causes in a great measure within man’s own control, that are induced by him, and thus capable of being either avoided or removed ? It is to a want of knowledge, a lamentable ignorance of the nature of the human frame, and the means of preserving its adaptation to external nature, that this sad fatality is mainly to be ascribed ; and every year, every day, is adding to the force and certainty of this conviction. It is impossible to ascribe it to the want of affection and parental love of their children on the part of parents, for the tenderest feelings of human nature flow out instinctively towards a helpless offspring ; and where parental affection is concentred, neither toil nor labour is spared to ensure their preservation. But without some system of management founded on a knowledge of their physical nature, this affection is often of as little avail as in some of the lower animals, that strangle their young by the caresses whose very object is intended to preserve them.

* In Leeds, a manufacturing town, out of every 10,000 children born in it, 5286 on an average die under five years of age ; while in Rutland county, which is almost entirely agricultural, out of the same number born, only 2865 die under five years — Factories Parliamentary Report 1882.

f In London and Paris the mortality among the infants of the poor and labouring classes is proved to be nearly double of what occurs among the more wealthy inhabitants of those cities.

J The bills of mortality of the city of London prove that, while in the year 1770 (within the bills) 6144 children died of convulsions, only 2362 died by the same disease in 1632. Teething also destroyed at that time one-third more than now.

Out of 100 pauper children then received into the workhouses, not four lived to be one year old, while at this day not more than a fifth of tire whole number die within their first year.

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What success could we expect of a gardener, who was totally ignorant of the nature of plants and the relation that subsisted between them and the air around them or the soil in which they grew ? or what but entire failure could be expected if, in ignorance of these, he planted his seeds in a dark closed up room, or among dry sand, where they could find neither moisture nor nourishment adapted to their growth and constitution? To rear successfully even the lower animals, it is requisite that a certain amount of knowledge of their nature, habits, and modes of living, should be previously acquired, so as to preserve their adaptation to nature, and thus rear up a healthy vigorous stock. But how different is it with the rearing of the infant man ! To preserve him in health and cultivate his mind and feelings, no preparatory education is considered requisite— none is thought necessary; and the duties of a mother, on whom this training chiefly devolves, are reckoned so simple, so easy to be learnt, or so very unimportant, that a female who is fitted for no one station of trust is thought competent, and perhaps more than competent, for the care and management of children. Qualifications are needed for the garden or for the stable, but none are asked for the nursery; the most unqualified mother or most ignorant menial being esteemed fully sufficient for such a post.

How should this be the case ? Is it because the former require the exercise of care founded on knowledge, for their preservation, while children can, of their superior nature, sufficiently preserve themselves from external influences? The fact is the reverse. For while the lower animals are guided

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by an almost unerring instinct to their choice of food and shelter, and are born provided, for the most part, with natural coverings from the vicissitudes of season, the infant is introduced to the world helpless, naked, passive, and feeble. While the partridge chick as soon as it has broke its shell can run about and pick up its food, and the young of all animals can provide for themselves very soon after they are born, this state of utter helplessness in the child is protracted for many years, and but for the maternal solicitude so wisely appointed to care for its support, would inevitably cut short its otherwise painful existence.

So constituted, and so entirely dependent on a parent’s care during so long a period of life, it were but natural to expect that some degree of attention would be paid to the nature and physical constitution of the child, and the means they point out for the preservation of his health and happiness, commensurate with his importance to his parents, and the place he is erelong to occupy in the great social scale of civilized life. And it were at least reasonable that the reflection with which man has been endowed, instead of the mere instinct that actuates the lower animals, should be exercised for the purpose of preserving the child from those noxious influences that are in constant operation around him.

On a certain degree of knowledge of his physical and mental nature, his relation to external objects, his gradual growth and development, the nutritive processes by which these are accomplished, ever going on within his frame; on these alone can a proper and healthy management of the child be founded. And the objects of this management, let

INTRODUCTION.

it be observed, chiefly consist in non-interference with the natural processes, or rather in aiding the powers of nature in their careful development of the infant man.

But when, instead of sucli a system, nature is thwarted and opposed at every stage of her progress, her plainest dictates are neglected, and her operations checked by an observance of fashions founded in ignorance or prejudice; what other result is to be looked for than a mortality amounting to nearly one-half of all that are introduced alive into the world. When we observe the child so much the mere sport of the prejudices and the fears of his parents, who have grown up to maturity under an erroneous system of management, and perpetuate its evils in their offspring because it has the sanction- of ancient custom and habit, — are we not justified in assuming that in the premature decay and disease of their children, and the poignant moral suffering that thus ensues, they endure only the legitimate result of transgression of the natural laws which regulate the constitution ?

But why, then, do not mothers as well as fathers make themselves acquainted in some measure with the physical and mental nature of their offspring, and so be enabled in a great measure to avoid the causes of such decay and consequent suffering? Alas ! unfortunately for the young, this part of education is as yet unfashionable. While no showy accomplishment, no matter how trivial, is neglected, and no pains spared for acquiring it, the knowledge of living structure, of the laws of animated nature, though ever before their eyes, is almost studiously avoided; and young females as well as males grow

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up to womanhood and manhood, in entire ignorance of all that relates to their future condition as parents, and the physical and mental development of the young, for whose welfare they may yet be so deeply responsible. This is more especially the case with the female part of the community, and inasmuch as it is so, it is the more deeply to be deplored, since the management of the young is their peculiar province, and they are influenced for good or evil through life by the mother’s care of their early growth and development.* Is it, then, to be wondered at, when the young female finds herself a mother, with all this previous ignorance of her own and her infant’s frame, from acquaintance with which she has, by prejudice perhaps, been so carefully guarded, that she is =kept in a state of painful alarm and apprehension by the occurrence of the most trifling circumstance ; or allows real danger to steal on, in a state of the most fatal because unguarded security ?+ Can we be surprised that, of the remaining half that

* We may here be allowed to use the words of an accomplished female writer — one of the most shrewd and original thinkers of the day— Mrs Leman Grimstone : “ It is the fate of the great majority^ of our species to fall from the hands of nature into those of an ignorant nurse and an ignorant mother : . . . In all the

departments of life in which men are called to act, some preparatory discipline is deemed necessary and afforded ; but where women are concerned, the presiding deity is chance. No provision is made to fit them for their allotments, though they are called to fill offices involving the most vital interests of society. Women extract knowledge from practice, they rarely bring knowledge to it : that, under such circumstances, they so often acquit themselves with ability, is pregnant with proof that mental power is the unalienable property of humanity ; and since it thus bursts above the Might of neglect, and repels the effects of mistaken institutions, what, under better auspices, might not be hoped from it ?” — Character, p. 35, vol . i.

t tc The entire round of human existence presents not a greater contrast than that which a few months creates between the condition

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survive their infancy, so many should carry with them through life the effects of their early maltreatment in a deformed frame and debilitated constitution, to propagate the evils they themselves have endured ?

Parents are too generally in the habit of reposing all their confidence of safety in their medical attendant, who has been educated for no other purpose than the due regulation of the constitution and cure of disease ; but how frequently is it the case that he is merely called in to witness the termination of a malady, the seeds of which have been planted in the nursery, or through ignorance of the natural laws whose observance is requisite to health ; and too often does he bear the stigma of " improper treatment,” where the unfortunate result was owing solely to an ignorance that had thwarted and opposed nature, and originated disease, which, when induced, no human power could remove.

We repeat : it is to a lamentable ignorance of the human constitution that the mortality and disease alluded to is mainly to be ascribed ; and where the of the unmarried female and that of the young wife or mother ; yet for this change no preparation is made, no training of instruction thought necessary. Accordingly, nothing can be conceived more helpless than the position of the great majority of females when first they find themselves suddenly encumbered with the care of a living child. Every ordinary occurrence is matter to them of doubt and apprehension; they are kept in a perpetual state of causeless alarm, or of a still more mischievous unfounded security. They hear the cries of their offspring ; and while their newly awakened affections yearn for the sufferer, they can neither discover the cause ot its uneasiness, nor suggest the remedy. Painful, indeed, is the condition of a woman of good natural sense and warm affections, when thrown, at such a moment, upon the experience (?) of hired menials, whose presumption she dreads, and whose sum of absurd prejudices she has already divined.” — From an able article in No. 48/ of the Athenaum, a journal that has long and ably advocated the cause of popular education.

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neglect of its study is so universal, the transgression of nature’s dictates so palpable, are we not compelled to admit that the result is but a natural and legitimate one ? It is not enough that there are trustworthy medical men on whose skill and judgment reliance can be placed ; it is required of parents to know enough of the infant frame to co-operate effectually with them in their attempts at the removal of disease ; or, what is far more important, to enable them to avoid those causes which knowledge and experience inform them first give rise to it.

The present system of management of the young, though considerably improved with the growing intelligence of late years, is still radically bad. It is conducted on no rational principle, but after mere custom and fashion ; and though it has been proved again and again by reason and from experience, that certain practices are bad, and ought therefore to be abandoned, yet they are adhered to with all the native inveteracy of prejudice in favour of what is old, and the clearest principles of organized nature continue to be most deliberately neglected and set at defiance. Gorging the young with food and drink of all kinds and qualities — bandaging up their tender bodies in tight-laced dresses, thus interfering with the performance of the most indispensable vital functions — immuring them in small, close, dark, and ill- ventilated cribs and rooms ; these are adverse to the dictates of nature, and but for the power of resistance of the infants’ constitution, called into exercise to resist their encroachments, would inevitably destroy, instead of one-third, more than three-fourths of the young of our species. Even were these powers of nature let alone

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and uninterfered with by our absurd practices, their mortality would be very considerably diminished. The savage female is scarcely more ignorant of the nature of her child than the civilized lady ; but not interfering with the processes of nature, she leaves the mere inherent powers of the child to preserve him. What is the consequence ? In three or four months after he is born he can run about at large, and is of a constitution vigorous for a child, because in him the physical powers have become strengthened by being early called into their natural exercise ; whereas in civilized life, the helplessness and feebleness of the child, from the absurd and unnatural management he receives, is prolonged indefinitely into boyhood, and often does not cease until mature age, with the existence of the being who is its victim. “ Chance is thus more merciful than men’s systems, and the eternal task of Nature is counteracting our efforts to deteriorate ourselves.”

The only rational mode of management of the young, we assume, must be founded on a certain degree of knowledge of their nature and constitution. This is what might rationally be anticipated ; yet how much, in all respects as well as this, is the study of Nature and her laws neglected, her institutions disobeyed ! It is to his ignorance of this that man owes the greater part of the evils that afflict him from early mismanagement, or that he suffers disease in his body from the seeds of it inherent in him at his birth.

The laws that regulate and govern living beings or organized nature, are as invariable as those which regulate the physical or material world ; the changes that are perpetually occurring in the body of the

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human being take place only according to those certain laws of organization ; and in the attainment of health, which is the regularity of human existence, and the physical wellbeing of his offspring, man deceives himself, and suffers the penalty of his ignorance, if he neglect to fall back on Nature, to consult her laws, and call experience to his aid. The practice of the physician is merely to regulate and assist her in repairing derangement — to remove obstructions to her peaceful and healthy action ; hut everyday experience proves how impotent his best efforts often are without man’s own co-operation, and how much easier it is to preserve the healthy action of the system when sound, than to repair it after it has been allowed to become deranged and debilitated. To know and he guided by these certain laws, to this end, is the duty of all, and especially of parents, who have as such undertaken an office of the highest responsibility, inasmuch as the happiness or misery of the human beings they have introduced into the world depends so greatly upon their infant management and physical education. This responsibility, however, is so much underrated, that reason is scarcely ever allowed to operate in the matter ; and children are born and permitted to take their chance of premature death, or debility and precarious health through life, without the idea ever occurring to their parents that they have any duties to perform to them, other than supplying their more immediate animal wants of food, and shelter, and clothing.

And here we may state what is the scope and object of a proper physical education. Its first great end is to promote the efforts of nature in preserv-

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ing the soundness of the body., at the same time that each and every part of it is brought up to the highest state of perfection of which it is capable. Now, the main object of nature, in early youth, is to effect the growth and development of the body by means of the nutritive functions. Accordingly, this is one chief aim also of physical education ; for though Nature herself performs much, she needs to be aided and enabled to effect her desired ends ; while care is. taken to steer clear of pernicious fashions and conventionalisms — those quicksands of civilized life. Development of the body is also in a great degree furthered by a proper training of its different organs, such as brings out the harmonious and healthy action of the whole system. Accordingly, this is another principal object of physical education. By thus aiding Nature through the means she herself points out to us, the proper exercise and operation of every part is attained, the nutrition and growth of the frame is promoted, while it is thus also fitted with the highest capacity for physical happiness and enjoyment.

Such being the first great object of physical education, it will be obvious that it must commence at an early age ; for the body is chiefly formed in youth, and then acquires the germ of its vigour and strength in after-life. In fact, education, whether good, bad, or indifferent, begins with existence — the first and most important preceptor of man being his mother and nurse. She gives the first bend to the twig ; by care nourishing and training it into health and strength, or by neglect allowing it to dwindle into disease or deformity.

But besides the importance of a knowledge of the

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child’s nature for the parent’s due preservation of his health, it is also of immense consequence in the cultivation and training of his mind, as on the proper development of his physical frame greatly depends the healthfulness and vigour of his intellectual nature. In fact we can as little separate the mental from the physical part of education, as we can the action of the mind from that of the bodily organs. They are so created and expressly adapted for each other, and sympathize so intimately with each other’s condition, that there is scarcely a possibility of separating the consideration of mind from that of physical structure, and viewing one or other of them single and apart from the one harmonious whole which together they form. The body and senses are the instruments of the mind’s intelligence, necessary to its growth and enlargement. A sound mind therefore and a sound physical frame are equally necessary to the perfect constitution ; a disregard of the conditions necessary for the attainment of health and physical soundness, inducing an equal amount of mental as of bodily debility.

The tender mind of the child is thus linked to his body by ties so intimate that we cannot affect the one, beneficially or otherwise, but we proportionally affect the other also. And when it is considered that the mind is ministered to, not only by all the bodily senses and relative functions, but operates through its own material organ, which is nourished, and renewed, and increases in growth like the other organs of the frame, this circumstance cannot excite surprise. The brain is the organ of mind, and the brain is a part of the bodily structure; hence it is materially influenced by the

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physical development and general health, and wholly dependent on the bodily functions for its action and proper results. The mind, emphatically speaking, grows with the brain, improves with the brain, and is affected in all its phases by its action and condition. How necessary, then, is it that parents should have some idea of the relation that subsists between them, and the laws that regulate the healthy action of both ! The blessings of a well-regulated mind, that so greatly influences the happiness of after-life, depend in no small degree upon an infant management founded on such a knowledge, and this for the best reasons ought to be chiefly under the mother’s care ; for the infant mind, when it first appears, is a thing of mere bias, and like the pliant sapling takes the direction her influence gives it. It inclines before every feeling — yields to every impulse ; and as these more or less prevail, it becomes confirmed under their sway, till it gradually assumes its peculiar conformation — like the full-grown oak of the forest, to be abiding and almost unchangeable. It is in infancy, then, that the greatest care should be taken of the due education of the mind, as well as of the due development of the frame ; and that the mother’s influence over her children should be faithfully exerted for this purpose.

The importance of a mother’s education of the feelings of her child it is scarcely possible to overrate ; and the experience of all observers has proved that on this parent’s care of her children very much depends their future health and virtue. And how can it be otherwise ? The infant is part of herself; she hangs over it in its innocence — watches over its

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growth — its awakening senses — its budding intellect ; and her genial spirit enters into it, like the sun’s rays into the opening flower, expanding it into full life and bloom. It unfolds itself before her tender love, which it drinks in at every breath. Her spirit becomes inwrought with the whole web of its nature, and is perpetuated in its future life and conduct. Of how great importance is it that the seeds of the impulses then planted in the young mind be good rather than evil — leading to virtue and happiness rather than to vice and misery, — as the physical constitution, on which it is so intimately dependent, is developed in health and strength rather than in weakness and deformity. For let it be kept in mind that the infants of the present generation will be the fathers and mothers of a future race, and. happy or the reverse much in proportion to their present management and education.

Such are some of the conditions which parents have in their power considerably to regulate and influence in the early life of their children ; and when their important bearing upon the comfort, welfare, and future usefulness of the human beings in question is for a moment considered, does it not force itself on the conviction of every father and mother, that to influence these for their good rather than their evil, is a duty of the most sacred nature, and an obligation which the high responsibility of their relation to their offspring emphatically imposes? One of the first considerations of parents ought certainly to be this : — “ What is the nature and constitution of the child, that we may be so truided, in accordance with the dictates of reason, as to ensure his physical health, and thus prepare him

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for the most effectual enjoyment of happiness and practice of virtue ?” To assist them in the solution of this question, by familiarly describing the construction of the infant’s frame, the functions of life, and the laws that regulate them, as well as the gradual development of the sound mind in the sound body by means of a proper education and management, and pointing out a few of the more general causes of derangement, such as a mother’s or nurse’s care may easily avoid, is the object of the following pages. And in doing so, we shall chiefly notice what has a practical bearing on their management, as founded on dictates that are clearly pointed out by the finger of Nature herself.

peculiarities of the

Chapter I. Peculiarities Of The Infant Constitution

A^ D ORDER OF ITS DEVELOPMENT.

Sect. 1. — Growth by Means of the Nutritive Functions.

There can scarcely be a more interesting subject of contemplation to parents than the gentle and helpless infant, that owes to them its being, and is every moment dependent on them for its existence in health and comfort. Indeed, to persons even wholly unconnected with them by ties of this kind, children are objects of great interest. They are heirs of the same common lot with themselves — born to enjoy the same human hopes and pleasures — the same human sorrows and cares. They are the firstlings of a new race, fresh in vigour, endowed with as high energies to fulfil their destinies in existence as their parents, whom they are yet to outlive and thrust in their old age from the early scene of their exertions.