At this point, allow me to say, bringing in the first person again, that it is our personal belief that so much of military drill as is covered by the term "the setting up process" should be introduced into every school in the country, either public or private, for the purpose of teaching the boys at least how to stand and how to walk. Children must play and should enjoy long periods every day of entire freedom from restraint, but the refinement of competitive athletics certainly has its dark as well as its bright side for the contemplation of the thoughtful physician. The broken fingers and injured joints of the base-ball and foot-ball field are by no means desirable adjuvants in the struggle for bread or the race for honors and emoluments in after life, and happy should be the boy who enters college, and, happier still, the young man who leaves it, sound in limb, heart, lungs, and head when he is graduated. From the physiological standpoint more vigorous exercise, and less of the excessive, makes the best preparation for a long and useful life. UP So far we have considered the child without regard to sex and somewhat the boy specifically. What shall be said about the other sex? Here we enter what should be the special domain of the intelligent mother. to the dawn of puberty but very little distinction is to be made between the sexes in or out of deors-but from this time on, their distinctive characteristics are developing, and the boy grows more and more masculine, and the girl becomes more and more feminine. In former ages, and among the older and more barbarous nations to-day, the women performed out-of-door manual labor, and were the carriers of burdens, but in the process of evolution and by reason of environment and custom all this has ceased, and in the past few generations the women have become house-plants and consequently deli cate, unable to bear burdens, and we might almost say unable to bear children. The question now is, Should girls be reared quite so tenderly as has obtained during the last few generations? The answer is certainly not, if our country is to grow strong from its own birth-rate, not as heretofore from emigration. Growing girls and young ladies should be encouraged to indulge in out-of-door sports and gardening, croquet, tennis and golf in their respective order; croquet as the least fatiguing, then tennis and finally golf as requiring the greater strength of muscle and physical endurance. It would seem almost superfluous to speak of the matter of clothing of growing children, but it certainly behooves us to advise flannel next the skin from the neck to the ankles-and to remonstrate against the fashion recently in vogue, of bare legs from the middle of the thigh to below the knee for little ones of from two to five years of age. Their clothing should be loose and of loosely woven fabric, so as not to interfere with the process of growth and freedom of movement. The question of tight lacing of corsets can only be spoken of, to be condemned. Without stopping to fully discuss the vexed question of dentition, allow me to ask who of us has not been consulted by adults regarding very serious discomfort during the irruption of the wisdom teeth? And if this is true of the adult, is it not reasonable to suppose that teething of the young and sensitive infant may be, and often is, the cause of much fretfulness, fever, disturbance of digestion, and in fact the starting point of many of their ailments? I am fully aware that many of the best authorities of to-day ignore teething as a factor in the causation of the ills of children, but it is our belief that reflexly it is responsible at least for that increased severity of other troubles, and should receive the careful attention of the medical man. After the first denti tion is accomplished, ordinarily the dentist must assume for the most part the responsibility of the further care of the teeth, though the general practitioner may not forget that dental caries is frequently the cause reflexly of remote troubles. With a few words in regord to bathing, we will bring this rather rambling little sermon to a close. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," and growing children should be taught to make free use of water for the purposes of cleanliness. The chest sponge bath on rising followed by brisk rubbing doubtless does act as a preventive against taking cold. Tub bathing for infants, and the tub or plunge bath for older children is beneficial, but the temperature of the water, and the length of time immersed should be carefully graduated to the reactionary power of the bather. The slightest tinge of cyanosis should be the signal for removal and immediate reëstablishment of the circulation by the vigorous rubbing with coarse towels. Subsequently the temperature of the water should be higher and the time shortened. Those of us practicing near seashore resorts are frequently asked by anxious parents how long at a time and how frequently may our children bathe? No hard and fast rule can be maintained. People from the interior somehow seem to think that salt water bathing is the panacea for all ills, but personal observation has taught the writer that sea bathing is over-estimated, or rather overdone. I am accustomed to say that for the average child or adult the maximum of benefit is obtained by not more than one-half hour per week-five minutes every day or ten minutes on alternate days, and further if after thorough rubbing there remains a feeling of lassitude, an inclination to lie down or the desire for a stimulant, the time must be shortened to that point at which, after the bath, the bather exhibits a full reaction and a desire to resume his play or occupation immediately. Should this condition not obtain after a one-minute bath, I do not believe there is any benefit to be gained by that person from sea-bathing. It is true that many children can afford to stay in the water longer than our set limits, but it is not unusual to observe children starting for home in the late Summer or early Autumn with rather hollow cheeks and apparently large eyes instead of the ruddy cheeks and generally robust appearance which they should have after their Summer's outing. It was the writer's intention to speak of schools in their relation to the welfare of growing children, but as we are to listen to a paper on the "Medical Inspection of the Public Schools," also one on "The Eyes of School Children," I will desist. And now disclaiming any expectation of instructing this audience, I beg pardon for the attempt to remind the general practitioner of some of the ways in which he may be of service to the rising generation, and close with the hope and expectation that not many decades. hence, the majority of mothers will be able to nurse their progeny, and that the average boy instead of the exceptional one, will be able to pass the physical examination required for entrance to the military or naval academy. |
