A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene Part 54

833. Effective study is impossible if the powers of the brain are depressed. When the cerebral organ has been temporarily debilitated by protracted intellectual efforts, it is ineffectual to attempt any concentrated mental exercise. This condition of the nervous system is indicated by confusion of thought and inability to attain results that usually follow similar efforts. Mental rest in these cases is required.

_Observation._ Students frequently fail in solving mathematical problems when the mind is prostrated by continued and excessive effort to obtain a solution. Not unfrequently after a night's rest the problem is quickly solved, and the pupil thinks he "dreamed it out."

The true explanation is rest invigorated the exhausted brain, which fitted it for vigorous and successful thought.

832. Why is regularity of great importance in exercising the moral and intellectual powers? What suggestion when pursuing abstruse studies?

How explained? 833. When is effective study impossible? How is this condition of the nervous system indicated?

834. _The intellect should not be cultivated to the neglect of the moral and physical powers._ All the faculties require for their development regular exercise, alternated with intervals of rest. This is as necessary to the due development of the moral feelings of a child as in physical training and mental culture. Consequently, those schools are to be preferred in the education of youth, where the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties receive each day a due share of attention and culture.

835. The continuance of healthy and vigorous action in the matured physical, mental, and moral powers, requires frequent and regular action, alternated with rest, as much as in their development.

Consequently, those who cultivate one or two of these faculties, to the neglect of the others, exhibit a marked deficiency of acuteness and vigor in those not exercised. This defect reacts on the powers that are vigorous, diminishing the energy and deteriorating all the other faculties of man.

_Observations._ 1st. If the principles before mentioned are true, the adult, as well as the child, should spend a part of each day in some proper physical employment; another portion should be appropriated to intellectual pursuits; while another should be sedulously devoted to the cultivation of the moral feelings.

2d. Disease of the corporeal system more frequently occurs when only one set of faculties is used than when all are equally employed. This is particularly true of nervous and mental disease, which follows and is caused by either high intellectual action, or intense moral emotions, without a due amount of physical exercise.

How is the "dreaming out" of problems explained? 834. What is said of the culture of the intellect? What schools are preferable in the education of youth? Why? 835. What is the effect of cultivating only one faculty of the mind? Give observation 1st. Observation 2d.

836. _The brain can exercise its full force upon only one object at a time._ If its energies are directed to two or more operations, neither will receive that full power of exertion that it would if only one object had engaged the mind. Although the brain will direct several operations at the same time when only slight mental effort is required, yet when one operation becomes difficult, or demands special attention of the mind, the other will be suspended. This is ill.u.s.trated in social conversation while walking. Let it become necessary to concentrate the nervous power upon the motor organs, and the conversation declines or ceases.

837. In acquiring an education, or in pursuing any profession or trade, none of those influences that promote the proper functions of the body, and tend to increase physical ease, should be neglected.

For, if the brain is occupied with disagreeable sensations, it cannot concentrate its power as effectively in the various employments of man.

_Observations._ 1st. The situation, ventilation, light, and warmth of a school-room, together with the arrangement of the benches, do much to influence the concentration or distraction of the operations of the mind. Let there be attached to the school-house a s.p.a.cious yard planted with trees; let its architecture be attractive; let the windows be arranged with regularity, and not with the elevation of a convict's cell, and the benches, in every respect, be adapted to the different scholars, so that the position of each may be comfortable, and we mistake if there is not a greater improvement, in a given time, in such a school, than where there is an apparent disregard to the pleasure or comfort of the scholars.

836. What is the effect if the brain concentrates its energies on more than one object at a time? How ill.u.s.trated? 837. What should be regarded in pursuing any employment? Why? What is said in reference to the arrangement of school-rooms?

2d. Mechanics' shops should receive as much attention, relative to their situation, light, warmth, &c., as school-rooms. If these are duly observed, the nervous influence transmitted from the brain to the muscles will be more stimulating, as well as more abundant; consequently, labor will be performed with less exhaustion.

838. _Repet.i.tion is necessary to make a durable impression on the mind._ "The necessity of judicious repet.i.tion in mental and moral education, is, in fact, too little adverted to, because the principle which renders it efficacious has not been understood. To induce facility of action in the organs of the mind, practice is as essential as it is in the organs of motion.

839. "In physical education we are aware of the advantages of repet.i.tion. We know that if practice in dancing, fencing, skating, and riding, is persevered in for a length of time sufficient to give the muscles the requisite prompt.i.tude and harmony of action, the power will be ever afterward retained, although little called into use; whereas, if the muscles have not been duly trained, we may reiterate practice at different intervals, without proportionate advancement.

The same principle applies equally to the moral and intellectual powers, because these operate by means of material organs.

840. "According to this principle, it follows, that in learning a language or science, six successive months of application will be more effectual in fixing it in the mind and making it a part of its furniture, than double or treble the time, if the lessons are interrupted by long intervals. Hence it is a great error to begin and study, and then break off, to finish at a later period. The fatigue is thus doubled, and the success greatly diminished.

Of mechanics' shops? 838. Is repet.i.tion necessary to make a durable impression on the mind? Why? 839. How is it with physical education?

840. What follows, according to this principle?

841. "The best way is to begin at the proper age, and to persevere till the end is attained. This accustoms the mind to sound exertion, and not to _fits_ of attention. Hence the evil arising from long vacations; and also the evil of beginning studies before the age at which they can be understood, as in teaching children the abstract rules of grammar, to succeed in which, implies in them a power of thinking, and an amount of general knowledge, which they do not possess."

842. _The skull is susceptible of fractures from slight blows._ This occurs most frequently when the blow is given on the side of the head above and anterior to the ear. Here the bone is very thin, and often quite brittle. For these reasons, no instructor, or any person, should punish a child by striking upon any portion of the head.

_Observation._ A few years since, a teacher in one of the Middle States gave a pupil a slight blow upon the head. It fractured the skull and ruptured a blood-vessel of the brain, causing a loss of consciousness, and finally death.

843. _Concussion of the brain may be produced by blows, or by violently shaking a person._ As the brain is of pulpy consistence, the atoms of which it is composed, and the circulation of blood in its minute vessels, may be disturbed by the vibration from a blow on the exterior of the skull-bones. This disturbance of the cerebral organ is attended with unpleasant sensations, dizziness, loss of memory and consciousness. These may be followed by headache and inflammation of the brain. Concussion of the brain, and the results above mentioned, may be produced by the sudden motion attendant on the violent shaking of a scholar. Consequently, a child should never be seized by the arm and shaken violently as a method of chastis.e.m.e.nt.

841. What is the best way of learning the sciences? 842. Why should not a child be struck upon any portion of the head? What observation in this connection? 843. How may concussion of the brain be produced?

What is the effect of each upon the brain of the child?

_Observation._ Most persons have experienced a disagreeable sensation and dizziness, caused by falling from a slight elevation, or by jumping from a carriage. This is the result of a moderate concussion of the brain.

844. In injuries of the brain, from blows and falls, the symptoms are usually alarming, and all should possess some information for such contingencies. In general, such accidents are attended by insensibility; the skin and extremities are pale and cold, the pulse is very weak and feeble, and the circulation is less vigorous; the respiration, also, is less frequent and full.

845. When these symptoms exist, the individual, in the first instance, should be placed in pure air, and friction and dry warmth should be applied to the pallid and cold skin. This should be a.s.siduously persevered in until heat and color are restored to the skin and limbs, and due action of the heart and arteries has been established. Mild stimulants may also be used internally, with much advantage. The sympathizing friends should not be permitted to stand about the patient, as they vitiate the air. There should be no bleeding until the skin and extremities become warm. Send for a surgeon without delay.

Give an instance where moderate concussion of the brain is produced.

844. What are the symptoms when the brain is injured from blows and falls? 845. What treatment should be adopted?

CHAPTER XLI.

THE SENSE OF TOUCH.

846. SENSATION is the perception of external objects by means of the senses. There are five senses, namely, _Touch_, _Taste_, _Smell_, _Hearing_, and _Vision_.

847. TOUCH is the sense by which the mind becomes acquainted with some of the properties of bodies, and enables us determine whether their surfaces are smooth or rough, their relative temperature, and, to a certain degree, their form and weight.

848. Some physiologists make a distinction between the sense of touch and tact. Tact, or feeling, is more general, extending over the whole surface of the skin and mucous membranes, while touch exists chiefly in the fingers of man and in the noses of certain quadrupeds.

849. "In the exercise of these functions, tact is considered pa.s.sive; as, when any part of the system comes into contact with another body, a sensation of its presence is given, without the exercise of volition. On the contrary, touch is active, and is exercised voluntarily, for the purpose of conveying to the mind a knowledge of the qualities or properties of the surfaces of bodies; as when we feel of a piece of cloth to ascertain its qualities, or a polished surface, to prove its smoothness."