Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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Activity Which Is Spontaneous And Enjoyable Does The Mischief; But That
Which Is Persevered In After A Hot Or Aching Head Commands Desistance.
Not That Bodily Exertion Which Is Pleasant Or Indifferent, Does Injury;
But That Which Is Continued When Exhaustion Forbids. It Is True That, In
Those Who Have Long Led Unhealthy Lives, The Sensations Are Not
Trustworthy Guides. People Who Have For Years Been Almost Constantly
In-Doors, Who Have Exercised Their Brains Very Much And Their Bodies
Scarcely At All, Who In Eating Have Obeyed Their Clocks Without
Consulting Their Stomachs, May Very Likely Be Misled By Their Vitiated
Feelings. But Their Abnormal State Is Itself The Result Of Transgressing
Their Feelings. Had They From Childhood Never Disobeyed What We May Term
The Physical Conscience, It Would Not Have Been Seared, But Would Have
Remained A Faithful Monitor.
Among The Sensations Serving For Our Guidance Are Those Of Heat And
Cold; And A Clothing For Children Which Does Not Carefully Consult These
Sensations, Is To Be Condemned. The Common Notion About "Hardening" Is A
Grievous Delusion. Not A Few Children Are "Hardened" Out Of The World;
And Those Who Survive, Permanently Suffer Either In Growth Or
Constitution. "Their Delicate Appearance Furnishes Ample Indication Of
The Mischief Thus Produced, And Their Frequent Attacks Of Illness Might
Prove A Warning Even To Unreflecting Parents," Says Dr. Combe. The
Reasoning On Which This Hardening-Theory Rests Is Extremely Superficial.
Wealthy Parents, Seeing Little Peasant Boys And Girls Playing About In
The Open Air Only Half-Clothed, And Joining With This Fact The General
Healthiness Of Labouring People, Draw The Unwarrantable Conclusion That
The Healthiness Is The Result Of The Exposure, And Resolve To Keep Their
Own Offspring Scantily Covered! It Is Forgotten That These Urchins Who
Gambol Upon Village-Greens Are In Many Respects Favourably
Circumstanced--That Their Lives Are Spent In Almost Perpetual Play; That
They Are All Day Breathing Fresh Air; And That Their Systems Are Not
Disturbed By Over-Taxed Brains. For Aught That Appears To The Contrary,
Their Good Health May Be Maintained, Not In Consequence Of, But In Spite
Of, Their Deficient Clothing. This Alternative Conclusion We Believe To
Be The True One; And That An Inevitable Detriment Results From The Loss
Of Animal Heat To Which They Are Subject.
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 56
For When, The Constitution Being Sound Enough To Bear It, Exposure Does
Produce Hardness, It Does So At The Expense Of Growth. This Truth Is
Displayed Alike In Animals And In Man. Shetland Ponies Bear Greater
Inclemencies Than The Horses Of The South, But Are Dwarfed. Highland
Sheep And Cattle, Living In A Colder Climate, Are Stunted In Comparison
With English Breeds. In Both The Arctic And Antarctic Regions The Human
Race Falls Much Below Its Ordinary Height: The Laplander And Esquimaux
Are Very Short; And The Terra Del Fuegians, Who Go Naked In A Wintry
Land, Are Described By Darwin As So Stunted And Hideous, That "One Can
Hardly Make One's-Self Believe They Are Fellow-Creatures."
Science Explains This Dwarfishness Produced By Great Abstraction Of
Heat; Showing That, Food And Other Things Being Equal, It Unavoidably
Results. For, As Before Pointed Out, To Make Up For That Cooling By
Radiation Which The Body Is Ever Undergoing, There Must Be A Constant
Oxidation Of Certain Matters Forming Part Of The Food. And In Proportion
As The Thermal Loss Is Great, Must The Quantity Of These Matters
Required For Oxidation Be Great. But The Power Of The Digestive Organs
Is Limited. Consequently, When They Have To Prepare A Large Quantity Of
This Material Needful For Maintaining The Temperature, They Can Prepare
But A Small Quantity Of The Material Which Goes To Build Up The Frame.
Excessive Expenditure For Fuel Entails Diminished Means For Other
Purposes. Wherefore There Necessarily Results A Body Small In Size, Or
Inferior In Texture, Or Both.
Hence The Great Importance Of Clothing. As Liebig Says:--"Our Clothing
Is, In Reference To The Temperature Of The Body, Merely An Equivalent
For A Certain Amount Of Food." By Diminishing The Loss Of Heat, It
Diminishes The Amount Of Fuel Needful For Maintaining The Heat; And When
The Stomach Has Less To Do In Preparing Fuel, It Can Do More In
Preparing Other Materials. This Deduction Is Confirmed By The Experience
Of Those Who Manage Animals. Cold Can Be Borne By Animals Only At An
Expense Of Fat, Or Muscle, Or Growth, As The Case May Be. "If Fattening
Cattle Are Exposed To A Low Temperature, Either Their Progress Must Be
Retarded, Or A Great Additional Expenditure Of Food Incurred."[5] Mr.
Apperley Insists Strongly That, To Bring Hunters Into Good Condition, It
Is Necessary That The Stable Should Be Kept Warm. And Among Those Who
Rear Racers, It Is An Established Doctrine That Exposure Is To Be
Avoided.
The Scientific Truth Thus Illustrated By Ethnology, And Recognised By
Agriculturists And Sportsmen, Applies With Double Force To Children. In
Proportion To Their Smallness And The Rapidity Of Their Growth Is The
Injury From Cold Great. In France, New-Born Infants Often Die In Winter
From Being Carried To The Office Of The _Maire_ For Registration. "M.
Quetelet Has Pointed Out, That In Belgium Two Infants Die In January For
One That Dies In July." And In Russia The Infant Mortality Is Something
Enormous. Even When Near Maturity, The Undeveloped Frame Is
Comparatively Unable To Bear Exposure: As Witness The Quickness With
Which Young Soldiers Succumb In A Trying Campaign. The _Rationale_ Is
Obvious. We Have Already Adverted To The Fact That, In Consequence Of
The Varying Relation Between Surface And Bulk, A Child Loses A
Relatively Larger Amount Of Heat Than An Adult; And Here We Must Point
Out That The Disadvantage Under Which The Child Thus Labours Is Very
Great. Lehmann Says:--"If The Carbonic Acid Excreted By Children Or
Young Animals Is Calculated For An Equal Bodily Weight, It Results That
Children Produce Nearly Twice As Much Acid As Adults." Now The Quantity
Of Carbonic Acid Given Off Varies With Tolerable Accuracy As The
Quantity Of Heat Produced. And Thus We See That In Children The System,
Even When Not Placed At A Disadvantage, Is Called Upon To Provide Nearly
Double The Proportion Of Material For Generating Heat.
See, Then, The Extreme Folly Of Clothing The Young Scantily. What
Father, Full-Grown Though He Is, Losing Heat Less Rapidly As He Does,
And Having No Physiological Necessity But To Supply The Waste Of Each
Day--What Father, We Ask, Would Think It Salutary To Go About With Bare
Legs, Bare Arms, And Bare Neck? Yet This Tax On The System, From Which
He Would Shrink, He Inflicts On His Little Ones, Who Are So Much Less
Able To Bear It! Or, If He Does Not Inflict It, Sees It Inflicted
Without Protest. Let Him Remember That Every Ounce Of Nutriment
Needlessly Expended For The Maintenance Of Temperature, Is So Much
Deducted From The Nutriment Going To Build Up The Frame; And That Even
When Colds, Congestions, Or Other Consequent Disorders Are Escaped,
Diminished Growth Or Less Perfect Structure Is Inevitable.
"The Rule Is, Therefore, Not To Dress In An Invariable Way In All Cases,
But To Put On Clothing In Kind And Quantity _Sufficient In The
Individual Case To Protect The Body Effectually From An Abiding
Sensation Of Cold, However Slight_." This Rule, The Importance Of Which
Dr. Combe Indicates By The Italics, Is One In Which Men Of Science And
Practitioners Agree. We Have Met With None Competent To Form A Judgment
On The Matter, Who Do Not Strongly Condemn The Exposure Of Children's
Limbs. If There Is One Point Above Others In Which "Pestilent Custom"
Should Be Ignored, It Is This.
Lamentable, Indeed, Is It To See Mothers Seriously Damaging The
Constitutions Of Their Children Out Of Compliance With An Irrational
Fashion. It Is Bad Enough That They Should Themselves Conform To Every
Folly Which Our Gallic Neighbours Please To Initiate; But That They
Should Clothe Their Children In Any Mountebank Dress Which _Le Petit
Courrier Des Dames_ Indicates, Regardless Of Its Insufficiency And
Unfitness, Is Monstrous. Discomfort, More Or Less Great, Is Inflicted;
Frequent Disorders Are Entailed; Growth Is Checked Or Stamina
Undermined; Premature Death Not Uncommonly Caused; And All Because It Is
Thought Needful To Make Frocks Of A Size And Material Dictated By French
Caprice. Not Only Is It That For The Sake Of Conformity, Mothers Thus
Punish And Injure Their Little Ones By Scantiness Of Covering; But It Is
That From An Allied Motive They Impose A Style Of Dress Which Forbids
Healthful Activity. To Please The Eye, Colours And Fabrics Are Chosen
Totally Unfit To Bear That Rough Usage Which Unrestrained Play Involves;
And Then To Prevent Damage The Unrestrained Play Is Interdicted. "Get Up
This Moment: You Will Soil Your Clean Frock," Is The Mandate Issued To
Some Urchin Creeping About On The Floor. "Come Back: You Will Dirty Your
Stockings," Calls Out The Governess To One Of Her Charges, Who Has Left
The Footpath To Scramble Up A Bank. Thus Is The Evil Doubled. That They
May Come Up To Their Mamma's Standard Of Prettiness, And Be Admired By
Her Visitors, Children Must Have Habiliments Deficient In Quantity And
Unfit In Texture; And That These Easily-Damaged Habiliments May Be Kept
Clean And Uninjured, The Restless Activity So Natural And Needful For
Part 1 Chapter 4 (Physical Education) Pg 57The Young Is Restrained. The Exercise Which Becomes Doubly Requisite
When The Clothing Is Insufficient, Is Cut Short, Lest It Should Deface
The Clothing. Would That The Terrible Cruelty Of This System Could Be
Seen By Those Who Maintain It! We Do Not Hesitate To Say That, Through
Enfeebled Health, Defective Energies, And Consequent Non-Success In
Life, Thousands Are Annually Doomed To Unhappiness By This Unscrupulous
Regard For Appearances: Even When They Are Not, By Early Death,
Literally Sacrificed To The Moloch Of Maternal Vanity. We Are Reluctant
To Counsel Strong Measures, But Really The Evils Are So Great As To
Justify, Or Even To Demand, A Peremptory Interference On The Part Of
Fathers.
Our Conclusions Are, Then--That, While The Clothing Of Children Should
Never Be In Such Excess As To Create Oppressive Warmth, It Should Always
Be Sufficient To Prevent Any General Feeling Of Cold;[6] That, Instead
Of The Flimsy Cotton, Linen, Or Mixed Fabrics Commonly Used, It Should
Be Made Of Some Good Non-Conductor, Such As Coarse Woollen Cloth; That
It Should Be So Strong As To Receive Little Damage From The Hard Wear
And Tear Which Childish Sports Will Give It; And That Its Colours Should
Be Such As Will Not Soon Suffer From Use And Exposure.
To The Importance Of Bodily Exercise Most People Are In Some Degree
Awake. Perhaps Less Needs Saying On This Requisite Of Physical Education
Than On Most Others: At Any Rate, In So Far As Boys Are Concerned.
Public Schools And Private Schools Alike Furnish Tolerably Adequate
Play-Grounds; And There Is Usually A Fair Share Of Time For Out-Door
Games, And A Recognition Of Them As Needful. In This, If In No Other
Direction, It Seems Admitted That The Promptings Of Boyish Instinct May
Advantageously Be Followed; And, Indeed, In The Modern Practice Of
Breaking The Prolonged Morning's And Afternoon's Lessons By A Few
Minutes' Open-Air Recreation, We See An Increasing Tendency To Conform
School-Regulations To The Bodily Sensations Of The Pupils. Here, Then,
Little Needs Be Said In The Way Of Expostulation Or Suggestion.
But We Have Been Obliged
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