The house of life : human physiology, with its applications to the preservation of health for use in classes and popular reading / by F. Fenwick Miller.

  • Miller, Florence Fenwick, 1854-1935.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The house of life : human physiology, with its applications to the preservation of health for use in classes and popular reading / by F. Fenwick Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    producing delirium brought them forth on her lips with- out her volition or knowledge. It is a curious fact, also, that memory is often excel- lent in those whose mental powers generally are very inferior. Dr. Spurzheim gives several cases in one of his works of idiots who had remarkable memories. One idiot boy whom he saw could repeat long passages from the Bible after hearing them once read, and without understanding them in the least. Education and use of the brain strengthen it, and increase its power: “The brain is like the hand, and grows with using.” Moreover, impressions made upon the mind in early life are both more readily received and more completely retained than those impressions which come when the growth of the brain is far advanced. For this reason, education is begun early in life, so that the trained intel- lect in youth may be ready and vigorous. It is beyond question that the brain is stronger in adult life, and the capacity for any kind of employment is greater, when education has been carried on throughout childhood. To put the same fact in another way: if we could find two children born with exactly the same natural capacity —the same quantity and quality of brain—and educated one of them from the age of three or four upwards, leav- ing the other to run wild about the world; in mature life, the one who had been to school would not merely have a head full of facts of which the other had never heard, but would likewise be a far better workman in whatever they might both undertake, and a far more worthy citizen of a free country, than he who was ignorant. Education for every child is, therefore, an object for which it is worth while for us all to make some sacrifices. There is, however, a serious danger for individuals to be guarded against. In the circumstances in which