d
zealously and with success, and there is no lack of books to give
sound guidance and to show the mean between the dangerous extremes of
coddling and a too Spartan exposure. Yet sometimes it has seemed as if
some mothers whose care for their children's physical health is most
painstaking, who have nothing to learn on the question of diet, of
exercise, of fresh air, or of baths, who measure and weigh and record
with great minuteness, have had their attention so wholly occupied
with the care of the body that they do not appreciate the simultaneous
growth of the mind, or inquire after its welfare. Yet it is the
astounding rapidity with which the mental processes develop that forms
the distinguishing characteristic of the infancy of man. Were it not
for this rapid growth of the cerebral functions, the rearing of
children would be a matter almost as simple and uneventful as the
rearing of live stock. For most animals faults of environment must be
very pronounced to do harm by producing mental unrest and
irritability. Thus, indeed, some wild animal separated from its
fellows and kept in solitary captivity may sicken and waste, though
maintained and fed with every care. Yet if the whole conditions of
life for the animal are not profoundly altered, if the environment is
natural or approximately natural, it is as a rule necessary to care
only for its physical needs, and we need not fear that the results
will be spoiled by the reaction of the mind upon the body. But with
the child it is different; airy nurseries, big gardens, visits to the
seaside, and every advantage that money can buy cannot achieve success
if the child's mind is not at rest, if his sleep is broken, if food is
habitually refused or vomited, or if to leave him alone in the nursery
for a moment is to evoke a fit of passionate crying.

The grown-up person comes eventually to be able to control this
tremendous organ, this brain, which is the predominant feature of his
race. In the child its functions are always unstable and liable to be
upset. Evidence of mental unrest or fatigue, which is only rarely met
with in grown persons and which then betokens serious disturbance of
the mind, is of comparatively common occurrence in little children.
Habit spasm, bed-wetting, sleep-walking, night terrors, and
convulsions are symptoms which are frequent enough in children, and
there is no need to be unduly alarmed at their occurrence. In adult
age they are found only among p