On the hours of sleep at public schools : based on an inquiry into the arrangements existing in forty of the great public schools in England, and others in the U.S.A. : a paper read before the Association on May 11, 1905 / by T.D. Acland.

  • Acland, Theodore Dyke, 1851-1931.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the hours of sleep at public schools : based on an inquiry into the arrangements existing in forty of the great public schools in England, and others in the U.S.A. : a paper read before the Association on May 11, 1905 / by T.D. Acland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to forty English public schools, and has arranged them in a table which shows that hik-namely, the number of clever brilliant bovs these afford to the boys the amount of hc had known who, in after life, had absolute^ is medically declared to be desirat disappeared. He quotes also the commentary of necessary, and which is the rule in An Dr. Clement Dukes upon this statement to the of twenty-seven medical officers of effect that Dn. Welldon did not recognize that other experts nine advocate ten hc the immature brain tissue of these boys had been more, eight advocate nine and a hal exhausted before they attained manhood, advocate nine to ten, and four n We do not see any valid reason why the facts “ minimum. In twenty-three of the fi and arguments adduced by the signatories should schools the sleeping hours range fi be thought to have reference only to “ boys.” eight and a half hours. Mothers, no doubt, consider boys to be the most Dn. Acland further points out, ii important part of creation ; but mere men may ^ above referred to, that .both the qua permitted to take thought also for their girls, and in relation to soundness, and also its there is certainly too much tendency to the curtail- duration, must be regarded as impoi ment of sleep, not only in some boarding schools in the production of the effects which for girls, but also in the requirements frequently and he quotes the late Sir Willi made upon day scholars. Every argument that declaring that school dormitories f supports the necessity of abundant sleep for darkened as to prevent the boys froc growing boys applies with even more force to the maturely awakened in summer by the other sex, in which both bodily and intellectual of early morning. It is, of course, ] growth and development are more rapid, in which there may be individual differences the nervous system is more mobile and more quirement among children, as there easily deranged, and in which, nowadays, very are among adults ; but, even for th keen competitions are encouraged both by tendency of medical opinion at the teachers and by employers. The letter on which and with reference to modern conditi we write speaks of “intellectual inefficiency! which may be far-reaching in its extent,” but; is far from being coincident with a the proverbial lore which had its 01 this very general statement is rendered more : of comparative intellectual tranqi definite by many of the physicians who have Acland refers to a distinguished n given attention to the subject. It is noteworthy medical profession, a man of gi that many of these have been officially con- strength, whose intellectual power w nected with the treatment of insanity, and that by all who knew him, and who, unc insanity is an evil of steadily and annually of work, often required and took ten increasing magnitude and importance. Dr. Lord Palmerston, as is well know; Clouston, Dr. Hyslop, Dr. Savage, Sir James much of his splendid vitality in advan Crichton Browne, are all quoted by Dr. invariable rule of taking eight hoi Acland, and they all bear the same testimony* however late ho might have been de They all declare that “neurotic” states are House of Commons. There is abi becoming more and more prevalent ; and it ment among physiologists on the needs no argument to show that such prevalence whereas sleep is presumably requ wrould be a probable, or even an inevitable, con- adult only for the recuperation or m sequence of conditions in which, for a series of existing tissue, it is required in chil years, an undue stress had been cast upon an additional and still more importai undeveloped nervous system. How great the growth and development. If these stress may be w-e may learn from Dr. Dckes, who and if, at the same time, the brain b declares, with reference to certain schools, that! the stress of study, and the physical “ the long hours of work demanded of the) “ younger children, u'ith the short time allowed! “ for sleep, could not be continued if the scheme demands of exerrise, the human expect to escape the usual fate thrift. The unphysiological schoi “were in force all the year round, as thero; perhaps see reason to rejoice in 1 just as the man who lives on his caj season be able to dazzle his cont the profusion of his expenditure, reckoning is inevitable in eithc Acland quotes Dr. Welldon, fc master of Harrow, as having drawn attention in a SDeech to a fact which had immessed itself upon “ would be no children left at the school. The; “ vacations save a complete breakdown.” It is: quite intelligible that schoolmasters, and school- mistresses, may have had their attention diverted from the subject by their anxiety to bring about immediate good results, and by the desiro to have