Physical education, or, The nurture and management of children : founded on the study of their nature and constitution / by Samuel Smiles.
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Physical education, or, The nurture and management of children : founded on the study of their nature and constitution / by Samuel Smiles. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![child attained, are the Vegetative or Nutritive Functions. Even thought, sensation, and all the high attributes of humanity, can exist only by virtue of these functions, though they be of no higher a nature than those which effect the growth of the meanest vegetable, and are common to living objects of all kinds. They are as the groundwork on which are built up the animal and intellectual functions. These depend on the existence of the body, and the existence of the body can only be maintained by means of the organs of nutrition. Hence, also, they are as perfect at birth as at any future stage in the life of the human being,—with this distinction in- deed, that they are then infinitely the most active in the performance of their functions. Indeed the sole aim of nature in early age ap- pears to be the growth and development of the child by means of these vegetative or nutritive functions so carefully provided for the purpose. They are Di- gestion and Respiration, Q?] which add new material to the frame,—Circulation and Secretion, that circu- late and deposit it in its various parts as it may be needed,—Absorption and Excretion, that throw oft the old particles when they have performed their office, and when their further continuance in the body would be useless and deleterious. In the organs that accomplish these several func- tions there is no imperfection to be observed at birth. They are all complete in their structure, ready for the performance of their several allotted duties, and perfectly adapted in every respect for effecting the growth and development of the infant. In the organs that perform digestion the utmost harmony is to be observed, and the nicest adaptation](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21961074_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
