The development of the child / by Nathan Oppenheim.

  • Nathan Oppenheim
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The development of the child / by Nathan Oppenheim. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at least, of the correlation of organic forces. Such things are absolutely essential to a knowledge of the multitudinous influences which go to make up the sum of the child’s nutrition, to the building up or the tear- ing down of the minute cells which in their complexity make up the completed mind and body. Here is a study which is more than interesting — it is even fascinating, which abounds in romantic interest, which carries with it a careful and patient exercise of the reasoning faculty that is of prime importance. There is the same need of this knowledge as there is of the foundations upon which the superstructure of any pro- fession is raised. As well might an architect be igno- rant of the minute and gross characteristics of the stone which he uses, or a manufacturer of the raw materials of which his products are made. Not other- wise is one able to know the full meaning of physical life, —how it begins, continues and decays. Surely not otherwise can a mother know how to care for the won- derful development of the infant whose whole life depends upon her knowledge and foresight. If she were able to note the marvellous growth and changes in the tender cotyledons of a plant, the sensitive de- meanor of the blood-corpuscles in a frog’s circulation, the occurrence of chlorophyl granules and the changes which their presence brings, she certainly would be in a better position to appreciate the workings of her baby’s body, more able intelligently to encourage favor-