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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    of the study of physiology. When the girl becomes a mother, she would not be apt, in the most important matters of life, to depend upon the ignorance of a nurse-maid, the garrulous superstition of uninformed neighbors, or the ofttimes partial and one-sided instruc- tion of her attending physician, who, on account of her very ignorance, is unable to give more than incomplete instruction. With a proper education she would know the meaning of the words food and sleep; she would know something of their overwhelming importance upon the future being and career of her child, who in his turn is to be one of the world’s citizens, with full capacity for good and evil. Knowing what were nor- mal functions, she would be able to recognize and guard against deviations from them. No day would pass in which she would not find opportunity to exer- cise self-restraint, keen observation and sensible know- ledge in furthering the normal and healthful evolution of her child. In proportion to her approximation to a really high standard, this evolution ought to stand for her as the greatest thing in the world. If the laws governing the body are of so much im- portance, those controlling the mental action are fully as worthy of consideration. To know how the mind works, the order of its unfolding, the relative impor- tance of the various elements which go to make a nice equilibrium, — these things are of no little value. In the presence of a knowledge of psychology, there would