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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    traction. A girl thus taught might have less coquetry, less of the art of simpering delicacy, less of the falla- cious faculty of casual fascination. But on the other hand, she would be able to order her child’s nourish- ment to the end of conserving all the actual and potential energy of which he is capable, she would be able to provide an intelligent method of restoring wasted tissue, she would know how to supply the easi- est means of adding new materials from which new elements may grow. Under such a regime there would be fewer complaints of reflex nervous disorders depend- ing upon an irritated gastro-intestinal system and mal- assimilation of food. And with these reflex conditions removed, a fertile cause of serious mental and nervous irregularities would simultaneously vanish. Besides this, the whole growth of the body and the interdependence of its various parts would be more even, more nicely balanced. It is true that the mental maturity might not come so rapidly, but this, instead of being a disadvantage, would act as an advantage ; for one should remember that a too rapid maturity is apt to be pathological or, at least, productive of one- sidedness. Parents rarely realize how much the ques- tion of diet has to do with the normal, healthy tone of their children’s minds, how closely it concerns their peacefulness, their cheerfulness, their temperateness, their susceptibility to legitimate influence. Many a time a close observer will notice an intimate connec-