Useful Information and Unnecessary Education.
A sensible woman and mother, writing concerning the ignorance of the simplest principles of hygiene shown by a large proportion of the people, says:— I went to see a sick child the other day, the youngest of nine children, whose mother, otherwise intelligent, showed the most astonishing ignorance about treating the commonest things. Seeing me feeling the child's pulse, she said she knew nothing about the pulse, not even where to find it. That she always left that to the doctor. She had not thought it necessary to send for one yet, though the child suffered from severe internal pains and had a high fever, and she admitted that she did not know what was the matter with him. She said she had tried everything, and the doctor could do no more. On inquiry I found that among the multitude of remedies recommended by the good neighbors, and which she zealously administered, one was egg-shell tea, and another a good rubbing down with spirits of turpentine and vinegar. I have known a young girl who prided herself on her accomplishments, when her baby brother was crying with cold and neglect, on the floor, to say: "If it was mine I'd spank him," and no doubt she would. A young couple I once knew with their first child, a very bright little thing just beginning to walk. I have known the father time and again, because the baby wouldn't stop crying when he told it to, to spank it till it couldn't cry. He would make it mind, and succeeded so well that when he spoke to it—even his stern look—when badly hurt, would make it stop its crying instantly, and its little dry sobs went to my heart. You will call this man cruel, but he did not mean to be. He didn't know any better; and the most of the cruelty practiced towards the helpless little ones is the result of ignorance. You may think I have cited extreme cases, but I know they can be multiplied in any neighborhood, even among those who have a good common school education. Now, what sense for pupils to learn all about the different countries in the world, even to knowing the names and exact location of streams in remote corners of Maine or Siberia; to learn all that can be taught about the planets and fixed stars—the higher mathematics—and be in such ignorance of the commonest needs of the human body. How many daughters are "educated" till they are totally unfit to be wives and mothers in any sense; parents too often slaving and pinching, getting up before daylight, paring apples to dry after dark, that their girls may be kept in the high school till they graduate. If they go in with a good constitution, too often they come out pale, broken down, victims of various forms of weaknesses and aches. In short, chronic invalids, all ready to marry, for of course none of them expect to be old maids. The boys can stand it rather better. They use their muscles to a good purpose in their games in the open air. Put veils and clinging skirts on a boy, and then see how he will run and jump. And now ye wise, good educational boards, let me beseech you as parents and philanthropists to have every teacher in your primary and high schools qualified both in precept and example to teach their pupils how to be well. If this implies for the growing ones two or three hours of study and classes, and the remainder of the day helping their parents and each other in domestic duties, and working and playing several hours, if possible, in sunlight and open air, then all the better for that sweetness of temper, purity of life, and efficiency both of body and mind, which alone will ever redeem us as a nation from the weaknesses which threaten to be our ruin.—Sel.