HEREDITY AND
CHILD CULTURE
HENRY DWIGHT CHAPIN
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
HEREDITY AND CHILD CULTURE
Composite Figure Showing Completely Developed
Youth.
Heredity and Child Culture
BY
HENRY DWIGHT CHAPIN, M.D.
President of the Children's Welfare Federation of New York;
Medical Director of the Speedwell Society ; Emeritus Pro-
fessor of Medicine (Diseases of Children) at the New York
Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital; Ex-
President of the American Pediatric Society.
With a Foreword bt
PROFESSOR HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
NEW YORK
E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue
Copyright, 1922,
BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All rights reserved
PBIXTED IN THB XTSXTBO STATIS OT AUEBIOA
153
TO
MY FRIEND AND CLASS-MATE
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
Preface
In a study of the developmental period, one
must start with a background relating to in-
fluences that precede the beginning of inde-
pendent life and which tend to give it a good
or bad start. With this in mind, I have briefly
sketched the views of some leading biologists
on the subject of heredity, and have freely
drawn upon various authorities who have writ-
ten on the subjects discussed. Their names,
with references, are mentioned in the text, and
I herewith express my obligation to them.
As to the factors that control life after it has
begun, those occurring in the early years are
the ones that specially count. Hence this
period of life must be particularly stressed in
a study of the possibilities of development. It
is also well to know what to expect when con-
ditions 'are favorable and how to recognize
disastrous influences in time for correction.
ii
viii Preface
This involves a study of the various problems
of children as individuals as well as in their
social relationships.
Good development is the resultant of many
forces, among which may be noted heredity,
prenatal care of the expectant mother, proper
oversight of infants and growing children,
food, clothing, housing, education, hours and
conditions of study, recreation, expert medical
attendance during illness, and the general hab-
its of the individual.
In the frontispiece is shown a statue repre-
senting the physical perfection of form in
youth. The sculptor is Professor E. Tait
McKensie of the University of Pennsylvania,
and the figure stands in the American Museum
of Natural History. In proportions it repre-
sents an average of the fifty strongest men at
Harvard as measured by Dr. Dudley A. Sar-
gent. I am indebted to Professor McKensie
for photographing the figure for me and per-
mitting its use in this book.
Heney Dwight Chapin.
June, 1922
CONTENTS
4JHAFTKB FAOB
I. Impoetance of the Child ....... 1
II. Organio Inheeitance 9
III. Social Inheritance 21
rV. Selective Breeding 35
V. The Beginning op Life . 48
VI. The Developing Period 58
VII. The Pre-School Age 74
VIII. The School Child 82
IX. Mental Cultubb 106
X. Moral Culture 121
XI. Nerve Culture 132
XII. The Importance op Proper Nutrition . . 138
XIII. The Family 157
Xrv. The Dependent Child 168
XV. The Adoption op Children 194
XVT. The Prolongation op Humian Lipe Through
Child Cui/ture 209
Foreword
It is very important that all parents, all
teachers, and all physicians should understand
the interlocking relations of heredity and en-
vironment. So much reliance is placed on ed-
ucation in America that it is necessary to
stress the great importance of being born with
a sound and healthy constitution and with good
moral, spiritual, and intellectual predisposi-
tions.
Heredity is, in fact, altogether a matter of
predisposition and potentiality; it is the key
which fits the lock t)f environment, including
all the steps in nurture and in education. Con-
sequently, eugenics, which has to do with be-
ing born well, and euthenics, which has to do
with being nurtured and educated well, have
been inseparable from the beginning of time.
The value of a clear understanding of these
principles to the parent, teacher and physi-
cian, begins with birth and extends through
zii
xii Foreword
the entire life education, when the responsibil-
ity of the world's welfare passes on to another
generation. If there is an hereditary predis-
position,— a passion for drink, for instance, —
and we know of it, we can, through nurture and
environment, take away the opportunity for its
development; if there is an hereditary predis-
position to certain physical defects, such as tu-
berculosis, we can, by change of environment
and proper nurture, prevent its development.
During the last seventy-five years we have
made marvellous progress in euthenics, and I
believe we are on the threshold of similar pro-
gress in eugenics. The two fields of human-
itarian endeavor interlock exactly as heredity
interlocks with environment, nature with nur-
ture.
The writer of this volume is one of the
leaders of our time in the application of knowl-
edge inspired by sentiment and real sympathy
and understanding of the ills to which flesh is
heir. In this work we find clearly set forth
this most important of all humanitarian move-
ments, namely, the birth and care of children.
Foreword xiii
The nation that takes the best care of the
birth of its children, that encourages the kinds
of birth which will bring into the world the
greatest amount of happiness and the least
amount of suffering, and the nation that brings
to the care of children after birth all the advan-
tages of education in its broadest sense, is
destined to survive and lead the world in the
progress of the future.
Let us pray that this may be our American
nation.
Henby Fairfield Osbobn.
HEREDITY AND CHILD CULTURE
"The children rrmst he practiced well to this, or
they'll ne'er do't."
**I will teach the children their behaviors.'^
— Shakespeahe, The Merry Wives of "Windsor.
"The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of.
Posterity/' —Disraeli, Book VI.
"And a little child shall lead them."
— Isaiah, xi, 6.
Heredity and Child Culture
CHAPTER I
IMPORTANCE OP THE CHILD
Two controlling factors are present in all
life, — heredity and environment, nature and
nurture, as expressed by Galton. At the birth
of the individual, heredity has done its best
or its worst, and can be reckoned with only in
the sense of having all the best potentialities
and predispositions cherished and developed,
and all the worst avoided. Its activity has
extended through long or short reaches of past
time, and the laws of its operation are not com-
pletely understood. The question of environ-
ment and nurture being of the present, and to a
certain extent possible of control, now assumes
the greatest importance. While from the bi-
ologic standpoint heredity may appear to be the
2 Heredity and Child Culture
more important influence, yet in the scheme of
evolution the higher the animal the more im-
portant and influential become nurture and en-
vironment. This is especially emphasized in
the human race by the prolongation of the
period of infancy. John Fiske was the first to
elaborate this fruitful view of one of the funda-
mental laws of higher evolution, that not only
throws a strong light on the methods of evolu-
tion but lays the greatest importance upon the
period of infancy as influencing the future de-
velopment and usefulness of the individual.
This long period of helpless infancy is a time
of extreme plasticity when the career of the
individual is no longer predetermined by the
career of its ancestor. One generation of the
lower animals is nearly an exact reproduction
of the preceding one. The young animal is
born almost fully formed and can look out for
itself at once or shortly after birth, independ-
ently of the parent. The longer the infancy
and growing time of an animal the longer the
period of its teachability; and a slow growth
means an increase both in capacity for develop-
Importance of the Child 3
ment and of all the loftier prerogatives. Thus
the higher apes have a babyhood when for two
or three months they are unable to feed them-
selves or move about independently of the par-
ent. The human infant is distinguished from
the highest of the lower animals by the much
longer duration of helpless infancy and the
marked increase in the size of the brain, particu-
larly in the extent of its surface. There is
here a great increase in the size and complex-
ity of brain organization that takes place
largely after birth. Accompanying the rapid
growth of the nervous system is that of the
skeleton and various visceral organs.
During the first two years of life, the brain
not only doubles in weight but increases marvel-
ously in its convolutions and complexity. The
infinite distance between man and the lower
animals consists in the fact that, in the former,
natural selection confines itself principally to
the surface of the brain, which requires a long
period of helpless infancy for this highly plastic
work to be properly started and developed.
Inherited tendencies are there, but the proper
4 Heredity and Child Culture
environment counts for much in this work, so
potent in future possibilities.
It is evident that, correlated with this long
period of infancy there must be a time of
maternal care and watchfulness if the race is to
exist in health and vigor. Knowledge is re-
quired as well as care, for mistakes made
at this time can never be completely corrected.
The first few years of life are, biologically
speaking, the most important ones we live. The
beginning organism has at this time stamped
on it the possibilities of future vigorous life
or of early degeneration and decay. This is
to a certain extent true all through the period
of childhood, from birth to adolescence. Hence
a careful study and understanding of all the
phases of infancy and childhood are of the
greatest importance alike to physicians, parents
and society at large. This is the only period
where really constructive and permanent work
can be accomplished. Through intelligent di-
rection children may be taken out of environ-
ments which will develop the worst and placed
Importance of the Child 5
in surroundings that will nurture the best.
There has probably been no era in the history
of the world when such importance must be at-
tached to the coming generation. Sir George
Newman,^ in a report on the health of English
school-children, well states that the War, more
than anything else, has brought home to the
public the conception of the child as a primary
national asset, and that no investment and no
national economy can compare in results with
the care of the rising generation.
Civilization itself seems to be at the parting
of the ways. All kinds of wild and destructive
theories are in the air. It is certain that radical
and abrupt changes, which are manifestations
of primitive intellectual and emotional re-
actions, will result in disaster. These elemen-
tal passions and strivings that find outlet in law-
lessness and revolt are a result of an intellec-
tual and emotional instability that are rever-
sions to the childhood of the race. It has been
well said that we have had a world in conflict;
1 British Medical Journal, Oct. 6th, 1917.
6 Heredity and Child Culture
now we have a world in revolt. We are living
in an unstable, shell-shocked age.
It is only by starting with the child and build-
ing up a sound physical, mental and moral struc-
ture that the future manhood can carry on
successfully and erect a safer social structure.
To prepare a better world, we must provide
better men and women, physically, mentally and
morally, — and we should start with the child.
Broken physiques, like old sinners, are hard to
help or control. Many biologists believe that
the human race is degenerating and losing some
of its old stamina.
The call of the day is for conservation, — of
effort, of food, of health, and, above all, of life
itself. But merely saving life is not enough.
It should be rendered strong and efficient. We
have recently had warnings that we must im-
prove our methods in handling the mental and
physical life of the time. A high percentage of
rejections for physical reasons among the young
men of the country, drawn by draft or volun-
teering in the army, — averaging one in four, —
Importance of the Child 7
gives food for thought. There must be a
sustained and prolonged effort all along the line
for improving these conditions.
What is the way out? Many foolish and
inadequate theories are advanced, but even-
tually it must come through the child. The
present nerve-shattered generation may get
along as best it may, but we must start at the
foundations and build a better, stronger race
for the future. We can try and beget a sounder
generation and so train it as to secure strong
bodies, steady nerves, broad judgment and wide
vision. We can only avoid a threatened racial
impoverislunent through the child. Not only
is the physical development supremely impor-
tant in the opening years, but mental and moral
impressions experienced during this period, al-
though often forgotten, may deeply affect
later life.
The future of the world depends on the child.
All advance, all the new orientation the world
has hoped for and largely failed in attaining,
may come in the new generation if the chil-
8 Heredity and Child Culture
dren can only be properly molded. All the un-
solved individual and social problems may be
more hopefully approached if we can but pre-
pare better material with which to make the
effort.
What can we do about heredity? How can
environment be best controlled? How can we
secure a better race?
Upon the proper answer to these questions
depends the future of civilization. The first
and sure thing to do is this, — Concentrate on
THE Child.
CHAPTER II
OKGANIC INHEKITANCE
The writer is not a pure scientist but a practi-
cal worker who has devoted many years to a
study of the actual problems of childhood.
Some of the apparent laws of biology, as pro-
mulgated by various interpreters, seem to point
to a sort of hopeless determinism. An effort is
here made to glance at these laws from a
different angle, to see if a more encouraging out-
look cannot be maintained.
Wliich is the preponderating and all-impor-
tant influence in life, nature or nurture,
heredity or environment f Both are vitally im-
portant, but which must be stressed in our
thought and action? Upon the answer to this
question depends much of our attitude toward
some of the pressing problems of life. If the
first is over-emphasized, we will, at best, be
landed in a sort of benevolent fatalism; if the
9
10 Heredity and Child Culture
second looms up in importance, it encourages
hope and effort. This question starts with the
beginning of life and ends with its close.
It is at the beginning, however, that it as-
sumes the greatest importance for here is
where change and accomplishment are pos-
sible.
The evolution of all life, plant as well as
animal, depends upon the action of the follow-
ing great forces, — heredity, reproduction, vari-
ation and environment. Let us glance at some
of the ideas held by various biologists on the
subject of heredity. The older views were ad-
vanced by Lamarck and Darwin. Lamarck
believed that organisms could be modified by
environment, and such modifications occurring
during the life of the animal could be passed
along by organic inheritance. This view, of
course, stressed the influence of environment
and held that evolution proceeds by means of
the inheritance of acquired characters. These
characters that might proceed from use, need
or desire, formed the basis of progressive evolu-
tion. He stated that ''all that has been
Organic Inheritance ii
acquired or altered in the organization of in-
dividuals during their lives is preserved by
generation and transmitted by individuals
which sprang from those which have undergone
these changes." By developing functional
activity of organs, in other words, by constantly
employing them, hereditary as well as other
values could be obtained. Thus developed the
idea known as use inheritance.
Darwin believed that evolution takes place
through natural selection or the struggle for ex-
istence and the survival of the fittest. This, as
well as other forms of variability, may depend
on changing conditions of life. He held that
alterations in the environment acting directly
or indirectly on the animal might produce vari-
ation in inheritance by becoming cumulative
through a series of generations. Conversely,
individuals, families and races that can not
adapt themselves to a changing enviroimaent
wdll gradually yield to the law of natural selec-
tion and disappear. Families and races that
failed to properly reproduce will yield more
quickly to this law both as to cause and effect.
12 Heredity and Child Culture
These opinions are becoming displaced in the
minds of many biologists by what may be con-
sidered a more modern view.
Independent life begins by the union of two
cells, the ovum and sperm cell, which is known
as conception. The influences of heredity are
then closed as far as this individual life is con-
cerned and any further influence upon develop-
ment must come from environment. It has
been well said that after conception the mother
is only a nurse to the child. The modern biol-
ogist, however, lays the greatest stress upon
the nature and influence of these germinal cells.
This germinal substance, minute as it is, as
distinguished from the rest of the body, is en-
tirely distinct, and little, if any, influenced by
the other tissues. A radical distinction is thus
drawn between the germ and the soma, as the
rest of the body is called. The only character-
istics that can be passed along by organic in-
heritance are such as have been contained in
the germinal substance of the egg and the
sperm cell. The direct implication from this
doctrine is that the condition of the body as a
Organic Inheritance 13
whole, apart from the germ cells, has no in-
fluence upon inheritance. This naturally leads
up to the doctrine of Weismann that acquired
characters are not transmitted by inheritance.
While traits may be transmitted that the indi-
vidual has himself inherited, those that have
been acquired by his own actions cannot be
passed on to posterity. This germ plasm con-
tinues along through different generations
as an unending stream and each individual body
acts as a receptacle and conserver of an im-
perishable part.
The most vital part of every body cell is a
minute spot called the nucleus. In the sex
cells there are located in the nuclei marvelously
minute germinal units known as chromosomes.
Each of these chromosomes contains deter-
miners, every one of which acts as a determin-
ant of some hereditary character. It is even
believed that a special spot in each chromosome
holds the determiner for each character. Dif-
ferent chromosomes may come from different
ancestors and they may be combined in many
varying ways, which accounts for different
14 Heredity and Child Culture
traits seen in the offspring. As there are nu-
merous possible and diverse combinations of
these ancestral germ units, we can understand
how varying may be the characteristics of
different individuals. Numberless combina-
tions may be possible as it has been estimated
that there are 48 chromosomes in the sex cells
of the white woman. It is further supposed
that variation may be caused by a recombi-
nation of these ancestral germ units in future
generations, as well as by changes that may
take place in the germ plasm itself. Pro-
longed undernourishment and various poisons
may ultimately have a disastrous effect upon
the germ plasm. It is not supposed, however,
that changes in the body plasm or soma can
have direct effect on the germ plasm.
One of the most interesting theories concern-
ing the method of action of heredity is known as
Mendelism, a term taken from the name of Gre-
gor Mendel by whom it was first elaborated.
According to this theory, the unit characters in
the sex cells do not blend but remain distinct
and are thus passed along at birth. These
Organic Inheritance 15
cliaraciters always 'retain their individuality
and when they are different and exclusive, the
more active character is said to be dominant
and the more passive one recessive. Mendel
believed that paired characters received from
the parents are so segregated in the ovum and
sperm cell of the offspring that only one of the
characters is contained in each of these germ
cells. Thus when there are two contrasted
pairs of characters in the parent only one
(dominant) will appear in the offspring. These
distinct characters are called pure, and the es-
sential fact of Mendel's law is that the char-
acters in the germ cells always retain their
purity or distinctiveness. In the offspring of
hybrids 25 per cent, of dominant and recessive
characters will reappear as pure. It is gen-
erally found that the characters, dominant and
recessive, transmitted by hybrids will be split
in a general ratio of three to one.
Professor Edwin Grant Conklin * defines he-
redity as the particular germinal organization
that is transmitted from parents to offspring.
1 Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men. —
Princeton University Press.
i6 Heredity and Child Culture
To quote, — *' Heritage is the sum of all those
qualities which are determined or caused by
this germinal organization. Development is
progressive and co-ordinated differentiation of
this germinal organization by which it is trans-
ferred into the adult organization." Again,
''Inherited traits are not transmitted from
parents to offspring but the germinal factors or
causes are transmitted, and under proper con-
ditions of environment these give rise to de-
veloped characters. Every oosperm as well as
every developed organism differs more or less
from every other one, and this remarkable con-
dition is brought about by extremely numerous
permutations in the distribution of the chro-
mosomes of the sex cells in maturation and
fertilization." Professor Henry Fairfield Os-
born, in his remarkable book, The Origin and
Evolution of Life, falls back on an energy con-
ception of life. Some of his ideas are put in a
striking way as follows, — ''We know to some
extent how plants and animals evolve; we do
not know why they evolve* * * * * All the ex-
planations of evolution which have been
Organic Inheritance 17
offered by three generations of naturalists align
themselves under two main ideas only. The
first is the idea that the causes of evolution are
chiefly from without inward, namely, beginning
in the environment of the body and extending:
into the germ; this idea is centripetal. The
second idea is just the reverse: it is centrif-
ugal, namely, that the causes begin in the
germ and extend outward and into the body and
into the environment. ***** Weismann^s
great contribution to thought has been to point
out the very sharp distinction which un-
doubtedly exists between the hereditary forces
and predispositions in the heredity-germ and
the visable expression of these forces in the
organism. The problem of causes of evolution
has become an infinitely more difficult one since
Weismann has compelled us to realize that the
essential question is the causes of germinal evo-
lution rather than the causes of bodily evolu-
tion or of environmental evolution. *****
The idea that the germ is an energy complex is
an as yet unproved hypothesis ; it has not been
demonstrated. The heredity-germ in some re-
l8 Heredity and Child Culture
spects bears a likeness to latent or potential
interacting energy, while in other respects it is
entirely unique. The supposed germ energy
is not only cumulative but is in a sense imper-
ishable, self -perpetuating, and continuous dur-
ing the whole period of the evolution of life
upon the earth.* * * * * While we owe to
matter and form the revelation of the existence
of the great law of evolution, we must reverse
our thought in the search for causes and take
steps toward an energy conception of the origin
of life and an energy conception of the nature
of heredity. ' '
Although the theories of hereditary action
are thus somewhat diverse, certain general facts
may be noted upon which there is agreement.
Herbert Spencer defines heredity as the law
that each plant or animal, if it reproduces, gives
origin to others like itself, the likeness con-
sisting not so much in the repetition of indivi-
dual traits as in the assumption of the same
general structure.
According to Galton*s law of ancestral in-
Organic Inheritance 19
heritance, the two parents contribute between
them on an average one-half of each inherited
quality, one-fourth being contributed by each
of them. The four grandparents contribute
one-si:xteenth, or altogether one-fourth of the
inherited faculties, and the farther back one
goes the less Avill naturally be the influence.
Pearson, another authority, believes that par-
ents have relatively more influence than grand-
parents, as indicated in the above ratio, al-
though accepting the general principle of the
law of ancestral inheritance.
It must be acknowledged that in respect to
organic heredity there are many gaps in our
knowledge, and it must also be borne in mind
that most of the studies of biologists have been
made upon plants and the lower animals and
their generalizations can only partly apply to
human beings. In the scheme of evolution, the
higher the animal the slower and more import-
ant becomes its period of growth. This is es-
pecially emphasized, as already noted, in hu-
man beings by the prolongation of the period of
infancy and the many subsequent years of
20 Heredity and Child Culture
growth before complete development is ob-
tained. It accordingly follows that heredity
seems to be more important as an influence in
the lower organisms than in man.
CHAPTER in
SOCIAL. INHEEITANCE
In a recent valuable discussion on the ques-
tion of social heredity and evolution, Professor-
Herbert William Conn ^ has plainly shown how
the laws of the evolution of animals and plants
apply to human evolution only up to a certain
point beyond which man has been under the
influence of distinct laws of his own. He draws
attention to facts proving that the human social
unit has been developed by a new set of forces
which have had little or no influence in the ani-
mal kingdom. Moreover, these forces are under
the control, to some extent, of society and the
individual.
In line with this thought. Professor E. G-.
Conklin states that a relatively poor inheri-
tance with excellent environmental conditions
1 Sockkl Heredity and Social Ewlution: The Other Side of
Eugenics — The Abington Press.
21
22, Heredity and Child Culture
often produces better results than a good in-
heritance with poor conditions. He further
believes that hereditary possibilities may re-
main latent and undeveloped unless stimulated
into activity by environment.
This leads to the distinction that may be made
between individual and social evolution, the
forces of which are controlled by different laws.
For the individual we have biological heredity ;
for society we have what may properly be called
a social heredity that passes along accumula-
tions gained by parents from the surrounding
civilization, — in other words, from the environ-
ment. These are the acquired characters that
can be passed along from parents to offspring
by teaching and example, although not by direct
biological inheritance. While the latter, ac-
cording to modern science, cannot be immedi-
ately influenced, the social inheritance and evo-
lution of the individual can be powerfully af-
fected by education.
A glance at some of the characters that
may be acquired by social heredity shows how
large a number of important influences lie en-
tirely outside organic heredity.
Social Inheritance 23
What are the principal acquirements that the
parent has already learned from his surround-
ings and can thus teach to his offspring! These
have been well summarized by Professor Conn.
The first and most fundamental acquirement is
language. This is evidently a social inheri-
tance as the infant of the most cultured parents
is just as unable to speak as the offspring of
mentally deficient people. While a few of the
lower animals emit sounds that doubtless pos-
sess rudimentary efforts toward the exercise of
language, the human animal has reached full
development in civilization and knowledge
through this constantly exercised social in-
heritance that is at first gained by simple im-
itation and not by organic inheritance. A new-
born baby of the present age is just as helpless
as if born in the stone age, and probably essen-
tially the same in organic nature.
Not only the use of spoken words but the
ability to write them down is another example
of social inheritance that lays the foundation
for all knowledge. The possibilities of learn-
ing thus come largely through social relation-
ships. The great accumulation of facts and
/
24 Heredity and Child Culture
generalizations leading to laws that partially
explain many of the phenomena of nature and
life could not have been preserved or passed
along from generation to generation without the
ability to record them and thus elevate and
ennoble the mind. Professor Stewart Paton ^
puts it thus, — '^If we recognize that the mind
is largely a social product, we shall avoid many
of the unnecessary difficulties introduced into
the discussion of the inheritance of mental
characteristics. Because of the fact that the
mental make-up is, to a considerable extent, the
result of environmental stimuli, it is to be con-
sidered as a 'social contribution.' Mental
potentiality is conditioned by heredity, but
development is encouraged or inhibited very
largely by what happens after birth. There is
also some reason to believe that changes in nur-
ture may serve as stimuli affecting the growth
of the embryo through the parental germ cells. "
The existence of a moral sense that can dis-
tinguish right from wrong is not born with the
individual. The infant has no moral sense and
1 Human Behavior — Charles Scribner'a Sons.
Social Inheritance 25
is a perfect example of unadulterated selfish-
ness. Conscience, that best trait of later life,
does not exist at the start. Altruistic traits
that really form the foundation of what is best
in modern civilization are not found at the
beginning of life but must be cultivated by in-
struction and example, — in other words, they
are socially acquired. The possibilities of
moral development may doubtless vary accord-
ing to innate inheritances which are influenced
by organic conditions, but the superstructure
must be acquired by the teaching and example
of others.
The very construction and existence of society
depend upon numerous and diverse social inher-
itances. The functioning of government, the
accumulation of wealth, many artificial con-
ditions of environment that minister to the
higher life of the race, and numerous other fac-
tors that distinguish human life from mere
animal life proceed from social ideals that are
handed on from generation to generation. The
origin and continuance of the human family is
largely owing to the same influence. It is thus
evident that the evolution of the organic body
26 Heredity and Child Culture
as such and the evolution of society proceed
according to laws that are widely divergent,
but the higher traits in human evolution and in
civilization itself depend on social and not on
organic inheritance.
While some lower forms of life, as bees and
ants, show organization in a remarkable degree,
it is due to instinct that plays only a minor part
in human development. Instincts are due
entirely to organic inheritance and function ow-
ing to a certain definite structure of nerve cen-
tres and ganglia. These ganglia always give
the same automatic response to all stimuli with
changeless uniformity. It is thus the structure
of the nervous system that accounts for the
wonderful phenomena often exhibited by the
instincts and these do not depend on learning
or experience. While the lower animals are
guided by their instincts, man exhibits an ini-
tiative power drawn from acquired knowl-
edge.
It is thus seen that a broader view of all the
conditions surrounding heredity makes for a
more hopeful outlook for human beings as dis-
tinguished from lower animals. At first view.
Social Inheritance 27
Weismann^s theory that every child is molded
solely by inherited tendencies that cannot be
essentially altered and that acquired traits are
not transmitted seems to make for a loss of per-
sonal responsibility and a pessimistic outlook.
Granting that this may be true on the strictly
biologic side, we have the possibility of a wide
and splendid social inheritance that may do
much to shape life 's currents and even compen-
sate for some of the defects of organic heritage.
Some of our leading biologists seem to be
taking more hopeful views. Professor Don-
caster 1 observes that what is inherited is not
the character acquired but the innate power of
acquiring it. While the germ cell determines
whether and to what extent a change shall
take place, the environment supplies the
stimulus.
Professor Conklin states that the experiences
and laccomplislmients of past generations are
not inherited through the germ cells but through
society. Then he makes the f ollomng trenchant
remark, — * ' Social heredity has outrun germinal
t- Heredity — Cambridge University Press.
28 Heredity and Child Culture
heredity and the intellectual, social, and moral
responsibilities of our times are too great for
many men." This is one of our present-
day troubles, as the physical, intellectual and
social developments of the age have out-dis-
tanced its moral development. Lathrop Stod-
dard ^ puts it thus, — ''The truth is that as civi-
lization advances it leaves behind multitudes of
human beings who have not the capacity to
keep pace. ***** These are not 'degener-
ates'; they are 'primitives,^ carried over into
a social environment in which they do not be-
long." The intelligence tests made upon large
numbers of young men recruited for the army
during the last war showed an astonishingly
large number of morons whose mental age did
not exceed twelve years.
Again to quote Professor Conn, — "Our
eugenists tell us that an evil trait may persist
in a family for generations in spite of any kind
of training and even in spite of mating with one
in whom the weakness is lacking. The laws of
organic heredity make it hopeless to strive in
1 The Revolt Against Civilization — Charles Scribner's Sons.
Social Inheritance 29
any kind of life either to eradicate a weakness
or to introduce strength into the nature of our
children. Personal responsibility thus tends
to vanish entirely as we become filled with this
conception. We do not seem responsible for
our own acts, inasmuch as they are determined
by our inherited traits, nor are we responsible f
for our children 's inheritance, since it is beyond
our reach. The life one lives seems to weigh as '
nothing and to be without any influence. *****
Among animals, individuals certainly are not
responsible either for their own inheritance or
that of their offspring. But when we realize
that human social evolution has not been an
organic one, and that it has been due not to con-
genital but to acquired characters, not to organic
but to social heredity, the sense of responsibility
for our lives comes back to us with greater
force than ever. It is exactly these acquired
characters that are forming the future. It is
the lives that men live that create social inheri-
tance. It is not a matter of indifference to our
children or to posterity in general what kind of
life we individually live. We are responsible
for the social heritage that we give our children,^
30 Heredity and Child Culture
even if we are not responsible for their organic
heritage. We may greatly modify the social
inheritance of our offspring, even after they are
born, though we may not modify their organic
inheritance ; and in determining what they will
become and what they will do in the world, the
social inheritance commonly counts much more
than the organic inheritance. ***** The
heritage of the race is determined more by
what men do than by what they inherit from
their parents by organic inheritance. *****
Organic heredity simply gives us certain pow-
ers, while social heredity determines what we
shall do with those powers. Man is molded into
a social individual by social forces, and whether
or not he fits into our society depends more
upon the social forces at work than upon the
powers that nature gave him. Even though he
have an inheritance weak both mentally and
morally, an individual may be molded into a
fairly good member of the social organism if he
is surrounded by proper environment; but if
he is reared in the wrong environment, tend-
ing to produce a wrong social inheritance, he
Social Inheritance 31
will be an undesirable member of society, no
matter what may have been his innate powers.
***** The real stimulus which has acted
upon man to produce his wonderful develop-
ment in contrast to animals has been the util-
ization of the new force of social inheritance."
These hopeful and stimulating words may
serve as added warning not to put too much
stress upon biological generalizations derived
exclusively from plant and animal life. What
is often attributed to organic inheritance may,
in the last analysis, be largely due to social
inheritance. Do the children of thieves,
drunkards, and prostitutes turn out badly prin-
cipally because of birth, or from living in the
company and wdth the example of degenerates ?
It may be that some individual developments
attributed to organic heredity are, to a large ex-
tent really due to environment. This thought
might be applied to two classic examples in
heredity. The children of the Jukes' family,
we must remember, were brought up by the
Jukes, and the Edwards' family were sur-
32 Heredity and Child Culture
rounded by elevating and stimulating influences
from birth. Perhaps the Edwards' owed
about as much to an ideal social as to a good
organic heritage.
For many years I was one of the directors of
the Children's Village located in the country
near New York. Incorrigible boys are com-
mitted here by the courts for necessary restraint
and education, after committing petty crimes.
At the Village they are sent to school in a cot-
tage community, given vocational training, and
their energies have free outlet in outdoor sports.
In other words, they are given a good social en-
vironment to take the place of former bad sur-
roundings. The great majority of these chil-
dren eventually turn out well. Many have been
sent West where they have made good citizens
and some have even become eminent in their
communities. Doubtless a large number of
these unfortunate children started with a fairly
good organic inheritance, but, whether they did
or not, a bad social inheritance was immediately
responsible for their downfall, and, when this
Social Inheritance 33
was corrected, a favorable result nearly always
followed. Many similar endeavors have shown
equally good results. Defective eyesight,
faulty hearing, diseased tonsils and adenoids,
are often causes of poor school records and
truancy that may lead to petty crimes.
The following quotation from Ferguson ^
sums up fairly well what many practical
workers believe in reference to the factors in
human heredity, — "In lower reaches of the
process, as compared with the higher, heredity
is relatively strong. It is likely enough that
characteristics acquired in the lifetime of the
individual are, in the lower orders, transmitted
by heredity, but in higher life this seems gen-
erally not to be the case. Heredity is seen to
be a failing thing, and the privileges that de-
pend upon it are, with the advancement of the
world, ever shorter and shorter lived. The
competencies that avail in the highest circles
cannot in any considerable measure be passed
on from generation to generation, but must be
1 The Atfirmative Intellect — Funk & Wagnalls Co.
34 Heredity and Child Culture
won out of the infinite by each individual for
himself. In all that is great and prevailing an
organism is born not of the flesh."
There are many with a good biological hered-
ity who have never attained a good social hered-
ity,— in other words, they have never had a fair
chance. They form the ''mute, inglorious
Miltons ' ' in every country churchyard that Gray
sang about in his immortal Elegy.
CHAPTER IV
SELECTIVE BREEDING
In stressing the idea that many of out best
endowments are conferred by social inheritance,
we must remember that these advantages cannot
come to their best fruition unless based on a
good organic inheritance. The eugenist tells
us that the principal method by which racial im-
provement can take place consists in letting
good stock reproduce and poor stock remain
sterile. This means that every possible
measure should be taken to increase the fertility
of the best types. Superior racial stocks must
always be encouraged.
A recent article by Major Leonard Darwin,^
after discussing the danger from propagation
of inferior stocks, contains the following state-
ments,— *' Turning to the other side of the
1 International Journal of Public Health, Vol. II, No. 6,
1021.
35
36 Heredity and Child Culture
question, namely the endeavor to increase the
fertility of the stocks above the average in racial
value and thus to improve the average health
of future generations, progress in this direc-
tion would be promoted by a widespread know-
ledge of the laws of natural inheritance. Such
a knowledge would create a tendency to shun
marrying into a family notably inferior in men-
tal or physical qualities, and this tendency ought
to be encouraged. . . . Sexual selection has
often in nature produced marvelous changes
in both the minds and the bodies of animals, and
by the aid of conscious efforts sexual selection
could be made to produce far more beneficial
results to the human race than it is doing at
present."
He thus believes that natural heredity can be
utilized as an agency for promoting the wel-
fare of mankind. He also calls attention to an
endeavor, not dependent on natural inheritance,
namely, that of trying to improve the health
of our descendants by preventing children from
being infected or poisoned before birth by the
mothers.
Selective Breeding 37
Sir George Newman ^ makes the following
observation, — *'If we are to grow a sound and
healthy race of men we must begin where all
true breeding begins, at the source. If we per-
mif, ourselves to favor and provide for the un-
guided propagation of a population of poor phy-
sique or of persons marked from birth with the
stigmata of alcohol, venereal disease or mental
deficiency, we shall sooner or later discover that
we are building on false foundations, and with-
out taking sufficiently into our reckoning the
laws of heredity, of transmission, and of ante-
natal infection. ' '
It does not need a biologist to tell us that
reproduction will yield the best results when
parents are in the full vigor of life. They
should not be too young nor too old, although
these terms are often relative, as there are
very marked differences in individuals as re-
gards the phenomena of youth or age. Beyond
this it is difficult to lay down exact laws. With
reference to statutes regulating the age of
marriage, seventeen states have none, but in
1 An Outline of the Practice of Preventive Medicine — Min-
istry of Health.
38 Heredity and Child Culture
nine of these common law has fixed the age for
girls at twelve years.
The tendency in modern society to postpone
the marriage age is not regarded with favor by
eugenists. It is largely due to economic causes
and is especially noted among the educated and
desirable classes. It is highly important that
efforts should be made by some sort of social re-
adjustment to render it easy for this class to
marry earlier in life. Good health should be
a prerequisite at any age.
Another view is advanced by Casper L. Red-
field,^ who has made an extensive statistical
study of heredity. He believes that very early
marriages are apt to produce children lacking
in stamina and mental power. He considers
that as each individual undergoes certain physi-
cal and mental changes during life, those condi-
tions which characterize parents at different
ages are transmitted to the offspring produced
at those ages. This is especially exemplified in
mental aptitudes, as the children of youthful
parents are usually marked by the character-
1 Control of Heredity — ^Monarch Book Co.
Selective Breeding 39
istics of youth while the children of older par-
ents show more of the characteristics of age.
Older parents are thus apt to have intelligent
offspring and many historical examples of
this are cited, from Aristotle to Benjamin
Franklin.
The follo^\'ing quotation will exemplify his
belief on this subject, — ''The period of adoles-
cence is a period of sexual intensity and
passion, and a child born of parents at this age
has the sexual instincts abnormally developed,
the same as we have aggressiveness from
parents of 25, the love of the beautiful from
parents of 35, reasoning and practical useful-
ness from parents of 45, and morality and philo-
sophy from parents over 50."
Contrary to Weismann, Redfield believes that
traits directly acquired by the efforts of the in-
dividual himself can be transmitted. He finally
states the following, — ''All that you have
learned and all that you have accomplished
can and will be transmitted to future genera-
tions by others through the medium of records.
But in whatever measure you have developed
your body and your mind by patient and long-
40 Heredity and Child Culture
continued efforts, that measure can be trans-
mitted only by yourself to your descendants,
and whatever honor these descendants achieve
in the future, that honor will be your honor. '^
It must be confessed that a discussion on the
proper conditions of mating is always largely
academic as marriages are usually not con^
tracted by reason but by passion or self-inter-
est. The preliminaries are approached as the
result of affinity or hking and not with the idea
of breeding in mind. As the race advances in
knowledge and control, however, the latter
will be kept more in view. After all,
it is what to avoid in mating that assumes
the principal importance.
Some States are now beginning to require a
medical examination and certificate before
marriage is permitted. This is good as far as it
goes, but it must be remembered that the dis-
eases for which the examination is especially
made are not passed along by organic inheri-
tance. They are infections that, in an active
state, can be passed directly from one parent
to the other, or from mother to child before,
Selective Breeding 41
during, or after birth. Pathogenic bacteria
are not incorporated in the germ plasm itself.
Syphilis and tuberculosis are the most impor-
tant infections that may in this way be passed
along. While venereal and constitutional dis-
eases are thus spread by direct infection, they
may eventually so poison the germ plasm itself
that the offspring will be feeble and ailing
although not having a specific disease. The
lesson from all this is that candidates for
marriage should always be obliged by the State
to submit to a thorough medical examination to
prove not only their freedom from specific infec-
tions but that their systems have not been
unduly weakened from previous attacks of con-
stitutional disease. Applicants for marriage
licenses should be obliged to prove that they
are physically as well as financially fit for
marriage. ^
Perhaps the next great danger consists in the
inheritance of various neurotic tendencies.
While nervous disease itself may not be passed
along, certain abnormal and unstable states may
eventuate in various forms of insanity, as well
42 Heredity and Child Culture
as in feeble-mmdedness, epilepsy and mania.
These are generally considered to act as Mendel-
ian recessives. Professor Conklin believes
there is often an hereditary basis for nervous
or phlegmatic temperaments, for emotional,
judicial and calculating dispositions, for
strength or weakness of will, for tendencies to
moral obliquity or rectitude, and for capa-
city or incapacity for the highest intellec-
tual pursuits. There is great danger of close
blood relatives marrying when a neurotic
strain runs in the family. When free of this
danger, however, evil consequences to the off-
spring do not always follow.
There is a large class in every community that
should in some way be prevented by the State
from propagating their kind. The reason for.
this is readily seen in the danger and expense
they put upon the community at large.
The insane, idiotic, blind and deaf mutes
tend to increase faster in proportion than the
normal healthy population. Paupers and the
various grades of criminal poptilation also
freely propagate. A careful study of prisoners
Selective Breeding 43
has shown that a majority are in a condition of
impaired health, that many are in an unsound
mental condition and inclined to grave diseases
of the neurotic t>T)e which tend to modify the
physical, mental and moral condition from bad
inheritance.
Perhaps the greatest danger exists in the case
of feeble-mindedness. It has been estimated
that there are 200,000 feeble-minded persons
in the United States. Of this large number
fully nine-tenths are under no control and thus
are able to produce their kind. It is from this
vast army that criminals, prostitutes and pau-
pers are recruited. These classes have an
imperfect development of the higher areas of
the brain and a moral instability that often
seems impossible to correct. They cannot
adjust themselves to proper social standards
and quickly become incorrigible when tempta-
tions or unusual demands present themselves.
Unfortunately, their condition does not pre-
clude reproduction but rather favors it from
lack of conscience and control.
One of the great problems of the day is how
44 Heredity and Child Culture
to check this tainted stream not only for the
good of society but for the defectives them-
selves. A plan favored by some is to subject
them to sterihzation. This has been tried
in a limited way, but it need hardly be said
there are great social and legal difficulties in the
way of its general adoption. A recent judicial
decision in Oregon holds that the steriliza-
tion law adopted by that State is unconstitu-
tional.
Is there no other way of handling these defec-
tives, who are often as prolific as they are
undesirable! Many years ago I advised that
they be permanently quarantined.^ If this were
done, in one or two decades they would die out,
and the world would be free of its principal
source of criminals and defectives. This class
should be permanently isolated from the rest
of society. According to this aspect, the ques-
tion of responsibility or punishment does not
enter into the question at all. It is simply
society protecting itself. Hence a perplexing
and uncertain problem is thereby removed.
1 "The Survival of the Unfit," Popular Science Monthly,
June, 1892.
Selective Breeding 45
Legislation in Ohio adjudges a person an habit-
ual criminal when convicted of a third offense,
under which conviction he may be held for life.
This law is based upon sound physiology and
psychology. Such a quarantine should be
applied to all tramps, cranks and generally
worthless beings. Society must do this for pro-
tection, not punishment; to avoid their con-
tamination; and, above all, to prevent the pro-
pagation of their kind. Advanced sociology
will devote its principal energy to preventing
the reproduction of the unfit, and, if any are
produced, by proper isolation see to it that
they do not survive beyond one generation.
Here lies the only solution of a very difficult
problem, — first, tiy prevention; next, perma-
nent isolation.
Finally, it is certain that the responsibility of
bringing children into the world is usually not
taken seriously enough. To produce offspring
handicapped by diseased tendencies or without'
the ability to give them proper nutrition or
training is really race suicide that we hear so
often condemned. Among 1258 living descend-
ants of Max Jukes, there were 310 paupers.
46 Heredity and Child Culture
600 feeble-minded, and over 300 prostitutes.
If simply bringing large numbers of children
into the world is admirable, certain social and
ecclesiastical lawgivers might think that the
older Jukes, reprobate though he was, did his
duty by the State. It is quality not quantity
that is to be sought in children.
If parents cannot properly raise large
families, they should not be encouraged to pro-
duce them. It is actually found that the poorest
and frequently the least desirable elements in
the population are apt to have the largest num-
ber of children, for which they frequently
receive undeserved praise. I once made a
study of the size of families in connection with
1000 children who came under my hospital care
in the lower East Side of New York. There
were 557 large families (more than five mem-
bers) and 443 small families (less than five mem-
bers) on the list. An interesting point was that
the families earning the higher wages were
small; while the large families were
almost invariably in the low-wage class. In the
latter, the income was always insufficient to
Selective Breeding 47
maintain a proper standard of living. This
will be of interest to the advocates of birth con-
trol, and certainly, as far as the married among
the very poor are concerned, there is much to
be said in its favor. There is nothing admira-
ble in bringing forth children who are born to
suffering and only destined to fill our hospitals
and asylums, whose emaciated little bodies
soon find fortunate rest in Potter's field. This
is not so much race suicide as race homicide.
CHAPTER V
THE BEGINNING OF LIFE
An independent life starts by the union of the
sperm cell and ovum. The greatest miracle of
nature has now taken place, — conception. It
has been well said that at the instant of concep-
tion the gates of heredity are closed.
It is wonderful to think that by a combination
of two tiny cells a life may be inaugurated that
can develop into a vigorous adult. When we
see a grown child bearing a striking physical
resemblance to one or both parents it is hard
to realize that this resemblance had its origin
in two minute germ cells through which have
passed the stream of heredity.
The male cell is microscopic, the relation in
size being about as 100,000 to 1 in comparison
to the ovum. Yet this spermatozoan, micro-
scopic as it is, yields abundant energy and starts
life in the ovum which contains the material to
48
The Beginning of Life 49
nourish the beginning existence. Dr. Charles
Mercier ^ aptly puts it thus, — '^My hypothesis
is that the contributions of these two elements
(sperm cell and germ cell) to the product differ
in this way : the female element contributes the
Bubstance or matter of the offspring; the male
element contributes the force or energy that
animates the matter. The female element is
the coals in the grate ; the male element is the
match that sets them alight."
After conception, a series of marvelous
changes rapidly takes place. From the first
dawn of life to full development, there is con-
stantly going on a remarkable series of rapid
evolutions that are not only fraught with the
greatest interest but accompanied by the largest
possibilities.
In the course of development before birth, the
human embryo passes through different stages
of resemblance to a similar period of evolution
in the lower animals. In various earlier stages,
the human embryo can hardly be distinguished
from the embryonic fish, reptile, and the lower
T- Lancet, November 8, 1913.
50 Heredity and Child Culture
and higher mammals. The human embryo,
however, rapidly passes through these lower
stages, accomplishing in a few hours or days
a development that required innumerable ages
for the lower forms of life and which rep-
resented their completed life achievement.
The whole natural history of life is thus
sketched and molded in a growing human fetus,
each step in advance being duly chronicled by
a higher stage of evolution, the pedigree of one
form going back to simpler previous forms.
As geology can trace back the earlier physical
conditions of the earth by examining various
strata on the surface, so the biologist by study-
ing different stages of growi;h in the human
embryo can see traces of numberless lower
forms of life that have long since vanished,
each, however, making its humble contribution
to the ascending scale. All these phantom
lives have had their share, infinitesimal though
it be, in forming the acme of animal life, — the
human embryo.
As growth progresses, the immature human
being rapidly advances from these lower forms,
The Beginning of Life 51
however, until at birth all resemblance to the
lower stages of life ceases and the infant gives
evidence of the highest possibilities. These
phenomena show the human infant to be the
microcosm or summing up of all created life.
Even at birth the infant is not a completely-
formed human being, but from this time on the
difference from the lower forms of life becomes
most startling.
After nine months of intra-uterine life the
infant is sufficiently developed to branch forth
in an independent existence. During this
period, however, the mother is a trustee not
only of her own health but of the well-being
and development of the rapidly forming infant.
Pre-Natal Care
Constant oversight should be exercised over
the pregnant woman, not only on her own ac-
count but in the interest of the unborn child.
Control of the pre-natal period has proven to
be a most important factor in reducing infant
morbidity and mortality. Owing to a lack of
skilled supervision, maternal deaths and deaths
52 Heredity and Child Culture
of infants from maternal causes have not de-
creased in proportion to the lessened death
rate of later infancy. The Children's Bureau
of Washington reports that in a study of rural
areas of six different states, 80 per cent, of
the mothers had received no trained oversight
during pregnancy. The witty aphorism of Dr.
Holmes that the proper time to begin the treat-
ment of many diseases is one hundred years
before birth might be paraphrased into the idea
that an available per,iod of nine months can be
utilized in trying to produce a healthy infant.
Of deaths occurring under one year, over 40 per
cent, are due to unfavorable congenital condi-
tions. Of all deaths during the first month of
life, 80 per cent, are due to causes associated
with prematurity or congenital diseases, de-
formities or malformations. Thus among all
babies dying under one year, over one-third
die before they are one month old. Most of
these babies die because they are too feeble or
sickly to survive, and this in turn may be
caused by improper oversight of the mother.
It is especially during the latter months of
The Beginning of Life 53
pregnancy that extra care must be observed.
Every woman is entitled to adequate super-
vision up to the time of the birth of her child
as well as during and after its birth. The life
that comes before birth must have about as
much attention as the life that follows birth.
Not only for the sake of the child, but a need-
lessly large mortality on the part of the mother
may thus be avoided.
The importance of this subject is now being
recognized and prenatal clinics are being con-
ducted by departments of health to look after
those who cannot afford private advice. Ma-
ternal welfare centres, under private manage-
ment, are also being conducted with excellent
results. Every woman who can afford a regu-
lar attending physician should be under his con-
stant care during all of this period, instead of
waiting until the time of labor is approaching.
The importance of proper regulation at this
time will be appreciated when we consider an
estimate that 20,000 maternal deaths due to
child birth and 200,000 deaths of infants
occurred during 1920 in the United States.
54 Heredity and Child Culture
Outside of the stated examinations of various
kinds, a quiet, hygienic life is most desirable.
In general, the mother should maintain herself
in as good a condition of health as possible
while she is carrying the child. All the func-
tions of her body must be satisfactorily per-
formed. No social or household duties must be
allowed to interfere with this principal business
of her life.
At this period it is well for her to thoroughly
systematize her life so that the best results
will be obtained. Plenty of pure, fresh air is
essential. Her living and sleeping rooms must
be well ventilated and she should take the outer
air in daily walks or drives, or by sitting much
on the piazza during warm weather. Regular
exercise is very beneficial, but nothing severe
or jolting should be allowed. Plenty of rest
and sleep is desirable. The night 's sleep should
include at least eight hours and more if desired.
It is also well to lie down and rest for a season
in the middle of the day.
The clothing must be comfortable and loose-
fitting, especially avoiding any undue pressure
The Beginning of Life 55
upon the chest or abdomen. Clothing that is
so arranged as to be suspended largely from
the shoulders is well adapted for this period.
Shoes with low heels should be worn, as the
high heels in vogue put an undue strain upon
the spine and lower abdomen.
There is no scientific proof that special forms
of diet have any influence upon the development
of the child, but the food should be nourishing
and digestible. The free drinking of pure water
between meals and at bedtime is beneficial by
keeping the kidneys in good working order.
The bowels must act once daily at regular time.
Special care should be given to the breasts
and nipples. Breast feeding after birth often
fails from lack of early attention. Tender nip-
ples that soon become cracked or sore, or de-
pressed nipples that cannot be grasped by the
infant, often result in nursing failures. We
must always remember that the loss of breast
feeding is an important cause of infant mor-
tality. By gentle massage of the nipples dur-
ing the last few months of pregnancy, perhaps
with cocoa-butter or vaseline, and by using
56 Heredity and Child Culture
weak alcohol solutions if necessary to toughen
the tender skin, we can do much to enable the
nipple to function well when the time comes.
The influence the mind exerts on the body is
recogTiized by all physicians, and therefore it
is well that the future mother should keep as
cheerful and composed as possible. To this end,
she should be kept from undue cares and wor-
ries and have as bright surroundings as cir-
cumstances will allow. Strong mental excite-
ment and unrepressed emotions have a bad
effect at this time. It is right to add, however,
that the bugbear of ''maternal impressions"
producing some subtle and disastrous influence
on the unborn infant has no scientific basis.
In a general way, the care of the future child
is taking place during the whole of the previous
life of the mother, but in a very special way is
such care obvious while she is carrying the baby.
The problem of the child begins with concep-
tion and ends with adolescence and of all these
periods that of pregnancy is one of the most
neglected.
Modem asepsis has robbed child birth of
The Beginning of Life 57
much of its dangers for the mother, but still
the greatest care must be exercised at this time.
Danger to the child often results from too great
a prolongation of labor. As a consequence of
long pressure, a rupture of some of the delicate
blood vessels on the surface of the brain may
ensue and the child thereby be handicapped
for life. Holmes once described the female pel-
vis as the triumphal arch through which the
new-born infant first passed to greet the world.
If this arch is too narrow for comfortable exit,
it may require some skilful surgery to deliver
the child intact.
CHAPTER VI
THE DEVELOPING PERIOD
The practical problem of evolution consists in
regulating biological heredity as far as possible
and then in trying to produce conditions that
will enable social heredity to act to the best ad-
vantage.
This must start with an inquiry as to the
usual physical and mental characteristics that
go with a good heredity, biological or social, or
both. In other words, what may be considered
an average normal condition for the infant
and growing child? In this way we may de-
termine, at least, whether a favorable social
heredity is present in each case. We cannot
alter biological heredity, but we can and should
aim to correct a faulty social heredity if such
exists. The latter may be shown by physical
or mental under-development.
S8
The Developing Period 59
Growth During Infancy
The infant should start life with rapid
growth. During the first year there is a greater
proportional growth to initial size than at any
other time of life. This is due to an extremely
rapid proliferation of body cells and not to
cell enlargement that comes after two or three
years. Any condition that interferes with
growth, such as an insufficient diet or intercur-
rent illness, should be averted by all the care
that can be rendered. It has been observed that
colds, bronchitis, ear trouble, indigestion or
constipation will inhibit growth when these con-
ditions last for two or three weeks.
It is important to have a record of the birth
weight in every case. The male infant usually
weighs a little more than the female. In a
series of 200 cases that I examined, the males
weighed from six to eight pounds, and the fe-
males from five and a half to seven pounds.
As many of these infants were bom in institu-
tions, the averages of light weight were fairly
large. Seven pounds may be considered a good
average birth weight, although this may be
6o Heredity and Child Culture
exceeded by vigorous infants. As far as initial
weight may be considered a gauge of vitality,
six and a half pounds will show a good vitality,
five and a half pounds a rather poor one, and
from four to five pounds a very poor vitality at
the start.
Some infants are bom with small bones, per-
haps in this respect resembling one or both
parents. The birth weight of such an infant,
as well as that attained later, will be less than
that of a baby having a larger bony framework.
Different races, as well as families, show con-
siderable variation in this respect. Needless
alarm is sometimes excited if the physician or
mother merely consider averages that are taken
from a different class or community and hence
do not particularly apply to the baby under con-
sideration. This fact may be considered in con-
nection with relative weights and heights at all
ages. In every case, the extremely rapid
growth of the infant after birth makes careful
observation of all the phenomena connected
therewith not only interesting but important.
During the first few days there is generally a
The Developing Period 6i
loss of from four to six oimces, after which there
should be a steady gain. It must be remem-
bered, however, that babies are apt to gain
irregularly at short intervals. One day the
infant may show a gain of an ounce and the next
day a quarter of that amount while doing per-
fectly well. Again, the weight may remain sta-
tionary for a day or so and then jump up two
ounces in twenty-four hours. There should at
least be an average weekly gain during the first
five months of about four and a half ounces
to seven ounces, and from five to twelve months
of about two and a half to four and a half
ounces.
The infant should double its birth weight at
five or six months, and treble it at twelve to
fifteen months. The weighing should be done
by the same person either on grocer's scales
or lever scales specially constructed for infants.
Daily weighings are often deceptive and unde-
sirable. During the first six months once a
week is sufficient, and in the second six months
once in two weeks is often enough in cases that
are doing well. Careful records should be kept,
62 Heredity and Child Culture
and charting is convenient for reference.
The length of the new-bom baby is slightly
greater in the male than in the female. In
private practice, with healthy parents, the
length will average about twenty inches.
Growth in length is most rapid during the first
month, a little less so during the second month,
and rapidly decreases during each succeeding
month. During the first year there is a growth
in length of about eight inches, and in the
second year of about three and a half inches.
Just after birth, the trunk, arms, legs and
head have peculiar conformations. The body
is of an elliptical shape, with the widest part at
about the centre over the liver, in the region of
the lower ribs. The two ends of the ellipse,
represented by the chest and pelvis, are rela-
tively small and not well developed. The arms
are stronger and better developed than the legs.
During intra-uterine life the baby is placed in a
sort of squatting position with the legs drawn
up and curled inward. This explains why the
legs of the young infant are not straight but
show a decided bomng inward. The soles of
The Developing Period 63
the feet also tend to point inward. The head
is larger than the chest at this time, with a very
short neck, and the baby assumes a position of
general flexion.
While infants at birth may vary in size, each
individual should develop in proper proportion,
the various parts of the body bearing a sym-
metrical relationship to one another. Thus
the circumference of the head is greater than the
circumference of the chest, and remains so up
to the middle of the first year, when they begin
to approximate in size. At the end of the first
year, the chest should expand to a greater cir-
cumference than the head. If later than this
time the circumference of the head remains
greater than that of the chest, it is an indica-
tion of faulty development. The sutures of the
skull should be ossified by the end of the sixth
month, and the opening in the head known as the
anterior fontanelle closes from the sixteenth to
the eighteenth month. Any deformities of the
head due to prolonged pressure and difficult
labors are usually overcome during the first few
weeks. After birth and with increase in age.
64 Heredity and Child Culture
there is noted a gradual and steady enlargement
of the great circumference of the skull, and,
from this, of its estimated volume. Although
no intellectual growth can be said to take place
under two years, there should be an active evolu-
tion of the front of the brain with increase of
the perceptions. The first rapid growth of the
brain after birth is more in bulk than in the size
and complexity of its convolutions. Hence in
early infancy the higher centres have but a
slight development and function. With proper
evolution, the convolutions grow and become
arranged in functional groups, which groups,
by their development, alter and modify the
shape of the infantile skull. If the skull is small
or improperly shaped in any part, the brain in
such area is imperfectly developing. A certain
amount of asymmetry is, however, found in all
skulls as in other structures of the body and,
unless very marked, has no great significance.
The principle of biology that the develop-
ment of the individual reproduces on a small
scale the development of the race is well shown
in the infant's brain. The higher centres and
The Developing Period 65
the association fibres are developed late in the
child ; they are likewise the latest acquirements
of the race. The lower and more fundamental
animal traits are transmitted by inheritance in
greater degree than the higher ones.
In the human being, the brain assumes over-
mastering importance in the scheme of evolu-
tion, hence its proper growth and development
are relatively of much more importance than
that of other parts of the body. The extremely
rapid evolution of the brain during infancy,
and the fact that the future efficiency and well-
being of the child depend largely upon its nor-
mal and healthy gro^vth renders the study of
the infantile head of great interest. As the
skull is fairly representative of the brain dur-
ing the years of its first development, measure-
ments taken during infancy are more instruc-
tive as to brain size and evolution than those
taken in later years. The skull changes con-
siderably in its proportions during the first
years of life, and then more slowly up to the
end of the seventh year when it has very nearly
attained its full size. At birth, the circumfer-
66 Heredity and Child Culture
ence of the head averages from thirteen to four-
teen inches ; at the end of the second year, about
eighteen inches; at the seventh year, about
twenty and a half inches, and at the completion
of growth twenty-two or more inches.
The spinal column is curved but very flexi-
ble. In early infancy, the so-called normal
curves are not developed above the pelvis but
there is one long curve in the shape of a general
convexity. As the child grows older, the spine
becomes less flexible and more rigid with in-
creased power in the spinal muscles. There is,
however, much more flexibility all through early
life than obtains in later years.
In the musculature, the gi*eatest relative
strength is shown in the hands and arms for a
time after birth. At about three months, the
muscles of the neck have developed sufficiently
to allow the infant to hold up its head in an un-
certain way. At the seventh or eighth months,
the muscles of the back have become strength-
ened so that the baby can sit up, and shortly
after this it may be allowed to creep. Free play
should be sdven to the muscles of the arms and
The Developing Period 67
legs from the first, as muscular and bony de-
velopment are thereby encouraged. The bones
of the leg thus grow and straighten out, but this
will be checked if the infant is allowed to sus-
tain the weight of the body too soon. The
average baby should not be allowed to stand
before the twelfth month. Efforts to walk may
be encouraged from then on to the fifteenth or
sixteenth months. When walking has been es-
tablished, the legs should be straight.
The process of dentition begins early in intra-
uterine life. The cutting of the temporary or
milk teeth usually begins about the sixth or
seventh month and should be completed at the
end of infancy.
It must be remembered that a healthy infant
will always grow both in height and weight.
While increase in weight is properly regarded
as evidence of good development, it is possible
that relatively too much starch or sugar in the
diet may produce fat at the expense of bone,
muscle and gland. Firmness of tissues and
proper growth of the long bones must thus be
considered in connection with increase in weight.
68 Heredity and Child Culture
Height and Weight of WIhite Infants
White
Boys
White Girls
Height
Weight
Height
Weight
Age
( inches )
(pounds)
(inches)
(pounds)
Under 1 month.
... 2iy8
9y8
2078
8%
3 months
. . . 241/2
14%
24
13
6 months
... 26%
17%
26%
16%
9 months
... 2S14
19%
27%
181/2
12 months
... 291/3
21%
287/8
20
15 months
. . . 30%
22%
30%
21%
18 months
... 31%
24 Vs
31%
22%
21 months
... 32%
251/2
321/4
24%
24 months ... .
... 335/8
26%
33%
25%
These figures are based on measurements of
a very large number of infants in whom no
serious defects were reported, collected by the
Federal Children's Bureau.^ They closely
agree with measurements of 3448 normal babies
in 23 states prepared by Mr. F. S. Crum for the
American Medical Association.
Conserving Infant Life
In working for infants we will be enabled to
get an important side light on general social con-
ditions. The infant and little child have always
offered the best approach to a study of both
medical and social problems. They connect di-
lU. S. Department of Labor^ Children's Bureau. No. 84.
The Developing Period 69
rectly with all lines of social inquiry, — hous-
ing, food, parenthood, the wage problem,
faulty hygiene in tenement or town, educa-
tion and every other factor in community
life.
One of the most fruitful social movements of
the day is thus connected with the saving and
conserving of infant life. There has been a
marked lessening both in morbidity and mor-
tality of infants as the result of these efforts.
Thus in New York City there has been a reduc-
tion in the infant mortality rate from 273.6 per
1000 children bom in 1885 to 81.6 in 1919, and
71.1 in 1921. This decline has been aided by
such factors as more breast feeding, baby
health station service, careful oversight of
cows' milk, visiting nurses, improvement in
municipal sanitation and better control over
conunmiicable disease. A lower death rate al-
ways predicates less sickness and more vigorous
vitality in the infants who live. "While deaths
among older babies have decreased, the number
of infant deaths during the first month has not
lessened, but at times has even increased, which
shows that the prenatal and natal periods have
70 Heredity and Child Culture
not been equally watched. The reason that five
times as many babies die in the first month as
Bibr DcAtb-ratc* per t.OOO Accordtag to Fatlut't
Wages. CombliMd Figures for Bight Qtla.
170
160
150
140
130
120
UO
100
90
80
70
60
0
Under $450
M50toS549
S550 to S649
650 to $849
1850 to $1049
$1050to$1249
;1250 & over
As Wages Decrease the Baby
Death-rale Rises.
in the second, and fourteen times as many as in
the twelfth, is that parents are unhealthy or the
The Developing Period 71
mothers were not given proper oversight and
care during pregnancy. This early mortality
can be much reduced by instructing the mother
how to stimulate breast feeding during the first
months after birth, and by better methods of
hygiene and artificial feeding.
Infants and little children are always the most
sensitive to bad environment. They are like-
wise the first to suffer from poor economic con-
ditions. The Federal Children's Bureau has
shown graphically how the infant death rate
goes up as wages go down.
In a study of 3700 cases of serious illness in
infants and little children treated in the hospital
in a long series of years, I ^ found the causes
along three broad lines, — insufficient earnings,
bad housing and ignorance of the parents. Pov-
erty and sickness too often go hand in hand.
The Charity Organization Society has found
that fully two-thirds of the cases of poverty
it is called on to investigate depend, directly or
indirectly, on sickness. There is a shifting and
1 "The Relation Between the Child and Hospital Social
Service" — Jou/rnal of the American Medical Association,
July 23, 1921.
72 Heredity and Child Culture
alternating relationship of cause and effect
between them. It is interesting to note how this
vicious circle works at different ages. Thus,
while in adult years, sickness is one of the prin-
cipal causes of poverty, in childhood poverty is
one of the principal causes of sickness.
It is evident that infant salvage is closely in-
ter-related with economic and social conditions.
To save the baby and conserve the beginning
life we may have to go far afield in a study
of life conditions. About 300,000 babies under
one year die every year in this country. There
is still much to be done. Putting it in another
way, it has been estimated that in the United
States twelve babies out of every hundred, under
the age of twelve months, die every year. In
the great "World War less than two men out of
every hundred were killed in battle. During
this time, accordingly, a soldier in the trenches
was six times as safe as the baby in the slums.
This shows that social heredity, — in other words
environment, — has yet much to do in conserving
infant life. A most beneficial and far-reaching
The Developing Period 73
element in this work is that general social
amelioration must both accompany and follow
these efforts. The baby may yet lead the way
in social reconstruction.
CHAPTER VII
THE PRE-SCHOOL AGE
In a study of the developing period of life,
two gaps have occurred in which sufiScient over-
sight has not been given. Attention has already
been directed to the first of these periods, —
the time before birth. The second compara-
tively neglected period is the pre-school age,
— from two to six years. Boards of health and
welfare stations have concentrated on the in-
fant with a result of lowering infant morbidity
and mortality; school physicians and nurses
have given oversight to older children, but the
pre-school child has fallen between these two
periods. Even well-to-do people, who do not
depend on public agencies for medical over-
sight, are apt to give too little attention to the
child before entrance into school. The baby is
so helpless that constant advice is sought, and
now most private as well as public schools have
74
The Pre-School Age 75
physicians who exercise some oversight over
child development, but the little run-about is
too often left to his own devices.
This is a most unfortunate state of affairs,
because we are here dealing with a most impor-
tant age. During infancy growth is steady and
rapid, but in childhood it is relatively slower
and takes place more in cycles. It depends very
largely upon good heredity and a healthy, well
nourished state during the first years of life.
Biological researches show that favorable em-
bryonic conditions and good nutrition during the
earliest years have the greatest influence in de-
termining the full height and development of
the individual. If a child is fortunate in its
birth and is well nourished up to the fifth
or sixth years, there will probably be a healthy
growth thereafter, as, even if there are poor
conditions later on, nature will probably be
able to compensate and make up for them.
Each person has a certain normal size to attain,
which will usually be reached if the first years
have been favorable. Nothing will completely
make up, however, for early unfavorable con-
ditions.
76 Heredity and Child Culture
The following table that I have prepared
from data collected by the Federal Children's
Bureau will give some idea of the development
that was found among a large number of Ameri-
can children from two to six years of age.
Height and Weight of White Cheldren (2 to 6 Yeabs)'
White Boys White Girls
Height Weight Height Weight
Age (inches) (pounds) (inches) (pounds)
25 months 33% 27 S3% 251/3
3 years 36% 30% 36^4 291/2
4 years 39% 341/2 38% 33%
5 years 41% 38% n% 36%
6 years 43% 415/g 43% 401/2
In a study of nearly 40,000 children of pre-
school age in Iowa, it was found that the boys
from birth to six years were uniformly taller
and heavier at all ages than the girls. It was
also noted that the percents of total stature
and weight at six years showed that the height
doubled in these cases during the first six years
after birth and the weight increased four times.
The rural Iowa children were above the urban
ones in stature and weight from birth to six
years.
The Pre-School Age 77
The years of the pre-school age, before six,
represent a critical time in reference to future
development. The frequent magnitude of the
problem may be realized when we consider the
estimate that there are about half a million
children of the pre-school age in New York
City. These children should all be carefully
examined twice a year in order to recognize
any condition or defect that can usually be cor-
rected at the start.
It is now believed by many observers that
numerous defects and degenerations of later
life have their real origin from some infection
or other unfortunate condition during the first
few years. For example, it is held that few
adults have escaped infection by the tubercle
bacillus, but the disease becomes latent and
harmless unless a diminished resistance has
been inherited or the general health much de-
pressed. It is further believed that the original
focus of infection is nearly always started dur-
ing the early years. In making autopsies on
mal-nourished children in the hospital, I have
nearly always found some tuberculous focus
78 Heredity and Child Culture
even in cases of death from other causes. The
first inception of this insidious malady almost
always comes at the beginning of life. If the
general vitality is conserved, however, nothing
but a harmless encapsulated spot will usually
remain, but at the same time every effort must
be made to keep the body from infection.
Wliat is true of tuberculosis is true of all
other infections. Measles and whooping-cough
are two of the most dangerous diseases of this
age as regards ultimate effects. This is the
most susceptible period of life to all communi-
cable disease. Young protoplasm affords a vir-
gin and favorable soil for the growth of bac-
teria and the spread of all kinds of virus. In
this respect, the pre-school child is much more
susceptible than the infant or the older child.
One of the common diseases of early life, diph-
theria, well shows this peculiarity. It has been
found that over 90 per cent, of newborn infants
are immune to this disease, 70 per cent, during
the first year, while somewhat over half fail to
contract the disease on exposure later in child-
hood. Immunity from infection of most kinds
The Pre-School Age 79
seems to be conferred upon the baby by inheri-
tance from its mother, and this lasts for vary-
ing periods but not long after infancy.
Another fact to be considered is that the run-
about is naturally more exposed from moving
around and possibly coming in close contact
with scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough,
and other communicable diseases. While these
affections may not kill, they frequently leave
sequelae that handicap the future life of the in-
dividual.
Other common conditions that frequently
start and develop during this period of life are
enlarged and diseased tonsils, adenoids at the
vault of the pharnyx that interfere with respira-
tion, and sluggishly inflamed lymph glands in
various parts of the body.
Beginning caries of the teeth from insuffi-
cient care may also have serious consequences.
The temporary teeth need special attention not
only in starting proper mastication, but because
the permanent teeth are lodged in the jaw
just above them and the latter are liable to be-
come affected by disease of the former. Good
8o Heredity and Child Culture
digestion is dependent on good teeth and various
constitutional affections are known to come from
disease and pus pockets about the roots of the
teeth.
The various gastro-intestinal diseases, from
careless feeding and poor hygiene, are very
common with the little child. A careful over-
sight of the infant's bottle too oftqn gives
place to later laxity in feeding. The selection
and administration of food is often left to igno-
rant servants or nurses. As a result, various
forms of malnutrition and even deficiency dis-
eases may ensue. Anemia, mal-development,
and various nerve affections are apt to follow
along in this path.
This is the time to develop a correct posture,
and the child must be taught how to stand and
sit erect, as such habits last through life. Minor
curvatures of the spine, which is very supple,
are a common cause of poor carriage and can
easily be corrected at the beginning.
The close connection between the pre-school
child and the oversight that must come in the
future has been well expressed by Dr. Sobel of
The Pre-School Age 8l
the New York Board of Health,— '^ The Bu-
reau of Child Hygiene has always felt that the
best time to take care of the child's health is
before he enters school, and that preventive and
remedial measures, undertaken at this time,
would do much toward the elimination or di-
minution of physical defects, and place him in a
sound physical condition upon school entrance,
to say nothing of the favorable effect upon his
growth and development prior to school age.
In fact, the Bureau feels that proper super-
vision during the pre-school age bears the same
relation to school medical inspection that proper
pre-natal instruction and supervision bear to
infant mortality. Just as any decided reduc-
tion in infant mortality must come through the
reduction of deaths from congenital diseases and
deaths during the first month of life, through
a constructive pre-natal programme, so any
material reduction in the percentage of physical
defects found in school children, and a better-
ment of their general well-being must come
through the care of the children before their
entrance into school.'*
CHAPTER Vin
THE SCHOOL CHHO
The child of school age enters into a long
period which should be one of healthy growth.
It includes the time from six years to and
through adolescence. To be healthy, a child
must grow both in height and weight, but this
does not usually take place in a steady and
uninterrupted manner, but rather in cycles that
may be longer or shorter.
The two principal periods of acceleration of
growth occur during the second dentition, or
when the permanent teeth begin to be cut, and
at the beginning of adolescence. This roughly
corresponds, first, with the period from six to
nine years in boys and girls, and, second, from
eleven to thirteen in girls and from fourteen
to sixteen in boys. This cycle of increase in
height should precede and soon be followed
by an increase in weight. In boys there is apt
82
The School Child 83
to be a slackening in growth before the approach
of puberty, usually between the tenth and
eleventh years. Boys grow quicker in height
than girls till between ten and eleven years,
when girls become taller until about fourteen
at which time boys again take the lead. Girls
gain in weight up to ten years in about the same
ratio as boys, but they then are apt to increase
more rapidly than boys up to about the fifteenth
year, when the boys attain a quicker rate and
are then permanently heavier. There also
tends to be some variation in growth in differ-
ent seasons. There is usually more rapid in-
crease in height during summer and in weight
through the fall and spring months. This may
be explained by the fact that summer is vaca-
tion time with possibilities of abundant
outdoor air and plenty of pleasant exer-
cise.
Whenever there is a rapid increase in height,
the child is apt to grow thin and anemic, as the
making of bone quickly uses up the red cor-
puscles of the blood. These children become
nervous and irritable, requiring extra care at
84 Heredity and Child Culture
home and school. Such supervision must con-
cern itself with a carefully selected diet, plenty
of rest, and the avoidance of intellectual over-
stimulation. These children must never be
pushed at school, and it may even be necessary
to remove them for a time if they are worried
by their studies.
It has been proved from examinations of many
school children that, as a rule, the heaviest and
tallest, or those with the best physique stand
highest in their classes and show the best intel-
lectual development. Hence, if a child is
poorly nourished or undeveloped, the best thing,
even for his intellectual growth, is to focus
attention on his body for a time and let his
min-d be temporarily neglected. Competitive
examinations at the end of the school year, after
the fatigue of the mnter's work, coming at a
time when growth is usually most active in a
child, too often result in nervous exhaustion.
Proper growth in the school child is measured
by a study of the relation of height and weight.
This gives a truer insight into normal condi-
tions than simply taking the average height and
The School Child 85
weight of a large number of children and con-
structing a table to be used as a standard. The
latter plan has usually been followed but is sub-
ject to certain inaccuracies that may cause un-
due anxiety on the part of parents and teachers.
The manner and degree of increase in height
and weight depend to a certain extent upon
race and climate, as well as on the size and
physique of the parents. It is thus evident
that, although these average tables are of
value, no absolute rules can be given for com-
parison that ^vill always apply to every child.
A satisfactory table has been compiled by
Dr. Thomas D. Wood and is used by the Child
Health Organization and the U. S. Government
publications.
Weigh on the same date each month about
the same hour of the day. Weights and meas-
ures should be taken without shoes and in only
the usual indoor clothes. Boys should remove
their coats.
Here is arranged a sliding scale of the rela-
tion of height to weight, according to age,
86 Heredity and Child Culture
which affords a satisfactory working basis for
reference. These measurements can easily be
taken by parent or teacher once or twice a year
and a fairly satisfactory guide to proper de-
velopment thus obtained, allowance for indi-
vidual variations having been made.
The following are some of the conclusions
reached after an extensive and thorough study
of Iowa school children, ^ — * ' The weight —
height index is the most practical criterion of
normal growth in robustness and, other condi-
tions being normal, in general nutrition."
With regard to height, — *^For boys and girls
from six to eighteen years of age there is a
slight adolescent acceleration in height and
weight. * * * * As a rule tall boys and tall
girls reach their periods of maximum adoles-
cent stature earlier than do short ones. * * * *
If there is retardation before adolescence, the
tendency is to show a rapid acceleration during
adolescence as a compensating factor. * * *
Tall children at any age remain relatively tall
^ Studies in Child Welfare — University of Iowa — 1921.
HEIGHT and WEIGHT TABLE for BOYS
Height
5
6
7
s
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
1(5
17
itj
Inches
Vrs
35
Vrs
36
Vrs
Vrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yr3
39
37
40
37
38
39
41
39
40
41
42
41
42
43
44
43
43
44
45
46
44
45
46
46
47
45
47
47
48
48
49
46
48
49
50
50
51
47
51
52
52
53
54
48
53
54
55
55
56
57
49
55
56
57
58
58
59
50
58
59
60
60
61
62
51
60
61
62
63
64
65
52
62
63
64
65
67
68
53
66
69
67
70
73
77
68
71
74
78
81
84
87
91
69
72
75
79
82
85
88
92
95
100
105
70
73
76
80
83
86
89
93
97
102
107
113
71
74
77
81
84
87
90
94
99
104
109
115
120
125
130
134
138
78
82
85
88
92
97
102
106
111
117
122
126
131
135
139
142
147
152
157
162
86
90
94
99
104
109
114
118
123
127
132
136
140
144
149
154
159
164
169
174
91
96
101
106
111
115
119
124
128
1.33
137
141
145
150
155
160
165
170
175
97
102
108
113
117
120
125
129
134
138
142
146
151
156
161
166
171
176
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
110
62
116
63
119
64
122
65
12*6
6G
130
67
135
68
139
69
143
70
147
71
152
72
157
73
162
74
167
75
172
76
177
rffCPARCO BY DR. THOMAS O. WOOD
About What a BOY Should Gain Each Month
AGE
5 to 8 6 oz. 12 to 16 16 oz.
8 to 12 8 oz, 16 to 18 8 o*.
HEIGHT and WEIGHT TABLE for GIRLS »
(Height
5
fi
7
s
i»
10
11
12
13
It
15
1«
i<
IH
Inches
Yrs
Vis
Vrs
30
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
Yrs
39
34
40
3G
37
38
41
38
■M)
40
42
40
41
42
43
43
42
42
43
44
44
44
45
45
46
45
46
47
47
48
49
46
48
48
49
50
51
47
49
50
51
52
53
48
51
52
53
54
55
56
49
53
54
55
56
57
58
50
56
57
58
59
60
61
51
59
60
61
62
63
64
52
62
63
64
65
66
67
53
66
68
67
69
68
70
68
71
69
72
70
73
54
55
72
76
73
77
81
85
89
74
78
82
86
90
94
99
104
109
75
79
83
87
91
95
101
106
111
115
117
119
7G
80
84
88
93
97
102
107
112
117
119
121
124
126
129
77
81
85
89
94
99
104
109
113
118
120
122
126
128
131
134
138
86
90
95
100
106
111
115
119
122
124
127
130
133
136
140
145
91
96
102
108
113
117
120
123
126
128
132
135
138
142
147
98
104
109
114
118
121
124
127
129
133
136
139
143
MS
56
57
58
59
60
106
61
111
62
115
63
119
64
122
65
125
66
128
67
130
68
134
69
137
70
140
71
72
144
149
PREPA
RD OY OR. THO
mis 0. wooo
Abou
t What
a GIRL Shoi
lid
Gain
Eac
h Month
A(1K
AGE
5 to 8
. 6 oz.
14 to
16.
8 oa.
8 toll
..8 oz.
16 to
18..
4 oz
11 to 14
.12oz.
1
Com
iright
1918,
by C
'hOd
Health
i Org
anixat
ion
The School Child 87
under normal conditions. Growth in height is
so comparatively uniform for each individual
that the growth curve enables one to prophesy
with a high degree of accuracy how tall a young
child will be at subsequent years. Growth in
height is affected by the formation and removal
of adenoids. Prolonged disease history retards
normal growth in stature. * * * There is a
great probability that a tall boy or girl at six
years will be a tall boy or girl at twelve years
of age ; a tall boy or girl at nine or ten will be
tall at fifteen or sixteen years of age. * * * For
height boys have a greater variability than girls
at all ages between seven and seventeen, except
at twelve and seventeen ; at thirteen they are the
same. Boys fluctuate more in variability in
height than girls."
The following are some of the conclusions
reached as to weight, — "There is more in-
dividual variation in growth in weight than in
growth in height. Pre-adolescent acceleration
in growth in weight precedes as a rule the pre-
adolescent acceleration in growth in height.
88 Heredity and Child Culture
The pre-adolescent acceleration in growth in
weight is earlier, chronologically, for the tall
boys or girls than for the short ones. Growth
in weight is affected by disease history and
the growth and removal of adenoids. * * * The
heavy boy or girl at six or nine or ten will
be a heavy boy or girl six years later. * * *
For weight boys have greater variability ex-
cept at the ages of nine to thirteen, inclusive,
and at sixteen and seventeen. Girls also
fluctuate more in variability in weight than
boys."
These data represent conclusions reached
after an intensive study of a fairly homogeneous
class of white American school children in that
state.
Many years ago tables of the results of wide-
spread and extensive observations throughout
the world were published by the American
Journal of Psychology.^ It may be of interest
to reproduce two of them here for record and
reference.
1 April, 1898.
to ^^ I-' t-» M (-i i-» M H-i i-i M h-i
vM ^J— v>-' v>-» ^J-* vH* v^-i -^ xh-i v^-" v*-^ vH-* v*-^ \M
lO^ 10^ tC^ t^ tS^ tO^ tO^ IC~^ tS^ M^ tO^ M^ 10^ lO~^ t^ N^ ti^ ►^
Q3Q5pQ5fDJcpppB5P30503a3C3pp93
>-i>-i>-i>S>-i'-i>-i>-i'-i>S>-i<-i^<-i<-i^>-i<-t
o:) 05 oi to p --1 oi CO _h-» p ^ o*i CO [-'
^ to O CO '^ bo H* CO CXi b^ ^ '-q '—i bi
CO GO to C^ rfi. CM -J
C50ia5aiaicncncnOirf^^;^rfi.rf^f^
h-»i— 1|— »i— icooocncoi— 'O^jcncoh- '
CO O OJ M CO tN3 CO f*^ bo CO en en CO to
to hfi. ~a QO to Ol CO
C5cy5aicno-<oic;iC7«i*^,,
cncor-'oooshfi.toococsjl^to
o H-* o CO CO ^^^ ^ ^ o CO CO CO
^^^^
05C7i05c:)Cncnc;^cnc;icnrfi.f|i«.i^4^;
CO^rf^tOOQOCXi^^tO,
to to to to
■rfi. bo Ij o o
co-<ioohF»-05-aa5Cn4i.
^
^
CJ50^050^a^c;^C^c^c^^^*'rf^^*^co
CiCntOCO^CnCOh- 'pQOOihf^tOCD
C5 f-' CO CO bl O -<1 QO O O O O to CO
CiOiOOlCOOOQDGO
050iOia>05cncnoioirf^*'>4^rf^HP>-co
to to to I— ' p GO p CO h-i CO ;--> en CO h-i CO hij
bi CO to Oi en '-J oi en bo bo en CO ^ '--J Oi •
CO I—* CO CO 00 to en
OOJCsOiOienoienenrfi^rfii-t^^rfi'
^-^j^i.i_iopo'tcoH-'p;-ac:jihl^
b^ I-* en bo '•<» bo f-» en CD CO oj o 'h-*
ai0^a5CT5a5C^>encnenrfi.^f^^^*>■
cototoi— »i— 'Oascoj— ippffi-rf^
to '-a '-^i CO lo o oi CO en to bo co rf^
O 05 Oi 05 Oi C5 C5
->] c» ^ Ci ai e;i CO
ic;icnencnoihf^>^i*^rf^
icoa5H4i'tooooc?ia^co
cnrfi.cocococo^i-'cooiQootoi-'tf'to
0iO^O5aia5G50:la5e^a^C3^c^rf^rf^rf^tf^^f^
to to to to to to M O GO -~J CO to p _-J p CO to
'•^j Oi '-"J oi bo f^ bo OT to o CO CO bo CO CO bo co
ai05aicncnuiencnenrfii.rf^»^
~JCntOCDGO~ja!COh- 'Q0-<101
f-» '—1 bo CO bo O CO O 'to CO H-' o
C5C7iC5a50iCncncicn^^>^rfi-'.
CO to to J-" O ;<l jf' to O OD a^t*^ .
C5 en b"! *rfi>- ff^ CO Oi bo bo "hf* co co •
^
Boston.
(Bowditch.)
13,691 boys,
10,904 girls.
"■4
w
St. Louis.
(Porter.)
16,295 boys,
18,059 girls;
age nearest
birthday.
o
a
a
h-t
f
o
Milwaukee. ^_,
(G. W. Peck- !>
ham.) 4,773
boys, 4,891 -H
girls. >.^
w
o
OB
Oakland.
Number not
stated.
Worcester.
— ■ (West.)
3,250 chil-
•^ dren.
fc^
New Haven.
(Gilbert.)
About 50 of
each sex for
each age.
9
H
CO
>
9
c!
'si
H
W
t— <
PI
I
"^ ^x!* ~^ ^tr' ^Jr* ^^ ^i^ "^ ""^ '^ ^tr" ^tr* ^i^ vj-* ^ '"' ^tr* "^ -^
t3^ IC^ tO^ tO^ t^ t$^ tO^ INO^ b5^ 1^ 10^ tO^ tO^ t^ tO^ tO^ tO~^ t>0^
9
J£> QO QO 05 rfi. J-J GO ^ Ol CO H-» CD ^1 en
o bi to '--a -^i '--a ^ I— 1 K) CO CO oi GO "o
05cr50i050^C5cnc?iCncncDai».ffi.hP>.
^^^ hP»- Jfi. CO CO M p QO rf^ CO H-J IX) Oi rf^
b:) OS cj( CO CO ^ t>o o 01 o CO to bo 'o5
csCTscso^ojasciC^OiCJicnuicji
^^-j^i^-^i-qosoitoi— 'oicncoi— '
a> OS oi CO M cri CO CO o "-q i-i io to
asOiO:iCncnoicnc;ih4i.rfi.>^
jfi. CO h-i CO ^ en CO t-' CO pi rf^
05 en Oi f-* to to rfi- en CO ^^i^ I-'
c;ienC7»cnrf^hfi..ffi.rfi>-
_-<i hfi. to J-' (LO ~q p\ CO
Jfi. *cn CO f-» to f-i bo CO
0505OiO5C3iOienencjienencnh^rf^hf^
^ -<i p oi CO J-* po oj ui CO to h-i CO ;<! en
'-^ CO CO '-a bo rfi. ^ *-<i M h\ ](i^ bi 05 05 05
05050505a50505c;icncr«encnt4:i.><^HP^
CO CO CO CO to I— ' o Qo 05 CO to p GO en j^i".
O bo o o 05 bo to CO CO CO O o I|i«. ^ en
0i05050305<:;itnenencnhfi.i^h4i>.rfi.
05 05 en j4^ J-* 00 05 rfi. CO j-" CO _~J en rf^
CO CO ^ 05 *rf^ ^ CO CO J-* to "to to CO h-*
C5C50<C7<enencnrf^*^*>-i^
to p CO ^ rfi. to h-* p -J Ol jfs..
05 05 hf^ en CO rf^ to to to CO !-'
C50505C50505e^encnenen^fi.rfi.^^.^;^^|i>•
05 05 pi jP»> to p :<i en CO J-* p p j-j en CO h-»
CO o U' *eji CO "-J bo CO o en "en to o o 'to to
f
a
W
i
U
»^
^
^
m
^
Iowa.
(Gilbert.)
About 50 of
each sex for
each agp.
Pennsylva-
nia. (Hall.)
2,434 males
(nude.)
Moscow.
(Erisman.)
3,212 boys,
1,495 girls.
M
s
Si
<!
>
a
M
o
d
QD
^
Sweden q
Commis- «
sion. (Key.) S
15,000 boys, g
3,000 giri. ®
>
^
Denmark
Commis-
sion. (Her-
tel.) 17,134
boys, 11,250
girls.
9
d
iz!
H
England. 1.3
(Roberts.) W
Over 10,000 W
males.
I
t\^ |v^ I J I I t J 1 « L^ Ual ^^ ^<^ ^i^ fa^
O-l O^ vb^ vM O-^ vH vH vt^ vt"* ^Jr* vt^ ^f-' vM ■vl-' ~v!-^
53fir-ji-ii-<i-ii-ii-ji-ji-ji-ii-j»-ii-ji-jT'-Si-5i-j
CO tN3 to O '■-O GO ^1 ^ Cti 01 CI >^ *» ►?»•
tsD -^ I— 1 ^ ^-.. h4- CT) O Ol JO CO CO ai J-*
as bi o t-» CO Qo CO to CO to CO "m N) I-'
H-iH-'H-'Ocooo-ioso:)CnUTff>-rf^co
cnaitoo5QOQoooooto_-<ito^coco
to en O ^-» ^J^ '-^ 00 bo Jfi. i-» o en co '-q
toi-'OODC»~acr>c:>crtcn^Fi.rf^
tocoi— 'copcoooto_--Jt07^co
bo GO CO 'h-i ^ CO CO 'rf^ bi en bo ~i
H-it-'H-'i— '>-'Ocooo~305C5Cncnrfi.rf:».
CO en en oj o CO CO _4». h<^ as O en o en J-*
bof-'enocoocococoa5aicoenco^
cocotoocooo— i-jaienenrfi.*'f4i>'Co
--qotOcocnrf^asoencococorf^h-'Qo
bo tfi. h-« o bo CO 'h-* CO k^ *en bo f-i Qo I-» bo
f_i(_ii— iocooo-<ia5aioienrfi.i^rf^co
bo CO o en ^ CO _-<i 00 to 05 p _-o CO p oi
en CO b^ CO Oi o bo bo Ifi. K^ CO o f-* o bo
-^ I— » I— ' H- ' ^
coeotoocooo'-cioaienenenhf*'
«J I— ' H-i 00 ~J CO _"<l to 05 p hf^ p .--1
Ij '-q as I-* o 4^ «o o ^ oj to "to bi
h-»i— '0ococo-^a505enenrf^>4i>-l
00 ~3 CO oo 00 p 00 CO CO 00 to Qo en .
CO '-J bo CO to ""^i CO ^1 to ci to H-' CO •
i*>.cocotO!-»cooo"<i~qa5Cncnrf^>j^rf^
toootocotooopoohjotjpcoppto
C5 to CO bi CO ^-« I— ' -J o en bo 05 CO o o^
oocoenot-'h- 'hti'-Jti^eo
l-'H-'^^»-loocooo~aa5a>enen^f^^f^eo
cooooencoenco^cococo;-aj— '_— 3yop
bo CO "o "o o o M bi ^ io bi CO bi CO ~a CO
Oa5rf^^fi.tO-qOOiOCJ5
cotot-icooDOo-aosajenent^
o-apH-'Ootooooptot-'p
O O O ^ O CO bo h<i. o bi to GO
^-'f-iOcocooo-:^ascncnen^^
COCOrf^OOtOrfi-OCOOOCOpH^
"•<j o o o o b« o *--a bo o rf^ bo
►^
Boston.
(Bowditch.)
13,691 boys
10.904 eirls.
o
n
o
CO
o
y^ St. Louis,
p^ (Porter.)
16,295 boys,
18,059 girls; Q
age nearest H
•^ birthday. p
!;> Milwaukee, m
r^ (G. W. Peck 5<
ham.) 4,773
boys, 4,891 <J
OB
9
Oakland. h
Number not ^
stated. CO
►^
Worcester.
(West.)
3,250 chil-
dren.
^
a
o
w
CO
s
H
New Haven.
(Gilbert.) <1
About 50 of o^
^^ each sex for m
/^ each age. C
tOtOh-'l-'l-'l— 'V-'h-'l— 'h-il— 'I-' ^ ^ .,.
t-'0'XlOo^qo5C^^^co^^l-»ocDoo^cr5d^;i.co
'-i-s<S^>S>-i<-i'-i'i'-i<-i'-i>-i>S>-t'-i'^^^
>
IS
oi lO o o _-<i lo o Qo to CO h-i en J-* en
bi bi i-' "o o o Id to hI^ *--> bi o *>• ^
to to to !_i
Oi 01 I— ' t— »
*>-ir<ocr5Cci;oh-'~jtoi— 'I— 'Orf^Ci
^^ 4^. 4i. CO oi CO o '^ 00 00 ~3 o^i en
en to O oc CO OT CO o <x> o J-* p:> CO
i-i Oi -^ *-J GO '-q "-^ OS '-J OT "-0 i-" '*»
^^ ^^vA ^^^ ^^^ w^^ ^^^
Hp^COCOtOh- 'O^OD~"^~-l<^<^C;i'^^
CO CO C7< -1 en CO CO to Ci H-i oi 4i. _q o en
'-J Ci h-i "o CO to CO to '►-* "o bo bs bo CO bo
tOtOtOtOI— '0000^"<lC5Cnon>4^
-a a> rfi' o CO _-J GO _•<! p p vf^ JO tn ;<i
INS C5 1-" Ht^ bo bo bo CO H-' CO bo CO J-i C5
cotoi— »ooooor^aio^cncn>;^kf^
*.. Oi OS to p p P CO to ;-^ p p 05
en bo bo Oi CO en '^ CO bo CO c£) b^ CO
I— 'OOQo^C5Cicnen*«-rf^
to CO to CO en ^5 h-i as f-i ;-J fl^
'►fi^ bi b> bo o to ^ to GO rfi>- f-'
CO to (-' o CO 95 ■
to OS Oi CO h-i LO
0:1 oi en rf^ 4i-
— a I— ' CO GO >fi.
eno3Qo~jen'~S4^tOH-'h-»eni-'
ococoGo QDc:>a5ent^rf^f4^
i_i CO *» CO p CT) o as 00 -^ to
o CO 4^ 00 "en bo ifi. If- en 0 *go
^
Iowa.
(Gilbert.)
About 50 of
each sex for
each age.
Pennsylva-
nia. (Hall.)
■ 2,434 males
(nude.)
>
a
M
o
o
d
S!
o
O
O
w
"^
Sweden
Commis- m
sion. (Key.) ^
15,000 boys, <^
3,000 girls. >
M
o
d
03
Denmark _
Commis- i?
sion. (Her- H
tel.) 17,134 H
boys, 11,250 ^
girls.
t>
o
Moscow.
(Erismann.)
2,453 boys,
1,495 girls.
enenrfS'rf^hf'-cocototot^
GOh+i-coentocicoco— 3|^
to 1— ' I— ' o CO CO ~j 9^
H-» CO OS 4- to p to *-
bo OS to ►-* to -J bo CT5 bi *.~a *rf^ bi bo 00 en oo 00
ocooo-^CTiC7<en4i.*'CococototO(_j
oa5>4^aipco^f*.Goi— 'copcoGojfi.^-y
J-i '-q bo 05 o M o bo 01 00 o o bo M ^ "^
o
-~3
Turin.
(Pagliani.)
1,048 boys,
968 girls.
O
o
H
W
GO
O
Hi
a
o
The School Child 93
Apparent stupidity or bad mentality in
school children is often the result of physical
causes that can and should be removed. Dr.
Josephine Baker in writing on child health
quotes the following:
The New York State Department of Health
has published the following figures giving the
estimated defects in the 22,000,000 children
of the United States:
_ At least 200,000 (1%) are mentally defec-
tive *
At least 250,000 (over 1%) are aifected
wdth organic heart disease ;
At least 1,000,000 (5%) have now or have
had tuberculosis;
At least 1,000,000, (5%) are unable to hear
properly and because this condition is unrec-
ognized many of these children have the
undeserved reputation of being mentally de-
fective ;
At least 5,000,000 (25%) have defective
eyes;
At least one out of every 5 of these children
is undernourished;
From 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 (15% to 25%)
have adenoids, diseased tonsils or other glan-
dular defects;
From 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 (10% to 20%)
have weak foot arches, weak spines or other
joint defects ; and
94 Heredity and Child Culture
From 11,000,000 tol6,000,000 (50% to 75%)
have defective teeth.
Most of these defects or diseases are either
preventable or remediable if discovered early-
enough and if the proper treatment is given.
When are we going to learn that it is poor
economy to neglect the child in school and
then care for him during his adult years be-
cause of some disability?
Rural Scliools
A number of years ago, Dr. Thomas D. Wood
of Teachers College, who has had a wide ex-
perience along educational lines, gave some in-
teresting data as to the condition of children
attending rural schools. He found that more
than half of the children in the United States
are attending these country schools. In a care-
fully prepared table, which includes all parts of
the country, it is shown that children attending
these rural schools are less healthy and are
handicapped by more physical defects than are
the children of the cities, even including those
living in the slums. Dr. Wood finds that more
than twice as many country children as city
children suffer from mal-nutrition ; the former
are also more anemic, have more lung trouble,
The School Child 95
and include more mental defectives than do the
latter. In a recent communication, he has
stated that eye vision standards are very lax
in rural schools. He declares that country
children are not being given as careful cultiva-
tion as crops and live stock. He finds, more-
over, that 21 per cent, of American children
have eye defects, and such conditions may cause
bright children to become dull.
Defective eyes mth imperfect vision may
cause blurring of sight, headache, dizziness,
nervous irritation and lack of control. Dr.
Wood believes that educational experts in this
country are coming to an increased apprecia-
tion of the importance of the eye in school
work.
A concerted effort to improve the health and
normal development of school children should
be made by parents, teachers and physical di-
rectors. As a start, more time in the school
curriculum could be given to a careful study of
the physical condition of the pupils. This
should be done by physicians accustomed to
such work and not by mere physical trainers.
g6 Heredity and Child Culture
The latter are not capable of recognizing ab-
normal conditions of the heart, lungs or other
internal organs, yet much may depend on such
knowledge.
Correct Posture
One of the fundamental requirements is the
teaching of correct posture, both standing and
sitting. This will not only redound to future
health but add to the personal appearance of
the individual. A correct poise can be attained
by a little practice at this time which will last
all through life.
The chest should be carried high and arched
forward, with shoulders held squarely back,
the neck straight, the chin pointed in, and the
abdomen also held firmly in. Such a carriage,
accompanied by deep, full breathing will make
both for health and grace. The muscles of the
back and abdomen can thus be strengthened
and an improved tone imparted to the whole
system. An indirect but appreciable help can
also be rendered to some common ailments, of
which indigestion and constipation are perhaps
The School Child 97
the commonest. Boys and girls, soon to become
young men and women, no matter how plain of
feature they may be, can become attractive to
look upon by being taught always to hold them-
selves erect and in the proper posture. There
is a great contrast between an attractive
physical poise and the slouchy position so often
seen in boys and girls, especially the latter.
The debutante stoop now affected by many
young women is distressing to view.
School Equipment
The tendency of many school children to
faulty posture may be due to desks or chairs
not being of proper size or shape. There may
thus ensue an undue curving of the back with
a contraction of the chest. The desk may be
too high or too low, and the chair is often
placed too far back from the desk. The seat
for each child should be of the same height as
the length of the leg from the knee to the foot,
so that when sitting, the sole and heel can rest
easily on the floor. If the seat is too low, the
body is bowed forward, and if too high, only the
98 Heredity and Child Culture
toes touch the floor and a strain is thus put on
the whole body. When the desk is too high, the
spinal column, which is very supple in the
young, is thrown into a condition of lateral
curvature. When many hours each day are
spent in unnatural or constricted positions, the
result cannot fail to be disastrous. The room,
as well as its appliances, should be conducive
to health, as such a large portion of every
child's life is spent in school. Ventilation and
light are of great importance. Cross venti-
lation from windows open at the top is usually
the most satisfactory.
Each child should be allowed about twenty
square feet of floor space and at least two hun-
dred and fifty to three hundred cubic feet of air
space. Of course, even these allowances will
be insufficient unless there is a free supply of
pure air. The windows should be placed as
high as possible toward the ceiling for good
light as well as ventilation. A northern light is
preferable, but from whatever direction it
comes, it should strike the book of the pupil
from behind, and, if possible, from the left.
The School Child 99
Glaring sunlight is hard on the eyes, and any
dazzling light may be avoided by window shades
made of some kind of gray material. The walls
of the room are best tinted with a shade of gray,
and every part should be well lighted. The
best temperature of the room during winter
would be about 68° F.
Physicians and sanitarians should oftener be
placed on school boards in order to superintend
health conditions and see that they are right.
Intellectual effort and hours of confinement
should be carefully gauged according to the age
of the child. Some years ago the hours of
work and sleep required during childhood and
youth were tabulated by the Eoyal Sanitary
Institute of Great Britain as follows:
Hours
Hours
Age of pupils
of \vork
of sleep
per dav
per night
From 5 to 6 years
1
13^2
' 6 to 7 "
IV2
13
' 7 to 8 "
2
i2y2
' 8 to 9 "
21/2
12
' 9 to 10 "
3
llVs
' 10 to 12 "
3
11
' 12 to 14 "
5
ioy2
' 14 to 16 "
d
10
' 16 to 18 "
7
91/3
" 18 to 19 "
8
9
100 Heredity and Child Culture
It should be remembered that little children
easily tire on mental exertion, which should not
be continued too long without interruption.
The table given will serve as a guide in this re-
spect for the early years.
Athletics
Plenty of out-door exercise is required by the
growing child and youth in order to lay up a
store of vigor for future use. While a certain
amount of indoor gymnasium exercise may be
valuable, nothing is so beneficial to the boy or
girl as play in the open air. In certain lines,
however, there may be danger of carrying exer-
cise too far, especially during the period of
adolescence. This is shown in the craze for
athletics seen in many schools and colleges.
The outcome of this excessive interest is a few
over-developed athletes and a majority of stu-
dents barred out entirely owing to the high
physical standard required for great competi-
tive contests. School and college athletics, as
at present conducted, usually conserve and over-
The School Child loi
develop the strong and eliminate the weak, just
the ones needing most attention.
It is questionable whether eventually more
physical harm than good does not come even
to the athletes themselves. The terrific strain
put upon the vital organs, especially the heart
and lungs, involved in these close competitive
struggles, is sometimes followed by lasting ill
effects. The excessive development of the mus-
cular system in a person who is shortly to settle
down to sedentary pursuits may end in dis-
astrous results. The blood that should nour-
ish the vital organs is appropriated in the build-
ing up of powerful and useless muscles which
may result in a loss to the general vitality.
The proper functioning of what may be called
the great vegetative organs, such as the heart,
lungs, and the liver are the important pre-requi-
sites to health and long life, and not enormous
muscles which are not put to constant use. A
system of physical training that devotes ex-
cessive attention to the few and hence cannot
give a careful study to the necessary all-round
102 Heredity and Child Culture
development of the many, is not a proper system
and does not make for general and widely dif-
fused health and vigor among the young.
Adolescence
During the latter part of school life there is
ushered in a most interesting period of physical
and mental activity, — adolescence. This is the
time of life that intervenes between the begin-
ning of puberty and the full development of the
bodily frame. In the male, this may occupy
the years from 14 to 25, and in the female from
12 to 21. In the early part of this period there
is very marked nutritive activity which usually
lessens during the latter part of the interval.
Up to the beginning of this time the child
has lived the life of the race, but now he begins
to develop his own individual life, and family
traits come out more strongly. There is a
rapid growth of the body, especially marked in
certain internal structures, such as the bones,
heart and lungs and reproductive organs, with
increase in blood pressure and in general
glandular activity.
The School Child 103
As growth and development are rapid during
adolescence, nothing must be allowed to conflict
with the physical nature at this time. Over-
strain in school must be guarded against. It is
especially desirable that girls shall not be
pushed in their studies at the beginning of
adolescence. At a time when a new and most
important life function is being established, the
nervous energy and blood should not be diverted
to the brain, as they can be better utilized in
other parts of the body to the lasting health of
the child. It must be borne in mind that in-
fancy and adolescence are the two most rapidly
formative epochs of life, and quick growth
predisposes to all kinds of disturbances.
At this period the peculiarities of sex begin to
manifest themselves, and boys and girls cease
to mingle in the indiscriminate way of early
childhood. Up to twelve years there need not
be much differentiation of the sexes, but after
this they must be separately considered.
The boys are apt to show self-assurance, con-
ceit, and many other evidences of egoism; the
girls tend more to idealizing and romantic im-
104 Heredity and Child Culture
ag'Inings. Vague aspirations and a general
restlessness show the stirring of a new life in
the child's mind. Ideals begin to take strong
hold, and, although often crude, prophesy in a
general way the future bent of the character.
If any trait is entirely absent at this time, it
is not apt to be seen later in life.
There is no period of life when careful and
sympathetic oversight and training are of such
importance. The emotional nature now be-
comes active, with varying phases and mani-
festations. Religious and moral questions may
assume importance, and it is the age of con-
version.
Parents should study and guide these nascent
emotions so that they will assume a normal and
healthy form. This is especially important
when the child tends to be morbid and intro-
spective. A careful moral training is as im-
portant as that directed toward the physical and
mental natures. It is especially important to
teach the child that there is a difference between
real and imaginary conditions. An effort
should be made to convert introspection into
The School Child 105
activity and at the same time to give some in-
sight into the realities of life. This will be an
aid in counteracting selfishness as well as in
true character building. The imagination be-
comes very active at this time and care must
be taken that it is fed with wholesome reading
and environment.
CHAPTER IX
MENTAL. CULTUBB
In the first chapter attention has been called
to the fact that in the human race evolution is
now confined to the brain. In the modem
struggle for existence, men fight with their
brains and not with their muscles. At birth,
the brain although fairly large, is undeveloped
and watery, especially in the higher areas.
The lower portion of the brain, the eventual
seat of the subconscious mind, is quickly acted
on by all sorts of physical and mental stimuli.
The larger muscular actions, such as move-
ments of the arms and legs, are exhibited from
the time of birth, but the smaller muscles with
their finer action, shown by the co-ordination of
the fingers and picking up objects, are regulated
by brain centres that are on a little higher level.
The structure of the brain and the controlling
1 06
Mental Culture 107
forces are gradually developed from below up-
ward. The upper brain comes gradually into
play as a result of stimuli and education, and
the functions of the mind begin to unfold. The
convoluted surface of the upper brain regulates
the functions of control and inhibition which are
the latest products of evolution. These later
functions are therefore more unstable than the
lower and more automatic reflexes, and constant
training and education are accordingly re-
quired. This higher brain machinery, with the
deep convolutions arranged in functional
groups, is what makes education produce results
and also opens up the widest possibilities. The
effective use of the brain calls for the best
training in order to reach the highest develop-
ment possible for each individual.
The motor areas of the spinal cord are quite
highly developed at this time, but the sensory
portion is not functionally active. This ex-
plains many of the nervous phenomena of be-
ginning life. The higher cerebral centres exer-
cise a feeble inhibition over the lower and more
active motor centres of the spinal cord. Henice
io8 Heredity and Child Culture
what would be a sensory phenomenon in later
life is a motor one in the yomig infant. The
best example of this is seen in the way certain
illnesses begin. What is a sensory symptom
in the adult, — a chill, — is reflected into a motor
arc and becomes a convulsion in the infant. In
its nervous mechanism, the new-bom baby is
not unlike a fully-developed frog. Pain is not
active at this time, and while doubtless con-
scious of unpleasant sensations, the young baby
does not experience pain in the ordinary sense.
A baby born without any brain will automati-
cally cry. By the end of the first year, crying-
may ensue from a real feeling of pain.
Just after birth, the brain and nerve centres
act only automatically, or by reflex action.
Touch and taste are present at birth, but the
baby is deaf for the first few days and will not
follow an object with its eyes until the third
week. The eyes should never be exposed to
bright lights. By the third month, the baby
reaches out its arms for objects and may recog-
nize individuals. The rudiments of memory are
now developed, and by the fourth or fifth month
Mental Culture 109
a few persons may be remembered and recog-
nized. It is not until the tliird year, however,
that memory develops very rapidly. Efforts
at speaking usually begin at the end of the
first year when single words may be uttered.
At the close of the second year short sentences
are attempted.
By the third year there begins to be the ability
to draw an inference and slight powers of rea-
soning develop. Here is where education
should begin to have an effect, always remem-
bering that while the little child's preceptions
and emotions are active, there is not much
volitional power or self-control. The child
should be taught to use its senses and muscles
before trying to cultivate memory or imagina-
tion. Precocious children should not be pushed
forward; they have usually over-ner\^ous tem-
peraments. Sometimes bright children by be-
ing thrown too exclusively into the society of
adults become precocious. They like to show
off by exhibiting feats of memory or special
aptitudes, as in music or dancing. Their ex-
aggerated perceptions soon disappear and they
no Heredity and Child Culture
later often develop into very commonplace per-
sonalities. This is apt to be true as a rule,
although many real geniuses have early de-
veloped precocity. It is a safe rule, however,
that this tendency should not be encouraged.
Children who are self-conscious and always
eager to occupy the centre of the stage need
repression.
In the early years, imitation and suggestion
23lay leading parts. At the end of infancy and
during early childhood, the imitative faculties
come specially into play. The acts of older
children, of adults, and even of animals, are
faithfully copied without much idea of their
significance. Up to the age of seven years,
much of the training and education of the child
must come from imitation. He learns by imita-
ting, and little escapes his watchful eye. This
throws a great responsibility upon parents and
teachers, as a defective environment is at once
reflected by an observing and imitative little
child. Up to the age of seven, most of the
playing of children is imitative, shown by the
delight in dolls and numerous toys representing
Mental Culture iii
objects in real life ; but after this, especially in
boys, games take on a more competitive form,
invohdng muscular exercise.
The little child being so imitative, suggestion
plays a very important part in training. The
absence of the critical faculty at this time leaves
the field open for suggestion to work with great
force. Hence in training the little child sug-
gestion must be largely employed, as the imita-
tive faculty allows it to work to great advan-
tage.
It must be remembered that the child exhibits
the elemental himian forces and instincts. Just
as the emotions are developed in the race before
the reason, so it is with children. They can be
moved by their sympathies long before they can
be influenced by their intellect. Love is a surer
guide for them than reason. This is the secret
of the success of many mothers and of a few
teachers. The latter, however are too apt to
try to cultivate the intellect before the emo-
tions and feelings are considered, and hence
they often make a failure of both.
112 Heredity and Child Culture
Education
The importance of proper education is
stressed by the fact that the early impressions
of the young are never entirely forgotten. Few
realize the power of ideas, especially when
early implanted. The effect of ideas when rein-
forced by strong suggestion has an especially
quick result upon the plastic mind of the child.
It took only about two generations of careful
instruction in State Schools to cause the obses-
sion of the superman and world dominion to
take hold of youthful Germany and she sprang
at the throat of the world, although the older
generation Avas naturally friendly and law abid-
ing. The Jesuit is usually satisfied if he can
control the early years.
Attention has been directed to the fact that
little children cannot concentrate attention very
long on one subject, so that mental exercises
should be short with frequent intercurrent rests.
As a rule, it is better for a child to be with
others, as work, study and play with school-
mates is more favorable than being too much
alone or too exclusively with adults.
Mental Culture 113
At the beginning of mental training there is
more of a tendency to do too much rather than
too little. One must first be sure that all the
senses can function properly from the posses-
sion of sound organs. They must all be
properly co-ordinated, — touch, taste, smell,
sight and hearing. As touch and muscle sense
are earliest developed, the manual part of train-
ing is important, and education first functions
along this line. The optic nerve is about eight
times larger than the auditory nerve and it is
certainly eight times easier to teach by sight
than by hearing. But while the eye is the best
channel for information, care must be taken that
there is no over-strain. We must always
remember that what is observed by the eye is
registered in the brain. Little children are
often allowed to see too much. All kinds of
exciting pictures are presented at the movies,
including warfare, scenes in foreign lands and
strange experiences of all kinds. These are all
projected on the sensitive brain of the child,
and too early forcing may mean a later reaction
in which the child pays up for impressions that
114 Heredity and Child Culture
are crowded too soon upon an immature mind.
In a recent report upon the activities of six
of Cliicago's high schools, it was stated after
a questionnaire that 87 per cent, of 3000 children
attended the movies from one to seven times a
week. The abnormal character of many of the
pictures, including gunmen, criminals, sexual
problems and all kinds of exciting scenes, can-
not but have a disastrous effect upon the young
and inexperienced mind. Properly censored,
however, the movie has great educational as
well as amusement possibilities.
The child should early be taught to think, —
even in a rudimentary way, — and to think
straight. One of the causes of the confusion of
the time is that so few persons really think.
They have not been taught this important func-
tion early enough, — they think loosely and talk
loosely. As so many absorbed in the routine
of daily life do not seem to have the time or abil-
ity to think a subject through, a small number
are permitted to do the thinking for all, fre-
quently with disastrous effect. Let us start a
saner generation by training the opening minds
Mental Culture 115
to accustom themselves to thought. The
thoughtlessness that starts early, too often
lasts through life.
Wliile true education must be a life undertak-
ing, it is in the proper training of the young
that this question assumes its greatest impor-
tance. Health and growth must both be con-
sidered at this time, but, as the period is a short
one, the tendency is toward over-pressure and
a hurried undertaking of many things. This
is a great evil, but much of it might be avoided
if teachers and parents had a truer conception
of the real function of education.
The tendency is to confuse education
with mere instruction. The object of the
former is training, that of the latter
information. The object of education is not
primarily or solely to impart knowledge ; it is,
rather, so to train the mind that it will
have the capacity for selection and development
and can thus put itself in proper adjustment
with the larger and higher life of the race.
The object of instruction, on the other hand,
is to store the mind with useful and interesting
ii6 Heredity and Child Culture
facts. In the case of children there is apt to
be too much instruction and too little education.
The pressure that tries to induce extensive
knowledge is in danger of lessening vitality
without giving corresponding power, success
or happiness. Too many studies are usually
given to children, and this crowding creates a
serious problem. Not only is depth sacrificed
to extent of surface in this form of mental
training, but too little time is left for physical
exercise and amusement.
The growth of forced and so-called higher
education has been relatively more rapid with
girls than with boys. In the former, the ques-
tion is complicated by the importance to them-
selves and the race of proper physical and sex-
ual development during the period of growth.
At the time of maturing, the body is more im-
portant than the mind, yet this is just the time
that the girl is pushed hardest in her educa-
tional career if she expects to pursue a course
in high school or college. The women's col-
leges are increasing in number and importance
and have set the educational pace, as in the case
Mental Culture 117
with the men's colleges. While no one of in-
telligence questions the desirability of a good
education for girls, — whether the kind of train-
ing they get in their colleges is the best still
forms an open question. The aim seems to be
to put the girls through the same educational
hopper as the boys, irrespective of their physi-
cal and mental differences. The feminine mind
differs from the masculine mind, just as the
feminine body differs from the masculine body
and both, to a certain extent, require specialized
training. These differences have deep-seated
biological causes that must not be overlooked in
education. The fundamental differences in the
physio-psychological make-up of the sexes must
early be considered. It would seem as if the
higher education of young women might pro-
perly place emphasis on such subjects as mod-
ern languages, literature, music, hygiene, — both
personal and domestic, — the selection and
chemistry of foods, the care and training of
children, the theory and practice of modern
charity and cognate subjects, together with a
careful physical development. In a word, she
Ii8 Heredity and Child Culture
should be educated with the idea of becoming a
wife rather than a school teacher. The keen-
ness of girls for higher education is shown by
the fact that they are beginning to outnumber
the men in colleges on a co-educational basis,
and the girls show a general preponderance in
numbers over the boys in the high schools of
New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. In both
sexes there is needed a simplification of the
whole educational process.
One detail of school life that might be cor-
rected is the needless prolonging of vacations^
which tends to make the working time too short
and strenuous. It would be better for health
to restrict the length of vacations and to work
under less pressure during the rest of the year.
Some reorganization of modern education at all
ages, but especially in the early years, is much
to be desired, and educators should face this
problem. It must primarily be borne in mind
that a true education of the young should be
based upon knowledge of biological, physio-
logical and psychological processes and carried
on in conformity to them.
Mental Culture 119
Professor G. Stanley Hall has approached the
question in the following words, ^ — ''We are
progressively forgetting that for the complete
apprenticeship to life, youth needs repose,
leisure, art, legends, romance, idealization, and
in a word humanism, if it is to enter the king-
dom of man well equipped for man's highest
work in the world. In education our very kin-
dergartens, which outnumber those of any other
land, by dogma and hypersophistication tend to
exterminate the naivete that is the glory of
childhood. Everywhere the mechanical and
formal triumph over content and substance,
the letter over the spirit, the intellect over
morals, lesson setting and hearing over real
teaching, technical over the essential, informa-
tion over education, marks over edification, and
method over matter."
We must always remember that the time for
education is short. According to some
psychologists, it is a serious fact that mental
plasticity largely ceases with youth. The mind
is apt to be closed to new ideals after the early
1 Adolescence, D. Appleton & Co.
120 Heredity and Child Culture
years. While this may be an exaggeration in
some cases, it is nevertheless true in a majority
of instances, and stresses the great importance
of a right management of mental training.
This means that correct methods and ideals
must form the groundwork for a structure of
efficiency and high development.
CHAPTER X
MORAL CULTURE
The mental and moral natures in their
development are closely allied. The conduct
of the child is largely influenced by the tone and
temper of those about him. If a proper poise
and self control exists, it is sure to be reflected
in the children. A cultivated home will do
more for the child's mental and moral health
than the formal education of the finest schools.
In a study of the moral nature of the child, we
must sharply distinguish the essential from the
nonl-essential in characte'r building*. Thus a
sort of rowdyism due to an excess of animal
spirits need not be constantly repressed, but any
duplicity must be instantly noticed and repri-
manded. The gravity of the latter, however,
depends on the age. Professor Barnes has
truly said that a lie from a three-year old is
normal ; from a six-year old, unimportant ; from
121
122 Heredity and Child Culture
a nine-year old, serious ; from a twelve-year old,
tragic.
If a point is once made, it must be carried out,
no matter how much of a struggle is required
and it is therefore wise to make an issue as
rarely as possible, and then only for really
essential points. The character of many a child
is injured by querulous rebukes, constantly
administered, until he comes to be considered as
a sort of outlaw, all perhaps for small offences
that involve no essential moral question. A
little judicial blindness and an occasional kindly
talk, combined mth efforts to gain the confidence
and interest of the child, and guide his exuber-
ant energy in proper directions will do much to
conserve his moral and social self-respect.
There is sometimes danger of too much as well
as too little discipline. We must be careful
never to break the spirit of the child. There
are only a few important dogmas that always
must be authoritatively enforced.
There exists in many children a touch of bar-
barism that is merely an evidence of under-
development. Lombroso goes so far as to trace
Moral Culture 123
certain analogies between the child and the
criminal. He considers that the germs of crim-
inality are met with, not by exception, but
normally in the early years of human life. As
in the embryo, there occur naturally certain
forms that will be monstrosities in the adult so
the child represents a man of undeveloped moral
strength. Lombroso places passion and venge-
fulness, vanity and cruelty in this comparison
between the child and the criminal. The great
criminologist certainly goes too far in exagger-
ating this analogy, but it may afford food for
serious thought and observation to those who
study and bring up children. Apparent cruelty,
sho^\Ti in a callousness to suffering, is often seen
in children, but is due more to ignorance and
lack of experience as to the meaning of pain
than to defective moral sensibility.
The phenomenon of sex should be explained
to children as soon as they are old enough to
understand. By treating this subject in a mat-
ter-of-fact way, and stripping it of the unwhole-
some mystery so often surrounding the facts,
the child can readily comprehend all that is
124 Heredity and Child Culture
necessary to know. Parents are the proper
ones to give this knowledge and they can pre-
pare themselves to impart it without much
trouble. They may start with explaining the
reproduction of new life in the vegetable world
and thence lead up to animals and man. It
can take its place in connection with general
nature-study which is always profitable and
desirable for the child. All manifestations of
life on the physical side must be presented in a
normal manner, so that nothing unclean may be
suggested. The handling of the sex organs,
except for cleanliness, can be brought in here in
a natural manner and linked up with general
hygiene. In this way one can avoid a sugges-
tion that might prove undesirable. Children
often know more on these subjects than their
parents think, although in a distorted, unwhole-
some form. Their views must be clarified, and,
at the same time, they can be taught the bad
results of evil habits. Most children wish to be
strong and excel in sports, and an appeal can be
made from this angle to avoid whatever will
lessen health and vigor.
Moral Culture 125
Much of our physical, mental, and even moral
health depends on the proper functioning of the
endocrine glands, — sometimes known as the
glands of internal secretion. Many of the
chemical reactions so necessary to bodily health
are produced or controlled by these glands.
The thyroids, adrenals, pituitary bodies and
other similar glands produce hormones (mes-
sengers) that are carried by the bloodstream
to all parts of the body and produce marked
physical and mental effects. Some biologists
believe that the endocrines have a large influence
upon the heredity and development of man. It
is known that certain forms of feeble-minded-
ness are produced by a lack of some internal
secretion, and in one variety, — the Cretin, — ^by
giving thyi'oid by mouth, the body and mind are
both re-invigorated. Some even believe that
certain criminals are really gland-victims. On
the other hand, strong emotion will quickly
affect these secretions. Sudden fear will have
a marked effect upon the thyroid and adrenal
glands, and courage, as shown in the excitement
of battle, calls forth the secretion of the
126 Heredity and Child Culture
adrenals. There is a constant chemical read-
justment going on in the body by the interaction
of these various glands; not only mental con-
ditions, but the very architecture of the
body is largely influenced by them. Thus both
giants and dwarfs are largely developed by the
irregular action of the pituitary gland. Like
other phenomena of life, the harmonious action
of these mysterious and powerful glands, are
best set in motion by healthy growth at the be-
ginning. The early development of self-control
will have beneficial effects all through life on
these important glands.
With reference to actual delinquency, child-
hood traits must be early watched and correc-
tive measures at once applied to all moral
lapses. It is believed that criminals are always
made before the age of twenty-one. They must
therefore be caught and reformed early if at all.
Many years ago. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, the anthro-
pologist, at my request made a careful exami-
nation of 1000 inmates of the New York Juve-
nile Asylum. These children were committed
to the asylum by the courts for petty crimes or
Moral Culture 127
gross neglect on the part of the parents. In his
conclusions, he stated that when the children
were admitted to the institution, they were al-
most invariably in some way, both morally and
physically, inferior to healthy children from
good social classes at large. A closer observa-
tion, however, revealed the fact that the inferi-
orities of the children who became inmates of
the Juvenile Asylum were in the majority of
cases only the results of neglect, or of improper
nutrition, or of both these causes combined.
Many of the children were more or less neglec-
ted, or spoiled, or less developed or strong than
they should be ; but a really inferior child, that
is, an inherently vicious, or an imbecile child,
or a child who could not be much improved by
better food and better hygienic surroundings,
was a very rare exception.
This constitutes a striking demonstration of
the effect of early neglect and the possibilities
of regeneration.
The best way to eliminate evil is to stress the
good in every individual. By filling life with
activities that enlist the interest of the child
128 Heredity and Child Culture
there will be neither time nor opportunity for
the lower traits to develop. Let their energies
be directed toward a constructive and creative
outlet.
Some children have to be taught to play, as
they seem lacking in initiative in this direction;
organized play may have a favorable mental
and moral effect. Let us start right in this
direction as the habit of happiness may then
continue into after life. It may well be that
vigorous play in the growing years can have an
influence on the prolongation of life and the pre-
vention of degenerative diseases; also to raise
the question as to whether our unsatisfactory
organization of leisure life, through which
people get no real self-expression, may not have
something to do with the wide extent of func-
tional nervous disorders.
Children of the well-to-do should early be
taught to sympathize with misfortune and
extend aid where possible. Even a small
knowledge of the hard life conditions that sur-
round so many people will tend to eliminate
the innate selfishness that is so common among
Moral Culture 129
our better-favored youth. A cultivation of the
moral nature should be started early and con-
tinued all through the developing period. The
child can soon recognize the difference between
right and wrong and this vital distinction must
be both taught and enforced.
Finally, a careful religious training, when
freed from obsolete dogmas, will be most help-
ful in developing the best character attainable.
A simple, rational faith in the moral order of
the world and in a Supreme Being who is
working by the laws of nature and life for the
ultimate good of the race can early be incul-
cated. This will start a sense of responsibility
that will develop with later years.
It is unfortunate that the spiritual life of
children should be so often neglected by parents
and teachers. As a result, too often we are
raising a lot of lusty young pagans who, as they
grow up, like Gallio, will "care for none of these
things." No one quicker than the child reacts
to the widespread materialism of the day. It
is a strange fact that while materialism is grow-
ing stronger as a social force, it is losing ground
130 Heredity and Child Culture
as an interpretation of life to the thinking
classes. Here is a chance for the coming gener-
ation to be given a truer orientation of life than
commonly exists at present. It is wise to start
early in teaching the eternal verities and the
simpler the faith, the easier it will be to
inculcate.
The so-called ages of faith have passed, never
to return. We need not unduly grieve over this
since they were likewise ages of ignorance and
superstition. Yet never has the necessity of
strong and simple belief been greater than at
present. Careful observers of life cannot
help noticing that as faith lessens, actual living
is apt to weaken and degenerate. This rule is
true in spite of the few apparent exceptions
where a heredity of strong character steadies a
life that has lost belief. Religion best fur-
nishes what psychologists might call the sustain-
ing motive to right actions and a correct life.
Only a few fundamental religious truths are
really necessary to nourish the higher life.
Let them be carefully implanted in the opening
mind rather than trying to teach doctrines that
Moral Culture 131
were evidently developed largely out of social
conditions existing when they were formulated.
The danger of unreal beliefs being early taught
is that, with the age of intellectual awakening,
the true as well as the false in religion may be
thrown aside.
The little child will be the ultimate judge of
the world ; before his problems and questionings
most plans of philosophy, codes of ethics and
systems of theology somehow prove stumbling,
inadequate and unworkable.
The age needs a great voice that will find a
way between the gnostic and the agnostic in
developing the religious and spiritual life of the
future. Perhaps some child of the present day
will later furnish this voice.
CHAPTER XI
NEBVE CULTUEE
We seem to have struck an era of ''nerves."
Large numbers of men and women show a nerv-
ous instability that often has its roots in de-
fective training and example during the open-
ing years. Early education and control are
necessary to check this growing tendency.
Probably more trouble is produced in the
world by neurotics than by criminals. The for-
mer do not react in a normal and healthy man-
ner to the stimuli of their environment and are
easily maladjusted in all their relationships.
These persons drift from neurologist to quack,
from astrologer to osteopath, and usually end
in one of the happiness cults whose followers
spend their time in joyously dodging obligations
and realities. Numerous imaginary diseases
are constantly encountered and cured by imagi-
nary remedies. Not a few obscure illnesses
132
Nerve Culture 133
are really due to what the psychologists call a
defense reaction in men and women, especially
the latter, who fail to adjust themselves to their
surroundings. They have an inner feeling of
inadequacy and unconsciously fall back on some
functional and obscure nervous trouble as a way
of escape. The only thing that will really and
permanently help these neurotics, — re-educa-
tion,— is overlooked. Perhaps it is too hard
and honest for trial.
It is much more hopeful to try to check this
tendency at the beginning by proper educa-
tion. The earliest years are the impressionable
ones; intellectual and emotional instability can
get a good start at this time. While it is gener-
ally thought that heredity is responsible for ner-
vous instability, I believe the condition is
oftener due to faulty en\dronment during the
early years. According to Freud, the neurotic
is manufactured before the age of six years.
Modem psychology has explained, to a cer-
tain extent, how these phenomena arise. What
are known as complexes may consist of certain
groups of co-ordinated motions called into play
134 Heredity and Child Culture
by various actions, as in violin playing; again,
they may comprise groups of ideas or emo-
tions. By constant repetition, these motor
or psychic groupings become fixed into habit.
It is in the subconscious mind that complexes
oftenest remain, as it were, concealed until
brought into play. A complex may not exist in
the conscious mind at all ; it may of tener be in
the subconscious mind, only waiting for certain
experiences or influences to bring it forth.
These connected ideas are often joined with
emotional conditions that have a marked effect
on action or conduct. The whole character
may often be influenced by combinations of com-
plexes.
A large number of subconscious ideas and
complexes are acquired during the first years
of life. They may form the roots of obscure
ailments that will |be carried on into later
years. Thus neurotics are made by conditions
that usually have their origin in childhood,
forming compulsions and inhibitions that trail
along through after life. It is not necessary to
believe with the Freudians that there is always
Nerve Culture 135
a sexual genesis of disturbing complexes, al-
though this element is doubtless frequently
present. Strong impressions or emotions of
jany kind may have a lasting effect. Suppres-
sions and repressions are too frequently em-
ployed and may result in an imbalance of char-
acter. Undesirable trends in infancy and child-
hood may land an adult in an unenviable mental
condition. Dr. Spaulding states that too great
attention cannot be given to such factors, par-
ticularly in the first five years of life, since it
is being recognized more and more that it is in
the earliest years that the great tragedies occur
that tend to warp seriously the individual
expression of energy of later years.
Grief, fear, worry, anger, apprehension and
emotional shocks may become fixed and form
the early beginnings of what will eventually
lead to individual and social maladjustments.
We must be especially careful not to implant
fear in the developing mind of the young.
The nervous child is especially liable to become
maladjusted in the emotional field. Although
many disturbing experiences in the young child's
136 Heredity and Child Culture
mental and moral life may be long forgotten,
their effects are held in the subconscious mind,
and it may be years before a submerged emo-
tion finds outlet in an indirect or surprising
manifestation. An emotion or feeling sup-
pressed in one way may find '' sublimation," ac-
cording to the psychologists, in an entirely dif-
ferent direction.
All this emphasizes the importance of early
training. It is much better and easier to try
to form good habits than reform bad ones.
Fathers and mothers with unstable character
and flighty moods will find their children devel-
oping the same characteristics from imitation.
Fussy, neurotic parents must realize their re-
sponsibility and try to control their nervous in-
stability for the sake of their children if not for
themselves. Children must be guarded, as far
as possible, from severe emotional shocks.
Their lives must be made as happy as circum-
stances will permit. The play instinct should
always be developed. It must be remembered
that apparent egoism or intense shyness may
be only manifestations of defense reactions.
Nerve Culture 137
The child must be encouraged in developing his
natural qualities, and efforts should be made
to bring out the best in him. Perhaps the
mother can most satisfactorily control the emo-
tions and direct the will, and the father see that
self-reliance is cultivated. A normal, happy-
family life will best fit the child to make proper
adjustments to the varying environment of later
years. Finally, the child cannot too early be
taught to face reality and learn to appreciate the
fact that life is a process of adjustment.
CHAPTER Xn
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER NUTRITION"
The great importance of good nutrition dur-
ing the developmental years cannot be over-
estimated. At this time the structure of the
body, including the most vital tissues, is be-
ing built up and the organism thus formed
must serve for the whole of life. If proper
growth does not take place during the period
of natural development, no later compensation
is possible.
At this time, a double function of nutrition
is required, first, that of growth, and second
that of maintenance or keeping the body in
operation. By the latter is meant a supply of
energy and heat, and as the child by its growth
and activity bums up more fuel than the adult,
it is doubly important to supply a sufficiency
of proper food to serve as fuel. Hence, at
138
Proper Nutrition 139
this time a carefully balanced diet is very es-
sential.
The great variety of articles in use as food
all contain only a few essential principles,
— proteins, mineral matter, fats, carbohydrates
and water, the latter constituting a large pro-
portion of all foods. These different substances
when taken into the body have various functions
to perform. The proteins and mineral matter
are used in the growth and repair of the body ;
the fats supply heat and energy and are de-
posited in the tissues for form and contour;
the carbohydrates also supply heat and energy,
and may be changed into fat in the system ; the
water gives bulk and solvent properties to the
various tissues.
These food principles are found in a variety
of foims and combinations. Protein exists as
lean meat, the curd of milk, fish, poultry, eggs,
cheese, beans, barley, oatmeal and the gluten
of flour. The mineral matter consists largely
of earthy salts, such as phosphate of lime and
compounds of magnesium, sodium, potassium
and iron. These substances are usually taken
140 Heredity and Child Culture
into the body in combination with the proteins.
The fats are seen incorporated with meats, or
as lard, butter, the cream of milk and vegetable
oils. Carbohydrates are the various starches
and sugars that are combined in cereals, pota-
toes, flour and vegetables.
It has recently been found that growth takes
place not only from the chemical ingredients of
foods but from mysterious substances known as
vitamines. If these substances are absent from
foods, growth and nutrition will fail and cer-
tain deficiency diseases, such as rickets or
scurvy will result. Although these living enti-
ties may be present only in most minute traces,
they are necessary factors in nutrition if health
is to be preserved. Thus no diet should be con-
tinued that does not contain one or more of the
foods producing vitamines. The several varie-
ties and the foods containing them have been
divided into three classes, — (A.) Vitamines
soluble in fat, included in butter, eggs, cod
liver oil, fat fish, lean meat, lettuce, spinach,
fresh carrots, cabbage, and the germ of cereals ;
(B.) Vitamines soluble in water, included in
Proper Nutrition 141
milk, eggs, lean meat, liver and various other
glands, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, tur-
nips, nuts, wheat bran, the germ of cereals,
apples, oranges, lemons, grapes, tomatoes,
yeast; (C.) Vitamines that prevent scurvy, also
soluble in water, included in lean meat, liver,
beef juice, cows^ milk, cabbage, tomatoes, tur-
nips, cresses, lettuce, apples, oranges, fresh
lime juice, lemon juice, raspberries. Vitamine
(A) is not much affected by heat, vitamine (B)
should not be subjected to heat above the boil-
ing point of water, and vitamine (C) is de-
stroyed by heat and alkalies. For this reason,
when all the milk given to infants and little
children is preserved by heat, some fruit juice
should be added to the dietary. It is always
desirable to preserve the water in which vege-
tables are cooked so that the vitamines may be
retained.
The vitamine problem is naturally more im-
portant during the growing period than later in
life, as proper development cannot take place
in their absence. A mixed diet containing a
variety of the above-mentioned foods will al-
142 Heredity and Child Culture
ways insure a sufficient supply, and it is hence
not necessary to rely on any of the numerous
proprietary preparations now flooding the mar-
ket.
Milk is the universal food of all young mam-
mals. It is the only food in nature that is com-
plete in itself ; it contains all the necessary ele-
ments for growth as well as those required for
heat and energy production in a most digestible
and absorbable form. While every species of
mammalian young is perfectly nourished by the
milk of its own mother, the food elements are
present in varying proportions in different
species, this depending largely on the rapidity
of growth of the offspring; hence milks of
one species require some alteration before be-
ing given to the young of another species.
In addition to nutrition, milk has properties
which no other food possesses. It is fluid when
secreted but when taken into the body it is
changed from a liquid into a semi-solid sub-
stance under the action of the secretions of
the stomach. This seems to have the function
of training the growing stomach to utilize solid
Proper Nutrition 143
food when it is more fully developed. This is
due to a process of coagulation that takes place
in one of the ingredients — the protein — which
always alters the form of the milk when taken
into the stomach. While a certain amount of
protein is present in the milks of all animals
and is necessar^^ for tissue building and growth,
this protein must not only be coagulable but
must curd in a certain specific way in each
species of animal for the proper evolution of
different digestive tracts. As nutrition is the
basis of all physical life, we see how important
a function milk performs at the very beginning
of existence in developing and preparing the
digestive tract for the digestion and assimila-
tion of food that must nourish it in later life.
Some years ago I brought out this fact that
milk through its protein has a developmental
as well as a nutritive function to perform.^
The higher mortality following bottle feeding
is not the only reason in favor of maternal nurs-
ing. In feeding the infant with milk from an-
other species — the cow — we are putting a hard
1 The Scientific Monthly, January, 1916.
144 Heredity and Child Culture
curdling milk into a stomach intended and
adapted for soft, flocculent curds. This is the
cause of much indigestion and such substitu-
tion fails to carry out one of the functions that
milk was intended to perform in the scheme of
evolution, — namely, in each species to specially
develop certain parts of the gastro-intestinal
tract that must later on perform most of the
work of digestion.
Every effort should be made to have the
mother nurse her infant, especially during the
first months. If this were done, there would
not only be a distinct lowering of infant mor-
tality but a more vigorous life would be insured.
It is only necessary to note here that while
the general infant mortality has been largely
reduced, that occurring during the first month
of life has not yet been lowered. Since milk is
the only food that supplies all the ingredients
required in the building up of bones, muscles
and other tissues, and in the proportions and
conditions required by each species, the natural
milk is best supplied to the baby by its own
Proper Nutrition 145
mother. The important mineral ingredients,
especially lime, so necessary in bone building,
are also most efficiently supplied by mother's
milk.
The conservation of the milk of a healthy
mother is of such great importance for the in-
fant that every effort should be made to utihze
it. We must first see that the breast is thor-
oughly emptied at each nursing, as this stimu-
lates the secretion. If only a little milk is se-
creted, give what is there at each feeding and
then at once supplement by the bottle. The
regular use of the breast soon stimulates to
better action. We must also furnish the mother
with plenty of food that will supply materials
best suited for making milk and which are rich
in vitamines. The best source of the materials
needed for making milk in the cow is the her-
baceous plants. When the spring grass ap-
pears, cows produce the best milk and in the
greatest quantities. These herbaceous plants
are the original source of vitamines. They are
also found in the germs or embryos of the grass
146 Heredity and Child Culture
seeds. The nursing mother should drink milk,
also broths made from green leaves, such as
spinach, lettuce, celery tops, onion or beet tops.
A porridge or gruel made from cereals contain-
ing the germs will also be found of much value.
Meat is desirable and should usually be taken
twice daily. Sufficient rest should also be
enjoined; a restless, disturbed night will have
a marked effect upon the secretion of mothers^
milk. The importance of all this will be realized
from the fact that over 80 per cent, of the babies
dying before the completion of the first year
are bottle-fed.
When cows' milk has to be entirely substi-
tuted, the greatest care in its collection and dis-
tribution must be exercised. An extra quality
of cow's milk known as ''certified milk" is
now procurable in many communities and is
preferable for babies. The exact formula
and the method of diluting and preparing
cow's milk for babies at different ages should
be regulated by a skilful physician who can
manage each case according to individual
needs.
Proper Nutrition 147
After the nursing period is over, the hours
and methods of feeding are very important for
good nutrition, as well as the selection of proper
food. The value of eating slowly must early
be stressed, as most children and many adults
get in the habit of bolting their food. A few
minutes rest before and after eating will do
much to build up a vigorous digestion. Dur-
ing the school recess, lunch is often hastily
bolted in order to have more time for engaging
in play. Children may sometimes be seen in
games involving violent exercise, with a sand-
wich in one hand, from which hasty bites are
taken during a lull in the game. The school
day should be so arranged that a hot, nourish-
ing dinner may be served during the noon hour.
The heavy meal of the day should be given at
this time to little children. Much of the mal-
nutrition among school children is caused by
faulty arrangement of meals due to prolonged
or inconvenient school hours. Children should
also early be taught to eat plain, wholesome
food. Habits and tastes formed in the first
years have much to do with food customs last-
148 Heredity and Child Culture
ing all through life, and children should thus
be taught to live on simple, nutritious and, if
necessary, inexpensive foods. This should
form part of their education. The palate must
be educated as well as the brain.
The food given little children is often too soft.
Hard, gritty substances are needed to exercise
the teeth and develop the jaws. Too many
sweets and sugary substances also affect the
mouth as well as the digestive tract. These
conditions favor early decay of the teeth, which
does not occur among the lower animals. Ac-
cording to modern studies, the mouth assumes
great importance in the economy of digestion
and assimilation. It is likewise the source of
some focal infections that may affect distant
parts of the body.
After considering the time and manner of eat-
ing, all that remains is to be sure that a properly
balanced diet containing all the necessary in-
gredients for growth and development is given
the child. The following is a convenient classi-
fication found in Farmers' Bulletin, No. 808 of
the U. S. Government.
Proper Nutrition 149
FOODS DEPEinJED ON FOB MINE&AX MATTEBS, VEGETABLE ACIDS,
AND BODY-BEGUIATING SUBSTANCES
Fruits : Vegetables ;
Apples, pears, etc. Salads — lettuce, celery,
Bananas. etc.
Berries. Potherbs or "greens."
Melons. Potatoes and root
Oranges, lemons, etc. vegetables.
Green peas, beans, etc.
Tomatoes, squash, etc.
FOODS DEPENDED ON FOR PROTEIN
Milk, skim milk, cheese, Fish.
etc. Dried peas, beans, cow-
Eggs, peas, etc.
Meat. Nuts.
Poultry.
FOODS DEPENDEa) ON FOB STAECH
Cereal grains, meals. Macaroni and other
Hours, etc. pastes.
Cereal breakfast foods. Cakes, cookies, etarchy
Bread.
puddings, etc.
Crackers.
Potatoes and other
starchy vegetables.
FOODS DEPENDED ON FOB SUGAR
Sugar.
Candies.
Molasses.
Fruits preserved in su-
Syrups.
gar, jellies, and
Houey.
dried fruits.
Sweet cakes and desserts.
FOODS DEPENDED ON FOB FAT
Butter and (
}ream. Salt pork and bacon.
Lard, suet.
and other Table and salad oils.
cooking
fats.
A child should receive one food at least from
the following groups every day :
1. Milk and dishes made chiefly of milk (most
important of the group as regards chil-
dren's diet) ; meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and
meat substitutes.
150 Heredity and Child Culture
2. Bread and other cereal foods. Starchy
vegetables, as potatoes.
3. Butter and other wholesome fats.
4. Green vegetables and fruits.
5. Simple sweets.
Calories as Measures of Food Values
The human body, like the automobile, is run
as an internal combustion engine. Energy may
be conveniently measured in terms of heat,
the calorie or heat unit, being used for this pur-
pose. A calorie is the quantity of heat re-
quired to raise the temperature of one liter of
water one degree centigrade, or very nearly the
amount of heat required to raise the tempera-
ture of one pound of water from 0° to 4° F.
While all nutrients are possible sources of
energy, the body should depend upon fats and
carbohydrates as energy-producing foods,
rather than upon protein, which has tissue build-
ing functions not possessed by the other nutri-
ents. Moreover, fats are more efficient sources
of energy than either protein or carbohydrates.
Proper Nutrition 151
It has been estimated that for every 100 calories,
about 10 per cent, should be produced from pro-
teins, 30 per cent, from fats, and 60 per cent,
from carbohydrates. ^Tiile foods yielding
about 2500 calories a day are required by aver-
age adults in sedentary pursuits, growing chil-
dren may require 3000 to 4000 calories, or even
more, during adolescence.
It is not wise, however, to put too much em-
phasis on calories in measuring nutritional
needs. Heat measurement alone is not always
a safe guide for the calculation of food values.
This is especially true at the beginning of life
when growth is the all important factor. The
foods that build rather than those that readily
undergo oxidation must be properly gauged if
we are to have healthy development. This
means that the great protein suppliers, — meat,
eggs, fish, milk and cereals, — must have an im-
portant place in the dietary. An ounce of lean
meat, furnishing 34 calories, contains 6. 4 grams
of protein ; an ounce of hominy, furnishing 103
calories, contains only 2. 3 grams of protein.
152 Heredity and Child Culture
Therefore, the meat, although weak in calories,
contains three times the tissue building material
found in the hominy.
Trial, experience and results, rather than
mere theorj^, must prove the final test of the
utility of any plan of nutrition.
Under-Nourished Children
Attention has recently been directed to the
large number of growing children who are suf-
fering from various grades of mal-nutrition.
This condition is not confined to any one class
since it is seen as often among the well-to-do
as among the poor. We are largely indebted to
Dr. William E. P. Emerson of Boston for an
investigation of this subject. These children
are often anemic, languid, easily fatigued,
highly nervous or irritable, and do not seem
to fit in well with their environment. The con-
dition is often caused by faulty habits of eating
as well as by badly regulated diets. The im-
mediate effect is not only disastrous, but mal-
nutrition at this time is the cause of many ills
in later life. According to tests made in vari-
Proper Nutrition
153
ous localities, Dr. Emerson believes that from
20 to 40 per cent, of children at the pre-school
and school age in this country show physical
and mental signs of mal-nutrition. One of the
surest methods of recognizing this condition
consists in observing the relation between
weight and height, as children who are habitu-
ally underweight for their height may usually
be considered as under-nourished. In consider-
ing what range of variation may be compatible
with health, 10 per cent, of under weight is taken
as a working hypothesis by Dr. Emerson, as
shown in the following table, —
Height
Average
10%
Average
10%
Inches
Weight for
Under
Weight for
Under
Height
Weight
Height
Wleight
Pounds
Poimds
Pounds
Pounds
BOYS
GIRLS
21
8.2
7.4
7.9
7.1
22
9.7
8.7
9.4
8.5
23
11.1
10.0
11.0
9.9
24
12.5
11.3
12.5
11.3
25
13.9
12.5
14.0
12.6
26
15.3
13.8
15.5
14.0
27
16.9
15.2
17.2
15.5
28
18.5
16.7
18.8
16.9
29
20.2
18.2
20.5
18.5
30
21.7
19.6
22.0
19.8
31
23.2
20.9
23.4
21.1
32
24.5
22.1
24.8
22.3
33
25 9
23.3
26.0
23.4
154 Heredity and Child Culture
Height
Average
10%
Average
10%
Inches
Weight for
Under
Weight for
Under
Height
Weight
Height
Weight
Pounds
Pounds
Pounds
Poimds
34
27.3
24.6
27.3
24.6
35
28.7
25.8
28.6
25.7
36
30.0
27.0
30.0
27.0
37
31.6
28.4
31.5
28.4
38
33.2
29.9
32.7
29.4
39
36.3
32.7
35.7
32.1
40
38.1
34.3
37.4
33.7
41
39.8
35.8
39.2
35.3
42
41.7
37.5
41.2
37.1
43
43.5
39.2
43.1
38.8
44
45.4
40.9
44.8
40.3
45
47.1
42.4
46.3
41.7
46
49.5
44.6
48.5
43.7
47
51.4
46.3
50.9
45.8
48
63.0
47.7
53.3
48.0
49
55.4
49.9
55.8
50.2
50
59.6
53.6
58.3
52.5
61
62.5
56.3
61.1
55.0
52
65.8
59.2
63.8
57.4
53
68.9
62.0
66.8
60.1
54
72.0
64.8
70.3
63.3
55
75.4
67.9
74.5
67.1
56
79.2
71.3
78.4
70.6
57
82.8
74.5
82.5
74.3
58
87.0
78.3
86.6
77.9
59
91.1
82.0
91.1
82.0
60
95.2
85.7
96.7
87.0
61
99.3
89.4
102.5
92.2
62
103.8
93.4
110.4
99.4
63
108.0
97.2
118.0
106.2
64
114.7
103.2
123.0
110.7
65
121.8
109.6
130.0
117.0
66
127.8
115.0
137.0
123.3
67
132.6
119.3
143.0
128.7
68
138.9
125.0
146.9
132.2
A child whose weight does not agree with its
height and who is 10 per cent, under weight is
Proper Nutrition 155
not well nourished. These figures, however,
are only averages, and do not apply to excep-
tional cases. Still they will prove valuable in
leading to a careful study of all the life condi-
tions of a child showing such irregularity. It
is especially when growth is very active that
under feeding or wrong feeding is most disas-
trous. Adolescence is the time that especially
requires a most liberal diet. Quick growth and
marked muscular and glandular activity call
for abundant food. Sometimes children who
are properly fed but who are over-active in
study or play become under-nourished. Dr.
Emerson stresses the importance of rest periods
for under-weight children in addition to regula-
tion of diet. This was well exemplified in a
class of under-nourished children under my ob-
servation in one of the public schools of New
York. An abundant dinner was furnished these
children, of which all partook. A number, how-
ever, failed to gain. When a rest period of an
hour after dinner was added to the regime, these
same children gained also. General hygienic
oversight is therefore required in dealing with
156 Heredity and Child Culture
such children. The first necessity is to stop
habits that interfere with healthy appetite and
digestion. The eating of candy and sweets,
the drinking of tea and coffee, and other dietetic
errors must first be corrected before improve-
ment can be expected.
CHAPTER XIII
THE FAMILY
It is a truism to remark that the welfare of
the child is closely bound up with that of the
family. Any influence that weakens the status
of the family and the home is at once disas-
trously reflected upon the developing child.
The necessity for strengthening and conserving
family relations, as far as possible, in all indi-
vidual and social endeavors is not only shown
in beneficial practical results but has a deep
philosophic reason as well. The family stands
at the foundation of the complete fabric of civ-
ilization.
John Fiske elaborates this thought in his Out-
lines of Cosmic Philosophy, and it may be of
interest to quote some of his words, — *'The
feature by which the most rudimentary human
family group is distinguished from any colloca-
tion of kindred individuals among gregarious
mammals is the pennanent character of the
relationships between its constituent members.
IS7
158 Heredity and Child Culture
Enduring from birth until death, these relation-
ships acquire a traditionary value which passes
on from generation to generation, and thus there
arise reciprocal necessities of behavior between
parents and children, husbands and wives,
brothers and sisters, in which reciprocal neces-
sities of behavior we have discerned the requi-
site conditions for the genesis of those ego-
altruistic impulses which, when further modi-
fied by the expansion of sympathetic feelings,
give birth to moral sentiments. ***** We
bridge the gulf which seems, on a superficial
view, forever to divide the human from the
brute world. And not least, in the grand result,
is the profound meaning which is given to the
phenomena of helpless babyhood. From of old
we have heard the monition, 'Except ye be as
babes, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.*
The latest science now shows us, — though in a
very different sense of the word, — that, unless
we had been as babes, the ethical phenomena
which gives all its significance to the phrase
'kingdom of heaven' would have been non-exis-
tent for us. Without the circumstances of in-
The Family 159
fancy we might have become formidable among
animals through sheer force of sharp-witted-
ness. But, except for these circumstances, we
should never have comprehended the meaning
of such phrases as 'self-sacrifice,' or 'devotion.*
The phenomena of social life would have been
omitted from the history of the world, and with
them the phenomena of ethics and religion.'*
While the bringing up and training of the
child call for watchful care and constant labor,
if it be conscientiously and hopefully under-
taken, there are the greatest rewards and com-
pensations for such efforts. It is only neces-
sary to note what the child does for parents
and the race to see how this must be so. In the
scheme of higher evolution the child stands pre-
eminent. It was the maternal care required
by the long period of helpless infancy that first
initiated altruism into the human race. It takes
time to develop unselfishness and sympathy,
and in the lower animals the interval requiring
such complete care and self-sacrifice is lacking.
It is the helpless child that develops in the
mother carefulness, patience and tendeniess;
i6o Heredity and Child Culture
if these do not exist in her, the child cannot
survive. Merely bringing a child into life is
not sufficient, so that an ethical element is as
necessary as a physical one for continued exis-
tence.
The human child does what the offspring of
the lower animals never accomplishes, — it acts
as a developer of the affections, — it creates the
true mother. Eveiy mother may thus become
a Madonna. The greatest moral force in the
world for its uplifting hence has its original
basis in a physical condition in which the child
plays the leading role. Drummond ^ calls atten-
tion to the fact that before maternal love can be
evolved out of mere rudimentary care, before
love can be made a necessity and carried past
the unhatched egg to the living thing which is
to come out of it, nature must alter all her ways.
He puts it thus, — **Four great changes at
least must be introduced into her programme.
In the first place, she must cause fewer young
to be produced at birth. In the second place,
she must have these young produced in such out-
1 The Ascent of Mem, James Pott & Co.
The Family i6i
ward form that their mothers will recognize
them. In the third place, instead of produc-
ing them in such physical perfection that they
are able to go out into life the moment they are
born, she must make them helpless, so that for
a time they must dwell with her if they are to
live at all. And, fourthly, it is required that
she shall be made to dwell with them; that in
some way they also should be made necessary,
— physically necessary, — to her to compel her
to attend to them. All these beautiful arrange-
ments we find carried out to the last detail."
The human mother is thus primarily made by
these four processes. During this period the
mother also requires care and protection, and
thus is evolved the father, giving love and sup-
port to mother and offspring. In this way the
family is created, which is the unit of civiliza-
tion around which cluster all the higher attri-
butes of man.
Love, apart from passion and selfishness, is
due to children : it has descended directly from
them. The nurture and care of children, if
properly conceived and carried out, constitute
i62 Heredity and Child Culture
the great educators in the character of parents.
For children give more than they take. They
are the greatest ci\ilizers and humanizers of
the race. Without their unconscious but bene-
ficient influence, we would soon relapse into a
possibly refined but selfish barbarism. The
child has done more for the regeneration of the
race than-all the creeds that have ever been for-
mulated.
As the best physical, moral and social de-
velopment of child life takes place in the indi-
vidual home, every effort must be made to
strengthen and conserve family life. The child
forms the connective link of the family, which,
in turn, represents the earliest human unit of
association, antedating both church and state.
In fact, the earliest form of government found
expression in the patriarchal family. In social
evolution, the monogamous relationship exhibits
the highest form that family life has attained.
It is probable that promiscuity marked the life
of primitive man. Among many early tribes
and nations, the family in the modern sense
cannot be said to have functioned. Ther ideal
The Family 163
of monogamous marriage puts the home as the
centre of family life, and all must recognize that
here is the best place for child training. The
home properly organized also elevates women
and promotes religion. All remedial efforts
both individual and social, must begin in the
home, and, if results are to be enduring, must
likewise end there.
As the child has done so fnuch in the evolu-
tion of the family and of civilization itself, it
it is evident that parents have a most important
duty in training the young and developing a
normal familj' life. To this end, parents should
see more of their children in order to study
their individual needs and possibilities. Too
often they are early relegated to nurses and
governesses, and later to pedagogues who can-
not have the personal interest that should be
possessed by parents.
During infancy and early childhood, the
mother is frequently Avilling to trust the child
to an ignorant nursemaid of the peasant type,
who has not had a proper training for this im-
portant service. Preparation and education
164 Heredity and Child Culture
are required for all callings and professions ex-
cept the most important one of all, — that of
caring for little children. The mothers them-
selves are the natural ones to give the major
care to their young children, or, if desiring help,
should have the knowledge and character to
properly direct the nurse. Babies grow fond
of those who personally minister to their wants,
and it is pathetic to see an infant turn away
from a refined mother and cry for some coarse,
ignorant but kindly woman who feeds and cares
for it. A little later, vulgar language and un-
desirable habits may be acquired by such close
association.
There is no nobler profession in the world
than that of mother. Like all callings in the
modern world, it demands efficiency. While
women have striven for advancement in all
phrases of present day activities, — science, art,
literature and social organization, they have
often not kept pace with a wiser regimen in the
rearing of children. It might be well to estab-
lish schools of motherhood where, based upon
a general foundation of biology, the students
The Family 165
could be taught the hygiene, physiology and
psychology of childhood. If such knowledge
could be applied, it would not take many gener-
ations to secure a better, sounder race. Such
a schoal might confer a degree that would be
equivalent to that obtained by becoming pro-
ficient in ancient history or the parallelopiped
of forces. Much of the underlying restlessness
and discontent in life, so often seen among our
better-favored women would soon disappear if
they could obtain a fresh orientation by study-
ing and helping the little child. The average
father has also an important duty, too often
neglected, in studying and directing his chil-
dren. He is so immersed in the business of
making money to care for their material wants,
that he has little or no time to guide their men-
tal and spiritual development in the right di-
rection. The social engagements of the mother
and the business preoccupations of the father,
result in no time being left for the children.
They are thus sent to boarding schools and sum-
mer camps and the whole duty of oversight
shifted to the pedagogue. It is time more par-
i66 Heredity and Child Culture
eiits themselves attended to the difficult and
serious work of raising their offspring.
One of the greatest evils of divorce, that is
now unfortunately so prevalent, is the total dis-
regard of the real interest of children. The
breaking up of the home and handing them out
from one parent to the other in six-month
shifts has a most disastrous effect. The in-
herent selfishness of the men and women who
stand for this practice is appalling.
What is much needed among all classes at the
present time is more of an appreciation of the
great responsibility of bringing children into
the world and the necessity of giving them
a wholesome, happy family life. It is only thus
that a normal, healthy generation can be reared.
Some of our advanced communistic philoso-
phers have lately proposed that children be
separated from their parents and brought up in
huge caravansaries under the care of the state.
These pseudo-thinkers are as ignorant of bi-
ology as of experience. Their pronouncements
are better fitted for the barnyard than for
civilized society. All experience shows that
The Family 167
the highest development of the child takes place
in the individual family and home.
The trend away from the home is one of the
evils of the day and must be checked if future
civilization is not to become retrogressive.
The family must be conserved at any cost if
only for the benefit of the child.
CHAPTEE XIV
THE DEPENDENT CHILD
The abandoned, dependent child forms a
problem that has been poorly solved by modern
society. We have warnings that some of our
methods of cliild care are not the best. Those
who thoughtfully work for dependent infants
and children have long felt stirrings of dis-
content with the methods in common use. We
need a fresh orientation to guide our efforts in
newer and more productive channels. A new
spirit is called for which is not easy to find, and
in which the individual needs of every neglected
child will be considered. In this period of gen-
eral reconstruction, let us try and put the salv-
age of abandoned, dependent children on a
natural and secure basis. To this end, all
remedial efforts should be planned, as far as
possible, along the line of Nature's laws.
i68
The Dependent Child 169
It is only necessary to glance at some of
the methods employed, to understand why re-
sults have been so unsatisfactory. Many years
ago needy children were sent to poor-houses,
with or without their parents as the case might
be. This plan worked badly; subsequently,
they were boarded out in a careless, haphazard
manner. The old baby-farming experience at
once comes to mind, where an ignorant woman,
liying in squalor, took as many babies to board
as she could accommodate, with a sick and death
rate that was appalling. The late Dr. Elisha
Harris, once reporting on this subject, stated
that in New York, from 1854 to 1859, about
1000 infants were boarded out each year, and
ninety out of one hundred did not live to see
their first birthday. As this plan was so de-
plorable it was determined to house this class
of children in large institutions where doctors
and nurses could hold sway and try for better
results. But when some years later this same
class of infants was collected in an institution
on Eandall's Island, the results with young in-
fants were frequently worse, as the death rate
170 Heredity and Child Culture
often reached 95 per cent, if they were kept
very long.
In this gradual evolution of saving destitute
children, the pathway, with many digressions,
started at the almshouse ; next followed the plan
of careless farming out, and then came the con-
gregate and cottage institution. Finally we
have some sort of boarding out as the best solu-
tion of a very difficult problem.
The public systems for the care of dependent
children by the various states have been classi-
fied by Homer Folks as follows : ^
1. The state school and placing-out system,
adopted by Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Rhode Island, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska,
Montana, Nevada and Texas. While the chil-
dren may first be collected in an institution, the
aim of this system is to place them in actual
homes as soon as possible.
2. The county children's home system,
adopted by Ohio, Connecticut and Indiana.
While placing-out is practised to some extent,
it is not an important feature of this system.
1 The Care of Neglected, Destitute and Delinquent Children,
The Macmillan Co.
The Dependent Child 171
3. The plan of supporting public charges in
private institutions, which prevails in New
York, California, Maryland, District of Colum-
bia, and to some extent in several other states.
By per capita payments this plan encourages a
long retention and building up of large institu-
tions with a discouragement of placing-out.
4. The boarding-out and placing-out system,
which is carried on directly by the public author-
ities in Massachusetts ; through a private organ-
ization— the Children's Aid Society — in Penn-
sylvania ; and has recently been undertaken by
the state authorities in New Jersey.
Thus in three states dependent children are
directly boarded-out in family homes, followed
by eiforts made to place them in perma-
nent free homes. This plan was earliest
developed in Massachusetts, where it has been
successfully carried out on a large scale since
1882, when the children began to be removed
from the state primary school. The latter was
entirely abolished in 1895, since which time all
the state dependent children have been boarded
out. Three years later (1898) the city of Boston
172 Heredity and Child Culture
likewise abandoned the institutional plan and
placed all destitute children in family homes.
It is the infant that suffers most from
institutional care. Babies are brought into:
the world singly and not in droves, and they
crave individual care and mothering. The
little child craves love. That close human ob-
server, Jane Addams, with sympathetic vision,
puts it thus : — ''We are told that the will to live
is aroused in each baby by his mother 's irresist-
ible desire to play with him, the physiological
value of joy that a child is born, and that the
high death rate in institutions is increased by
the discontented babies whom no one persuades
into living."
In the last report of the State Board of Char-
ities of New York, it is stated that 57.2 per cent,
of infants under one year died in infant asylums
through the state. There have been similar
results as long as records have been kept.
Under three months, the mortality often reaches
two-thirds of the cases admitted. Some years
ago the American Child Hygiene Association
reported that during a series of years, the
The Dependent Child 173
general death rate of children under two years
in the State of New York was about one-fifth
that of institutions. It is only fair to add that
they frequently receive abandoned infants in a
weakened condition and that such cases are
hard to manage. The bad results are not due
to lack of kindness or attention, but to the fact
that the whole system is wrong. ^ Good mo-
tives and bad methods may coexist. It often
requires the work of the wise to correct the mis-
takes of the good.
Aside from the large death rate, there is much
sickness in the institutions, due largely to con-
1 To those who are specially interested, reference is made to
the following articles I have written on this subject:
"A Plan of Dealing with Atrophic Infants and Children."
Archives of Pediatrics, July, 1908.
"The Proper Management of Foundlings and Neglected
Infants." N. Y. Med. Record, February 18, 1911.
"Are Institutions for Infants Necessary?" Jour. A.M.A.
January 2, 1915.
"A Plea for Accurate Statistics in Infant's Institutions,"
Archives of Pediatrics, October, 1915.
"A Scheme of State Control for Dependent Infants."
A'. Y. Med. Record, June 17, 1916.
"Systematized Boarding Out vs. Institutional Care for
Infants and Young Children." N. Y. Med. Journal, June
2. 1917.
"Tlie Speedwell Plan of Child Sa\ang in Theory and Prac-
tice." The Survey, Octol>er 26, 1918.
"Problems of Boarding-out, with an Attempted Solution."
N. Y. Med. Record, April 24. 1920.
A little volume entitled, The Traffic in Babies, by George
Walker, M.D., published by the Norman Remington Company,
Baltimore, makes startling reading.
174 Heredity and Child Culture
tact infections. It seems impossible to avoid
manifold cross infections when those sus-
ceptible infants are handled in mass. They
have a low resistance ; all kinds of colds, especi-
ally of the influenza type, spread unchecked, and
many cases of bronchitis and broncho-pneu-
monia are thus contracted. If the specific con-
tagions, such as measles, scarlet-fever, whoop-
ing-cough or chicken-pox gain access to an in-
stitution, as they very frequently do, they
spread like wild fire and the results are often
most disastrous.
There is also constant danger in children's
hospitals, as well as asylums, from the entrance
and spread of these infections. I do not
approve of the multiplication of infants' and
children's hospitals through the country. A
few can do all the necessary work. In most
cases, a small ward in a general hospital can
function efficiently and economically for sick
children requiring special care. The hospital
need only be utilized for surgical operations,
for severe illnesses requiring highly specialized
nursing and treatment, and for scientific obser-
The Dependent Child 175
vation of obscure cases requiring much labora-
tory study. Children, and especially infants,
do not respond well to prolonged hospital care.
As soon as acute symptoms of disease have
passed, they should be promptly discharged.
Otherwise, there is liable to be recurrence of the
original disease or a succumbing to some com-
municable infection. Convalescence should
take place elsewhere.
Recognizing this fact, in 1890 I started Hos-
pital Social Service in connection with the
children's division of the New York Post-Grad-
uate Hospital. After a quick discharge, the
necessary medical, surgical and social after-
care takes place in the home. I believe this
represents the first activity of the kind to be
started and kept up as a routine proceeding.^
In this connection it is interesting to note that
the nurses of the Henry Street Settlement
of New York got better results with certain
diseases of childhood, notably pneumonia,
treated at home than do any of the hospitals.
1 "The Relation Between the Child and Hospital Social
Service" — Journal of the American Medical Association,
July 23, 1921.
176 Heredity and Child Culture
Aside from infection the infants in institu-
tions often progressively lose weight and lie in
rows of cots in an apathetic condition, as there
are usually too few attendants to take them up
for needed change and exercise. It is especi-
ally at night that babies may lie unattended
from this cause. They rarely get enough fresh
outside air : oxygen is needed as well as food to
keep them in vigor. All these factors result in
the devitalized babies so often seen in institu-
tions. In warm climates they suffer much less
from confinement in institutions, owing to the
fact that windows may be kept open and their
cots can be placed on porches or in courtyards.
Owing to the facts here noted, the drift of
opinion among thoughtful workers is strongly
against the collective management of these
cases, especially when the numbers are large.
There has been an extraordinary agreement on
this question among those who have had the
widest opportunity for observation and experi-
ment.
As far back as 1909, a conference on the care
of dependent children was held at Washington
The Dependent Child 177
D. C, at the call of President Roosevelt, who
was much interested in this vital human prob-
lem. A large number of practical workers and
experts in child saving from all parts of the
country took part in the deliberations of this
conference. Among many conclusions reached
upon diverse problems of child saving, the
following especially concern us here: "Home
life is the highest and finest product of civi-
lization. It is the great molding force of mind
and character. Children should not be de-
prived of it except for urgent and compelling
reasons. ****** As to the children who
for sufficient reasons must be removed from
their own homes or who have no homes, it is
desirable that, if normal in mind or body, and
not requiring special training, they should be
cared for in families whenever practicable.
The carefully selected foster home is for the
normal child the best substitute for the natural
home.'' We have thus represented in these
words the national opinion on this subject.
Ten years later an International Conference
of Red Cross Societies, held at Cannes, gave
1 78 Heredity and Child Culture
what can fairly be said to represent the best
world thought on this question: '* Permanent
institutional care for infants and young chil-
dren should be discouraged on account of the
almost insuperable difficulties in maintaining
nutrition in infancy under these conditions and
because of the great susceptibility of young
children to infection; preference should be
given to placing such children in suitable
families."
Two experiments might be mentioned in
which a striking difference between institu-
tional and home care of abandoned infants has
been recorded. In San Francisco the mortal-
ity for years in the foundling asylums averaged
50 per cent. The authorities of these institu-
tions finally consented to abandon the institu-
tional care and resorted to boarding out with
careful oversight. A group of young college
women undertook the follow-up work, and once
a week all the babies are brought to a central
station for weighing and general advice. As
a result, the mortality of this class of cases has
been reduced to 12 per cent.
The Dependent Child 179
A more striking comparison between institu-
tional and boarding out mortality is afforded
by the results obtained by the Sage Foundation
and the Department of Health with babies taken
from the marasmus ward of the N. Y. Found-
ling hospital.^ This ward receives only the
chronic cases of extreme atrophy that have al-
ways ended in death. In boarding out a num-
ber of these babies, an extra bonus was given
to selected women, and a doctor and a nurse
furnished for every ten babies. As a result
there was an eventual mortality of 46 per cent.
Thus nearlv half of the babies were saved in
the home who were bound to die in the institu-
tion.
As expert opinion is in such wide agreement
upon stressing of family homes rather than the
institution in the care of the abandoned young,
it is strange that more thought and effort have
not been placed on the problems of boarding
out. The latter has not always functioned as
well as it should, owing to lack of proper over-
sight and regulation.
1 Womw^'a Medical Journal, Jan. 1916.
i8o Heredity and Child Culture
The two main difiBculties of boarding out con-
sist, first in selecting a suitable home, and next
in exercising constant and proper supervision.
Where boarding out has fallen short, one or
both of these factors have not been sufficiently
emphasized.
The Speedwell System
After much thought on this subject, in 1902,
I developed what is known as the Speedwell
System, that represents a sustained effort so
to regulate and systematize boarding out as to
place its good effects at a maximum and its
possible bad effects at a minimum. This has
been accomplished by developing what may be
called a unit system of intensive boarding out.
A unit consists of a neighborhood selected
after a survey has been made to learn the
general conditions of healthfulness and the
number of good homes available in the locality.
There is then inaugurated a constant over-
sight, especially as to diet and hygiene, on the
part of a salaried physician and nurse who are
thoroughly familiar with this class of cases and
The Dependent Child i8i
competent to deal with them. The children are
kept indefinitely until digestion and assimila-
tion have improved sufficiently to result in a
peimanent increase in weight and strength.
Efforts are made to train in each neighbor-
hood a number of foster mothers, who, by
natural aptitude under instruction and by con-
stantly taking infants and young children into
their homes, become fairly expert in handling
them under conditions totally unlike those of-
fered by institutions and far superior to them.
We thus try to carry on an important educa-
tional work among the families taking our chil-
dren. The constant oversight of our doctor and
nurse is aimed to help each foster mother in the
care of her own children as well. The homes
in which the children are placed are helped
financially by the board paid, and morally by
the good advice and watching of the trained
observers.
Thus the simple machinery that endeavors to
really and permanently help the abandoned and
ailing child will, at the same time, assist in edu-
cating each community in which it operates in
i82 Heredity and Child Culture
prevention and care of its own ailing children.
This by-product, involving improved social
ideals and a higher standard of living, may be
made a very important feature of this work.
It need hardly be stated that this individual
and social ideal, in order to attain its highest
success, must be operated by those who believe
in it and are willing to put forth enthusiastic
efforts toward its support. In other words, the
human effort is here the important factor, and
the system in order to attain its greatest effi-
ciency calls for high grade workers who can
idealize their efforts, as well as for good family
homes where the boarded-out children will be
reared under constant and intelligent super-
vision. The emphasis is thus placed on human
agents rather than on bricks and mortar.
The underlying idea of a unit is to include a
certain area in city or country that will be
suffiiciently circumscribed to allow the workers
to be acquainted with the personnel of the
neighborhood and accessible for communication.
It may include a part of the whole of a village
or a certain district or a ward in a city.
The Dependent Child 183
The formation of a unit involves first the
selection of a number of promising homes after
the preliminary survey. Our experience has
shown that it is a mistake to be too fastidious
at first in selecting the homes. If the woman
of the household has motherly instincts and
fairly healthy children of her own, and seems
teachable, a certain amount of dirt and dis-
order can well be overlooked at the start. A
porch or back yard, or some open space, is most
essential, as plenty of fresh air is one of the im-
portant features of this work.
The next step is to select a committee of
women living in or near the locality selected for
the unit, who are familiar with the neighbor-
hood and the people, and who constitute the
local managers of the undertaking. They may
help in raising money and supplies, assist in
friendly visiting in the homes, acquaint them-
selves with neighborhood conditions, and in
these and other ways exercise general super-
vision of the work. A further possibility of
this endeavor may be to enable the well-to-do
classes to properly envisage the life conditions
184 Heredity and Child Culture
of those less favored and thereby to develop
genuine human relationships.
The records kept of the children are uniform
in all the units, and careful histories on a card
system show the conditions and results of their
care.
There is a unit at Morristown, N. J., one
at Yonkers, N. Y., and one at New Rochelle,
N. Y., operated by the Free Synagogue of New
York, which prepares abandoned children for
adoption in Jewish homes. There is now being
started a unit in the Kingsbridge section of
New York City. The results as shown by a
lowered death rate, and the production of
healthy, normal children proves the superior-
ity of this system over other plans of child
saving. Each large city can be surrounded
by units, and also have units, as well as collect-
ing stations, in town. A rough outline of
existing units is shown by the first two dia-
grams, while the third illustrates our ideal for
the general extension of the work.
On the economic side, it is cheaper, as there
are no overhead expenses for the operation of
The Dependent Child 185
buildings requiring service and supplies. In
figuring institution expense, the cost of the
plant and equipment, as well as the remitted
taxes must be included.
Fig. 1. Outline of Morristown Unit.
The Speedwell system can be indefinitely
enlarged by the simple multiplication of units,
all operating on the same plan, and only requir-
1 86 Heredity and Child Culture
ing as the work enlarges a central registry for
temporary reception and distribution of cases.
One or two rooms in a tenement house could
serve the purpose.
Fig. 2. Outline of Yonkers Unit.
In this system which has been in successful
operation for twenty years, I believe we have
the best solution of a baffling problem. It has
responded to the pragmatic test, — it works.
At the International Congress for Child Wei'
The Dependent Child 187
fare recently held in Brussels, the Congress
recommended the organization throughout
Europe of the unit method of board-
Fig. 3. Diagram showing present extent of Speedwell
work and possibilities of expansion.
( 1 ) Morristown Unit.
(2) Yonkers Unit.
(3) New Rochelle Unit.
(4) City Unit (Kingsbridge).
( ?) Other possible units in town and country.
ing out, as operated by the Speedwell System
in the United States.
"While older children do not suffer as do
1 88 Heredity and Child Culture
infants in mortality and morbidity from institu-
tional life they are under abnormal conditions
if they stay too long in such a place. The de-
fective or delinquent child is best handled in an
institution, but all others do better outside.
The mass training of defectives is often more
effective than individual care.
Professor E. P. Devine ^ states that while in
some places institutions seem necessary, yet
they should not be encouraged, as they are
wasteful of child life, wasteful of economic
efficiency and character, promotive often of a
spirit the opposite of law abiding, and this be-
cause they do not give an experience to the child
in natural family and neighborhood relation-
ships, do not give an opportunity for the devel-
opment of self-reliance and self-direction, do
not gradually initiate the child into the every
day routine of free citizenship, but necessarily
repress his budding individuality, limit and con-
trol the exercise of his judgment as to his body,
contract his vision, mutilate his faculties and
distort his sense of values.
1 "The Normal Life" — Survey Associates.
The Dependent Child 189
Professor Devine reaches the following con-
clusion,— "It is the large institution under pri-
vate or religious auspices, managed by a self-
perpetuating or appointed board, but sup-
ported by state or municipal appropria-
tions, which is most diflScult to keep human
and educational. To keep within reasonable
bounds as to size, or within reasonable bounds
as to its subtle influence on state and municipal
affairs. The subsidy or contract system con-
tinually grows by wtiat it feeds on. It repre-
sents an unsound principle of divorcing control
from support. One body directs the affairs of
the institution; another pays the bills. The
result is a division of responsibility and the
neglect of the child. ^'
There are times when it is difficult to avoid
placing children in institutions, but in such cases
the stay should be as short as possible, and, as
the cottage plan does away with some of the
evils, it should be the one of choice. The
old congregate system, where children are
housed in large dormitories, should be aban-
doned. The inmates too often lose all individ-
190 Heredity and Child Culture
ual initiative and become little automatons
The spread of evil habits and associations can
occur very easily under institutional auspices.
Thomas Mott Osborne has said that many of
his wards at Sing Sing Prison had their early
training in institutions. He recently told me
that a study of a group of prisoners at Auburn
once showed that two-thirds of them had
previously been inmates of juvenile institu-
tions.
It is thus evident that every effort should be
made to keep children out of large institutions.
So far as the child is concerned, the United
States is institution-ridden, as there are rela-
tively more here than in any other country.
Scotland has the honor of maintaining the few-
est. If parents die or are utterly unable to care
for their children, some form of boarding out
should be employed. The Speedwell plan can
work with older as well as younger children,
as it does away with the usual objection to
boarding out, — lack of constant oversight.
A very great advance has been made in solv-
ing the problem of widows with children. Miss
The Dependent Child 191
Loeb^ has stated that the local governments in
41 states have now solved this question by-
entering widows' homes and seeing to it that
the dependent children have that home influence
which is most essential in the rearing of citi-
zens. A Widows' Pension Law has been
enacted in these states after the deliberations
of a commission charged with the work of in-
vestigating the subject. Thus, instead of
removing dependent children from their own
mothers and paying institutions to care for
them, the money is paid to the mother herself
and the home thereby kept intact. It is fur-
ther stated by Miss Loeb that during the first
six months of a recent year, New York City
cared for 16,526 children together with their
mothers: for the same period, 20,868 children
were housed in private institutions. Aside
from the great humanitarian element involved,
it cost New York nearly twice as much to keep
children in institutional homes as compared
with the cost of keeping them in the private
homes of their mothers.
^Everyman's Child — The Century Co.
192 Heredity and Child Culture
The magnitude and importance of the problem
raised by the abandoned child has not been suf-
ficiently realized. Last year, in New York
State alone, 31,177 dependent children were be-
ing trained and housed in institutions. Are
these little lives being badly warped from un-
natural surroundings? Shall they later be-
come assets or liabilities to the community?
We must always remember that children consti-
tute the greatest possible future asset of the
State. If they are improperly nurtured,
society will later be obliged to build other in-
stitutions for protection. It is cheaper and
wiser to try to raise the child in a wholesome,
normal manner. To this end, everything must
be done to conserve the home. Children must
be educated and the parents re-educated, if nec-
essary, along normal lines. The great re-
sponsibility of parenthood and the importance
of conserving family relationships must be in-
culcated. In some instances, shiftless parents
are encouraged too easily to cast off respon-
sibility for their children.
For the abandoned, dependent child, sympa-
The Dependent Child 193
thetic care according to its needs must be
rendered. An increasing knowledge of the
real requirements of child life will not tolerate
faulty methods much longer, for a larger and
wiser human spirit is at work on these problems,
which is not content to put up with evils that
can be prevented. A wider vision, truer cour-
age, and broader human feeling is needed in
this work. The results will be worthy of the
effort.
The most powerful forces of nature, such as
heat, electricity or the all-embracing ether, are
subtle and unseen ; may we not include mother
love as another most potent agency in creat-
ing and sustaining life?
Phillips Brooks says very wisely, — **He who
helps a child helps humanity with a distinct-
ness, with an immediateness, which no other
help given to human creatures in any other
stage of their human life can possibly give
again.**
CHAPTER XV
THE ADOPTION OP CHILDREN
Attention has been directed in a previous
chapter to the fact that the poorest families
usually have the largest number of children.
If sickness or death comes to such a family, to
cripple or remove the bread winner, the chil-
dren are often stranded and the community
must then come to the rescue. In many in-
stances, the institution steps in and affords
the needed refuge.
On the other hand, many people in easy or
independent circumstances, have few or no
children. This is not entirely due to birth con-
trol, as is usually supposed. In many cases,
it is owing to physical causes that are trouble-
some or impossible of removal. Civilization is
hard on women and the higher they are in the
social scale, the more difficult and uncertain be-
comes the question of maternity. If some of
194
The Adoption of Children 195
the surplus children at one end of the social
scale could be transferred to the opposite end,
the results would be most beneficial. This
' means that the homeless child should be placed
in a childless home, to the lasting benefit of
both.
There is always going on a social current
moving from below upward; too high a degree
of civilization often has a devitalizing influence
on both the individual and society. There is
some truth in the old adage that it takes three
generations to get from shirtsleeves to shirt-
sleeves.
It is not only in married homes which are
childless that the adoption of children would be
beneficial. If well-to-do spinsters would take
one or two children and bring them up in their
homes, there would be less neurasthenia and
hysteria in this class. The maternal instinct
is often highly developed in unmarried women,
and this plan would afford it a normal and use-
ful outlet.
A vigorous stream of life may thus be made
to flow into some of our older families by en-
196 Heredity and Child Culture
grafting children who, although having a poor
social inheritance, may yet be the possessors
of a healthy organic inheritance. As a matter
of fact, our oldest and so-called best families
often cannot be safe in looking too closely into
their ancestry. Many of the proudest families
in Europe are descended from glorified cut-
throats whose only claim to distinction lay
in slaughtering the peasants of neighboring
countries. The best known families of our own
democracy have had forbears who engaged in
the useful though humble occupations of stage-
drivers, ferrymen, and fur traders.
It is also a fact that individuals of the same
race are more nearly related than is generally
supposed. The following is a quotation from
Conklin : ' ' Davenport concludes that no people
of English descent are more distantly related
than thirtieth cousins, while most people are
much more closely related than that. ' ' If there
is a good organic heredity back of any child,
a favorable environment will do the rest.
It is thus wise and safe to encourage the adop-
tion of abandoned children who are normal and
The Adoption of Children 197
healthy. The beneJ&cial effect will follow not
only to the child but to the family taking it in.
The adoption of children goes back to great
antiquity. The Babylonians had laws for its
regulation, as mentioned in the Code of Ham-
marubi composed 2285 b. c. Mr. John Francis
Brosnan,^ of the New York bar, has written an
interesting monograph upon this subject from
which the following excerpts are taken, — ' * Look-
ing first to Rome, the admitted source of our
law on this subject, we find that from its
earliest days the civil law recognized adoption.
At first it was attended with great ceremonial
dignity. Later, Justinian simplified and codi-
fied its procedure. Originally accomplished by
authority of the people assembled in Comita,
it later became effective by imperial rescript
or by a proceeding before a magistrate wherein
appeared personally the person giving, the per-
son given, and the person receiving. The re-
sults were far reaching. Not only the person
adopted came under the power of the person
adopting him, but the power given to the adopt-
^The Medical Times, June, 1917.
198 Heredity and Child Culture
ing father extended over the children and the
grandchildren of the person adopted. * * * *
From Eoman law quite naturally the practice
became incorporated in the jurisprudence of the
Latin races. In ancient epochs it was prevalent
in some portions of France, but not permitted in
others. It seems to have been of varying kinds.
There was a form whereby a man took the name
of the person adopting him and agreed to bear
arms in his behalf. This did not give him any
new property rights. * * * * The Code Napo-
leon, which crystallized the French law, did not
provide for an absolute change of family. In-
deed, it did not permit the adoption of minors,
but prepared the way for adoption by creating
what was termed an ofiScial tutorship. By the
Spanish law the person adopted succeeded as
heir to the one adopting him. * * * * The
Assyrians, the Greeks, and the Egyptians all
recorded it. In Greece, in the interests of the
next of kin, it was provided that the ceremony
should be attended with certain formalities and
take place at the time of certain festivals.
Among the Egyptians we have the historic a-
The Adoption of Children 199
doption of Moses, set forth in the words of Holy
Writ,— 'And she adopted him for a son and
called him Moses, saying I took him out of the
water.' The Hebrew law is silent on the sub-
ject. Some writers have urged that the words
of St. Paul show that it was well known to them,
but it is submitted that these similes were
painted by the great apostle for the Romans and
the Galatians, people who knew and practised
adoption. Adoption among the ancient Ger-
mans was attended with military ceremonies
and the placing of warlike weapons in the hands
of the adopted. * * * * We find it among the
tribal customs of the Indians of the Western
World. * * * * While adoption is now general
in the United States, it was not until the middle
half of the nineteenth century that statutes
changing the common law so as to permit the
same were enacted, Massachusetts, in 1851,
being the first of the common law States to
pass the same."
Statutes permitting and regulating adoption
are now in force in most of the States of the
Union. The legal relations are the same as
200 Heredity and Child Culture
those that exist between natural parents and
children, including control, obedience and in-
heritance rights. In some states an order of
the court is required, while in others a deed
acknowledged and recorded is sufficient to con-
summate the adoption.
The following excerpts are taken from the
New York State law: ''The foster parent or
parents, the person to be adopted, and all the
persons whose consent is necessary * * *
must appear before the County judge or the sur-
rogate of the county where the foster parent or
parents reside and be examined by such judge
or surrogate. * * * * if satisfied that the moral
and temporal interests of the person to be
adopted will be promoted thereby, the judge
or surrogate must make an order allowing
and confirming such adoption, reciting the rea-
sons therefor, and directing that the person to
be adopted shall thenceforth be regarded and
treated in all respects as the child of the foster
parent or parents. ' '
England is one of the few civilized countries
that has no adoption laws and never has had
The Adoption of Children 201
any. It is strange that since the War, with all
the orphans and war babies needing homes, this
great legal defect has not been corrected by act
of parliament.
There are various ways in which children are
received and offered for adoption. The orphan
and juvenile asylums have usually a larger or
smaller number of children who are available
for adoption. It is often difficult to get them
out, however, owing to religious and other quali-
fications that are not easy to fulfill. Some of
the large Societies having close relationships
with children, such as the State Charities Aid
Association and Children's Aid Society of New
York, also have as an important feature of
their work the adoption of children. Since
1898 the former Society has placed 3400 chil-
dren in homes for adoption; in the last six
years, the latter organization has done the
same beneficent work for 432 children and the
great majority have turned out well. It is a
most satisfactory and promising kind of reme-
dial effort, as the results are constructive and
permanent. The greater the number of agen-
202 Heredity and Child Culture
cies that will attack this problem, the more wide-
spread and flexible will be the efforts and re-
sults.
In 1910 my wife, wishing especially to help
this class of cases, began taking abandoned in-
fants and little children into our home to pre-
pare them for adoption. To our surprise, there
was a greater demand for these little waifs
than we could readily supply. Accordingly, the
Alice Chapin Adoption Nursery was launched
in an apartment where eight babies at a time
are nurtured, with adoption in view. Over four
hundred children have been placed in good
homes all over the country since the beginning
of this work. Some of the features came as an
additional surprise. It is understood that any
child can be returned within a year, and yet
among this large number only eight have been
sent back. In these returned cases the fault
lay more with the foster parents than with the
children, as other and more satisfactory place-
ments were soon made for the latter. It is as-
tonishing how soon close and tender relation-
ships are established between the foster parents
The Adoption of Children 203
and these children. It early becomes as un-
thinkable to separate them as if they were their
own children. They are proudly exhibited and
their good points paraded in quite the orthodox
paternal and maternal manner. They have
brought life and brightness into drab homes-
neurotic women have forgotten their peculiar
ailments in watching the child develop. It
forms a very satisfactory *' sublimation" for
many unrestful women. Another strange phe-
nomenon is that where a little one is adopted
as a companion for the only child who fre-
quently leads such a lonely life, the newcomer is
soon loved as well as the real son or daughter.
Others have engaged in this work. The Spence
Alumnae Society has done so for a long time,
and thereby contributed to the rescuing of
numerous infants and given happiness to many
families. This work thrives best in small units,
as does all remedial aid for children. It can be
operated all over the country, and, if so, there
would soon be few homeless children and child-
less homes.
204 Heredity and Child Culture
The Illegitimate Child
What is to become of the illegitimate child?
Is one way better than another in dealing with
this difficult question? The extent of the prob-
lem varies in different countries and districts.
Infants bom out of wedlock reach from three
to twelve per cent, of all births in civilized coun-
tries. There is a yearly average of 32,000 ille-
gitimate births among the white population of
the United States. They do not differ much,
if any, from other infants except that they
present a higher death rate. This is because
of lack of proper care, which the deserted
mothers are not able to give. In many cases
these babies are unusually well formed and at-
tractive.
Most agencies and institutions handling these
cases recommend that the mother keep the baby
on the ground that her character will be stabil-
ized by love for her child. While this is doubt-
less true in some cases, I believe, under present
social conditions, it is wiser as a rule to sepa-
rate them and have the child adopted into a
The Adoption of Children 205
good family if marriage is out of the question.
My reasons for this are reached after wide ex-
perience and observation. In the first place,,
the child, who is the only innocent party in the
whole transaction, should have the primary
consideration. To be brought up in a pre-
carious manner by the hard struggles of an un-
married mother, without normal home life,
and with the stigma of illegitimacy hanging over
its head, is not a happy outlook. The mother
herself cannot escape the cruel implication of
the scarlet letter. This will all be avoided by
having the woman face her trouble away from
home and, after nursing her baby long enough
to give it a good start, have it adopted into
some family able to give protection and train-
ing as well as love and thus open the door of
future opportunity. Outside of a few inti-
mates, the world can thus be kept in ignorance
of the girl's misfortune. I have rarely seen
any of these young women who could be con-
sidered bad. They are rather ignorant and un-
sophisticated, and give for love what many
better placed women give for position or for-
2o6 Heredity and Child Culture
tune. There is no connection between this class
of women and prostitutes, who usually cannot
have children if they would. Thus both woman
and child should not be punished but protected,
and directed to the wisest outcome of their
trouble.
Miss Plows-Day, one of the founders of the
National Adoption Society of England, as a re-
sult of close personal experience derived from
more than twenty years of rescue work among
all kinds of fallen women in London, has con-
cluded that if the child is taken entirely out of
the unfortunate conditions under which it was
born by being properly adopted, it has the very
best, if not the only chance for future happiness
and health of soul, mind and body. She has
recognized the inaccuracy of the argument that
a girl who keeps her illegitimate child is less
apt to fall again than if she was helped back,
as far as possible, to her former social and eco-
nomic position. The contrary has been her ex-
perience. While during the child's earliest
years it may appear to help steady the mother
to let her keep her child, the strained relations
The Adoption of Children 207
will sooner or later have a bad effect upon
both child and mother. The mother should
thus be taught the desirability of renunciation
and inspired to be willing to sacrifice her claim
of motherhood for the benefit of her child.
For women who are in good circumstances
the problem is not so difficult. In a few in-
stances it has been arranged that an unmarried
mother shall adopt her o^vn baby with our nurs-
ery as intermediary. Thus is offered a happy
solution of a tragic problem.
Norway has taken a most advanced stand
in connection with the legal status of the child
born out of wedlock, — which is the same in rela-
tion to the father as to the mother. Efforts are
made to establish the paternity of the child as
far as the state can accomplish this. The right
of the child overrides the right of the mother
in case she wishes to keep this a secret. As a
result, 40 per cent, of the illegitimate children
in NorAvay receive support from their fathers.
In all these cases paternity had to be established
if it was not willingly acknowledged.
Until other countries are willing to give a
2o8 Heredity and Child Culture
fairer deal to the illegitimate child and better
aid to the unmarried mother, adoption of the
child into good families is the best solution of
the problem in a great majority of cases.
CHAPTER XVI
THE PROLONGATION OF HUMAN LIFE THROUGH
CHILD CULTURE
Can human life be much prolonged? If pos-
sible, is such a result desirable? A mere con-
tinuation of life, without vigor or productive
power, does not present an attractive outlook.
Simply to drag out a vegetative existence
usually means unhappiness to the individual
and too often a burden on society ; yet one can-
not help feeling that many human lives are too
short. Just as the individual learns how to
live and begins to accumulate a valuable ex-
perience that may be of service to the world,
death cuts short the career.
There may be almost unlimited possibilities
in the future development of the human race if
the span of life can only be lengthened. There
is no physiological basis for the three score
years and ten that so long have been considered
209
210 Heredity and Child Culture
as the satisfactory limit of human life. Nat-
uralists tell us t"hat the length of life in the
lower animals averages five times the period of
the growth of their bones. By analogy, this
would mean that the human animal should live
to be a hundred.
I believe we may build up a future genera-
tion that can reach the century mark if only
the developing period can be more carefully
cultured. The roots of most degenerative con-
ditions, and many of the infections, have their
inception in the early years. Thus, by more
carefully nurturing this period we may make
the proper start for a long and vigorous exis-
tence.
Life may be divided into three spans, — first,
that of development ; second, a longer or shorter
period of physical stand-still; and finally a
short one of degeneration and decline, — corre-
sponding to childhood, middle age and old
age. Each period requires special manage-
ment, but a right start is the most important of
all. I have elsewhere considered the needs of
The Adoption of Children 211
these separate periods and shown how a pro-
longing of each depends largely upon the proper
handling of the previous one.^ Of late, most
health work has been devoted to the early years,
with the result of a great saving of infant and
child life. The expectation of life at birth is
now about ten years greater than it was thirty
years ago. This must eventually result in a
general prolongation of human life, although
it has not yet had time to accomplish such a
result.
In various ways, the first and last years of
life may be among the most fruitful ; if properly
envisaged they are likewise the most interesting.
At the beginning, the strong foundations for a
sound, vigorous existence may be laid. When
this is done, the vigor -will continue in a long
and productive manner. Thus the ending may
not be clouded, but rather be full of wise ex-
perience, kindly outlook and mellowed vision.
History gives numerous instances where
highly productive work was accomplished dur-
1 Health First : The Fine Art of Living — Century Ck).
212 Heredity and Child Culture
ing advanced years. Borland calls attention
to many of these cases.^ Verdi was in his
eightieth year when he composed "Falstaff";
Oliver Wendell Holmes at seventy-nine pub-
lished "Over the Tea Cups"; Victor Hugo was
eighty when he wrote ' ^ Torquemada " ; Hum-
bolt was in his ninetieth year when he com-
pleted his remarkable work *'Kosmos"; Ranke
began liis world history when he was eighty
and finished twelve volumes before his death
at ninety-four; Bancroft did not complete his
history until the age of eighty-two; Browning
wrote ''Asolando" when he was seventy-six.
The most recent example of productivity at
great age is shown by Dr. Stephen Smith who
was my preceptor and with whom I lived for
two years at the beginning of my professional
career. Dr. Smith is now in his hundredth
year and at the recent fiftieth anniversary of
the American Public Health Association, which
he founded, he made a long address on health
matters and is now engaged in writing a book.
He recently told me that he believes others can
1 The Age of Mental Virility — Century Co.
The Adoption of Children 213
reach the same ripened and constructive matur-
ity by hygienic living.
If we can have a good heredity and favorable
environment during the early years, there is
no doubt that health and vigor may be con-
tinued much longer than have usually been at-
tained. The evolution of the human body has
been pretty fully accomplished; Professor Con-
klin says that for at least one hundred centuries
there has been no notable progress in this re-
spect. In stature and skull size we do not ap-
pear much better than the Cro-Magnons.
What is left for us is to conserve and im-
prove the mental and spiritual acquirements of
the race, based on the physical structure we
have inherited from the ages. This means that
our years must be carefully husbanded and our
productive life, if possible, extended. If we
would try for a potent, prolonged and serene
old age, we must start early in life, — ^with the
child.
This last chapter, therefore, ends as did the
first, — Concentrate on the Child!
INDEX
Addams, Jane, 172
Adolescence, 102
Adoption of children, 194
— ways and meana offered
for, 201
Age, the pre-school, 74
— of marriage, 37-38
Alice Chapin adoption nurs-
ery, 202
American Child Hygiene As-
sociation, 172
— Medical Association, 68
— Public Health Assoc'n,
212
Ancestral inheritance, Dal-
ton's law of, 18-19
Ancient Roman laws for care
of dependent children,
197
Ants and bees, organization
in life of, 26
Aristotle, 39
Athletics, 100
Average weekly gain in in-
fants, 61
B
Baker, Dr. Josephine, 93
Bancroft, 212
Barbarism in children, 122
Barnes, Prof., 121
Bees and ants, organization
in life of, 26
Beginning of life, 48
Biological heredity, 22
— regulation of, 58
— birth mortality and, 52
Birth weight, 59
Brain development, 3
— of the infant, 108-109
Brain, growth and evolution
of, 65
Brain structure and func-
tions, 106-107
Breeding, selective, 35
Brooks, Phillips, 193
Brosnan, John Francis, 197
Browning, 212
0
Calories as measures of food
value, 190
Charity organization Soc'y,
71
Chicago High Schools, ques-
tional re in, 114
Child as a creator of affec-
tion, the, 160
— importance of the, 1
— the dependent, 168
— health orj^anizations, 85
— the illegitimate, 204
— culture, prolongation of
human life through, 209
Child's place in evolution,
the, 162
Childhood, development dur-
ing, 75
Children, adoption of, 194
undernourished, 152
215
2l6
Index
Children's Village, 32
Communistic philosophers,
flaws in reasoning of,
166
Comparative growth of hoys
and girls in height, 83
Complexes, 133-135
Conception, development of
life after, 49
— principles of, 48
Conklin, Prof. Edwin Grant,
15, 21, 27, 42, 196, 213
Conn, Prof. Herbert William,
21, 23, 28
OonsciencQ, developmen|t of,
25
Conservation as preparatory
foundation for improv-
ing social structure, 6
Conserving infant life, 68
Contagion among institution
children, 173-174
Correct posture, 96
Cows' milk, care in collection
and distribution of, 146
Crum, Mr. F. S., 68
D
Darwin, 10
Darwin, Mayor Leonard, 35
Defective hygiene in child in-
stitutions, 176
— vision in rural school chil-
dren, 95
Defectives, propagation of, 42
— suggestions for curbing,
44
Delinquency, childhood traits
and, l26
Dentition, process of, 67
Dependent children, public
system for care of in
various states, 170
Developing period, the, 58
Devine, Prof. E. P., 188
Diet for nursing mother, 14ft
Divorce, one of the greatest
evils of, 166
Doncaster, Prof., 27
Dor land, 212
E
Eating slowly, value and im-
portance of, 147
Education, 112
— and instruction, 115
— the senses in, 113
Educational work in Speed-
well System, 181
Embryo, development of, 49
Emerson, Dr. A^Tm. R. P., 152
Endocrine glands, import-
ance of, 125
England, care of dependent
children in, 201
Environment in life, heredity
and, 1
— or heredity, importance
contrasted, 9
European laws on care of de-
pendent children, 198
Evolution, development of
conscience in, 25
— forces producing, 10
— and growth of brain, 65
— language in, 23
— writing in, 24
— moral sense and, 24
Family, the, 157
Farmers' Bulletin No. 808 of
the United States Govern-
ment, 148
Fear to be avoided, 135
Federal Children's Bureau,.
68, 70, 76
Ferguson, 33
Fiske, John, 2, 157
Folks, Homer, 170
Index
'217
Food principles, 139
Forces producing evolution,
10
Franklin. Benj., 39
Freud, 133
G
Galton's law of ancestral in-
heritance, 18-19
Girls, higher education for,
116-117
Growth during infancy, 59
Hall, Prof. G. Stanley, 119
Harris, Dr. Elisha, 169
Height, comparative growth
of boys and girls in, 83
Heredity, Biological, regula-
tion of, 58
— biological and social, 22
— views of biologists on, 10
— or environment, discussion
of relative importance
of, 9
— and environment as con-
trolling factors in life,
1
Higher education for girls,
116-117
Holmes, Dr., 52
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 212
Hrdlicka. Dr. Ales, 126
Hugo, Victor, 212
Humbolt, 212
Hygiene in child institutions,
defective, 176
Illegitimate children, Nor-
way's stand on legal
status of, 207
Illegitimate child, the, 204
Imitation and suggestion in
mental development, 110
Importance of the child, the,
1
— of proper nutrition, the,
138
Infancy, growth during, 59
— period of, 2
Infant mortality among
foundlings in institu-
tions, 178
Infection among institution
children, 173-174
— in childhood, 77
Inheritance, organic, 9
— social, 21
— social and organic, 30
— Galton's law of ances*
tral, 18-19
Instincts, origin and function
of, 26
Instruction and education,
115
International Conference for
Child Welfare, 187
— Conference of Red Cross
Societies, 177
Iowa school children, conclu-
sions resulting from
study of, 86
— study of 40,000 children
in, 76
Lamarck, 10
Language, place of in evolu-
tion, 23
Length and structural char-
acteristics of infants at
birth, 62-63
Life, beginning of, 48
— three spans of, 210
Loeb, Miss, 190
Lombroso, 122-123
Lying as a child fault, 121
2l8
Index
M
Malnutrition in school chil-
dren, 94
• — its eflfect and cure, 152-
156
Marriage, age of, 37-38
'"Maternal impression" bug-
bear disproved, 56
Maternity, preparation for,
54
— mental preparation for,
56
Mating, discussion of condi-
tions of, 40
Mendel, Gregor, 14
Mendelism, 14
Mental Culture, 106
Mercier, Dr. Charles, 49
Milk as a food, 142-144
Moral Culture, 121
— sense and evolution, 24
Mortality and birth, 52
Motherhood, schools of, 164
Musculature in infancy, 66
N
Nerve culture, 132
Neurotics, 132-133
New York Board of Health,
81
— City, reduction of infant
mortality in, 69
— Juvenile Asylum, 126
Newman, Sir George, 5, 37
Norway's stand on legal
status of illegitimate
children, 207
Nursemaids, mistake of em-
ploying ignorant, 164
Nursing mother, Diet for, 146
Nutrition, importance of
proper, 138
Organic inheritance, 9
— and social inheritance, 30
Organization in life of bees
and ants, 26
Osborn, Prof. Henry Fair-
field, 16
Osborne, Thomas Mott, 190
Paton, Professor Stewart, 24
Pearson, 19
Period, the developing, 58
— of infancy, 2
Play, teaching children to,
128
Plows-Day, Miss, 206
Precocious children, 109
Prenatal care, 51
Pre-school age, the, 74
Prolongation of human life
through child culture,
209
Public Systems for the care
of dependent children in
various states, 170
R
Range, 212
Redfield, Casper L., 38-39
Religious training, 129
Royal Sanitary Institute of
Great Britain, tabulated
report of, 99
Rural schools, 94
School child, the, 82
— equipment, 97
Selective breeding, 35
Selfishness, elimination of,
128
Senses in education, 113
Sex education of children,
123
Sexual selection, advisability
of, 36
Index
219
Smith, Dr. Stephen, 212
Sobel, Dr., 80
Social Heredity, 22
— inheritance and organic in-
heritance, 30
— inheritance, 21
Spauling, Dr., 135
ypeedwell System, the, 180
Spence Alumnae Society, 203
Spinal column in infancy, 66
State Board of Charities of
New York, Report of,
172
Stoddard, Lathrop, 28
Structural development of
the infant, 64
Suggestion in mental develop-
ment, imitation and,
110
System, the Speedwell, 180
Teeth in childhood, care of,
71)
Thinking, the value of cor-
rect, 114
U
Units in the Speedwell Sys-
tem, 180-187
Vacations in schools, 118
Verdi, 212
Vitamines, 140-141
W
WIeight of infants at birth,
59
— weekly average gain of,
61
— increase of at 5 to 6
months, 61
— relation of to develop-
ment, 84
VVeismann, Doctrine of, 13
Weismann, 27, 39
Weismann's distinction be-
tween hereditary forces
and their visible ex-
pression, 17
Widows' Pension Law, 191
Wood, Dr. Thomas D., 85, 94
Writing as a factor in evolu-
tion, 23
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
\°la^
1^
isM
'm
Form L9-75m-7,'61 (0143764)444
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAl I IBRARY f ACIUTY
AA 000 425 704 4
HO
C3^