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of God," was the motto chosen by the Queen on her accession to be her rule of life, and the whole course of her public and private life shows how faithfully she adhered to it.

says the suburban system which gives such business to local trains at Philadelphia and New York has but little existence there as yet, and shows what an opportunity there is for the investment of capital in a quick transit system and the building of suburban residences.

THE destructive and distressing drouth in Southern Georgia still continues. It covers lanta Constitution, extending from Lee and all or part of a dozen counties, says the AtDougherty through Baker and Mitchell into

She has been succeeded by her niece, Rarafindrahety, who was once a pupil in the Friends' School for Girls at Faravohitra. The new Queen has taken the name of Ranavalona III., and in accordance with Malagasy custom, that the Queen should be the wife of the Prime Minister, has married the wise states-Lowndes. In Lee county it rained on June man who has so ably conducted the affairs of his country, thus securing to it during this time of trouble his continued help and shrewd counsel.-Friend of Missions.

RELIGION INDESTRUCTIBLE.

Every religion of the world may be destroyed, and religion itself not be touched. Any theology of the world may be destroyed and blown to the winds, burst like a soap bubble in the air, and yet religion itself be entirely unscathed. Remember that the Bible did not create religion; the Church did not create religion; no priesthood ever created religion; Jesus himself did not create religion; nor Buddha, nor Mohammed. All the churches, all the priesthoods, all the founders and leaders of the world's thought are not the root of religion. They are simply the leaves and blossoms on the topmost, outmost boughs of the grand tree of the religious nature of man. Religion created them, not they religion. You might wipe them all out to day, all the rituals and creeds, and this same eternal religious nature and instinct of man would create other forms of expression to take their places. We need, while going through present transitions, to remember what religion is and what it means, and that the destruction of all these things that have been identified with religion so long does not mean the destruction of religion at all.-M. J. Savage.

10th, and again on September 13th, and not another drop has fallen in more than seven hauled from fifteen to twenty miles, is sold months. In Leesburg water, which has been for five cents a glass.

THE Secretary of the Treasury has requested that our Consul General in Egypt shall be instructed to direct his subordinates to inspect all rags gathered for export to the United States. It is proposed that such rags shall be with sulphurous acid gas before shipment, and boiled under pressure or thoroughly fumigated that the Consul or his deputy shall certify to the disinfection. A single New York firm has now over 60,000 tons of rags stored in Alexandria, Egypt, awaiting shipment to the United States.

PROBABLY the largest and most complete junction system in the world is that at Claptems of London connect. ham, England, where the great railroad sysThe roads there lie together like the wires of a piano. Sixteen hundred trains a day run over them. But, unlike our own noisy stations and junctions, with whistles or clanging of bells. They keep their our English cousins there is no shrieking of signals for their officials, and outsiders must expose themselves at their own risk. A tunnel way for passengers connects the whole, so that no one is allowed to cross the rails except the employés.-Public Ledger.

OUR Educational Bureau is circulating an ex

cellent paper from an address given to school science should be taught. The object, it says, teachers in Switzerland, on how natural should be not to fill the mind with facts, but to bring all the scholars, including the slowest ones, to discover and observe facts for themselves. Books should be little used, and noth

He that maketh haste to be rich shall not ing about an object should be taught without be innocent.-Prov. xxviii., 20.

ITEMS.

VIOLENT gales off the coast of Great Britain last week caused great destruction of life and property.

the object being before the class. The next lesson should be in describing the facts observed, with the help of drawing, if possible. Plants should be chosen first, then animals of different classes, then minerals, with observations of mechanical and afterward of chemical effects upon them. But the bare making of collections should not be particularly encouraged.—Pop. Sci. Mo.

NOTICES.

PROF. J. KOINIG proposes to purify town sewage and the waste waters of slaughterhouses, dye-works, breweries, etc., by allowing them to trickle over a network of wire, thus exposing a large surface to the oxidizing Schools will be held at Kennett Square, on · The Western Quarterly Union of First-day action of the atmosphere. He recommends Seventh-day, First month 5th, 1884. Neighthat the coarser impurities should first be re-boring schools are expected to report. moved by means of settling tanks.

TWENTY separate lines of railway centre at Chicago, and some 850 trains arrive and depart daily. The Journal of Commerce of that city

All

interested are invited. Session will commence at 11 o'clock.

EVAN T. SWAYNE,
LYDIA B. WALTON, Clerks.

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FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER.

“TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE.

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VOL. XL.

PHILADELPHIA, TWELFTH MONTH 29, 1883.

No. 46.

CONTENTS.

EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY AN ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS.
OO■■UNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS MADE TO What can be Done to Promote the Best Physical Develop-

JOHN COMLY, AGENT,

AT PUBLICATION OFFICE, No. 1020 ARCH STREET.

TERMS:-TO BE PAID IN ADVANCE. The Paper is issued every week.

The FORTIETH Volume commenced on the 17th of Second month, 1883, at Two Dollars and Fifty Cents to subscribers receiving it through mail, postage prepaid.

SINGLE NUMBERS SIX CENTS.

It is desirable that all subscriptions should commence at the beginning of the volume.

REMITTANCES by mail should be in CHECKS, DRAFTS, or P. 0. MONEY-ORDERS; the latter preferred. MONEY sent by mail will be at the risk of the person so sending.

AGENTS:-Edwin Blackburn, Baltimore, Md.

Joseph S. Cohu, New York.

Benj. Strattan, Richmond, Ind.

Entered at the Post-Office at Philadelphia, Penna. as second-class

matter

ment of the Children in our Schools?. Man the Image of God..

Religion will not Decline

Pressing Toward the Mark

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WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PROMOTE THE BEST evolving that harmonious whole, a well-de

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The development of a human being has been very poetically compared to the growth of a plant. The sturdy and far-reaching roots have been likened to the physical nature. If, through the carelessness of the gardener, any of the rootlets should be cut off, the whole plant suffers; and, in proportion to the extent of the original injury, it becomes stunted and loses its symmetry of form. The rising stem represents the upward march of the intellect, and the flower-the pure white lily, surmounting and crowning all-resembles that moral purity which makes the human being more beautiful than myriads of lilies.

To parent and teacher, those faithful allies and co-workers-for, catching the spirit of these educational meetings, I may so call them-belongs the pleasing, anxious task of

veloped human being!

The supreme importance of the subject under discussion makes it necessary that any one who attempts to speak with authority should do so in all seriousness and with a due sense of the responsibility of such a task. Filled with this thought, and alive to the fact that to discuss thoroughly and adequately the subject of physical development would require a whole course of lectures upon physiology and hygiene; impressed with the many issues involved in the broad subject of physical culture, I find myself confronted with the inquiry: "How can one, within the limits of a brief address, cover the whole of this field, touching upon every point, without saying much that is both trite and superficial?"

Ventilation (including the proper regulation of temperature), exercise, diet, dress, over-study,or over-worry in connection with study, etc. Each of these topics is worthy of especial consideration, and I do not wish it to be understood for a moment that I would willingly undervalue or ignore any one of them. But time not permitting due attention to every topic, I shall be obliged to reserve the main portion of this essay for the fuller consideration of one or two thoughts that do most "crowd for utterance."

First, then.-Ventilation. Every one admits the importance of ventilation, and our

schoolrooms and public buildings are, as rule, poorly ventilated. The measures taken to secure a proper circulation of air are:

alic acid and other destroyers of disease-germs cannot take the place of ample space. Many of our schoolrooms are arranged simply with 1. Those simple mechanical means known reference to convenience in passing and reto every enterprising teacher, the slanting passing from schoolroom to class or cloak board in the window, etc. I remember hear-room. And although the general assembly ing them discussed years ago at Teachers' In-room may not be entirely filled more than stitutes; and, as far as they go, they answer a good purpose.

2. Those ingenious, intricate, and expensive contrivances-which are frequently an afterthought in the construction of a building and are often disappointing, more epecially so to the enterprising member of the school committee who suggests the "new improve

ment."

twice in the day, yet never is it during recitation hours entirely empty, so that the air may be thoroughly purified and made warm again for the reception of the pupils. The plan of having a sufficient number of class rooms to permit of their being used in rotation, so that there may be always one room unoccupied, is a good one. But this additional space entails additional expense, which is quite an item, especially in large cities. This is a matter over which the teacher has no direct control; he can only make use of the means at his command by requiring the children to leave the schoolroom during the recess; thus allowing of open windows for a few minutes; always remembering that the close, warm, relaxing air of the schoolroom is in strong contrast to the keen winter weather outside, and that many a heavy cold is contracted-not from too much fresh air, as some people would have us believe-but by want of care in putting on outside wraps before exposure to the cold.

The question of ventilation of rooms or institutions where large numbers of people are congregated is really a department of architecture; and, as such, I do not pretend to understand the subject in all its intricate details, but we can all test the results of different plans of ventilation, by simply entering the crowded school room after a brief sojourn in the fresh, outside, winter air; that is, if our senses have not become blunted, for this is possible. Says Dr. Ray, in his work on "Mental Hygiene,' ""A gentleman, who for many years sat upon the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts, which he honored by his learning and integrity, and who, in the course of Second. Exercise. Not only is room his life, had probably inspired more bad air needed for purposes of respiration, but there than any other professional man of his time, must be room for light gymnastics. If we used to express his surprise that so much was desire the children to grow up with straight said about pure air and bad air, because it spines and well developed forms, this object seemed to be all alike to him." On the can best be secured by properly directed musother hand, a love of fresh air can be culti-cular movements. The simple insistence ou vated. I once knew a teacher in a large the part of the teacher that the pupils shall boarding-school who insisted upon attending always sit erect during school hours will not in person to the ventilation of the dormito- best accomplish the desired result, for no ries, and this in spite of the protests against child can assume the erect sitting position open windows on the part of the pupils and and maintain it for any length of time withof the principal of the school. But when out injurious fatigue. A crooked spine will the girls became accustomed to such ventila- remain crooked in spite of threats and admotion they were just as obedient as they had nitions, so long as it has to depend for its been previously rebellious. This was evi-susport upon weak and undeveloped muscles. denced by the fact that if a new pupil should attempt to close a window there would be an indignant command from the older occupants of "Open that window, we can't live without air here!"

Play is admirable exercise and necessary, but it does not take the place of the more systematic training of the muscles. I am not so enthusiastic, however, as a writer for one of our educational journals, who recommends 3. A third and very important method of that calisthenics should take up the time keeping the air of the schoolroom pure is by usually devoted to recess. The reply, very the avoidance of over-crowding. Room, give correctly made, was that no matter how enthe children room. In our great City Hos- joyable the exercise, yet it is a school exercise pital, at Blockley, it has been found that in and not of the child's selection. Here comes winter, when the wards are over-crowded with in the relation between mind and matter. the sick poor, the mortality reaches its great- The most trifling exercise, if looked upon in est height. In summer, when the patients the light of a set task, does not serve the are fewer in number, and when many of them ends of relaxation so well as much rougher can spend a portion of the time in the fresh methods in which the mind is left free. Witair, down goes the death rate; all the carbo-ness the case of poor Rip Van Winkle, who

could not be made to do the most trifling do-
mestic duty, and yet "he would sit on a wet
rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a
Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a
murmur, even though he should not be eu-
couraged by a single nibble. He would carry
a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours to-
gether, trudging through woods and swamps,
and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few
squirrels or wild pigeons.
But as to
keeping his farm in order, he found it impos-
sible."

the brain; every sound, every touch, every smell, every taste, every sight, is accompanied by the destruction of numerous brain cells, and nature calls imperatively for repair.

Night, for physiological reasons, is the best time for sleep, because a great number of disturbing influences are cut off by the stillness and darkness thereof. It is unphysiological in the highest degree to accustom a child to sleep in a room in which a light is kept burning during the night! But how much sleep? Some children require more than others. A good rule to observe is that of allowing the child to sleep until it awakes spontaneously, and to secure its attendance at the breakfast table at a reasonable hour by an early hour for going to bed. Begin at the right end of the night. I know a

The child may enjoy the calisthenic exercises, especially when accompanied by music, for then those movements are not only healthful but they seem to have an added charm of grace and beauty- the "poetry of motion adjusted to the harmony of sound!" It is, nevertheless, a set exercise, so let the chil-physician who tells me that his boy of ten dren play!

Third.-Dress. But how can our young girls practise light gymnastics when, with the girls practise light gymnastics when, with the present style of dressing, the simple and essentially feminine exercise of fanning cannot always be accomplished with ease? Here again the teacher is powerless. If she should attempt to combat the fashions of the day, I believe she would have little influence. She would probably find it a more successful method to begin gymnastic exercises early with the youngest children, and when they grow older and become interested in keeping up with the styles, a special gymnastic dress might be insisted upon. If the parents do not abet her efforts to establish a more healthful mode of dressing among the older pupils, some thing may be done through the pupils themselves by instructing them in the principles out the direct bearing which these princiof physiology and hygiene, and by pointing ples have not only upon the health but in ples have not only upon the health but in the production of beauty of form and grace

of movement.

Fourth.-Diet. At the same time she can give them still other lessons in hygiene; she can teach them that beauty of complexion is incompatible with a daily lunch of rich pastry, cakes, or sweetmeats.

is put to bed at eight o'clock in the evening and sleeps soundly until seven the next morning. If he stays up until nine o'clock, the next day he is irritable; and if this time is prolonged until ten o'clock two nights in succession, he is sick; and I have no doubt that thousands of children are suffering an amount of nervous tension that is frightful from this very cause.

A well-known lecturer on physiology and hygiene, after spending several years in almost constant intellectual work, became the subject of nervous prostration, and it was only after a prolonged sojourn abroad with

all the advantages of change of scene and rest from study, that he recovered-but with limitations for he soon learned that his

time for prolonged intellectual effort had deperious demand for so much sleep. He was parted. So much brain work made an imhours sleep out of the twenty-four, I like to accustomed to say, " Every adult needs eight have nine hours; and when I have very much intellectual work to do, I want a nap in the day because I am so busy! For our houses, our furniture, our horses, our carriages, all our belongings, we recognize the need for repair; but for the children the season of repose is too often shortened. Since it is the nervous system which furnishes the Fifth.-Sleep. She may still further ex-stimulus to the functional activity of every plain to them that the robust goddess of health, Hygeia, requires of her votaries that they shall spend a certain number of hours out of the twenty-four in that condition of completest rest for mind and body -SLEEP. It is a fundamental law of physiology that each organ, in order to preserve its functional activity, must have a period of repose, and it is not enough that the body be inactive-this does not furnish mental repose. As long as the child is awake every sense is engaged in conveying impressions to

part of the organism, it follows that mental fatigue must have its influence upon the physical condition of the whole body.

Fright has stopped digestion; bad news will completely check the appetite; not a motion can be made, from the most delicate to the most complex, except under the direction of nervous influence. Hence, lack of repose for the brain and general nervous system is followed by indigestion, loss of appetite, sallow complexions, flabby muscles, curved spines, stunted growth, and peevish

dispositions. Truly is sleep "tired nature's sweet restorer."

To turn to another phase of school life-I once asked a lady who had had an experience of fifty years as a teacher, how many girls she had known to break down from over-study. She replied, "Only one certainly, and perhaps two, I can truthfully say I have known to fail in health from over study." True, girls were removed from school on account of failing health, but she believed this to be due, not to excessive brain work while at school, but to other and preventable causes, traceable to improper hygiene of the

home life.

If lessons were poorly prepared, she made it a point to shorten them, unless it was found that the non-mastery of the task was due to some other cause than mental incapacity. Sometimes, after a poor recitation she would inquire how much time was spent upon its preparation, when the reply would be, in an injured tone, "Why, I sat up until after 11 o'clock studying." "At what hour did you begin?" About half-past 9," is the reply. Further inquiry elicits the information that after tea a few callers came in to visit the parents, and the young girl remained in the parlor until the evening was so far gone that she was in no condition for mental application. Some school-girls do more than this; they give parties, go to places of amusement, taking a place in society at the same time they are attending school.

What wonder that the physician is called in? He soon sees that it is useless to attack the social side of the problem; the inclinations of the young girl are against that; the wishes of the indulgent parents are against it. Recognizing that the patient cannot carry the double burden of school life and home pleasures, he is left no choice but to advise that she be taken from school. The young girl thus loses all of the advantages of mental discipline which she so much needs, and this at the expense of an additional tax upon the emotional nature, which she not only does not need, but which is positive disadvantage, for women are emotional enough already. What she needs is the harmonious development of all her powers-intellectual, moral and physical-before she can be "the perfect woman, nobly planned, to warn, to comfort and command."

There is so much said about excessive study that one would almost get the idea that study is in itself a bad thing, and I think in the anxiety upon this question we sometimes lose sight of the fact that functional activity is a law of growth, that healthy mental discipline means healthy physical as well as healthy mental development.

There is one cause of nervous break down which is in operation almost from the infancy of the child, viz., an over-strain upon the emotional nature! In recalling the summer spent at the sea-shore, who does not remember some blue-eyed, golden-haired child, in costume immaculate-a little angel—who, whether she stands upon the crowded piazza, or is taken to walk upon the sea-shore, has her vanity awakened by the admiring words of the passers-by? How many people, entire strangers, consider that they have a perfect right to accost her, and this may happen many, many times in the course of the day, and since it takes away the unconsciousness of childhood it cannot fail to be a disadvantage.

It

No wonder there is a peevish, fretful, naughty, tempestuous little thing to be put to bed at night. Better by far she were freckled and homely. Says a medical writer, apropos of this subject: "A child, a beautiful girl, lives in its grandfather's family. Of parents and grandparents, of uncles, aunts, cousins and friends there are seventeen. is the only grandchild, and the household draws a large portion of its daily emotional pleasures from this babe. It continually passes from lap to lap and from lip to lip, not allowed ever to go without returning some pretty prattle for the urging and caressing she receives from morning until night. What wonder that evening finds her tired, peevish, excitable and wholly exhausted? And when disease attacks her it finds weak resistance in a frame already enfeebled, at the tender age of four, by an over-wrought brain. In this case, I could manage the mother, with whom I came in personal contact. But she found it impossible to make the other members of the family let the child alone, and she was actually obliged, under my advice, to imprison herself in a room with locked doors to keep her sickly child from continuing to be the plaything of the family." Better the English plan of meals taken in the nursery, light suppers and early to beda quiet, natural life, which tends to make the English people a healthy, self-poised nation.

This over-straining of the emotional nature is kept up by the attempt to carry the twofold burden of school work and social pleasure, with all the worriments incident thereto.

Are young girls, then, to have any recreation, and, if so, how much? There can be no iron rule in this matter; but certainly society has no claims upon the growing school-girl (except that she shall grow), and that recreation is excessive which actually interferes with the ordinary routine of school life.

In conclusion allow me to say that, in calling attention to these important points, I feel

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