THE NERVOUS CHILD AND SCHOOL
At the onset of puberty childhood comes to an end, and the period of
adolescence begins. Into these further stages of development it is not
proposed to enter, but it may be well to consider a question which is
apt to present itself for answer at this period: "Should the boy, or
girl, of nervous temperament, or whose development up to this point
has been accompanied by symptoms of nervous disorder, be sent to a
boarding-school?" So long as the child remains at home the home
environment is the force which alone is concerned in moulding his
character. We have seen how plastic the young child is, how imitative,
how suggestible, how prone to form habits good or bad. The diversity
of type shown by the homes is reflected in the diversity of character
and conduct exhibited by the children. The home is the culture medium,
and in no two homes is its composition the same. For each child home
influence remains to a great extent unchanged, and in great part
unchangeable. Its action upon the child is constant and long
sustained. Hence, it is not surprising that the growth of his
character and powers is commonly unequal. At one point we may find a
good crop of virtues, at another a barren tract; and the home
influences which have ripened the one and blighted the other are
calculated by the lapse of time to increase the contrast rather than
to diminish it.
I suppose it is for this reason that the custom of sending children to
boarding-schools has so firm a hold among us. The boarding-school
forms an environment selected to correct the inequalities which result
from the special action upon the child of individual homes. The life
of a boy in one of our large public schools is well calculated to act
as a corrective in this way not only by reason of its ordered routine
and discipline, but still more because it is affected, perhaps for the
first time, by the strong force of public opinion. It is the strength
of this public opinion which gives to our public schools their
peculiar character and produces their peculiar effects. That which the
schoolboy most despises is what he calls "Bad Form," and he bows down
and worships an idol he himself has set up, the name of which is "Good
Form." Public opinion forms the code of morals observed in the school.
The standard set is commonly not so high as to be very difficult of
attainment. It demands many good qualities. To lie, to sneak, to tell
tales, to bully, to "put on side," are bad form. In some respects the
definition of what is virtuous may be a little hazy. Thus it may be
wrong to cheat to gain a prize, but to copy from one's neighbour only
so much as will enable one to pass muster and escape condemnation is
no great sin. In short, good form demands that a boy should have all
the social virtues: that he should be a good fellow, easy to live
with, and possessed of a high sense of public spirit--good qualities
certainly, though perhaps not those which help to make the reformers
or martyrs of this world.
The school life is the life of the herd, and to be successful in it
the boy must mingle with the herd, not break from it or shun it. Good
form--if we came to analyse the conception that underlies it--consists
only in a close approximation to the standard pattern; bad form, in
any deviation from it. It is this similarity of type and community of
ideals which makes it so easy for most public-school boys to get on
well with one another. When in after life they are thrown among a set
of men who know nothing of their conception of good form, and whose
training has been on completely different lines, there may be a
corresponding difficulty.
Now what is true of public-school life is of course also true of the
larger life after schooldays are over for which all education is a
preparation. These qualities of sociability and good sportsmanship
will stand a man in good stead throughout life. Even the most ardent
and active spirit will benefit by being subjected for some years to
this steady pressure of public opinion. The most part will learn from
it good sense, consideration for others, and self-control. As they
pass from the lower forms to the higher in the school they will learn
too to support authority without doing injustice, and to bring the
weight of public opinion to bear upon others. And to all this
training many a man owes his happiness in after life--a happiness
which he could not have secured if his character had been moulded only
by the environment of his home, or by the home in combination with the
less-powerful corrective of a day school. For the nervous child the
passage from home to school life may involve considerable mental
strain. He may be morbidly self-conscious and timid, or, unknown to
himself--because he has as yet no power of self-analysis and has no
opportunities of comparing himself with others--he may have developed
certain eccentricities. In most cases the plunge into school life will
be taken well enough; in a few the little vessel will not right
itself, and proves permanently unseaworthy. No doubt as a rule a
private school will have preceded the public school, and this
gradation should make the entrance to the public school a lesser
ordeal. But it often happens that it is just in the case of the
nervous child that this intermediate stage has been omitted, and that
his thirteenth birthday finds him still in the home circle.
If the boy's father has first-hand knowledge of life in the lower
forms of public schools, his experience may enable him to form some
estimate of the effect of school life upon the nervous system of his
son. It is when parents or guardians have no such experience of their
own to guide them that mistakes are most liable to be made. I can
myself remember the unhappy state of some solitary and eccentric
schoolfellows of mine who aroused the resentment of "the Herd" by
their behaviour or opinions. If it is clear that the boy has a
peculiar temperament and is likely to suffer in this way, some _via
media_ must be found. The home has failed so that he must leave home
and come under the influence of some one who understands the nature of
the difficulty and can adapt the boy to school life. A change of
environment of this sort as a preliminary to the public school is
often all that is needed. If his age permits, every effort should be
made in this way to obtain for the nervous child who has developed
peculiarities or faults the benefits of a public-school education.
Some types of nervous children will show immediate improvement when
they go to school. The boy who is passionate and disobedient, and
whose parents cannot control him, is best at school. Boys who, from
being much with grown-up people, have become too precocious and have
acquired the habits and tastes of their elders, will dislike school at
first, but it will do them good. Their fault shows that they are quick
to learn and sensitive to the influences of others, and they will soon
adapt themselves to their new surroundings. Boys who are dreamy and
imaginative, who early adopt a "specialist" attitude towards life,
who, however ignorant they may be of everything else, cultivate a
reputation for omniscience in some particular subject, such as
Egyptology, astronomy, or the construction of battleships, are usually
nervous boys whose symptoms will disappear at school. Where undue
timidity, phobia, or habit spasm is present, the question is more
difficult to decide. Every individual case must be studied as a whole,
and our object should be not unnecessarily to deprive the boy of the
wholesome training of public-school life.
There are parents who from sheer ignorance add to the difficulties
which the boy encounters in going to school. Failure to appreciate
very small points may cause unnecessary suffering. To be the only boy
in the school to wear combinations is not a distinction that any new
boy craves, however strong his nerves may be. A friend of mine still
relates with feeling how, twenty years ago, he arrived at school with
shirts which _buttoned_ at the neck! At night when every one else in
the dormitory was asleep he sat for hours on his bed, miserable beyond
words, removing the buttons and doing his best in the dark to bore
buttonholes which would admit what every other boy in the school
had--a collar stud.
With girls perhaps this question of fitness for school life does not
arise in so urgent a way. Girls are usually older when they go to
school, and girls' schools are perhaps less terrifying and more like
home. There is, however, one important point which should be borne in
mind. The date of the onset of puberty varies much in both sexes. If
the boy grows to a great hulking fellow at fourteen, and even displays
a desire secretly to borrow his father's razor, he is at no particular
disadvantage as compared with his fellows. He is so much bigger and
stronger than the others that he may thereby early enjoy the
distinction of playing at "big side," or of getting a place in the
school Eleven. He is probably much envied by those of the same age
who, with the aid of their youthful aspect, can still occasionally
extract compensation by inducing the railway company to let them
travel to school at half fare. But with girls it is different. Many at
fourteen or fifteen are children still; some are grown up, with the
tastes, feelings, and attraction of maturity. Those who have developed
fastest are often, for that very reason, kept backward in school
learning. Often they are nervously the least stable. Now that large
schools for girls on the model of our public schools are become the
fashion, such precociously developed and nervously unstable girls are
apt to find themselves in the very uncongenial society of little girls
of twelve or thirteen. The elder girls commonly hold aloof, while
mistresses are apt to view this precocious development with
disapproval, and to attempt to retard what cannot be retarded by
insisting that the young woman has remained a child. I remember being
called in consultation by a surgeon who had been asked to operate for
appendicitis upon a girl of fourteen. I found a tall, well-grown girl,
with an appearance and manner that made her look four years older. I
could find no signs of appendicitis, but I learned from her that she
had been for three months at a large girls' school, and that in a few
days' time her second term was due to begin. As we became friends, she
agreed that her appendicitis and her resolve not to return to school,
where she was unhappy, were but different ways of saying the same
thing. She was an only child who had travelled a great deal with her
parents, had found her interests in their pursuits, and had grown
backward in school work. The little girls with whom she was expected
to associate seemed to her mere children. The elder girls did not want
her friendship, and snubbed her. I prescribed a change to a small
boarding-school with only a few girls, where age differences would not
matter so much, and where she could make friends with girls older than
herself, though not more mature.
Into their school life we need not follow the children. Happily the
time is past when schoolmasters and schoolmistresses were incapable of
understanding their charges, and confounded nervous exhaustion with
stupidity or timidity with incapacity.
And so we come back to the point from which we started:
The nervous infant, restless, wriggling, and constantly crying! The
nervous child, unstable, suggestible, passionate, and full of nameless
fears! The nervous schoolboy or schoolgirl prone to self-analysis,
subject-conscious, and easily exhausted! And how many and how various
are the manifestations of this temperament! Refusal of food, refusal
of sleep, negativism, irritability, and violent fits of temper,
vomiting, diarrhoea, morbid flushing and blushing, habit spasms,
phobias--all controlled not by reproof or by medicine, but by good
management and a clear understanding of their nature.
The hygiene of the child's mind is as important as the hygiene of his
body, and both are studies proper for the doctor. Neuropathy and an
unsound, nervous organisation are often enough legacies from the
nervous disorders of childhood.
INDEX
Abdomen, prominent
Abdominal symptoms of neurosis
Accent, local, facility with which acquired
Acetone, in breath and urine during cyclic vomiting
Acidosis, accompanying cyclic vomiting
Action, imitativeness of
liberty of, in early childhood
Activities in the nursery
not to be restrained
without intervention of grown-up people
wonderful nature of
Adenoid vegetations, night-terrors aggravated by
removal of, in treatment of enuresis
Adolescence, and education on sexual matters
Adults, child in relation to the society of
Æsthetic sense, in early childhood
Affection, in the child
Air hunger, in cyclic vomiting
Air swallowing, habitual action of
Albuminuria, associated with faulty posture
cause of, in neuropaths
Allimentary disturbances, symptom of
Alkali, in treatment of cyclic vomiting
Anæmia, of neuropaths
Anorexia nervosa
A case illustrating
Apnoea, fatal cases of
following burst of crying
twitching of facial muscles in
Appetite, emotional states affecting
loss of,
case illustrating
causes and characteristics
treatment
means of stimulating
nature of the sensation of
Apprehension, causes of
growth of neuroses in atmosphere of
Artificial feeding
Aspirin
Asthma, treatment of
Attention, child's love of attracting
examples of
Authority, delight in defying
over-exercise of, by parents, results of
Babies. _See_ Newborn Baby
Backward development
signs of
"Bad form"
Bad habits
Bath, baby's first experience of
Bed, dislike of
how overcome
efforts to resist preparation for
Bedroom, airing and temperature of
Bedtime
management at
Bed wetting. _See_ Enuresis
Behaviour. _See_ Conduct
Bladder, hydrostatic distension of, for enuresis
Boarding-schools, object of
Bodily ailments, and instability of nervous control, connection between
_See also_ Disorders
Body,
and mind, development of
development of
environment influencing
effect of mind on
gradual alterations in the shape of
infantile characteristics in later childhood
Bone, and muscle, changes in, in infantile children
Books,
child's attitude towards
educative value of
kinds most suitable
Brachial nerve, pressure causing tetany
Breast-feeding,
best time for
causes of failure in
observations on
_See also_ Lactation
Breath-holding
action during
fatal cases of
phenomena of
Bromides, administration of
to newborn baby
Cajoling, futility of
Calcium bromide, in treatment of spasms
Calcium metabolism, disturbance of
Care, ill effects of excess of
Carpo-pedal spasm
Catarrhal infections
connection of rheumatism with, 155
Cerebral anæmia
Cerebral circulation, stagnation of
Cerebral exhaustion. _See_ Mental Exhaustion
Cerebral functions,
rapid growth of
unstable in the child
_See also_ Mental
Character,
formation of
during school life
home influence in the development of
ideals of, how inculcated
Children's parties, disadvantages of
Chloral, administration of
to newborn baby
in treatment of spasms
Chorea,
and rheumatism, association between
symptom of cerebral irritability
treatment of
Chvostek's sign, characteristics and nature of
Circulation, cerebral,
stagnation of
nervous control of
Claustrophobia
Clothing,
kind suitable
new, child's delight in
Coaxing,
futility of
Cold douches, improving vasomotor tone
Coldness of extremities
Conduct,
control of, factors in
errors of, and sexual instincts
control of
correction of
due to faults of management
in neuropathic children
excessive introspection influencing
ideals of, how inculcated
influence of environment on
influenced by suggestion
mother's influence on
of neuropaths
perverse
suggestion in the control of
Constipation,
mental causes of
negativism in
perversion of suggestion a common cause of
suggestion in relation to
Constitution, delicacy of
Convulsions, fatal cases of
generalised
Convulsive disorders
Cough, nervous
Counter-opposition, child's opposition growing with
Crying, constant
formation of habit of
in emotional and excitable children
management of
mechanism of
phenomena of
purposeful
Cyclic or periodic vomiting. _See_ Vomiting
Day-dreams, indicating nervous temperament
Deceit
Defæcation, inhibition of
painful
Delicacy of constitution
Delirium, tendency to
Depolarisation of ideas
Depression, recurrence of periods of
Dexterity, lack of
manual, advantages of
toys developing
Diaphragm, spasm of
Diarrhoea, mucous
Diet, likes and dislikes for articles of
opposition to
of newborn child, changes in
_See also_ Food
Digestion, emotional states affecting
Digestive disorders, mental causes of
Digestive neuroses
Digestive system, symptoms of extreme sensibility of
Dirt eating
Discipline
in later childhood
in the school
misdirected efforts at enforcing
severe, effects of
Dishonesty
Disobedience,
growth of
habit of
personality and
perverse attitude of
reproof and coaxing causing
Disorders, ætiology of
associated with neurosis
common
environment as cause and cure of
of neuropaths
treatment of
trifling
Diuresis, excessive
Doll, child's care of, an example of imitativeness
educative value of
Douches, cold, improving vasomotor tone
Dover's powder
Dreams,
nature of, indicating nature of mental unrest
Drugs, in sleeplessness
Ductless glands, in relation to infantile characteristics
Dullards
Dyspepsia, complications of
course and effects of
mental aspects of
nervous symptoms of
symptoms in newborn infant
treatment
Early childhood, care during
impulse of opposition in
love of power in
Early childhood, nervousness in
reasoning power in
three common neuroses of
toys, books, and amusements in
_See also_ Newborn Baby
Education, aim of
by games and toys
on sexual matters
Educative value, of books, games, and toys
Emotional states, appetite affected by
causing spasm
management of
of neurotics, exaggeration of
physical disturbances due to
producing laryngismus stridulus
Emotional storms
Endocrine glands
Enuresis,
causal factors in
characteristics and peculiarities of
condition of urine during
mental aspects of
mistakes in treatment of
perversion of suggestion as cause of
removal of tonsils in
treatment, essentials in
hypnotic suggestion in
methods of
Environment, body moulded and shaped by
change of, beneficial effects of
effect in developing child's powers
effect on common disorders
errors of, and neuropathic children
essentials of
faulty contact with, in neuropathic children
for neuropaths
influence on conduct in later childhood
influence on mental processes
influence on personality
irritating nature of the adult mind in
of the home, reflected in the child
of school life
stimulus of
susceptibility to influences of
Epilepsy, cyclical character of
Evil, inborn disposition to
Excitable children, management of
Exercise, sleep in relation to
Exhaustion. _See_ Mental Exhaustion
Expostulation, frequent, bad effects of
_See also_ Reproof
Expressions, to attract attention
Facial muscles, twitching of
associated with apnoea
Fæces, incontinence of
Fainting fits,
cause and characteristics
control of
of neuropaths
Fatigue, mental, physical, and visceral
Fats, lowered tolerance to
Faults, correction of
not corrected by too frequent reproof
Fear,
causes of
phenomena of
prominent psychical symptom of neuropathic children
treatment of
Feeding,
artificial
factors in
of newborn infant, regularity in
Fertilisation, method of imparting knowledge of
Food, force of suggestion in relation to
healthy desire for
likes and dislikes for
how overcome
phenomena of the desire of
refusal of
nervous causes of
persistent, factors encouraging
suggestion in relation to
treatment of
Force and cajoling, futility of
Freud, teaching of
Functional disturbances, in combination with organic disease
Gait, peculiarity of
Games, educative value of
Gastric disturbances
Gastric juice, psychic secretion of
Gastric symptoms, of neurosis
Gastro-intestinal derangement, causes of
environment as cause and cure of
Gentleness,
inculcation of
Girls' schools
Glottis, spasm of, strong emotion causing
"Good form"
Grasping habit, reproof in relation to
Growing pains
Habit spasms, age of appearance of
cause of
definition of
examples of
spread of
suggestion in relation to
treatment of
Habits, regulation of
suggestion in relation to
Habitual actions, infant's pleasure in
mental unrest in relation to
of the parent, reproduction in the child
varieties and characteristics
Habitual wakefulness
Hands, control of movement of
expressionless
Happiness and contentment, of child when playing alone
Headache, periodic. _See_ Migraine
Heat and cold, newborn baby in relation to
Heat and flushing, sudden sensations of
Heredity, and temperament
and type of child
nervous disorders in relation to
Home influence, in development of character
reflected in the child
Hunger, of the newborn baby
Hypnotic suggestion, in treatment of enuresis
Hypnotics
Hysteria,
age of appearance of
suggestion in relation to
symptoms of
Hysterical girls, characteristics of
Ideals, inculcation of
Ideas, polarisation and depolarisation of
Illness. _See_ Sickness
Imagination, abnormal, correction of
child's stories and tales in relation to
developed by toys
Imitativeness, age at which apparent
extent of
illustration of
lack of
of action
of speech
tell-tale child an illustration of
Incontinence of urine
Incorrigible children
Infantile characteristics,
ductless glands in relation to
nervous system in relation to
Infective disorders,
convalescence from
producing nervous symptoms
relation of neurosis to
Inflammatory reactions
Insomnia. _See_ Sleeplessness
Intellect, compared with physique
Intelligence, in early childhood
Intestinal disturbance
of neurosis
symptom of
Intoxications, violent reaction to
Introspection, and neuropathic children
excessive, evidences of
influencing conduct
Irritation, child to be free from
Joint pains
Kindergarten school, artificial symbolism of
Kindness, inculcation of
Lactation,
care of child during
care of mother during
causes of failure in
establishment of
tongue-tie in relation to
Laryngismus stridulus. _See_ Breath-holding
Later childhood,
infantile characteristics in
management in
mental backwardness in
Likes and dislikes
Lordosis
and neurosis
producing albuminuria
Manual dexterity, advantages of
Massage, improving tone of muscles
Medicines, sensitiveness to
Melancholy children
Mental aspects, of digestive disorders
of enuresis
of management in early childhood
Mental backwardness,
and infantile characteristics
in later childhood
Mental disturbances,
cyclical character of
indicating neuropathic tendencies
irregularities of sleep due to
psycho-analysis of
Mental exhaustion,
during convalescence from infective disorders
easily produced in nervous children
Mental irritability, chorea a symptom of
Mental life of the child
Mental power,
active before beginning of speech
in early childhood
Mental processes, development of
age at which most apparent
in later childhood
effect of unconscious suggestions on
heredity in relation to
influence of environment on
Mental training
compared with physical training
objects and advantages of
Mental unrest,
avoidance of
crying in relation to
digestive disturbances due to
growth of neuroses in atmosphere of
habitual actions in relation to
in the adult
in the child
negativism due to
of newborn infant, effects of
_See also_ Nervous Unrest
Micturition,
functional disorder of
negativism in
regulation of
_See also_ Enuresis
Migraine,
periodic vomiting associated with
symptom of nervous exhaustion
Mind,
and body, development of
effect on the body
vigour of, in relation to that of body
Money, theft of
Montessori system of training
Moral degeneracy
Moral standard of school life
Moral training
importance and effects of
negative virtues and
objects and advantages of
parents' responsibilities in
Morals, public opinion forming code of
Morbid introspection
Mothers,
ability and inability to manage children
attitude in regard to temperament of child
care of, during lactation
conduct of child influenced by
inability to understand nature of child's disorders
influence of, on tone and manner of speech
mental environment of child created by
personality of
relation to the child
Motionless children
Mouth, habit of conveying everything to, cause of
Movements,
precision of
purposive, development of
self-command of
Muscular atrophy, and neurosis
Muscular system,
changes in infantile children
weak development of
Muscular tone, how improved
Myopathy, primary
Nasal obstruction
and failure of lactation
night-terrors aggravated by
Natural history, sexual matters taught by
Naughtiness, child's delight in
Naughty, use of the term
Negative virtues, and moral training
Negativism,
cause of
characteristics
factors developing
in constipation
in micturition
spirit of
treatment of
want of sleep depending on
Nerve centres, controlling movement, development of
Nervous control, instability of, connection between bodily ailments and
Nervous cough
Nervous disorders,
and psycho-analysis
common, causes, characteristics, and treatment
frequency of
Nervous exhaustion, cyclic vomiting and migraine symptoms of
Nervous instability, stigma of
Nervous system, abnormal in children
in relation to cyclic vomiting
increased irritability of
infantile characteristics of
Nervous unrest, environment in relation to
factors increasing
manifestations of
recurrence of periods of
symptoms of
_See also_ Mental Unrest
Nervous vomiting. _See_ Vomiting
Nervousness, and digestive disorders
and neuropathy
in early infancy
in older children
parents' attitude causing
Nettlerash
Neurasthenia
Neuropathic children, common symptoms of
conduct of
faulty contact with environment in
fear the prominent symptom of
introspection and self-consciousness of
management of
training of
Neuropathic tendencies, evidence of, in older children
Neuropaths, adult
faulty management in child life leading to
phenomena of
phobias of
selection of suitable environment for
symptoms of
Neuroses, and psycho-analysis
association of albuminuria with
constipation frequently due to
examination of
growth in atmosphere of unrest and apprehension
relation of, to infection of the body
treatment of
Neurotics, and physique
characteristics
exaggeration of emotions of
Newborn baby, administration of sedatives to
artificial feeding of
breast feeding of
case of
effect of mental unrest on
first impressions of
formation of habits of sleep and crying in
heat and cold in relation to
hunger of
induction of the sucking movements of
of nervous inheritance
personality of
prevention of restlessness and crying
reduction of sense stimuli in
reflex action of sucking in
sense of taste of
symptoms of dyspepsia in
times of feeding
weaning of
Night-terrors, aggravation of,
causes of
of neuropathic children
Nursery, activities in, child's interest in
importance of child's being alone in
observations in
Nursery life, advantages of
Nursery psycho-therapeutics
Nurses, ability and inability to manage children
influence of, on tone and manner of speech
mental environment of child created by
personality of
Nursing, during sickness
of the newborn infant
Obedience
and perverse pleasure
growth of
Obsession of bed wetting
Opposition
and counter-opposition
during sickness
force of, factors influencing development
habit of
impulse of
love of, in early childhood
to food
Organic disturbance, in combination with functional trouble
Pain, frequent loss of sense of, in neuropaths
Pallor
sudden attacks of
Palpitation, example of visceral fatigue
Parathyroid glands, function of
Parents,
and children, conflict between
and silence on sexual matters
habitual actions of, reproduced in the child
mental attitude of, in relation to conduct
over-exercise of authority by, results of
responsibilities in moral training of child
suggestions unconsciously conveyed by, evil results of
Parties, disadvantages of
Patient, temperament of, physician in relation to
Pelvis, development of
Peripheral nerves, increase in irritability and conductivity of
Personal adornment, delight in
Personality,
and disobedience
child's own conception of
environment influencing
in early childhood
of newborn baby
Perspiration, abundant, sudden attacks of, 141
Phobias,
characteristics and varieties
frequency of
treatment of
Physical defects, accompanying neurosis
Physical disturbances, due to emotion
Physical exercise, lack of, causing want of sleep
Physical fatigue, easily produced in nervous children
Physical phenomena of neuropaths
Physical training,
objects and advantages of
Physician,
and the temperament of his patient
examination by
diagnosis by
difficulties of
Physique, intellect compared with
Pica and dirt eating
Picture books,
educative value of
kinds most suitable
Play,
happiness of child during
in the nursery
with grown-up persons
Pleasure, sense of, in early childhood
Polarisation of ideas
Postural albuminuria
Posture, faulty
prevention of
Power, child's love of
Precision of movement, development of
Psycho-analysis,
dangers of
observations on
Public schools, character and effects of
Punishment,
deserved and undeserved
frequent, disadvantages of
observations on
Purity, inculcation of high ideals of,
Purposive movements, earliest,
cause of
encouragement of
Pyloric spasm
Pyrexia,
organic disease in relation to
Rational hygiene
Reasoning power,
active before advent of speech
factors influencing development of
Regulation of habits
Repression, by older children of younger
Reproduction, method of imparting knowledge of
Reproof,
cases in which useless
causing disobedience
effects of
extreme sensitiveness to
perverse pleasure of
too frequent repetition of, futility of
Restlessness, during sickness
Rewards, use and dangers of
Rheumatism,
and chorea, association between
characteristics in childhood
subacute
treatment of
Rickets,
mental and intellectual condition in
in infantile children
occurrence with spasmophilia
Right and wrong, appreciation of, in early childhood
Round shoulders
St. Vitus's dance
Salts, excretion of
School life,
and sexual matters
moral standard of
moral training and
moulding of character during
of boys
of girls
Schools, public, character and effects of
Scoliosis, prevention of
Secretions, anomalies of
Self, child's conception of
Self-conscious children, complaints of
Self-consciousness, of neuropathic children
Self-discipline, development of
Self-education, in the nursery
Self-feeding
Self-preservation, morbid instinct of
Self-sacrifice, not to be expected in early childhood
Sensations,
acuteness of
bodily, of neuropaths
Sense perception, of neuropaths
Sense stimuli,
cultivation of perception of
in newborn babies
Sexual matters,
education on
method of
errors of conduct and
parents' silence in regard to
psycho-analysis in relation to
school life in relation to
Sickness
evil effects of suggestions unconsciously conveyed by parents during
management during
nurse and mother during
opposition during
temperature during
therapeutic measures in
therapeutic procedures concentrating child's mind on his symptoms
Sleep, estimation of the amount of
force of suggestion in relation to
formation of habit of
light and broken, cause of
of newborn infant
sound, beneficial effects of
Sleeping attire
Sleeplessness, breaking of the habit of
causes and characteristics
drugs in
in older children
lack of physical exercise causing
suggestion in relation to
treatment of
Sleep-walking
Snatching, habit of
Spasmophilia
ætiology of
drugs in treatment of
occurrence of rickets with
Spasms, control of
fatal
Speech, beginnings of
facility with which local accent is acquired
imitativeness of
infant's reasoning power present before advent of
influence of nurses and mothers on tone and manner of
Spinal deformity, prevention of
Spinal muscles, atrophy of
Spoon feeding
Status catarrhalis
Status lymphaticus
Story-telling
Sucking movements, of newborn child, induction of
_see also_ Lactation
Suggestion, and habit spasms
appetite in relation to
bed wetting in relation to
bodily habits in relation to
characteristics
conduct influenced by
constipation in relation to
effect on mental processes
food in relation to
force of, on child's mind
hysteria in relation to
perverse influence of
bad habits due to
causing constipation
want of sleep depending upon
refusal of food in relation to
sleep in relation to
susceptibility to
unconsciously conveyed by parents, evil results of
Suicide
Suspicions, aroused in the child
Syncopal attacks, causes and characteristics
Tactile sensation. _See_ Touch
Taste, perversion of
sensations of
how controlled
sense of, in newborn infant
Teething convulsions
Tell-tale child, characteristics
Temperament, diversity of
heredity and
mother's attitude in relation to
of the patient, physician in relation to
Temperature, during sickness
inexplicable rises in
Terror, causes, of
Tetany, liability to, in increased irritability of nervous system
pressure to brachial nerve causing
Theatres, disadvantages of
Theft
Therapeutic conversation
Thigh rubbing,
avoidance of
characteristics
habitual action of
Thorax, development of
Thumb sucking
persistence of the habit
Tongue-tie, in relation to lactation
Tonics
Tonsils, removal of, in treatment of enuresis
Touch, sense of,
cultivation of
early development of
organs with greatest development of
Toys,
child's interest in
educative value of
kind most suitable
Training, early, importance and object of
Trousseau's sign, nature and production of
Truthfulness
inculcation of
Twitching of facial muscles
Tyranny of tears
Unkindness, habitual, of children to others
Untruthfulness
over-exercise of authority encouraging
Urine,
condition in enuresis
incontinence of, methods of treatment
_See also_ Enuresis
increased secretion of
irritation of
Vasomotor instability
conditions indicating
in neuropaths
Vasomotor tone, how improved
Virtuous, definition of the term
Visceral fatigue, easily produced in nervous children
Vocabulary
Voice, tone of
Voluntary movements, development of cerebral centres controlling
Vomiting, cyclic
ætiology of
age at which it occurs
case illustrating
causes and characteristics
class of child affected by
condition of the child during
frequency of attacks
migraine in association with
nervous system in relation to
treatment of
Waking states
Weaning, difficulty in
Will, strength of, absence in childhood
Work and play, differentiation between
Writing, correct posture during
Transcriber's Notes
The following typographical errors were corrected:
Page 4: 'sensisive' changed to 'sensitive'.
Page 48: 'self-abnegnatio'n changed to 'self-abnegation'.
page 61: Fixed 'and and'.
Page 125: 'acount' changed to 'account'.
First page of index (191): 'ullimentary' changed to 'Allimentary';
also 'ilstrating' channged to 'illustrating'.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Nervous Child, by Hector Charles Cameron