imposed upon them by the entrance-examination to the larger institutions, and by the ambition of their masters, who hope to derive profit and honor from their success. This is indeed a serious consideration, and the possibility of a large section of our most promising lads being thus mentally stunted in early life would demand instant interference did we deem the charge fully proved. Now, with all deference, I would venture to express my opinion, based on some experience, that, although we must not neglect so timely a warning of probable rocks ahead, there is no specific evidence of present injury. During my residence at Rugby I was in medical charge of several preparatory schools where the educational standard was very high, and where the success was proportionate when the boys came to be drafted off into the big school. I may truly say that no case was brought under my notice during the space of three years which I could in any way trace to overwork. And this I attribute to the perfect manner in which the counterbalancing conditions of health were sustained, the good food, satisfactory hygienic conditions, ample time for recreation and active sports, and frequent holidays. Boys of that age do not fret or worry over their work—they throw it off in their intervals of repose, sleep well, eat well, play well, and so do not suffer. Depend upon it, it would be little to the credit of any proprietor of a private educational establishment were he to neglect the laws of health, and send his boys home enfeebled and worn out from too heavy mental strain.
As regards the larger public schools the same remarks apply, and I met with very few instances at Rugby of any bad consequences from overwork; and in the three or four well-marked cases which came under my care I was enabled to detect some other equally operative cause which predisposed to the seizure. Thus one lad, ambitious of distinction both at classics and foot-ball, had undergone violent physical exertion while exhausted by study, and the supply of nerve-force, not being available for this double strain, gave way, and a sharp, feverish attack ushered in long-continued mental prostration. A second boy, who suffered from a precisely similar attack, had been sitting up late at night, and felt some anxiety about a future prize; and the third lad, who completes the catalogue, had also consumed the midnight oil to an undue extent. But, as a general rule, the typically healthy life and surroundings of our great public schools enable their inmates to withstand a much greater amount of work than lads brought up at home, who are often unduly spurred on, and who have not the healthful stimulus of enforced active exercise. Among this class I have seen a much greater proportionate extent of temporary break-down from the effects of mental exertion too long sustained and too little relieved.
Although the standard of the School Board is not very high, we may foresee a possible source of danger in forcing the minds of wretchedly feeble, ill-fed, and ill-housed children suddenly into edu-
