the rigid silence maintained, broken only by the voice of the teacher, or the apathetic drone of some lazily-repeated and imperfectly-known lesson, create a lassitude which induces the children to place themselves in all kinds of awkward positions, for the purpose of resting the muscles which keep the neck and spine erect. Being seated on forms without backs, the children cannot accomplish this by leaning backward, and they therefore place one or both elbows on the desk, and rest on them the weight of the head and trunk. Here the erroneous mode of dressing, which at this time is so generally adopted, seriously adds to the evils occasioned by this habit. When a girl is sent to school the mother insists on dressing her daughter in the same fashion and with the same materials as herself. Does the mother wear flounces, the child must also present an equal number of rows, ascending in terraced regularity from the hem of the dress to the waist. No matter that the mother may be a strong healthy woman, and her offspring weak and delicate—the same stuff must be used for the dress of one as for that of the other, and nearly the same number of widths be put in the skirt. The same mode of tying the petticoats round the waist is employed,
