while the feet are resting on a board placed underneath them, the lower extremities being thus impeded in their movements, the head falls more and more forward, the muscles of the back are weakened and elongated, while those of the chest derive considerable strength from their constant exercise; the clavicles are unable to support the shoulders in their proper position, and therefore bend, or are forced from their natural situation; the cavity of the chest is diminished, and the foundation of numerous disorders is laid.
We cannot help in this place adverting to the habit so frequently adopted by nursery maids, of dragging the child by the arm during the process of teaching it to walk. The unhappy infant is consigned to the care of an inexperienced nursemaid, who, in her anxiety to pass a crossing, seizes the baby by the hand, and literally drags it across, regardless of the child's feet not touching the ground. The poor baby stumbles in its passage over the rough ground, and the nurse being engaged in preserving herself from the probability of being run over by the cabs or omnibuses which are constantly passing, rushes across, and at the end of her unnecessary journey beats the poor infant for its clumsiness. By this practice the shoulder of the child may be dislocated, or the clavicle broken, while the spine becomes completely distorted. The same thing will sometimes occur with boys who, when very young, are taken out for a walk by their parents. The father walks on with long and rapid strides, holding the child by the hand, and as he does not consider that his step is much longer than that of his offspring, he tells the child to "step out, like papa." The boy endeavours to obey, and the result is, that the pelvis becomes ricketty and deformed. The late lamented· Thomas Hood, whose sagacity nothing escaped, has in one of his Comic Annuals given a good illustration of this subject, by a wood engraving entitled "A Step Father," in which he represents a poor child being dragged along in the manner I speak of.
Let us now suppose that the period has arrived for the education of the girl, who in her infancy has been subjected to the injurious influences against which we have endeavoured to warn our readers; and let us consider whether the course of education ordinarily pursued is calculated to correct or to increase the evils already described. It unfortunately often happens that precocity of mind is allied with physical weakness; and" this may be accounted for by the fact, that in a child
