On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    INSANITY AMONG WOMEN. 151

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    In Directing His Attention To The Import...

    up a family , or to liave the cliarge of the . children of others , she unwittingly fails to observe those conditions of our being the

    infraction of "which is followed , as surely as night succeeds to day , hj bad healthconsumptionor insanity . If it is admitted that

    thanks to the diffusion , of sounder , principles , much is being done to _^ improve the character of female education , this circumstance does

    able not prevent to ¦ a grievousl the existence y faulty of system much present of female insanity education being ; nor trace is

    improvement in this respect so great , or widely extended , that it is no longer necessary . to insist strongly and repeatedly upon the

    connexion which exists between the production of mental disease and an education which fails to give strength to the character and .

    vigor to the body . In some schools the praiseworthy attempt to raise the standard of education has been injurious in this direction

    if beneficial in others , simply from overlooking the necessity for sufficient hysical exerciseand pure air by day and hy night . It

    is of the p first importance , , therefore , that the right mean between these two conditions of the integrity and healthy development of

    the entire constitution—mental training and bodily exercise—should be steadily kept in view by the practical educator . One cannot

    fail to be often struck with the superficiality of the present mode of educating womenand its necessary influence upon the feminine

    character of this age , . Compare the education of a high-born lady of two or three centuries ago with that of the present day . . Few

    but distinct were the objects presented to her mental vision compared with the confused and confusing medley now often brought

    before it . Somelike the mother of Lord Bacon , were excellent , classical scholars . Many of the ladies of England , it is true , were

    engaged , in the mechanical , and perhaps it may be called soul-less , occupation of tapestry work . It might be worth a thought ,

    however , whether even this employment ( regarded from our present point of view ) was not equal , I had almost said superior , to the

    scientific , historic , theologic , metaphysic , and linguistic patchwork which _frequentl . constitutes the mental furniture of the modern

    no young longer lady enoug . It y h is that the sam a girl e with intended the lower for service classes should of societ read y . , write It is ,

    and sew well . This , indeed , she is seldom taught really to do , either in our National or Lancasterian schools , for instead of these

    essentials she is too often taught , or made to repeat , certain _geometrical terms ,- a variety of scraps of knowledge which hardly sink the

    below the surface of the brain , and merely serve to block up so as to ' prevent the entrance of really useful knowledge . I

    and have way , even known acting -several as monitors girls , after , enti attending rely forget some the years art of at writing such schools after ,

    class being — in the service girl of for hi a g time h or ! of It humble is granted birth , of — course should , tha we . t for desire neither an

    look exact to return the past to — the not systems to copy , of , but our to forefathers learn . Let us mothers study the . p resent us

    Insanity Among Women. 151

    _INSANITY AMONG WOMEN . 151

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1861, page 151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051861/page/7/