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    I-saw it at the age of two years , it was one . of the most pitiable objects I ever beheld : it was much emaciated , total ] y incapable of beariug on its legs , which were in fact but barely covered with skin , and the bones so slight , that a touch would have broken them . The spiue formed a complete serpentine curvature from the upper dorsal to the lower lumbar vertebrae . The intellectual

    faculties were remarkably precocious , so that a stranger would have supposed the child to have heen double its age . Cold bathing and friction , with the iuterual exhibition of alteratives and steel , were recommended , and their employment was attended with some benefit ; but the health was so much deteriorated that

    nothing had any permanent good effect , and the child sunk into its grave a victim to the folly and over-indulgence of its parents . This case is by no means a solitary one , and its history , somewhat modified , would apply to hundreds of others , where scrophula , rickets , pulmonary and other diseases are engendered in children , from the gross mismanagement of their early years . Such

    complaints are commonly imputed to the impure atmosphere of large towns , which is often bad enough , but in no part sufficiently so to produce these evils without other operating causes . Jn the very closest parts of London childreu will be healthy , if proper attention is paid to the , circumstances of cleanliness , bathing , diet , and exercise iu the open air . It is the confined air of unventilated rooms

    which . is so injurious to children ; but the open air , even of the most closelybuilt portions of the old city , is sufficiently pure to preserve a tolerable standard of health : if the substances taken into the stomach were as free from impurities as the atmosphere , even of London , the latter would not be in such bad repute . In

    ninety-nine disorders out of a hundred , especially in children , it is the stomach which is primarily in fault . "—Pp . 7—10 . We add another extract , of considerable length ; there are yet , though their number is diminishing , school-mistresses who should consider it very attentively ; the mother , and the daughter too , may also profit thereby :

    " Among the most commonly adduced causes of lateral curvature of the spine , is the long-continued influence ot the same attitude . That this does operate Is unquestionable , for multiplied experience has shewn it in many persons whose occupations oblige them to maintain the same posture for many hours daily . Attitude has most effect during the period of

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    growth , but probably too . much has been attributed to it ; for , without the simultaneous action of other causes , it would not alone be sufficient to account for the production of spinal curvature . The attitude which a girl is obliged to assume at almost all her lessons , unquestionably

    teuds to draw the spine to one side , and to elevate the right shoulder ; which , together with want of exercise , stays and tight lacing , operates in the production of that variety of lateral curvature , which the modern system of female education Las reudered so common .

    " The attitude assumed in needle-work , writing , drawing , the piano , the harp , all have the same tendency to contort the spine ; all these occupations are sedentary , and so many of these and other accomplishments are now demanded , that the day is hardly long enough to go

    through the usual lessons . Boys sit much at their studies as well as , girls , but when relieved from them , their amusements are of such an active description , that the alternation of a few hours' sitting is really beneficial to them ; but girls , in their intervals of relaxation , are too often permitted to take no other exercise than a

    slow walk for an hour or so . The motions necessary for boyish games , bring into active play the muscles of the back , increase their vigour and thus enable them to maintain . the spine in its proper position , but the action of walking has but little effect on this class of muscles ; the omission of those active exertions

    which youth of both sexes would naturally indulge in , is one main cause of such frequent instances of lateral curvature in girls . Every care is taken to check in girls that activity which is natural to the season of youth—young ladies should not be romps—such and such exercises are boyish—delicacy of appearance is considered genteel , and we all know

    how successful the system is in rendering girls delicate . Even in those cases where some degree of active exercise is permitted , the poor child is eternally admonished not to assume the attitude which Nature dictates to relieve for a while the muscles of the back . Miss must not stoop , must always hold her bead erect , sitting or standing ; the head

    and chest must be upright , . and straightbacked chairs , backboards , and other ingenious arts of tormenting have been invented , to prevent children from adopting the attitudes of repose dictated by Nature . Who would ever think of preven , ting a horse frqm assuming that position of repose which he almost invariably takes when standing still , by raising one

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    Critical Notices , H —Miscellaneous . 54

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 549, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/45/