We and Our Children
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
- Author:
Woods Hutchinson, M.D. New York:
Doubleday, Page & Company, 1911. Pp. x + 371.
There was a time, not very remote, when medicine, physiology, and everything connected with them, were thought of as dark mysteries into which the layman could not look with impunity. The doctor was a man of uncanny powers, and the average ailing mortal was quite willing to place upon his professional shoulders all the risks that might arise from meddling with the laws of the body.
When the day of the modern medical textbook came, a great mass of useful knowledge was still hid from the everyday person under a verbiage whose technicality precluded inquisitive pryings. Even now the average textbook of medicine or physiology shows sufficient evidence of the fact that eminent scientists are not necessarily born writers or teachers. The ever-growing demand, however, by the reading masses for comprehensible books on these matters has stimulated more and more successful attempts to put information into what is termed “popular” language. The medical writers are beginning to see the value of a literary style, and now and then a writer of real genius arises in that learned profession. Such a man has recently been making his presence felt by contributing articles of very great value, on subjects of medicine, hygiene, and the like, to popular magazines. And now conies a collection of excellent papers by him under the title “We and Our Children,” a book well worth notice. This book embraces a wide range of related subjects, from a short chapter of simple advice, useful before the coming of the child, to a chapter concerning the overworking of children “011 the farm and in the school.” It cannot be said that much is brought out that is new. This quality would almost be superfluous, for the reason that reliable information 011 such subjects is bound to be new, as far as the average reader is concerned. Although the articles on the care of infants, the play of young children, the direction of their diet, and looking after their teeth, eyes and ears, do not contain much novel information, they do bring home to the average parent a fundamental knowledge of which too many are ignorant. To be sure Dr Hutchinson shows us things now and then from unusual viewpoints, and amuses himself by breaking down, whenever he feels inclined, our common ideas, for instance, as to a deterioration of sight, hearing and smell as civilization develops. Particularly does he defend the American mother against the charges of physical incompetency, of selfishness, and of mismanagement of her children. His arguments are not mere rhetorical flourishes; they are supported by reasons which are not only well put, but 011 the whole strongly and incontrovertibly put.
Very excellent, too, and about the most interesting chapter is that entitled “The Delicate Child.” Under this heading are discussed not only the delicate and nervous child, but many important problems closely concerning the ordinary, everyday child, the ills that may assail him, and the crimes that with the best intentions in the world his own parents are likely to perpetrate upon him. Dr Hutchinson makes a strong attack on the fallacy that the usual “plain” diet is best for children, and encourages a radical breaking away from our established ideas as to what children should eat and what quantities of different foods they should have. He strongly voices the plea that with younger children the physical condition be largely depended upon to develop such “moral nature” as the child needs, on the old and proven theory that the sound body is likely to produce a sound mind. In this chapter he brings out clearly the value of the summer camp for boys and girls. “Here,” says he, “the youngster can be given a chance actually to live and put into practice his daydreams, with paddle and moccasin and eagle feathers, and become for the summer a healthy, happy, unworried and brainless young animal.” Such a life, according to Dr Hutchinson, is much superior in its effects to that prevailing when boys are “torn out of their natural home surroundings and forced to herd together in dormitories and within bounds.” But in a camp, “His absence is just long enough to develop a good, healthy attack of homesickness and appreciation of his privileges and blessings in the family circle, and at the same time to give opportunity for the development of a similar mellowing process in the mental attitude of the members of the family toward him.”
Finally, in “The Worship of the Race Stream” Dr Hutchinson touches upon important subjects in a wonderfully lucid and unusual way, giving us thoughts that cannot help but induce serious reflection which may lead to practical results. 1 ‘ f C. K. T.
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