PRECOCITY has been regarded as an indication of cerebral disease: and Americaa physicians have not hesitated to identify this manifestation with chronic inflammatioa of the membranes of the brain. If it is notalways it is often associated with such intense activity of the whole system, and with morbid conditions, such as the scrofulous diathe sis as to usher iu actual disease, premature decay, and early death. The decay often consists in mental feebleness and fatuity; or, where no such formidable issue follows, in the reduction of what promised to be transcendent genius to commonplace mediocrity. The closing chapters of the history of many wonderful calculators—infant Rosciuses, infant Lyras. etc.—illustrate this. It is hence no mere poetic figure to say that the lamp of the mind lives upon and burns itself out. Yet there are numerous exceptions, such as Johnson, Mozart, Fergusson, Davy, where early genius grew into great and masculine powers. This rapid Lvelopment in infancy or youth of faculties which are generally., the result of protracted growth; and the intuitive acquisition of knowledge, which, under ordinary circumstances, is attained by laborious effort and cultivation, are' most fre quently witnessed in those of feeble and delicate constitution and of stunted frame. It is often seen as a concomitant of rickets, as in Pascal, Pope, etc.; and the dux of the school may often be pointed out from the disproportionate size of his head. While this
developmeut includes marvelous exercise of memory, of imagination, of constructive talent, of artistic genius, it rarely extends to judgment, reasoning, and sagacity. There appears to be evidence that this quality is not merely morbid, but that it exercises, reflexly, a detrimental influence upon healthy assimilation and growth, and arrests or retards that building up of the organization, upon which the ultimate capacity and use fulness of the individual depend. Education sometimes produces such prematurity, or fosters it where it has previously existed; so that the modern form of mental exhaustion, " the overworked brain," may be said to originate in the schoolroom. It is certainly illogical to employ this fact, as has been done, against :nfant schools; but it is incum bent to keep such a relation in view in all educational efforts; to avoid high pressure and stimulation, to adapt the kind of instruction to the age, and, so far as may be practica ble, to the strength and tendencies of the pupils; and to combine systematic physical with all intellectual training.—Brigham, Remarks on the Influence of Mental Caltiration . awl Mental Ercitement upon Health; Combe, On. the .ffanagement of Infancy,- Caldwell, Tiwaghts on Physical Education.