operate directly on the body, or indirectly upon the organism through the consciousness. There can be no greater or more short-sighted mistake than to suppose that medicine is wholly an affair of drugs, or even of drainage and ventilation; good food and pure air are essentials of health, but so are good mental influences and pure associations for the mind. The brain and nervous system are especially approachable through the medium of the senses, and if these centres of vitality are to be restored to a normal standard when depraved, if the constructive and controlling forces of the organism are to be brought under remedial influences at head-quarters, mental remedies must be made to play a prominent part in the treatment; and this will require not only a skilful management of the surroundings, but that the whole system and course of education shall be made a ministry of health and cure. This is, perhaps, the most important of the general principles of treatment it is possible to lay down.

I am not writing a treatise on the management of infancy, and must, therefore, leave this branch of the subject at the point to which we have brought it. It was needful to glance at the broader topics to which I have adverted, but the theme is YOUTH,

THE THRESHOLD OF LIFE.

AN seems to pause on the threshold of his mature life, to put forth fresh powers and evolve new functions, indispensable to the fulfilment of his destiny. It is at this epoch in the history of personal existence, that the strength and unity of his development as a physico-mental being are first severely tested. If the life of development, which has preceded the period of special evolution, with its awakening of consciousness, has been natural and healthy, if the vigour of growth has been fairly well distributed, and the several parts of the organism have been developed in harmony

-no constituent tissue of the body, or component faculty of the mind, having been allowed to lag in the progress, or to outrun its fellows, so as to make the organic result abnormal-the health of maturity, in its full sense, will be established. In

proportion as these conditions-namely, harmony and strength, are unsatisfied, the process of evolution will be difficult, and adolescence commenced under embarrassing circumstances.

The history of this epoch of life is full of practical significance. It commences with a more or less notable period of stagnation. The rapidly developing organism appears, in a strongly marked case, to have been suddenly arrested in its progress. The child loses heart in its work or play, and energy, of body and mind, is replaced by listlessness and apathy. The physical growth may proceed, but the muscular strength fails; the back is bent and the shoulders are rounded. The figure becomes awkward, the movements are graceless, the habits indolent. The eyes are dull, with drooping lids, producing a stupid or languishing expression of countenance; the mouth betokens a feeling of nausea, or is twisted or compressed irritably. The appetite is capricious, now dainty then ravenous, with strange and often unnatural likes and dislikes. Vague aches and pains are frequent subjects of complaint; and the temper is sullen and moody, with outbursts of almost hysterical excitement.

This is a broadly marked outline of the state, which will be more or less pronounced as the individual organism is, in a higher or lower degree, responsive to sympathetic impressions, and the temperament indicates a closely knit or unstable constitution. There will also be differences of force and character in the finished picture, due to the mode of life and sex of the individual. Of these special matters I shall have more to say presently; for the moment, however, the sketch may be taken as fairly accurate.

How long this "dead point" in the onward roll of life may persist will depend on personal peculiarities; on the quality and extent of the growth which has taken place during childhood; on the surroundings, food, clothing, habit, climate, social position; and very largely, on the amount of brain and nerve power possessed by the individual. In short, the event will be determined by the past and present conditions, internal and external, acting in combination: the result being the net or mean effect of all the factors concerned. Whatever the length of the period may be it is essentially one of discovery, and often of surprise.

Childhood has its special influences on the

growing body and strengthening and opening mind, and adult life is nearly always artificial; but at the moment of putting away childish things -or, as it were, allowing them to drop from the grasp the true inner life is, for the instant, apparent. It is generally at this juncture diseases and defects of the organism are first brought to light, and those morbid irregularities of function -they are not diseases-known as hysteria and epilepsy, with the allied disorder, St.Vitus' dance, in one of its severe or lighter forms, make their appearance. These are not new evils, but at the moment of interrupted progress during the temporary suspension of impetus, they declare themselves.

At this point also the mental and moral character may be easily and accurately studied. The indications will perhaps be few, and chiefly negative, but they are sure to be significant. The propensities proper to childhood, if not unnaturally developed by bad or defective training, will have been abandoned, and the more permanent underlying passions and inclinations begin to express themselves. It is only for an instant these are seen in their true character, because the awakening of consciousness quickly places them