Laid Up Forexpenditure During The Waking Hours

is a most important physiological factor. Our schools are as apt infrightening it away as our churches are in inviting it. Sleep is theopportunity for repair. During its hours of quiet rest, when muscularand nervous effort are stilled, millions of microscopic cells are busyin the penetralia of the organism, like coral insects in the depths ofthe sea, repairing the waste which the day's study and work havecaused. Dr. B.W. Richardson of London, one of the most ingenious andaccomplished physiologists of the present day, describes the labor ofsleep in the following language: "During this period of natural sleep,the most important changes of nutrition are in progress: the body isrenovating, and, if young, is actually growing. If the body beproperly covered, the animal heat is being conserved, and laid up forexpenditure during the waking hours that are to follow; therespiration is reduced, the inspirations being lessened in theproportion of six to seven, as compared with the number made when thebody is awake; the action of the heart is reduced; the voluntarymuscles, relieved of all fatigue, and with the extensors more relaxedthan the flexors, are undergoing repair of structure, and recruitingtheir excitability; and the voluntary nervous system, dead for thetime to the external vibration, or, as the older men called it,'stimulus' from without, is also undergoing rest and repair, so that,when it comes again into work, it may receive better the impressionsit may have to gather up, and influence more effectively the musclesit may be called upon to animate, direct, control."[11] An Americanobserver and physiologist, Dr. William A. Hammond, confirms the viewsof his English colleague. He tells us that "the state of generalrepose which accompanies sleep is of especial value to the organism,in allowing the nutrition of the nervous tissue to go on at a greaterrate than its destructive metamorphosis." In another place he adds,"For the brain, there is no rest except during sleep." And, again, hesays, "The more active the mind, the greater the necessity for sleep;just as with a steamer, the greater the number of revolutions itsengine makes, the more imperative is the demand for fuel."[12] Thesestatements justify and explain the instinctive demand for sleep. Theyalso show why it is that infants require more sleep than children, andchildren than middle-age folk, and middle-age folk than old people.Infants must have sleep for repair and rapid growth; children, forrepair and moderate growth; middle-age folk, for repair withoutgrowth; and old people, only for the minimum of repair. Girls, betweenthe ages of fourteen and eighteen, must have sleep, not only forrepair and growth, like boys, but for the additional task ofconstructing, or, more properly speaking, of developing and perfectingthen, a reproductive system,--the engine within an engine. The bearingof this physiological fact upon education is obvious. Work of theschool is work of the brain. Work of the brain eats the brain away.Sleep is the chance and laboratory of repair. If a child's brain-workand sleep are normally proportioned to each other, each night willmore than make good each day's loss. Clear heads will greet eachwelcome morn. But if the reverse occurs, the night will not repair theday; and aching heads will signalize the advance of neuralgia,tubercle, and disease. So Nature punishes disobedience.
It is apparent, from these physiological considerations, that, inorder to give girls a fair chance in education, four conditions atleast must be observed: first, a sufficient supply of appropriatenutriment; secondly, a normal management of the catamenial functions,including the building of the reproductive apparatus; thirdly, mentaland physical work so apportioned, that repair shall exceed waste, anda margin be left for general and sexual development; and fourthly,sufficient sleep. Evidence of the results brought about by a disregardof these conditions will next be given.