Physical development

“ A. Physical Growth.—Although differing in their particular conception of the nature of education, all educators agree in setting the child as the central figure in the educative process. As an individual, the child, like other living organisms, develops through a process of inner changes which are largely conditioned by outside influences. In the case of animals and plants, physical growth, or development, is found to consist of changes caused in the main through the individual responding to external stimulation. ”

“ And, to begin, let us ask, "How shall we know when physiological development is following its natural course, and when it is not?" There are two striking characteristics which can always here be taken as guides, viz., slowness of organic change, and latency. The physiological growth of tissue is always gradual in its progress, both as regards change of shape, bulk, and variation in physical properties. These go on with an insidious progression that is, for the most part, quite imperceptible to ordinary methods of observation. Natura non facet saltem. ”

“ Physiology embraces the properties and functions of the tissues and organs—the primary conditions of Growth and Development out of which rise the higher functions bringing the organism into active relation with the surrounding medium. ”

“ At the very time that children are rapidly undergoing the process of physical development, there is superadded the acquirement of elaborate mental knowledge, and when bone and muscle and sinew are in the active processes of transformation and growth, then it is that the intellectual faculties are spurred on at a killing pace. ”

“ The main design of nature in early youth, is not the speedy development of the mind,—for she has designedly, as it were, withheld this agent,—but the development and growth of the body, by means of the nutritive functions so carefully provided for the purpose. ”

“ This is the first great attempt to construct a scientific, physiological theory of the development of organic life and to prove that the physiological laws and the chemical and physical forces that rule in nature to-day must also have been at work in the world of yesterday. ”

“ The billions of atoms that constitute the flesh of the muscles and of the nerves, are in constant motion, without which, the body would lose all energy and become inert. By exercising the muscles constantly and uniformly, we are giving the atoms of the human system free and full play, and enabling them to perform their functions. We may indeed say, that exercise and physical development mean LIFE.
123 THE TEACHER, DOCTOR, LAWYER, CLERGYMAN—WHICH ARE YOU FITTED FOR? ”

“ The normal growth of the body, the special development of different portions thereof concerned with adolescence, the variations from such normal development and their aberrations in disease and crime, the great rôle that periodicity plays in human growth—these constitute the physical basis which conditions through and through the nature of mental growth, as well as determines the spirit of educational progressions. ”

“ All these useless and, in a sense, parasitic organs of the human body, which modern research in the fields of physical anthropology, anatomy and embryology has brought to light and explained, point to laws of development that have a profound significance for every department of effort in which the control and improvement of man's life is an object. ”

“ The great object of physical training is then to secure the most perfect development of the body, with the corresponding development of the brain, so that the highest physical and mental efficiency of the individual may be attained. ”

“ Unless it goes on normally, neither boys, girls, men, nor women, can have bodies or brains worth talking about. It is a process, without which not a step can be taken, or muscle moved, or food digested, or nutriment assimilated, or any function, physical or mental, performed. By its aid, growth and development are carried on. ”

“ By the evolution of the senses, by the gradual growth of the whole nervous system, by the development of your brains, you have largely become master of this densest world, the physical world, to which your body is related. ”

“ Or, in other words, we find that the process of mental evolution, on its physical side, has consisted in the progressive development of [Pg 6] this grey matter superimposed upon the pre-existing nervous machinery, until it has attained its latest and maximum growth in man. ”

“ The second physiological fact to be noted is the order observed in human development. The faculties grow in a certain determined order. First, those which are needed for simple physical existence; next, those which place the child in fuller relations with Nature; and, lastly, those which link him to his fellows. As digestion is perfected before locomotion, so muscular mobility and activity exist before strength, perception before observation, affection and friendship before love. ”

“ Everywhere, life is dependent upon conditions and circumstances; it is not self-generating. But the conditions of reproduction are very complex. External forces are transformed, and, in turn, become vital or formative powers. Development is a transmutation of physical and chemical forces into vital energy. Although unable to compute the ultimate factors of life, yet we may illustrate their reproductive possibilities and results by comparing them with those of a lower order.
Animal structures are mainly composed of four elements: oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. ”

“ Pathology, therefore, is really nothing else than modified physiology. Physiological development is the evolution of organs and the growth of organisms under the impression of natural external conditions; pathological development is the evolution of organs and the growth of organisms under the impression of unnatural external conditions. Adaptation of structure to function—of organisms to surrounding media—is the designed conservative purpose of both kinds of growth. ”

“ The value of this point of view in its bearing upon education is evident and has been frequently emphasized in recent years. What is needed most of all to-day in the educational world is a proper perspective of child development. Biology has given us a pretty definite outline of the evolution of the body in that it has discovered the different stages of growth through which it passes, from conception to maturity. This needs to be applied to the psyche and clothed with flesh and blood and made a living, breathing reality ”

“ And so they regarded development as a simple process of growth resulting from nutrition. Their mental picture of the germ or beginning of an organism was an exceedingly reduced image of the organism, an image requiring for its development nothing but nutrition and growth. ”

“ This is plainly self-evident; but when we consider how far-reaching are the facts thus obtained in promoting our understanding of the laws of growth of the human body, of the relationships of the various physiologically active and inactive tissues, of their development, of the character and extent of their activity, and of all the variations incident to pathological conditions, we see at once the great importance of this knowledge in aiding us to a rightful interpretation of physiological laws. ”

“ For man has gained new muscles, in his use of the forms and forces of the inorganic world, and has commenced a new process of adaptation, which has already enabled him to extend his kingdom from the tropic to the frigid zone, and which promises to make him to some extent master of the fields of water and air. And his mental experience of wider and wider conditions of nature has produced a new form of physical adaptation—that signified in clothing and habitation. ”

“ We have given protoplasm, a strange substance of marvellous capacities, which we call functions, and possessing a power of developing into beings of ever higher grades of organization. Environment proves to be a combination of forces working for the higher development of functions in a certain orderly sequence. And every lower function in the ascending line demands the development of the next higher. Digestion demands muscle, and muscle nerve, and nerve brain. We shall soon see that mammalian structure had to culminate in the family, and the family demands unselfishness and obedience. ”

“ Were the inciting principle of the development of the individual actually an independent vital force acting within the organism,688 the birth and growth of the individual would be able to take place without the continuous encroachment of the environment, such as occurs in nutrition and respiration. ”

“ It has been clearly shown that in view of the general dependence of development on the factors of the environment a number of problems are ready for experimental treatment. One must, however, not forget that the science of the physiology of form has not progressed beyond its initial stages. ”

“ The causes of the change in the shape, form, and relation of the different segments are functional: the body changes to meet the changing needs of its environment and the steady progressive functional development from one species to another. ”

“ Physiology is also the first science in which we recognise the influence of habit—the tendency of something to happen again, merely because it has happened before. From physiology, too, we get our clearest notion of what is meant by development, or evolution. The growth of a plant or animal from the first germ is the typical specimen of a phenomenon which rules through the whole course of the history of man and society—increase of function, through expansion and differentiation of structure by internal forces. ”

“ Not only is the lifelong work of the body going on at this time, with much greater activity than belongs to adult life—i.e., the work of calorification, nutrition, and all that concerns the maintenance of the body during its unceasing expenditure of mechanical and mental force—but the still more powerful actions of development and growth are being carried on to their last and greatest perfection. ”

“ The process of growth and fulfilment of functions is propelled by this energy, which is operative throughout all Nature. It is the force back of and expresses itself through the physical life of man and animal. ”

“ It is well-known that every organ of the body and, therefore, also the brain, requires for its full development and, consequently, for the development of its complete capability of performance, exercise and persistent effort. ”

“ Take, then, the human body. This complex and beautiful system of correlated and nicely-adjusted parts may be studied in a state of maturity and equilibrium, in which all the organs and functions by action and reaction co-operate to produce perfect stability, health, and physical happiness. This study is physiology. ”

“ The more healthy and perfect her organization, and the better the balance of all her organs, the sounder and the more perfect will be the development of her offspring. The health and life of the child demand it.
This theory of human increase derives strong evidence from an analogous law in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. It is well known that great improvements have been made within the present century in domestic animals, and this, too, by the application of physiological laws. ”

“ The influence of environment was demonstrated in all those cases in which changes in the rate of growth affected the final form of the body; and we saw particularly that early arrest of development does not necessarily mean unfavorable development, because in many 246cases the rapidity and short period of development seemed favorable elements. ”

“ The second class of powers embraces those which we can account for by the universally-known laws of physics. Among these I reckon the mechanism of motion, and the chemistry of the human body, the source of vegetable life. Vegetation, then, and animal mechanism, thoroughly mingled, form the proper physical life of the human body. ”

“ He must see that the forces at work, and the motions produced in each organ and part of the embryo body are proportioned to and in harmony with the forces at work and the motions produced in every other; that the development and growth of each organ and part keeps pace with those of every other. ”

“ L’éducation physique embraces muscular and cerebral development. It satisfies the need of exercise of all our organs, passive as well as active,—a need given the authority of law by physiology. To note this development and to learn to direct it with 83prudence, anthropometric observations should be made and anthropometric statistics continuously kept. ”

“ It requires about twenty-five years for nature to bring a human individual from birth to physiological maturity. In the nine months before birth the growth and development is very rapid. All the organs are formed, but their development at birth is immature, especially the development of the nervous system. What is accomplished in these years?
From Birth to Maturity
Note the great differences in increase of different parts of the body. ”

“ The preceding considerations refer chiefly to the slow processes by which the various parts of the body must be built up step by step, under the guidance of outside intelligence, which furnishes the proper conditions of physical growth. Equally certain, and within the legitimate scope of true physiology, is the influence which the mind of the individual exercises upon the growth of the body. This difficult half of the subject presents itself in increasing importance as science advances. The particular theory of mind held by individuals does not affect our inquiry. ”

“ Those, however, who recognize the 408truth that the structural changes are the slowly accumulated results of the functional changes, will readily draw the corollary, that a part-cause of the evolution of the nervous system, as of other evolution, is this multiplication of effects which becomes ever greater as the development becomes higher. ”