Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1883 — Cerebral Gluttony. [ARTICLE]

Cerebral Gluttony.

Lord, Strathnairn once said that he could tell by a young man’s manner of ordering his breakfast in a coffee-room' whether lie was likely to nmke a good officer; and Lord Palmerston declared that the best way of getting a supply of efficient attaches ior the foreign office would be to leave the selection t<> ladies. Without indulging such fancies, one ma ask that competitive examination should be directed to ascertaining whether a candidate lias a general fitness for the position which he seeks, and not to the finding out how much ill-digested knowledge he can cram into his head. The brain is an organ more delicate than the stomach, and yet the same men who preach temperance and abstemiousness to boys for their healths’ sake will unhesitatingly urge them to the wildest course of cerebral gluttony, Cases have been cited in which pupil teachers, after working all day at schools, have had to pass their evenings in tending for examina- j tions, and many of them doubtless take no Sunday rest. These unnatural calls upon the brain lead to Exam. Fever- 5 that is, a form of brain-fever with a complication of neurosis—a most difficult complaint to treat, and one whieb may become chronic if the patient can not get perfect rest. —London Graphic