apidly at fourteen to sixteen in the boy; in the girl
the increase has been smaller and quite irregular. It ought to be more
regular than it is, I am convinced. The heart has gained greatly in
capacity. The arteries have expanded much less than the heart, and the
result is that there is a much higher blood pressure than there has been at
any time before. The brain has attained practically full size and weight.
The addition now will be mainly in the very highest area, where the
addition of fibres might make all the difference between the possibility of
genius and the possibility of mediocrity. The sensory and the nervous areas
are fully matured. The higher mental area and the higher mental power are
now coming on to stay.

The boy, you will notice, at this stage begins to argue a great deal more
than he ever did before. He wants to argue nearly every question. He likes
the debating society. His idea of heaven, it seems to me, is a place where
debating is indulged in. A goodly amount of exercise for those
psychological and mental powers will do him no harm.

The mortality, or the death rate, is low, but the morbidity is increasing
at this time, in the boy at least. Vigorous physical exercise is now
needed. Ordinary play is not enough. Gymnastics also for the development
and training of the hand and the wrist, training in quickness and precision
of movement are all excellent exercise, all the finer muscles should be
trained now, and probably less training should be given to the heavy
fundamental muscles which are all important in childhood.

Athletics are exceedingly useful. They should be, however, for all, and not
merely for a few who join the teams, who need them the very least of all. I
think our modern college athletics will some day be looked upon as one of
the most ridiculous habits of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. That
twenty-two men should engage in mortal combat, with anywhere from one to
twenty thousand on the side lines,--if you can get anything more ridiculous
than that, I should like to know where you can find it. Athletics should
not be too severe, however, yet, the boy ought not to have century runs and
long halves of football, especially if the heart is still weak. The tissues
of the body have not yet gained the toughness that they will gain at a
later time. Every commander in the field dreads to have boys of eighteen,
nineteen, or twenty sent to him, because, as Napoleon said of his young
recru