CO-ED U GA TION.
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to eighteen,* a girl should not study as many hours a day as a boy. “ In most of our schools,” says a distinguished physiological authority previously quoted, “ the hours are too many for both boys and girls. From a quarter of nine or nine, until half-past two, is with us (Philadelphia schools for girls) the common schooltime in private seminaries. The usual recess is twenty minutes or half an hour, and it is not filled by enforced exercise. In certain schools, — would it were the rule, — ten minutes’ recess is given after every hour. To these hours, we must add the time spent in study out of school. This, for some reason, nearly always exceeds the time stated by teachers to be necessary ; and most girls between the age of thirteen and seventeen thus expend two or three hours.
* Some physiologists consider that the period of growth extends to a later age than this. Dr. Anstie fixes the limit at twenty five. lie says, “ The central nervous system is more slow in reaching its fullest development; and the brain, especially, is many years later in acquiring its maximum of organic consistency and functional power.” — Neuralgia, Op. at., by F. E. Anstie, p. 20.