Show vertical writing at the international congress of hygiene and demography a resolution was passed in favor of the teaching of upright penmanship or vertical writing on the ground that spinal curvature and short sight are caused by the faulty position of the youthful student which is nece necessitated imitated by slope of the letters we can all of us remember the trouble of learning to write and the mental and physical toil toll which the making of our first pothooks pot hooks and hangers involved the number of muscles put flut in action when a person Is writing Is prodigious and it is probable that in beginners every muscle of the body must yield its assent before the graphic symbols trickle from the pen the fingers wrist elbow and shoulder must nil all be held steady the spine must be rigid and fixed below as well as above the pelvis must bo be firm and to this end the child often gets a support by its feet from the legs of the chair the thorax Is more or less rigid and its movements are determined more by the work of the hand than the respiratory needs the knit brows and protruding tongue are unconscious muscular acts chiep which serve to mark the effort both of body and mind which the child undergoes when learning to write writ it la Is notorious that in writing our individuality asserts itself in spite of the pedagogue we are taught certain rules tor for bitting sitting at the tile desk and holding the pen which we ultimately learn to neglect and finally write in a fashion of our own london lancet |