the child's health, and inevitably bear fruit in the shape of an
injurious effect on health in after life.

That the health of adolescents should be unstable is what we ought to
expect from the general instability of the organism due to the
rapidity of growth and the remarkable developmental changes that are
crowded into these few years. Rapidity of growth and increase of
weight are very generally recognised, although their effects upon
health are apt to be overlooked. On the other hand, the still more
remarkable development that occurs in adolescence is very generally
ignored.

As a general rule the infectious fevers, the so-called childish
diseases--such as measles, chicken-pox, and whooping-cough--are less
common in adolescence than they are in childhood, while the special
diseases of internal organs due to their overwork, or to their natural
tendency to degeneration, is yet far in the future. The chief troubles
of adolescents appear to be due to overstress which accompanies rapid
development, to the difficulty of the whole organism in adapting
itself to new functions and altered conditions, and no doubt in some
measure to the unwisdom both of the young people and of their
advisers.

This is not the place for a general treatise on the diseases of
adolescents, but a few of the commonest and most obvious troubles
should be noted.

The Teeth.--It is quite surprising to learn what a very large
percentage of young soldiers are refused enlistment in the army on
account of decayed or defective teeth, and anyone who has examined the