Excerpt from Abnormal Children: Nervous, Mischievous, Precocious, and Backward; A Book for Parents, Teachers, and Medical Officers of Schools The greatest event in the life of parents happens when a child is born to them. Their prayers go forth that he may prove a worthy successor, handsome in appearance, brilliant in intellect, and great in character; or, if it be a daughter, that she may be endowed with all the female graces and virtues. Alas! Often within an hour, week, month, or year, though sometimes not until he is nearly grown up, he is the cause of great anxiety, not on account of temporary ailments, but because he or she is not like other children. A child may be born diseased, he may suffer at birth from a deficiency of brain, he may be late in development, he may acquire various disorders, certain diseases may arrest the growth of the brain or disturb its functions or he may grow up normally and even give promise of a brilliant future, yet, as he approaches adolescence, he may manifest mental unrest and peculiar conduct. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.