Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

There are four general types of temperaments—the nervous, the phlegmatic, the arthritic, and the scrofulous or lymphatic.

The nervous temperament has certain marked characteristics, as the small, wiry figure, the well-shaped head, the bright, restless eye, nervous bearing, highly strung and sensitive nerves, feeling pain keenly and bearing it badly. This woman is imaginative, sensitive, fond of intellectual work, often artistic and ambitious. In her the brain and mind are dominant above all else. When run down, this woman will be difficult to bring up again to the normal level. She will grow thin, dyspeptic, irritable, and often neuralgic. She will be peculiarly liable to nervous disorders.

This temperament has its special temptations—alcohol and sedative drugs are two of them. Alcohol is not taken steadily or for social reasons, but for the effect of alcohol on the brain, and there is the greatest danger of becoming addicted to alcoholic habits, and finally of becoming an uncontrollable dipsomaniac.

The phlegmatic or bilious temperament relates more to the training of the body, since in this class of cases the mind is not exposed to the same dangers, but the oversanguine temperament has its own dangers, which may lead to lack of effort, speculation, and financial ruin.

The arthritic have a predisposition to both rheumatism and gouty disorders, to which they are distinctly more liable than others, and the fact that there is this latent tendency should be taken into consideration during childhood and youth.

Social Instincts.—Social instincts lie at the foundation on which the family and community is based. It may be said that any individual who is destitute of them is in an abnormal condition, hence a right training of the social instincts is, beyond doubt, one of the most important means of securing happiness to the individual and order to society. The child’s or youth’s relation to others, her affection for others, and her altruistic practices, all go for the making of society, good citizenship, and patriotism in the race.

At the school age the social instincts are one of the strongest elements in life, and one of the most powerful adjuncts in developing mind and body. The cravings of young women for social amenities are stronger, and her deprivation of them more hurtful, than in the case of young men. There are few girls in whom it does not require some regulation. The strain of too much social life is injurious; social dissipation cannot be combined with school life without wrecking the health of the young woman; nervousness, anemia, and mental depression follow.

That individual cannot be said to be healthy mentally whose social instincts are poor and perverted. Commonly one of the first symptoms of a disordered mind is the diminution of the social instinct. The insane are notoriously asocial.

Fear.—This is one of the most elemental and primitive of the emotions. Biologists assure us that fear and surprise were the first of the emotions to be developed, and that the feeling of the ludicrous was the last. Darwin says that the earthworm knows fear, and darts into its burrow like a rabbit when alarmed. So we see that fear is common to all forms of animal existence, even to the lowest. This universality of fear has come about through the working of the laws of natural selection, which prescribe that only those creatures shall survive that can best adjust themselves to their environment. Within limits, fear as a primary instinct has been and is eminently useful. It is the cry of alarm raised by the senses which act as guardians of the body, and, at a signal, in virtue of the nervous automatism, the organism is put in a position of defense. On the other hand, fear may serve to paralyze, as has been observed in the case of birds, many of which, though scarcely wounded by the small shot, fall to the ground as if struck by lightning, panting with wide-open eyes. In human life, while fear incites to activity, it may also paralyze that activity.

Mosso says that the fear that young children have of cats and dogs, before they have learned why they are to be feared, is a consequence of heredity. We are born to a heritage of fear. If we fear ghosts and demons less, we fear microbes and bacteria more. The professional or business man fears failure, but fear should be a guardian, not a jailer. A healthy fear of indigence will lead to thrift, industry, and such measures as will secure one’s personal independence. Up to a certain point, fear is a protection, but beyond that it paralyzes.