Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

Mental Development.—We note that at birth the brain is mindless, and that the brain-cells, which are the vehicle of the mind, undergo their greatest development during childhood from stimuli coming from without the body. The brain-cells possess infinite possibilities and potentialities. They are developed from the stimuli from without through the eyes, ears, touch, taste, and smell. There is another series of constant impressions which are received from within the body, and these come from the muscles.

These impressions, conveyed to the brain-cells from the body, and from the outer world beyond the body, leave a fixed registration, the writing on the brain-cells has begun, and this constitutes memory; and the imprint on these cells is similar to that which type leaves of letters and words on the page of the printed book. These printed impressions on the cells can be revived and seen and heard by the mental consciousness, just as a printed book can be opened and seen and read by its owner.

The natural qualities of the mind are imitation, acquisitiveness, emotionalism, and imagination.

The force of example in the home, at school, and in the book world is among the most potent influences in molding character. The young girl instinctively imitates her mother, her friends in real life, and in her book world, and the woman will be the composite production, combining traits of all of these, which will be ingrafted on the ancestral traits which have been inherited.

In young children it is difficult to decide where the imagination leaves off and the spirit of untruthfulness begins. In any case, the tendency to exaggeration and untruthfulness are so prevalent in childhood that it must be checked at the earliest signs of its appearance. The vice becomes so deep rooted that it affects the mind in all its workings and the entire life as well. It follows men and women into their business careers, their scientific life, and their professions.

Professor Swift, in a very interesting study of the development of the mind, invokes the aid of biology to show that all children are but little animals, having no inborn notions of right and wrong, inheriting no sense of justice; savage, by nature, and predatory by instinct.

He finds a psychic justification for fighting among boys. “Fighting in some form,” he says, “is one of the first means by which the mind becomes accustomed to intense action. To fight well, a boy must be capable of severe concentration of attention.”

And he has found the age at which boys come to think that laws and the recognized rules of right conduct should be voluntarily respected varies from fifteen to seventeen years and older. These figures are approximately correct for girls.

Absolute truthfulness, square dealing, honesty, honor, and an esprit de corps should be demanded. Hitherto these principles have not been sufficiently inculcated in girls as the fundamental principles on which life must be met. The discipline has been too lax in the home and in the school; it is that of implicit and prompt obedience on the word of command; the proper subjection to and respect for those placed in authority; the kind of discipline given in business life, the hospital, and the army, and the lack of which has cost so much happiness and so many thousands of lives.

Self-control.—The perfect capacity for self-control in all directions and at all times is the ideal state at which we aim. It is the standard aimed at by developing the power of the will and the strength of inhibition. The great difficulties, the magnitude of the task, may be conceived of from the saying of the wisest of all men: “He who conquers his own spirit is greater than he who taketh a city.” The reason is plainly evident—all the hardest battles of life must be fought out alone, there is a feeling of isolation, as if one were struggling alone against the combined forces of the universe, and, at the same time, there is going on the struggle for the mastery between the two conflicting natures, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.” Whereas, in concerted action there is a feeling of sympathy, of reinforcement from outside help, and the pleasant stimulation of competition.