Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

Habit and Automatism.—It is one of the innate qualities of every tissue and of every organ in the body, that when any vital action is performed, any vital process gone through with, it is easier to do it the second time, and the continuous exercise of the action makes the performances more and more easy, until they become automatic.

The physiologic basis of habits consists of the plasticity of the nerve substance, and in the capacity of nerve substance to receive and retain impressions. There results the certainty that the nervous system will act again more easily in those ways in which it has already acted.

On the one hand, the automatic performance of work saves an enormous amount of brain energy; on the other hand, bad habits may be formed whose effects may be most pernicious, and which are gotten rid of only with the greatest difficulty. An example of the first is the young child learning to walk; at first he accomplishes the feat only by the fixed concentration of every power of the brain on the act; whereas the healthy adult walks automatically, without paying the least regard to the movements or the manner in which they are accomplished. Hysteria and ungovernable outbursts of passion furnish good examples of the bad habits that may be formed, owing to the lack of discipline and the powers of inhibition; every time that a woman gives way to one of these outbursts, so much the harder will it be for her to prevent or control another outbreak. Inhibition is the highest and most important function of the brain.

Habits woman must have, but it is for her to choose what they shall be, provided she chooses quickly; the time limit in habits is one of the strong evidences of the close connection of body and mind. It is a startling fact to face, that a woman’s habits are largely fixed before she is twenty; that the chief lines of her future growth and acquaintance before she is twenty-five; and her professional habits before she is thirty; yet to something like this James believes that physiologic psychology points. The woman becomes a bundle of habits, and her habits settle about her like a plaster cast.

The Physiology of the Brain and Nervous System.—The brain, spinal cord, and spinal nerves constitute the so-called cerebrospinal nervous system. The brain is that portion of the nervous system which is contained within the cranial cavity and which it completely fills. The spinal cord is the continuation downward, from the brain through the spinal canal, of nerve substances, and from which the spinal nerves are given off. The nerves may be described as cords and threads of varying degrees of fineness, distributed to every tissue and organ in the body.

The nervous system has been likened to the electric telegraph, the brain being the central station, while, in addition to the special senses, the body is provided with numerous terminal substations in the skin and internal organs of the body, which keep the brain informed of what is going on in the world around it, as well as in the various parts of the body. The nerves simply act as conductors to transmit the messages. The body is supplied with two distinct sets of nerves or wires, one of which carries messages from the outside world and various organs to the brain, while the other set transmits orders from the brain.

The spinal cord is the center of reflex acts; that is, if the leg of a brainless frog is touched with acid, he will take the other leg to wipe it off with. There are, as we have seen, substations in the skin, hence the acid causes the sensation of a foreign body, word is telegraphed the spinal cord, where there is a large central station; from here word is sent out by another set of nerves, to move the leg away from the acid, but this being insufficient, word is telegraphed to the other leg to wipe off the offending substance. Did the same thing happen in the body, at the same time that the cord telegraphed word to the affected member to withdraw it, it would telegraph the brain, and the sensation of pain would be felt.

A message travels along a nerve at the rate of about thirty-six yards a second, or a mile a minute. This is about the time made by a lightning express train. The distance in the body being so short, the time taken is imperceptible, and we say that movement is instantaneous.

The paths traveled by nerve impulses are made passable by use; the oftener an impulse traverses a given route, the more adapted such a route becomes for future traffic.

But all of this has to do with the nerves which are under the control of the will. There is another set of telegraph wires in the body, called the sympathetic or vegetative system, so-called because it presides over the processes of nutrition and is beyond the control of the will.