Homo culture Part 9

_Degeneracy of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and Motherhood._

A sign of degeneracy is pointed out by Hegar, who appeals to young men on behalf of posterity to choose for wives women with well-developed b.r.e.a.s.t.s; he quotes statistics to prove inability to nurse a child a sign of degeneracy which produces degeneracy in the offspring. Among other facts he points out that in a district of his knowledge, which supplies a large number of wet nurses to the city, the percentage of men incapable of military service amounts to 30 per cent., while in the neighboring districts, where the mothers remain at home with their families, it is only 18 per cent. He remarks upon the surprising number of deformed nipples encountered in the hospitals. Fehling mentions "hollow nipples" as occurring in 6.7 of his obstetric cases. He warns mothers not to allow the clothing to constrict the growing b.r.e.a.s.t.s of their daughters, and urges general hygiene as the best method to develop them.

In this connection the question may be asked, Is it possible for women with defective b.r.e.a.s.t.s to become mothers of a virile race of men and strong women. In most cases it is not. A defect in this part of their nature is evidence of a weakened const.i.tution. It may be said, that the b.r.e.a.s.t.s do not always develop before marriage and parentage. This is true, and if the health is robust, and the const.i.tution and ancestry good, the mother will, in most cases, be able to nurse her child. If it is known in advance that such cannot be the case, and it may generally be known, then the responsibilities of motherhood should be undertaken with the greater precaution. In modern times we have far better means of bringing up children by hand than formerly. Still, a mother able to nurse her own children should always be preferred.

_Location of Birth._

In Manchester, England, in 1892, 37,674 boys out of every 100,000 died before they reached their fifth year. In healthy districts only 17,314 out of 100,000 died. About the same condition prevails in other places.

The lesson it teaches us is, that we should choose a healthy region in which to live if we would rear the healthiest offspring.

_Evolution._

This word means progress and progress implies improvement, without which there could be no evolution; but improvement of the human race will not be further possible unless the marriage relation is regarded from a higher stand-point than that of s.e.xual indulgence.

The practical superiority of man over animals consists in his knowledge of the _aim_ of his conduct. Animals exercise the reproductive function instinctively at particular seasons, but man knowingly always; and thus, unless the latter subordinates his pa.s.sion to reason he is worse than a brute, as he knows himself to be such.

The difference between the chaste marriage of affection and the unchaste marriage of pa.s.sion, is a.n.a.logous to that between education and instruction, as explained by Elder Evans of the Shaker Community.

Instruction imparts knowledge, such as is a.s.sociated in Eastern lore with the s.e.xual pa.s.sion, but education embraces the whole disposition, which is rendered more beautiful and spiritual through a marriage of chast.i.ty, and as thus affected is transmitted to the offspring, who exhibit the disposition of their parents at the time of conception.

s.e.xual excess not only tends to produce offspring of a weakly const.i.tution, but it interferes with the organic growth of the parents.

It is as wasteful as burning a candle at both ends at the same time.

Parents should bear in mind that the mental plan on which their children shall begin life, depends on the desire by which they are governed when they beget their offspring; and as desire depends on disposition, they should aim at requiring harmony of character and conduct.

If we think less of ourselves and more of the race to which we belong, we shall have a better chance of improving both ourselves and the race as represented in our offspring.

We are all members of a great organism, which is const.i.tuted by the whole of human kind, past, present and future, and it is our duty to act in such a manner that the whole shall be benefited by our conduct; which it cannot be if we are careless as to our own disposition or as to the character of our offspring.

Our Aryan ancestors were conscious of their duty towards the race, and probably to this fact was largely due the high physical development the white race attained. Only by acting in their spirit can we hope to maintain the race at its high level or prevent its deterioration and decay.

The important influence which the gratification of the s.e.xual impulse has had over the development of the aesthetic side of Nature has been often insisted on; and there is no reason why its gratification should not be attended also with the development of the highest mental qualities, if these are made use of in the formation and exercise of the marriage relations between the s.e.xes.--C. STANILAND WAKE.

_Too Little Fatherhood._

The modern child is threatened not with too much mother but with too little father, and this danger is heightened by the sudden release of womanhood from the ban of conventionality and of the domineering power of physical force. Let her not too readily accept as complimentary to herself the church's adoration of Mary. Woman is made of no purer stuff than man, her companion, man her father. She cannot transmit from her own veins or her companion's veins any purer life stuff, any finer impulse to her daughter than she does to her son. We need more fathers in the home, more men teachers in our public schools; and if our homes and schools are not organized so as to evoke and direct this masculine investment, then let them be reorganized. It is not true that mothers are peculiarly the divinely appointed teachers of children, that to them is especially entrusted the intellectual or spiritual destinies of the young. That argument is based upon the a.n.a.logies of the past; it is a reversion to primitive conditions, an ill.u.s.tration of the law of atavism, like the return to six fingers and toes in some people, or the restoration in others of the muscle that can move the ear. The highest reaches of evolution point to a double responsibility and a double potency. In the interest of the child, then, let us lift him out of a mother rule into a father and mother rule. Let the home be girdled with masculine order and justice as well as with feminine love and tenderness. Let there be strength as well as tenderness. Let there be in it mind as well as heart, vigor as well as sympathy. All these are spiritual children which cannot be born except in the bi-s.e.xual realm.--REV. JENKIN LLOYD JONES.

_The Flat-Head Indians and Heredity._

Amongst the round-head tribes woman holds a higher position, whereas amongst the flat-heads she is a mere drudge. In by-gone days it was common to see a tired-looking woman walking behind her husband carrying a heavy load, while he walked on before with nothing.

Again, the round-heads have a remarkable mythology, while the others have a poor affair.

Mr. Dean has informed me that the flat-head, which would be an acquired character, is never transmitted to offspring--another argument against the Lamarchian theory, that acquired characters are transmitted.

That whatever injures the physical or intellectual health of parents tends to degrade their offspring has long been evident. I think we have a good race ill.u.s.tration of this in the effects of flattening and deforming the skulls of children among the Flat-Head Indians, who for centuries followed this precedent. Information has been furnished me by special request by Mr. James Dean, of Victoria, B. C., bearing on this point. He writes:

"Among the children the mortality seems to be greater with the tribes which flatten the heads of their children than in those who do not. I have long noticed that there is a very marked intellectual difference between them."

The Hidery tribes of Northern British Columbia and Southern Alaska, who never flattened their heads, have long been famous for their works of art, such as elaborate carvings in wood and stone.

_Suggestion as an Aid in the Training of Children._

Within a few years an old subject, that of hypnotism, formerly called mesmerism, has received new attention under the name of suggestion, or, in medical language, "suggestive therapeutics." It was used in a rude way by Mesmer in the cure of disease. Later it was employed much more effectively by Braid and others for the same purpose, and especially for the prevention of pain in surgical operations. Want of s.p.a.ce forbids our going into any extended historical detail as to its application for these purposes, but a few points will be considered, which bear on the subject.

It was found that when a person had contracted a bad habit, as, for instance, smoking or drinking, it could often be broken up by placing him in the mesmeric sleep, and telling him he would no longer desire to continue the habit, but would even loathe them. The habit of sucking the thumb, a bad temper, lying, stealing, dullness and lack of ambition, etc., were amenable to this treatment. To ill.u.s.trate: A boy fifteen years old, always at the foot of his cla.s.s, was put into the hypnotic sleep, and told that he would be able to study harder and learn his lessons better, so as to go to the head. This was continued daily for several weeks, and, sure enough, he accepted the suggestion, and outstripped every scholar in his cla.s.s, and kept at the head so long as these means were used; but, unfortunately, when they were discontinued he relapsed into his first state. The suggestions had not been sufficiently thorough to take deep root, and become a part of his nature, as might have been the case with a better knowledge as to how to use them. So long ago as in 1892 Dr. Berillon, Editor of _The Revue de l' Hypnotism_, read a paper before the Second International Congress of Experimental Psychology, in which he stated that he had observed the beneficial effects of hypnotism in education in some 250 cases, including nervous insomnia, night terror, sleepwalking, kleptomania, stammering, idleness, filthy habits, cowardice and moral delinquency. He also stated that other observers had similar experience. My friend, Dr.

B. Osgood Mason, of New York, working on the same lines, has had similar experiences. I will quote a few ill.u.s.trative cases furnished by him. The first is of a school-girl fifteen years of age, a pupil in one of the grammar-schools of New York--intelligent in many ways; a good reader of such books as interested her--history, biography, and the better cla.s.s of novels; but for the routine of school studies she had no apt.i.tude, and she was constantly being left behind in her cla.s.ses. She could not concentrate her mind upon details which did not specially interest her.

If she succeeded in learning a lesson she could not remember it, or if she remembered it until she arrived at the cla.s.sroom, when she arose to recite, it was instantly gone; her mind became a perfect blank; she had not a word to say, and was obliged to sit down in disgrace. She could write a good composition, but could never stand up and read it before the cla.s.s. Teachers had been engaged to give her special lessons, so as to enable her to pa.s.s her preliminary examination, which would allow her to come up for entrance to the Normal College. After months of effort they reported to the mother that it was utterly useless to go on; it was impossible for her to pa.s.s her preliminary examination, and they did not think it right to take her money without any such expectation. She was then brought to me to inquire if anything could be done to help her. I proposed hypnotic suggestion. It was then March 30; the first examination was in May. I commenced treatment at once. The patient went into a quiet, subjective condition, with closed eyes, but did not lose consciousness. I suggested that she would be able to concentrate her mind upon her studies; that her memory would be improved; that she would lose her excessive self-consciousness and timidity, and in their place she would have full confidence in herself and be able to stand up before the cla.s.s and recite. She was kept in the hypnotic condition one-half hour at each treatment, and the same or similar suggestions were quietly but very positively made and repeated at intervals during that time. She at once reported improvement in her ability both to study and recite. She had six treatments, and on May 25 she reported that, greatly to the surprise of her teachers, she had pa.s.sed her preliminary examination with a percentage of 79, which ent.i.tled her to come up for the college examination. In June she pa.s.sed her examination for entrance to the Normal College with a percentage of 88; entered the College and is at present doing well, though the suggestions have not been repeated since May.

Another case from the same author was that of a boy "so bad as to be perfectly unmanageable, and his temper so outrageous, that his mother begged me to come to the house and see if I could do anything with him.

"Having secured _carte blanche_ for whatever course I chose to pursue, I went. He was in the back room, his grandmother urging him forward, he kicking and resisting. Without speaking, I went directly to him, seized him firmly by one wrist, and brought him topsy turvy through two intervening rooms, gave him a thorough shaking, and set him down violently in a chair. He smoothed down his bang, whimpered a little, and gruffly remarked that I had rumpled his hair. I told him I had not intended to disturb his hair, but that as he had never obeyed anybody I had come to the house for the express purpose of making him obey me, and I should most certainly do it. After a few moments I said, quietly, 'Now go and lie down on the bed in the next room.' He started, walking toward the bed, but when near it he set off on a full run past it and into the back room. I brought him back and again ordered him to lie down on the bed. He went toward it as if to obey, but suddenly sprang under it, and clung to the slats underneath with hands and feet, and hung there like a monkey. I dislodged him, pulled him out, gave him a spanking, and surprised him by tossing him vigorously upon the bed, with the command to lie there quietly until I gave him permission to move. He obeyed.

Presently I ordered him to go into the front room and sit down again in the chair he had before occupied. Again he quietly obeyed, I said: 'All right; now you understand you will obey me. I don't want to hurt you. I want to be a good friend to you, only you must obey me.'

"I then in a pleasant way gave him a short lesson, picturing to him very plainly the course of a boy such as he was, and where it would be likely to end; and also showing what he might be if he would change his course.

I told him I should be at the house again in a day or two, and I should expect him to meet me pleasantly, shake hands with me, and do whatever I directed him.

"Next day there came a telephone message begging me to come up; M. was outrageous again. I went. He was backward in greeting me, but at length came and shook hands. I afterward learned that there had not been the slightest improvement in his behavior; and the cause of his mother's sending for me was his outrageous conduct at the table, when, in a fit of anger, he had thrown a plate at his grandmother. I talked to him pleasantly a moment, and then said very quietly, 'Now go and lie down on the bed.' He did so at once. I sat down beside him, and taking his two thumbs firmly in my hands, I said: 'Now, M., I want you to look steadily at that little stud in my s.h.i.+rt-front; keep your eyes very steadily fixed upon it.' He did so, and I never secured better or more concentrated attention from any patient.

"In five or six minutes his eyelids quivered and soon dropped. I closed them, suggesting sleep; and directly he was in the sound hypnotic sleep.

I then presented the two pictures again--the bad and the good course--and suggested that they would always be present, distinct in in his mind, that he would dislike the _wrong_ course and desire to avoid it, and choose the _good_ one. I suggested definitely that he would be kind and considerate to his mother, and obey her as well as me. I repeated these suggestions very positively, let him sleep ten minutes, and repeated them again, and then awoke him by counting.

"The effect of this treatment was very marked; his whole manner at home was changed, and he became comparatively docile and manageable.

"He came to my office for his next treatment, which was perfectly successful. I have given him in all six treatments, and the improvement has been maintained and increased. He is not yet by any means perfect, but his general behavior is changed, and I am suggesting such definite improvements in his conduct, and impressing such pictures upon his mind, as I think will help to develop his better nature and qualities. He is a lover of flowers, and on two occasions has brought some of his own choosing to me. He has lost none of his boyishness; he is full of life; is mischievous, playing tricks even upon his mother; but he is affectionate and generally obedient. His will is not broken, but he has self-control, and he is far more considerate of others than formerly. In short, he is a fair example of one of the educational uses of hypnotism and suggestion."

The only other case I will quote is one of night terrors.

"A little girl, five years of age, went soundly to sleep when first put to bed, but after two or three hours she awoke screaming and trembling with terror, on account of the hideous black man whom she saw in her dream. The impression of the dream was vivid and persistent, and her screams kept the household aroused and alarmed for hours every night, and this state of things had already continued for months. One day, when she was perfectly bright and happy, I placed her in her high chair in front of me; put my hands gently upon her shoulders, and asked her to look steadily at a trinket easily in her view, and quieted her with pa.s.ses and soothing touches until her drooping eyelids denoted the subjective condition. I then commenced in a gentle, sing-song manner to suggest that she would go easily to sleep as usual at night, but that she would have no frightful dreams; that she would see the dreadful black man no more, but would sleep quietly on the whole night through.

It was repeated over and over in the same gentle manner.

"That was a year ago; she has not seen the black man since, and her sleep and health have been perfect. There was no repet.i.tion of the treatment."

From these few cases, and many not quoted, it appears evident that we have in hypnotism, or suggestion, an agent which, when fully understood, will be of great usefulness to parents in the early training of children. That it should be used wisely no one will deny.

The question will naturally arise, How is it that a suggestion to a child while pa.s.sive or in the hypnotic sleep is more effective than when awake. The answer is not so easy to give; but it is possible that in this state the subliminal self, the higher self, or, perhaps, the spiritual nature is appealed to; and as the active, every-day nature, the conscious self, is now dormant, it receives this appeal more seriously. Perhaps a quotation from Prof. Frederic W. H. Myer, who has given the subject profound attention, will help to make the subject clearer. He says: "In waking consciousness I am like the proprietor of a factory whose machinery I do not understand. My foreman, my subliminal self, weaves for me so many yards of broadcloth per diem (my ordinary vital processes), as a matter of course. If I want any pattern more complex, I have to shout my orders in the din of the factory, where only two or three inferior workmen hear me, and they s.h.i.+ft their looms in a small and scattered way. Such are the confined and capricious results of the first, the more familiar stages of hypnotic suggestion.

"At certain intervals, indeed, the foreman stops most of the looms, and uses the freed power to stoke the engine and oil the machinery. This, in my metaphor, is sleep; and it will be effective hypnotic trance if I can get the foreman to stop still more of the looms, come out of his private room, and attend to my orders--my-self suggestions--for their repair and re-arrangment."

To make this a little plainer. The subliminal self, the foreman, is the one who manages the machinery of the nervous system, and turns out this or that sort of conduct or behavior in the child, or the man or woman, as he is told to turn out by the conscious self. But in the hypnotic trance this subliminal self can take orders, or suggestions, for other kinds of conduct or behavior; alter the action of the brain, so as to make another sort of creature; for he is not so occupied then but that he can receive these orders. As in the kaleidescope, the pictures presented depend entirely on the arrangement of the pieces of gla.s.s. So in daily conduct, character depends on the combination and activity of the brain cells. By suggestion in the hypnotic state we are able, to some extent at least, to alter this combination so that new conduct is presented.

The question now arises, How can the parent make use of this agent in altering the nature of a child from one that is not desirable to one that is? Probably the best way to proceed would be to take it while sleeping, and make the suggestion then; for ordinary sleep is not different from hypnotic sleep, except in degree. As the child is in the act of going to sleep, let the mother, or whoever is to make the suggestion, sit by its side, take it by the hand and gently soothe it with pleasant words or music, in a firm but agreeable voice. Let her say slowly: Now you are going to sleep, sleep, sleep. You will soon be sleeping sweetly. How nice it is to sleep and rest our bodies so that we can feel well and strong on the coming day. This sleep is going to do you a great deal of good. You will not have bad dreams. You will not see ugly faces or wake up with a fright. Tomorrow you will wake up good-natured, full of life, and will be good boy (or girl, as the case may be), and do your best to make mother happy and proud of you. You will want to play and enjoy the fresh air and suns.h.i.+ne; relish your food; not eat too much, etc., etc., according to the needs of the child.

If it is timid and fearful of thunder, or dogs, or horses, or other harmless things, you can say to it, Now, you will not be afraid any more of thunder but like to hear it. This, like all other suggestions, must be repeated several times, so as to make an impression. If afraid of strangers, say, now, you will not fear men, or persons you don't know; repeating it slowly over and over again. If the child uses bad language, say, Now you will not want to use bad words any more, and will be careful how you speak. If it has a cold, put the hand over the chest and say, Now your cold will get well quickly, and not grow worse. If it has the unfortunate habit of wetting the bed at night, even this can be broken up, often by one suggestion, and surely by several repeated so as to take deep root in the mind. This latter is necessary to produce any effect. In case of disease, even serious disease, when a physician is necessary, suggestion may be used by the nurse or parents, or the physician, if he has learned the art, to advantage; but if the parents are anxious or weary, they had better leave it for those who are not weary or anxious; otherwise they may transfer their own condition instead of one of health. The state of mind and body of the operator should be a stable, equable and wholesome one.