V 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 Date Due 
 
 f^.i':/ 1 
 
 ft 1Q71 
 
 
 
 
 ly/ ! 
 
 
 
 W AK 1 1 
 
 APR 2 
 
 91971 
 
 
 
 MAY fi 
 
 if iw/ f 
 
 RFC'D 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iNAP ^ 
 
 8 RtC'D 
 
 
 
 \\\hi 1 
 
 ^ iQ7n 
 
 
 
 Ml 
 
 iW 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SEP 7 
 
 1988 
 
 
 
 SEP 13 
 
 RHTO 
 
 
 
 .•\ ' , "• 
 
 >o 3985* 
 
 
 
 Scr ] 
 
 REC'D 
 
 
 
 Qf- 2 
 
 . -i992 
 
 
 
 Hr- , 
 
 ! ^K'O 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 CAT. NO. 23 2 
 
 33 PRINT 
 
 E^^ IN U.S.A.
 
 1 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 COfiTIOUfD mSkhMH 
 
 
 % lirrawer «ilir 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DEMCO NO. 38 -298
 
 DIFFERENCES - 
 
 IN THE 
 
 NERVOUS ORGANISATION 
 
 OF 
 
 MAN AND WOMAN 
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRY CAMPBELL 
 
 M.D., B.S. (LOND.) 
 
 MEMBER OF THE KOYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ; SENIOR ASSISTANT 
 
 PHYSICIAN AND PATHOLOGIST TO THE NORTH-WEST 
 
 LONDON HOSPITAL. 
 
 LONDON 
 H. K. LEWIS, 136 GOWER STREET 
 
 1891
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I HAVE attempted in this work to set forth the main 
 differences — physiological and pathological — between the 
 nervous organisations of man and woman. The patholo- 
 gical differences have been the chief subject of my inquiry, 
 but to the better understanding of these it has been 
 necessary to consider also the physiological differences, 
 and this has led me somewhat far afield. I have had 
 to go back to the very beginnings of organic evolution — 
 to seek to discover how and why the sexes became separate, 
 and to trace their subsequent deviation from one another ; 
 to examine, in short, into the whole question of the origin 
 of sexual reproduction. And if it be objected that, follow- 
 ing these lines, I have introduced much that is apparently 
 foreign to my subject, I would urge that it is impossible 
 to study any question from too many points of view, and 
 that the wider our survey, the more thorough our know- 
 ledge and the deeper our insight are likely to be in the 
 end. 
 
 The " Evolution of Sex " occupies Part I., and as this 
 involved a critical exposition of Weismann's theory of 
 Heredity, with particular reference to the inheritability 
 of acquired characters, it is necessarily long. Apart, how-
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 ever, from the fact tliat a clear understanding on this head 
 is essential to accurate conclusions as to the way in which 
 man and woman came to differ in the past, and are likely 
 to diverge still further from, or approach nearer to one 
 another, in the future, the question of the inheritability 
 of acquired characters is the most important pathological 
 question of the day, and one that has not yet received from 
 the pathologist the attention it demands. I have therefore 
 felt justified in discussing it at some length, and I may 
 here state that while I have regarded the question as still 
 open, I yet, on the whole, decidedly incline to the view 
 that characters acquired by the soma — the body — are not 
 inherited. 
 
 Part II. is chiefly occupied with the pathological applica- 
 tion of the conclusions arrived at in Part I., though a 
 considerable space is devoted to the subject of the menstrual 
 rhythm, which must ever remain one of absorbing interest 
 to the physician. 
 
 Part III. treats of Psycho-physiology, some knowledge of 
 which is necessary to the inquiry I have undertaken. The 
 chief portion of this section is concerned with the will and 
 its disorders, from the psycho-physiological point of view, a 
 subject of much practical importance, inasmuch as the will 
 plays a large part in the phenomena of disease. And at 
 this point I feel I owe some apology to the professed 
 psychologist for having ventured into those obscure regions 
 which are peculiarly his own. Here, however, as elsewhere 
 throughout the work, I have thought proper to advance my 
 own views on doubtful questions. In dealing with matters 
 of certainty a writer has only one course open to him — to
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 state the ascertained facts ; but where all or much is specu- 
 lation, he should obtain sufficient mastery of the questions 
 in dispute to be able to criticise the opinions of others 
 regarding them, and to advance, it may be, views of his 
 own ; for even though these be wrong, they may stimulate 
 thought and let in some unexpected light by which others 
 may profit. In short, I conceive the duty of a writer on a 
 subject such as the present is to be as little as possible a 
 mere compiler, and as much as possible an independent 
 thinker : to merely repeat, and blindly accept the opinions 
 of others can do nothing to further knowledge, and is, 
 moreover, a task dreary alike to author and to reader, 
 
 I have not considered the element of Eace. Certain 
 nervous differences between the sexes are probably more 
 accentuated in some races than in others. While, for 
 instance, women are, as a class, more emotional than men, 
 it is possible that the men of primitive peoples are more 
 emotional than the women of civilised communities. My 
 remarks, in so far as they apply to people of the present 
 age, must be taken to refer to those with whom I have 
 been brought into personal contact, and these are chiefly the 
 inhabitants of the British Isles. 
 
 But while race must modify the differences of the sexes 
 as regards nervous organisation, its influence is confined 
 chiefly, I believe, to superficial characters, the fundamental 
 points of distinction obtaining all over the world. Every 
 woman, of whatsoever colour or nationality, has probably a 
 greater immunity than tlie man from gross lesions of the 
 nervous system, and a greater tendency to recover from 
 nervous diseases. Again, it is almost certain that all the
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 world over, the woman is apt to suffer from certain nervous 
 symptoms at the climacteric: and so, too, in regard to many 
 other particulars. 
 
 I do not by any means claim to have exhausted my 
 subject in this work. While writing I have found it 
 broaden out in all directions — new lines of inquiry have 
 continually suggested themselves, many of which have had 
 to be abandoned owing to the bulk to which the work had 
 already attained. My purpose has been rather to point 
 the way — to indicate a method of investigating a subject 
 than which there is nothing more interesting in all the 
 wide field of medicine. 
 
 H. C. 
 
 London, July 1891.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SEXUAL KEPRODUCTION ... 3 
 II. .THE , EVENTS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING 
 UPON THE UNION OF THE SEX CELLS — EXPLANATION OF 
 
 HEREDITY 18 
 
 III. SEPARATION OF THE SEXES 28 
 
 IV. SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS 32 
 
 V. THE EVOLUTION OP THE SEXUAL INSTINCT . . . -35. 
 
 VI. THE BEARING OP SEXUAL SELECTION ON THE EVOLUTION 
 
 OF THE SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS . . . 40 
 
 VII. THE BEARING OF NATURAL SELECTION ON THE EVOLUTION 
 
 OP SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS . . . . 50 
 VIII. INFLUENCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT ON STRUCTURE— ENVI- 
 RONMENTAL MOULDINGS 57 
 
 IX. THE INHERITABILITY OP ENVIRONMENTAL MOULDINGS . 68 
 X. PART PLAYED BY THE ENVIRONMENT INDEPENDENTLY OF 
 
 SELECTION IN RENDERING THE SEXES UNLIKE . . 82 
 
 XI. THE VIEWS OF GEDDES AND THOMSON .... 97 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHIEFLY CONCERNED WITH THE PATHOLOGICAL 
 
 APPLICATION OF CONCLUSIONS ARRIVED 
 
 AT IN PART I. 
 
 I. GEDDES AND THOMSON'S VIEWS APPLIED TO MAN . -US 
 
 II. GEDDES AND THOMSON'S VIEWS PATHOLOGICALLY APPLIED II9 
 III. THE COMPARATIVE LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN TO 
 
 GROSS LESIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM . . . n2
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 IV. THE RELATIVE FREQUENCY OP THE MORE IMPORTANT 
 
 FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS DISORDERS IN THE TWO SEXES . I4I 
 V. THE INFLUENCE OP SEX ON PROGNOSIS IN. INSANITY . . I46 
 
 VI. WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN— NERVOUS DIFFERENCES 
 BETWEEN THE BOY AND THE GIRL— MENTAL CHARAC- 
 TERISTICS OF THE CHILD — MENTAL RESEMBLANCES 
 BETWEEN THE CHILD AND THE SAVAGE . . . - I S3 
 
 VII. WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN (continued) — MENTAL RE- 
 
 SEMBLANCES BETWEEN THE WOMAN AND THE CHILD . 16I 
 
 VIII. WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN {continued) — PATHOLOGICAL 
 
 APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CONCLUSIONS . . . 165 
 
 IX. WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN (continued) — INTELLECTUAL 
 CAPACITY OF MAN AND WOMAN COMPARED — RATE OF 
 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN THE TWO SEXES — MENTAL CON- 
 DITION OF THE WOMAN AFTER THE CLIMACTERIC . . 171 
 X. EGOISM OF THE MAN AND ITS PATHOLOGICAL EFFECTS . 177 
 XI, FURTHER PATHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF THE EGOISM OP THE 
 
 MAN 185 
 
 XII. THE FACULTY OP PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN COM- 
 PARED — OTHER CONSIDERATIONS . . .' . . . I9I 
 
 XIII. SEXUAL INSTINCT IN MAN AND WOMAN COMPARED . . I99 
 
 XIV. INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE — STATISTICS, CAUSES, 
 
 MEANS 216 
 
 XV. THE COMPARATIVE NERVOUS PLASTICITY OF THE SEXES . 222 
 
 XVI. THE RELATIVE CLANNISHNESS OP MEN AND WOMEN . . 236 
 
 XVII. THE MONTHLY RHYTHM 24I 
 
 XVIII. THE MONTHLY RHYTHM (continued) — PUBERTY — THE CLIMAC- 
 TERIC—PREGNANCY — LACTATION 251 
 
 XIX. THE ANTE-PUBERTAL AND POST-CLIMACTERIC MENSTRUAL 
 
 RHYTHMS 257 
 
 XX. IS THE MENSTRUAL RHYTHM PECULIAR TO THE FEMALE 
 
 SEX ? 270 
 
 PART III. 
 PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL. 
 
 I. THE FEELINGS — THE INTELLECT 277 
 
 II. THE PRIMORDIAL UNIT OF CONSCIOUSNESS— THE COMPOUND- 
 ING OF THIS INTO SENSATIONS — AND OP SENSATIONS 
 INTO PERCEPTIONS AND CONCEPTIONS— THE COMPARATIVE 
 INTELLECTUALITY OF THE VARIOUS SENSATIONS . . 286
 
 ,Jv 
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 ; III. THE EMOTIONS 295 
 
 } 
 
 IV. INFLUENCE OF THE FEELINGS ON THE THOUGHTS — PLEA- 
 
 i SURABLE AND PAINFUL FEELINGS 304 
 
 V. THE FEELINGS CONSIDERED AS ACTIVE FORCES— THE 
 
 PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS . . . 309 
 
 VI. THE FEELINGS AS ACTIVE FORCES (conthi lied)— SIMPLE 
 
 MENTO-MOTOR ACTIONS 316 
 
 i> VII. THE INFLUENCE OF THE PEELINGS UPON Till'; BODY {C0»- 
 
 i tinned) — COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION . . . 326 
 
 VIII. THE FEELINGS AS ACTIVE FORCES (continued) — COMVOVSB 
 
 MENTO-MOTOR ACTION 339 
 
 IX. VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL — THAT FORM IN WHICH COM- 
 POUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION APPROXIMATES TO SIMPLE 
 
 MENTO-MOTOR ACTION 349 
 
 X. VARIETIES OP WEAK WILL (continued) — VACILLATION . 359 
 
 XI. VARIETIES OP WEAK WILL {continued) — FASCINATION . 363 
 
 XII. THE STRENGTHENING OP TH I-: WILL- -THE WILL AS A 
 
 THERAPEUTIC AGENT 36S
 
 PAET I. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX.
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. 
 
 General Rcmarhs on Sexual Reproduction. — Among cer- 
 tain vegetable organisms almost every cell in the body is 
 capable of reproducing the entire individual, and there are 
 not wanting those who believe {e.g. Spencer, Niigeli) that in 
 all multicellular organisms, animal as well as vegetable, 
 every cell possesses this power in a greater or less degree. 
 Be this as it may, in animal organisms only a limited 
 number of cells is endowed with the full reproductive 
 potentiality, certain cells being specially set apart for repro- 
 ductive purposes. It occasionally happens that a single 
 such cell is sufticient for reproduction (parthenogenesis), but, 
 as a rule, two of them must co-operate : a cell derived from 
 one organism unites with a cell derived from another, and 
 from the blended mass the young embryo is developed. 
 This is called " sexual " reproduction. 
 
 There are, as we shall presently see, good reasons for 
 concluding that the main purpose of sexual reproduction (in 
 the metazoa) is this union of cells derived from different 
 organisms. Even in the case of hermaphrodites, where 
 both the uniting reproductive cells are derived from the 
 same organism, cross fertilisation seems to be tlie rule. 
 
 Sexual reproduction occurs among both ( i ) unicellular and 
 (2) multicellular organisms. Among the latter the reproduc- 
 tive cells may be formed, a, independently of any specialised 
 organ ; or, h, from a tissue specialised for the purpose.
 
 4 THE EYOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 1. Sexual reproduction in unicellular organisms. — This 
 may be dismissed witli a word. Sexual reproduction is at 
 any rate pre-shadowed by the occasional behaviour of uni- 
 cellular organisms. Thus among the ciliated infusoria two 
 individuals frequently unite, and such union, or ' conjuga- 
 tion,' has been shown by E. Maupas,' to be necessary to the 
 continuation of the species. Without the occasional con- 
 jugation of individuals not closely related, reproduction, 
 which for the most part takes place by simple division, 
 comes to a standstill, the cells dwindle and degenerate, 
 "until at last we get shapeless abortions incapable of living 
 and reproducing themselves." But after conjugation there 
 is renewed protoplasmic activity, and among many of the 
 protozoa at least, the blended mass may be observed to 
 break up into a number of new beings, reminding one of the 
 segmentation of the ovum. In the one case the cells re- 
 suiting from the conjugation separate, and form independent 
 individuals ; in the other, they remain together, and form the 
 component cells of a single individual. The multicellular 
 organism doubtless originated from the unicellular organism, 
 by the cells resulting from the conjugation of individuals of 
 the latter class remaining together instead of separating. 
 The multicellularity thus attained probably conferred some 
 benefit upon the individual, and was fixed by natural selec- 
 tion. Even at the present day the link between protozoa 
 and metazoa may be recognised in the form of loose 
 colonies of cells. 
 
 2. Sexual reproduction in multicellular organisms. — 
 a. The reproductive cells derived from non-specialised 
 tissues. In the loose colonies of cells just alluded to as 
 bridging over the gulf between the unicellular and the mul- 
 ticellular organism, there are indications of special repro- 
 ductive cells, but they are manifestly not formed from any 
 specialised tissue. We have the first indication of distinct 
 tissues in the sponges, the body in these consisting of an 
 outer, middle, and inner layer, and the reproductive cells 
 
 1 Comptes Rendus, i886, 1887. "Archives de Zoologie Experimentale," 
 1888.
 
 PART I.] 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 
 
 being formed from any portion of the middle layer indiffe- 
 rently : that is, there is no specialised reproductive organ, 
 I. The reproductive cells derived from specialised tissues. 
 In the common fresh-water hydra, and in practically all the 
 higher organisms, the reprodvictive cells are similarly formed 
 from the middle layer of the body. Here, however, for the 
 first time as we ascend the scale, we find them no longer 
 formed indifferently from any part of this layer, but from 
 special reproductive organs, termed ovaries and testes, de- 
 veloped in it. 
 
 Fig. I. 
 
 The Two Kinds of Sex Cells and their Evolution. — Among 
 unicellular organisms the conjugating cells are, to all 
 appearances, alike ; but among the multicellular, they are 
 dimorphic. One class of cells, called ova, are compara- 
 tively large, sluggish, and 
 well nourished ; the other are 
 smaller and more active, and 
 are called spermatozoa. A 
 distinct difference between 
 the two cells which unite 
 sexually may be detected 
 even in the most primitive 
 multicellular organisms — e.g., 
 the sponges, and this differ- 
 ence increases as the scale 
 is ascended. 
 
 The gradually increasing 
 dimorphism of the reproduc- 
 tive cells is illustrated in 
 the accompanying figure. 
 Starting with the simple 
 
 am<eboid form, from which Diagram showing'- the divergence of ovum 
 
 , andsperiiiatozoon from an undifferen- 
 
 both sexual elements are de- tiated amicboid type of coll. (Geddes 
 
 rived, the two forms diverge '^"'^ Tbou.son.) 
 — the one in the direction of increased passivity, the other 
 in the direction of increased activity. Each cell, as thus 
 differentiated, has (as Geddes and Thomson point out) its
 
 6 .THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 analogue among the protozoa : thus the spermatozoon is 
 represented by the ciliated infusorium ; the ovum, by the 
 gregarines. In like manner the two cells have their 
 analogue among the cells of multicellular organisms : the 
 spermatozoa are represented by the familiar ciliated cells, 
 by those lining the respiratory tract, for instance ; and the 
 ova, by such passive cells as fat cells. 
 
 The purpose of this dimorphism will be considered subse- 
 quently. 
 
 The Import of Sexual Ile'produetion. — The first important 
 generalisation we may establish is the following: — i. One 
 great purpose of sexual reproduction is the union of two 
 cells, each of which is derived from a separate, and there- 
 fore unlike, organism. Three arguments may be advanced 
 in favour of this proposition. 
 
 {a.) Most hermaphrodites require cross-fertilisation. If 
 the object of sexual reproduction were merely the union of 
 two cells, ovum and spermatozoon, whether derived from 
 the same, or from different organisms, then, in all pro- 
 bability, there would be no separate sexes : all animals re- 
 producing sexually would be self-fertilising hermaphrodites. 
 Yet it is a remarkable fact that hermaphrodites are rarely 
 self-fertilising. It was beautifully shown many years ago 
 (i 793) by Sprengel that the colours and structures of flowers 
 are adapted to attract insects, and that the visits of these 
 insects lead to the fertilisation of the flowers. Darwin long 
 afterwards revived the forgotten discovery of Sprengel, and 
 showed that plants are not only possessed of numerous 
 devices by which to attract insects, but also of special 
 means whereby they may avoid self-fertilisation. His 
 observations have since been confirmed and extended by 
 Miiller and others, and though some biologists have recently 
 contended that among plants self-fertilisation is not so rare 
 as was supposed by Darwin, all are agreed that it seldom 
 occurs among animals, in most of which it is indeed ren- 
 dered impossible by the fact that the ova and spermatozoa 
 mature at difl'erent times. Moreover, those animals in which
 
 PART 1.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 7. 
 
 it does occur are, with a few notable exceptions, sluggish or 
 even fixed, as the land-snail and the flat worm ; they do 
 not, that is to say, show a high degree of vitality. Occa- 
 sional self-fertilisation among animals need not surprise 
 us, seeing that some ova are capable of developing, 
 though unfertilised (parthenogenesis) ; nor should its 
 occurrence in plants surprise us either, since in them the 
 powers of asexual reproduction are great, and, for my 
 own part, I cannot but regard the two forms of reproduc- 
 tion — i.e., parthenogenesis and ordinary asexual reproduction, 
 as closely allied.^ 
 
 Although dichogamy in hermaphrodites — that is, the 
 maturing of tlie two kinds of sex cells, ova and spermatozoa, 
 at different times — is generally supposed to have for its 
 purpose the prevention of self-fertilisation, yet it should 
 here be observed that Geddes and Thomson deny this. 
 They contend that such an explanation in terms of final 
 advantage is not an explanation at all." In their view 
 dichogamy occurs through the inability of the same organism 
 to produce at one and the same time cells so widely diverse 
 as ova and spermatozoa. From which we are to conclude 
 that if this disability did not exist there would be no such 
 thing as cross-fertilisation. But if such be the case, why 
 are plants provided — as they undoubtedly are — with special 
 means to prevent self-fertilisation ? Moreover the assump- 
 
 ^ All are agreed that parthenogenesis has degenerated from sexual 
 reproduction. Is it possible that self-fertilising hermaphrodism has 
 degenerated from a state of cross-fertilisation and is retrograding to a 
 state of parthenogenesis ? I do not, for a moment, suggest that all 
 parthenogenesis has thus arisen, for in most cases of it the sexes are 
 distinct ; I say " in most " only, not in aU, although it is always taught 
 that parthenogenesis occurs exclusively among organisms in which the 
 sexes are distinct. The eggs of purely female organisms alone are 
 supposed to possess the power — has it been proved that the ova of herma- 
 phrodites always require fertilisation ? 
 
 ■^ This objection is frequently raised in their very suggestive work on the 
 " Evolution of Sex ;" but surely if we have good reasons to conclude that a 
 certain character capable of being evolved by natural select'.ou is of 
 advantage, is not the mere proof of its advantage indirectly an explana- 
 tion ?
 
 8 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [pakt i. 
 
 tion that the same organism is incapable of producing the 
 dift'erent types of cell at the same time does not seem to be 
 supported by observed facts. 
 
 (b.) But there is a still more weighty argument in favour 
 of our generalisation. Suppose that two individuals of the 
 same species were exactly alike save for the fact that the 
 one was male and the other female, then the sexual union of 
 such individuals would practically be equivalent to the self- 
 fertilisation of an hermaphrodite ; and if there were not 
 some fundamental physiological objection to self- fertilisation, 
 the sexual union of two such individuals would be as 
 favourable as that of two male individuals of the same 
 species. But this is not the case. For the more alike 
 one another the conjugating individuals are, the less success- 
 ful are they in rearing healthy progeny, and vice versd. 
 Beyond all doubt, continued breeding in and in leads to 
 degeneration, while an occasional cross with new blood 
 leads to increased vigour in the offspring. " It is a great 
 law of nature that all organic beings profit by an occasional 
 cross with individuals not closely related to them in blood, 
 and that, on the other hand, long-continued close inter- 
 breeding is injurious." * 
 
 The necessity for this unlikeness among sexually uniting 
 organisms obtains even among the unicellular. Thus the 
 infusoria do not conjugate with near relatives. Maupas 
 isolated an infusorium and watched its division. By the 
 time 2 I 5 generations had been produced the asexual division 
 came to a standstill. Conjugation did not occur among 
 any of the related infusoria, but by removing one of the 
 organisms before division among them had ceased, and 
 placing it in company with an unrelated infusorium of the 
 same species, conjugation at once took place. 
 
 (c.) That one of the objects of sexual reproduction is the 
 union of cells derived from separate and therefore unlike 
 organisms, is further suggested by the fact that such union 
 is a potent cause (and if Weismann's view of heredity be 
 
 1 Charles Darwin. " Variations under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 94, 
 second edition, revised.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 9 
 
 correct, practically the sole cause) of natural variations 
 without which there could be no organic evolution. To this 
 subject we shall presently return. 
 
 (2.) A second point has now to be established. What 
 purpose, it may be asked, is served by this union of cells 
 derived from unlike organisms ? Here we are brought face 
 to face with the true mystery, the essential import, of 
 sexual reproduction. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the conjugation of 
 unicellular organisms is a foreshadowing of sexual repro- 
 duction. Kolph' has supposed that conjugation is a special 
 form of nutrition, a mutual digestion of the conjugating 
 cells. Geddes and Thomson,^ following Eolph, maintain 
 that, historically, " fertilisation is comparable to mutual 
 digestion, and has originated from a nutritive want." 
 Cienkovvski^ similarly regards conjugation as a form of 
 assimilation ; but to this Hensen has wisely objected, that in 
 order that the conjugation should issue in increased assimi- 
 lation, one of the organisms would have to be actually 
 devoured by the other — i.e., reduced to the liquid form. 
 Weismann, while acknowledging the force of the objection, 
 nevertheless thinks that the effect of conjugation " must be 
 in one respect similar to that of nutrition and growth ; 
 the mass of the body and the quantity of forces contained 
 in it undergo simultaneous increase."'' All these writers 
 however, lose sight of the fact that conjugation does not 
 take place among closely related forms of unicellular 
 organisms. If mere 'increase of the (quantity of forces' be 
 the purpose of conjugation, why should it not ? 1 pass by 
 the opinion of Van Beneden and Hensen, that conjugation 
 (as well as fertilisation) is a rejuvenescence, since this is 
 no explanation at all — it is mere word-juggling — and refer 
 the reader to the views of Darwin and Spencer, who, raany 
 years ago, pointed out that the mystery of sexual repro- 
 
 ^ " Biologische Probleme.'' Leipzig, 1882. 
 2 "The Evolution of Sex," p. 162. 
 "Arch. f. Mikros. Anat." ix. 3, 47, 1873. 
 Essays upou Heredity," p. 286.
 
 lo THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 duction was linked with the necessity which protoplasm 
 is under of occasionally uniting with unlike protoplasm/ the 
 object being to break the tendency to equilibrium manifested 
 by all material aggregates. 
 
 Weismann contends that fertilisation in higher organisms 
 has lost its original meaning — whatever that was — and 
 that its present purpose is the production of natural varia- 
 tions on which natural selection may operate. The union 
 of unlike organisms gives rise, as is well known, to new 
 characters, for the offspring are not like either of the 
 parents, but some sort of a mean between them. Weismann, 
 believing, as he does, that acquired characters cannot be 
 inherited, naturally lays great stress upon sexual reproduction 
 as a cause of inheritable variations, and though variations 
 may also arise from environmental influences operating 
 upon the germinal matter, he does not, as we shall 
 presently see, believe that these variations take any share 
 in evolution. There can be little doubt that sexual 
 reproduction plays an important part in organic evolution 
 by furnishing the necessary variations for selection, and 
 that this point had been somewhat overlooked before 
 Weismann ; but it is difficult to believe, with him, that the 
 original significance of sexual reproduction has been lost, 
 for in that case the union of closely related individuals 
 among the higher forms should have only one disadvantage — 
 namely, the non-production of natural variations, whereas it 
 distinctly causes degeneration ; and, contrariwise, the union 
 of unlike organisms should only be of advantage in causing 
 natural variations, whereas, as a matter of fact, it distinctly 
 leads to increased vigour. 
 
 I have spent some little time in considering the import 
 of sexual reproduction, because the necessity for the union 
 of two reproductive cells, each derived from different 
 organisms, has led to the separation of the sexes, and has 
 th.us left a deep mark upon the animal kingdom. 
 
 1 "Variations under Domestication," p. 355. "Principles of Biology," 
 vol. i. § 92.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. ii 
 
 The Nucleus the Essential Part of all Cells. — Fertili- 
 sation essentially the Union of Sperm Nucleus with Germ 
 Nucleus. — The Differences in the Body of the Ovum and 
 Spermatozoon Secondary, subserving only Secondary ends. — 
 The dimorphism of ova and spermatozoa which, as we 
 have seen, increases as the animal scale is ascended, has for 
 its object certain functions. The first requisite of sexual 
 reproduction is the bringing together of the two kinds of 
 cells, and after they have been brought together, it is 
 further necessary that the embryo resulting from their union 
 shall be provided with a fit environment ; for it is not to 
 be supposed that the primitive embryo of a complex being, 
 endowed as it is with such vast potentialities, is capable of 
 growing and developing in a homogeneous environment ; it 
 requires one that is highly specialised. The parent organisms 
 help towards the above ends, more especially in the higher 
 forms of animal life ; nevertheless, even among these the 
 reproductive elements themselves take an important, and 
 among the lower forms almost the sole, share in providing 
 the requisites. Theoretically, each cell might take an equal 
 part in furnishing the necessary environment for the new 
 being, but evolution, which always works on lines of practical 
 utility, has determined otherwise. What we find is that 
 one cell, the spermatozoon, is modified with a view to move- 
 ment ; the other, the ovum, for the purpose of providing 
 nutriment. 
 
 Before we proceed to describe the morphological charac- 
 ters answering to these two functions, it is to be noted 
 that the nuclei of the reproductive cells contain the true 
 reproductive substance. Practically all biologists, botanists 
 and zoologists alike, now agree that the union of nucleus 
 with nucleus constitutes the essential act of fertilisation, 
 the nuclei containing the parental peculiarities which, in 
 mutual conjunction, shape the structure of the new being 
 to which tliey give origin. There are, however, those who, 
 while admitting that the union of the nuclei constitutes the 
 essential part of the process, are yet unwilling to deny to
 
 12 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 the body-plasm^ of the ovum some share in transmitting 
 hereditary tendencies. But the behaviour of the body- 
 plasm after impregnation — a subject to be presently touched 
 upon — as well as the fact that the structure and activities of 
 the body are regulated in each cell by its nucleus, strongly 
 suggests that it takes little or no part in shaping the 
 destinies of the ovum. 
 
 It is not surprising that the nucleoplasm of ovum and 
 spermatozoon contains the essential germinal material, seeing 
 that the nucleus is now known to be the head or governing 
 portion of the cell, capable of profoundly influencing the 
 surrounding body-plasm. This view has been for some 
 time held by Strasburger. He assumes that molecular 
 stimuli proceed from the cell nucleus to the surrounding 
 body-plasm, controlling its assimiiation and mode of evolu- 
 tion ; and that all cells, even the most unlike, differ in 
 the first place merely in respect of their nuclei, the body- 
 plasm being originally alike in all, and whatever specialisa- 
 tion it subsequently possesses being the outcome of nuclear 
 activity. The important influence of the nucleus has been 
 recently demonstrated by Gruber." He has shown that, if 
 the body-plasm of an infusorium be separated, it is incapable 
 of regeneration, though still capable of living ; but that, on 
 the other hand, portions containing the nucleus always 
 regenerate — a convincing proof, it would seem, that the 
 nucleus is the head, the governing part of the cell. 
 
 Applying these principles to the reproductive cells, 
 Weismann insists that the nucleoplasm of ovum and 
 spermatozoon is made up of two different kinds of plasm — 
 a, of the germ-plasm, which is " the bearer of hereditary 
 tendencies ; " and h, of the plasm, which causes the 
 specialisations of the body-plasm (see llgs. 4 & 5) — that is, 
 of * ovogenetic ' and ' spermogenetic ' nucleoplasm respectively. 
 His argument may be summed up thus : There are good 
 
 1 It will be convenient to speak of the protoplasm of the nucleus as the 
 cncleoplasm, and of the protoplasm of the rest of the cell as the body- 
 plasm. 
 
 - A. Gruber, Biologisches Centralblutt, Bd. iv. No. 23, and v. No. 5.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 13 
 
 grounds for believing that of every cell the nucleus is the 
 essential part. This, taken in conjunction with the fact 
 that fertilisation has been proved to be essentially the union 
 of the sperm and germ nuclei, shows that these two contain 
 the true germinal material. Inasmuch as the nucleus con- 
 trols the destiny of the body-plasm, it must cause the 
 specialisations in the body-plasm of the ovum and sperma- 
 tozoon ; but the nucleoplasm which does this cannot 
 possibly be identical with the nucleoplasm which is the 
 bearer of hereditary tendencies. Therefore there are two 
 kinds of nucleoplasm — a, germ-plasm ; h, ovogenetic (or 
 spermogenetic) nucleoplasm. These a 'priori considerations 
 are supported by the behaviour of the polar bodies. 
 
 The Relative Parts taken hy the S'perm and Germ Nuclei in 
 the Evohition of the New Being. — The sperm nucleus and the 
 germ nucleus are, on an average, equal as bearers of hereditary 
 tendencies. Not only does the nucleus contain the essential 
 part of the reproductive cell, but each nucleus takes a more 
 or less equal part in the evolution of the new being ; in 
 other words, the new being is a tolerably exact mean 
 between the two parents. This is remarkable, seeing that, 
 as Nageli points out, the share taken by the father in 
 providing material for the growing embryo is sometimes, 
 as in the case of man, for instance, not more than about 
 one hundred billionth part of that contributed by the 
 mother. 
 
 This conclusion has been arrived at by a comparison of 
 the offspring with the parents. It is found that, on the 
 whole, the progeny do not take any more after one parent 
 than the other. Some of the older writers considered that 
 the ovum plays the more important part in development, 
 the spermatozoon simply starting it, much as a spark ex- 
 plodes gunpowder, and this view would seem to be held by 
 some even at the present day. Thus Claus' writes: "The 
 ovum contains the material from which the new being 
 rises ; " the spermatozoon " contains the fertilising material 
 ^ " Textbook of Elementary Zoology," Lond. vol. i. p. 97.
 
 14 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 .... and gives the imjmisc to the development of the 
 
 The view more commonly held now, however, is that though 
 each cell undoubtedly plays an important part in directing 
 the formative processes of the embryo, yet the part played 
 by each is dijEferent. Such is the view of Brooks.^ He 
 contends that the offspring of the stallion and the she-ass 
 (hinny) differs from that of the he-ass and the mare (mule), 
 in that the former is more like the horse, the latter like 
 the ass ; and he argues from this that the male parent plays 
 the more important part in heredity. It certainly is a 
 very noteworthy fact that the offspring is not in each case 
 the same. Weismann attempts to minimise the importance 
 of this fact by doubting if, ifl the above instance, the off- 
 spring docs take more after the male parent. Whether it 
 does or not, however, there seems little doubt that the hinny 
 is different from the mule, and this certainly suggests that 
 the two reproductive elements do not, on an average, transmit 
 equally, but that there is something peculiar to each.^ 
 
 Is there any Fundamental Distinction between Gei-m and 
 Sperm?- — The question as to the shares taken by the germ- 
 plasm of the ovum and spermatozoon respectively in direct- 
 ing the formative processes of the new being to which they 
 give origin, must be kept distinct from the further question : 
 Are the two cells physiologically equal ? In Weismann's 
 view, they are. According to him fertilisation is quanti- 
 tative, not qualitative. " The physiological values of sperm 
 and germ are equal. They are as i : i ." The need for ferti- 
 lisation is merely the need for doubling the mass of the 
 
 ^ The writer may not have meant by this that the ovum alone is the 
 bearer of hereditary tendencies, but the wording suggests this interpretation. 
 
 - W. K. Brooks. " The Law of Heredity : a Study of the Cause of 
 Variation," &c., Baltimore, 1883. 
 
 ^ J. Hutchinson, like Weismann, maintains that the mule does not show 
 any greater likeness to the horse than to the ass, and it would further 
 appear that in America there is often a very great difficulty in distinguish- 
 ing the mules from the hinnies, "Archives of Surgery," by Jonathan 
 Hutchinson. April, 1890.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 15 
 
 nucleus.' Rolph,Geddes, and others, however, contend that the 
 sperm and germ cells have quite different physiological values, 
 the differences involving not only the bodies of the cells, 
 about which indeed there can be no dispute, but permeating 
 the nuclei themselves, and therefore the essentially repro- 
 ductive portions. In Geddes' view there are profound 
 chemical and nutritive differences between the two, the one 
 exercising a dynamical effect upon the other. At the same 
 time Geddes does not deny to the male element a share in 
 directing the formative processes of the embryo ; indeed, he 
 would appear to incline to Brooks' view. I mention this 
 fact because in perusing his book one is apt to think other- 
 wise. 
 
 Nature and Specialisation of the Heproductive Cells. — A 
 consideration of the structure of the ovum and spermatozoon 
 bears out the view that the one cell is specialised with a 
 view to the nourishment of the 
 embryo, and the other for the ^ — .^^ 
 purpose of effecting a union of /^ \ 
 
 the two cells. Throughout the ( ©^■^^^^j^^^^^'^Z. v'?.cle 
 entire animal kingdom each is \^ ^/ or nucleus 
 
 formed on the same plan. 
 
 The ovum consists of a mass of naked protoplasiu, con- 
 taining in its centre the germinal vesicle, or nucleus, in the 
 centre of which again is the germinal spot. 
 
 The spermatozoon (Fig. 3) is made up of a head and a 
 tail. The former consists almost entirely of the nucleus, 
 the protoplasm surrounding it being, in many cases, so 
 diminutive that its very existence has been doubted. 
 
 1 I think this view may be made clear b}- the following hypothetical 
 case. If we suppose that the purpose of sexual reproduction is to secure 
 the union of germ-plasms belonging to different organisms, and if we also 
 suppose that each is equal, both physiologically and as a bearer of 
 hereditary tendencies, then it would follow that the union of such portions 
 of the germ-plasm of two ova or of two spermatozoa (belonging to different 
 organisms) as in ordinary fertilisation share in the developmental process, 
 would contain the potentialities of a new being. This appears to me a 
 corollary of Weismann's hypothesis.
 
 1 6 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 The body of the ovum is that part of it which has become 
 modified with a view to nutrition, and the tail of the 
 spermatozoon, which consists of a prolongation of the proto- 
 plasm surrounding the nucleus, is that part which has 
 become modified with a view to motion. The body of the 
 ovum contains the nutrient yolk granules (and in the case 
 of some low forms of animal life — e.g., hydra, chlorophyl 
 granules also). The ovum has been well compared to a 
 gland which does not expel its secretion. The quantity 
 and distribution of the yolfc: granules vary in the ova of 
 different animals. In birds the ovum, as is well known, 
 attains enormous dimensions ; in them the egg proper con- 
 sists of the so-called yolk, the layer of albumen and the 
 shell not belonging to tliQ. true egg, but being furnished by 
 special secretory glands of the mother, and impregnation, 
 should it occur, taking place before these layers are added. 
 
 Now the great size of the 
 
 Fig. 3. o 
 
 " yolk " is due to the im- 
 
 NUCLEUS -^ 
 
 pregnation of tlie body of 
 •"'■'^"- the ovum with a super- 
 
 abundance of yolk granules or nutrient material, the 
 germinal vesicle of the ovum being, as in all ova, of very 
 minute proportions. In the lowest forms of life, however, 
 in which the early environment of the embryo is compara- 
 tively simple, and in which the young being can very soon 
 shift for itself, as well as in those higher animals in which 
 a relatively long time is spent in the maternal body (the 
 nourishment for the embryo being derived directly from the 
 mother's blood), the body of the ovum contains only a 
 small quantity of yolk, and the entire cell is of microscopic 
 proportions. 
 
 But while the ovum of different animals varies thus in 
 size, the spermatozoon maintains in all cases the same, or 
 very nearly the same, dimensions, the head being somewhat 
 smaller than the germinal vesicle of the ovum. This is 
 true of all animals which reproduce sexually; of such 
 enormous organisms as the elephant and the whale as well 
 as of the most primitive multicellular organisms.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 17 
 
 The specialisation of ovum and spermatozoon affords a 
 good example of the division of labour ; and it is just of the 
 kind we might have expected. If the proposition were 
 given us : — " Eeproduction of complex organisms can only 
 take place by the union of the cell-nucleus of one organism 
 with that of another," some such specialisation as the above 
 might, I believe, be a priori postulated.
 
 CHAPTEll II. 
 
 THE EVENTS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING AND FOLLOWING 
 UPON THE UNIO^N OF THE SEX CELLS.— EXPLANATION OF 
 HEREDITY. 
 
 Changes in the Germ and S'jjerm iireimratory to Fertilisa- 
 tion. — Interpretation of the Polar Body Formation. — («) The 
 Germ. As the ovum approaches maturity the nucleus 
 undergoes a profound internal change, and at the same time 
 moves towards the periphery. It then divides, one half, 
 together with some body-protoplasm, being extruded in 
 the form of the first ' polar ' body (Fig. 4). In this way, 
 according to Weismann, the ovum gets rid of its superfluous 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 ^,,„_^.,„T-,_ »,iTr-T Trn / \ GERjM PLASM. This di- 
 
 °\9^^^F-^^^. ^i^"-Fv, / Jf^■ \ vides, one half beiiKj ex- 
 
 PLASM cast off as the -M'-J --. traded as the second polar 
 
 first polar body. \ MU -j- ^^^^^ 
 
 ovogenetic nucleoplasm. Thereupon the remaining half of 
 the nucleus divides also, half of it being, as in the first 
 division, cast off with some of the body-plasm, and forming 
 the second polar body. 
 
 By this means room is made, Weismann holds, for the germ- 
 plasm of the spermatozoon. Some such extrusion probably 
 takes place in all ova, although it has not yet been demon- 
 strated in those of reptiles and birds. Till now it was 
 thought that parthcnogenetic ova gave off no polar bodies, 
 but Weismann has recently shown that this is not the case
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 19 
 
 and that such ova extrude a single polar body. After the 
 extrusion of the polar bodies the remaining part of the 
 nucleus returns to the centre of the egg, constituting the 
 ' female pronucleus.' 
 
 (b) The Sperm. It is now known that a process very 
 similar to the expulsion of the polar bodies from the germ 
 takes place, at all events in some cases, in the sperm 
 (Fig. 5). Strasburger has lately demonstrated that this is 
 very common in the male reproductive elements of plants. 
 The above interpretation of the polar body formation holds 
 good here also. 
 
 Mode in tvhich Fertilisation Occurs. — Impregnation, which 
 probably does not occur until after polar extrusion, is thus 
 effected : the spermatozoon — one is sufficient in all cases — 
 plunges into the ovum liead-first; whereupon the tail disap- 
 pears, the head, or rather its nucleus, constituting the ' male 
 pronucleus.' This now y^^ - 
 
 approaches the female sperm ogenetic 
 
 ^'^ NUCLEOPLASM. 
 
 pronucleus, and the two 
 unite to form the * first 
 segmentation nucleus.' ^^-->^-.:::::..- germ plasm. 
 
 This constitutes the es '^ 
 
 sential act of fertilisation : the first segmentation nucleus 
 contains the potentialities of the new being. 
 
 The Initial IStxujc of Development. — With each division of 
 the impregnated ovum, the first segmentation nucleuf 
 divides, and hence every cell of the embryo is derived from 
 it. It is true that the body-protoplasm shares in the 
 segmentation ; but the fact that in many animals only a 
 small part does so, the greater portion fulfilling the more or 
 less mechanical function of providing nourishment for the 
 new being, and the further fact that the more specialised a 
 definite part of the body becomes towards this end the less 
 is the tendency of that part to segment,^ point to the con- 
 
 ^ When the yolk material is small in quantity, as in mammals, it is dis- 
 tributed equally throughout the entire body-plasm, and in such cases the 
 ovum undergoes complete segmentation. When, however, the yolk is
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 
 
 [part I. 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 a 
 
 elusion that the young embryo is essentially developed from 
 the first segmentation nucleus. 
 
 It is important to note that the first segmentation nucleus 
 divides in such wise that each half contains plasm derived 
 from both parents. Thus Fig. 6 a represents a segmentation 
 
 nucleus before, and Fig. 6 h after, 
 its primary division. In a the 
 shaded part, /, is that portion of 
 the nucleus which is derived from 
 the father ; the unshaded part, m, 
 that which is derived from the mother. In h the nucleus has 
 so divided that each half is made up of a paternal and 
 maternal portion, and each subsequent division takes place 
 in a similar way. Every cell in the body may thus in a 
 measure be regarded as a conjugated cell, and as, therefore, a 
 mixture of differing tendencies. 
 
 Hoio the Reproductive Mements come ly their Structure. — •• 
 The two great problems of heredity are involved in the 
 questions we have now to consider : ( i ) How do the repro- 
 ductive elements come by their structure? (2) How, possess- 
 
 accumulated in some parts more than in others, such parts show a 
 diminished tendency to segment. Thus, in the eggs of birds (Fig. I.), the 
 
 Fig. I. 
 
 Fig. II.. 
 
 Fig. III. 
 
 bulk of the body-plasm is laden with yolk granules, only a small part round 
 the nucleus being devoid of them, and it is this alone which shares in 
 
 segmentation. When the yolk is diffused 
 throughout the entire body, but accumu- 
 lated more in one half than the other, as 
 in the ovum of the frog (Fig. II. ) then that 
 half in which it is most densely packed 
 undergoes least segmentation. When, as 
 in the crustaceans and insects, the yolk is 
 concentrated round the centre of the egg (Fig. III.), this part takes no 
 share in segmentation, which is confined to the peripheral portions.
 
 PART 1.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 21 
 
 ing such a structure, are they able to develop into the mean 
 likeness of the parent organisms ? ( i ) In regard to the former 
 question there are two chief theories. The one assumes 
 that the reproductive cells are formed from gemmules which 
 are given off from all the different parts of the body, so 
 that each part is individually represented in the reproductive 
 cell. This is Darwin's doctrine of pangenesis, and has been 
 variously modified since his time. The other is the theory 
 of the continuity of germ-plasm, and its chief and most 
 philosophical exponent is Weismann. This must now be 
 considered. 
 
 Hitherto the assumption has been that the soma^ possesses 
 the power of generating the reproductive cells de novo. 
 Weismann contends, however, that the reproductive cells 
 (or more accurately the essentially reproductive portions of 
 them) are derived — not from the soma, but from a portion of 
 the original fertilised ovum which has remained undeveloped. 
 He holds that only a part of the fertilised ovum develops 
 into the new being or soma, the rest remaining in static quo, 
 and constituting so much ' germ-plasm ' to form the essential 
 material of future ova and spermatozoa. In each develop- 
 ment a portion of the specific germ-plasm which the 
 parental ovum contains, is not used up in the formation of 
 the offspring, but is reserved unchanged to form the germ 
 cells of the following generation. In some organisms the 
 cells forming the reproductive organs are differentiated at 
 the very beginning of segmentation, and there may then be 
 said to be a direct continuity of reproductive cells ; but in 
 the vast majority of cases they are not set aside until a 
 comparatively late period in development, sometimes not till 
 the very end ; and although in such cases a continuous 
 chain of cells unites them with the original ovum-cell, yet 
 there cannot strictly be said to be a continuity of repro- 
 ductive cells, for each cell in the line of ancestry is not 
 purely reproductive, since every time it divides it gives 
 
 1 Soma = body, or the developed individual, as distinguished from the un- 
 developed reproductive material, or 'germ-plasm,' which, in Weismann's 
 view, is handed on from generation to generation..
 
 22 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 off a somatic cell also.^ Weismann, therefore, prefers to 
 speak of the continuity of germ-plasm rather than of germ- 
 cells. Part of the formative plasm is transmitted in an un- 
 developed form along the chain of cells uniting the repro- 
 ductive cells with the parent ovum-cell, each such cell 
 bearing its little load of germ plasm, while the remainder 
 spends its formative energies in buildiug up the new being. 
 In those organisms in which all, or nearly all, the cells of 
 the soma are capable of reproducing the entire organism, 
 Weismann assumes that the germ-plasm is present in all 
 the cells so endowed, but in the higher organisms, in which 
 only a limited \iumber of cells subserve the reproductive 
 function, the germ-plasm is confined to those. 
 
 One merit of this hypothesis is, in Weismann's view, that 
 " heredity becomes a question of growth and assimilation — 
 the most fundamental of all vital phenomena " (p. i68). 
 The germ-plasm increases, that is to say, in the same 
 manner as all other living matter : it assimilates and grows, 
 so that he who can explain such assimilation and growth 
 can explain the coming into being of the substance whence 
 new organisms arise. 
 
 The explanation of the increase of germ-plasm by 
 growth and assimilation is, however, somewhat misleading, 
 as is also the use of the term ' germ-plasm ' itself. They 
 both suggest that this hypothetical plasm is more or less 
 homogeneous in nature. Weismann, it is true, assumes 
 that it possesses an infinitely complex composition, but, 
 while postulating such complexity, he would appear to 
 hold that, taking the entire mass, each portion of the 
 whole has very much the same structure — that it is, for 
 example, very much like sulphuric acid, which, while 
 possessing a distinct molecular structure, is yet in mass 
 homogeneous in a certain sense. The employment of the 
 term 'germ-plasm,' and the statement that it increases by 
 the ordinary laws of assimilation, suggest that (in the case of 
 dioecious organisms) any portion of germ-plasm selected 
 
 ^ A cell, the offspring of which become partly somatic and partly germ- 
 cells, cannot itself be a germ-cell pure and simple. (Weismann, IhiJ. p. 197.) 
 
 o
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION" OF SEX. 23 
 
 indifferently from the male organism, united with any 
 portion of germ-plasm similarly selected from the female 
 organism, is competent to produce a new being, just as any 
 portion of a mass of sulphuric acid united with any 
 portion of a mass of calcium yields gypsum. The only 
 proviso that Weismann makes is that the plasm shall be 
 sufficient in bulk. My conception of the hypothetical 
 germ-plasm is, however, very different from this. I con- 
 tend that, if there be such a thing, it must consist of a 
 number of independent units, each of which is complete 
 in itself — i.e., capable, when united with a similar 
 unit derived from an individual of the opposite sex, of 
 developing into a new being. In order to show that 
 Weismann does not hold this view, I proceed to quote two 
 or three passages from him. " Even a very minute trace 
 of specific germ-plasm," he writes, " possesses the definite 
 tendency to build up a certain organism " (p. i 79). Again 
 he observes tliat the germ-plasm contained in the repro- 
 ductive cells " can only be present in minute quantity at first, 
 but it must undergo considerable increase during the growth 
 of the cell " (p. 213).^ These passages seem to make it 
 
 ' The following passage similarly tends to show that Weismann does not 
 regard the germ-plasm as constituting so many individual units, complete 
 — in a certain sense — in themselves. Speaking of parthenogenesis he 
 remarks : "We know that force is always bound up with matter," and he 
 maintains that cases in which the ovum only partially develops " are best 
 explained by the supposition that too small an amount of [<jerm-plasm'\ is 
 present " (p. 227). Again : " If we may assume that a certain amount of 
 germ-plasm must be contained in the segmentation nucleus in order to 
 complete the whole process of the ontogenetic differentiation of this 
 substance ; if we may further assume that the quantity of germ-plasm in 
 the segmentation nucleus varies in different cases ; then we should be able 
 to understand why one egg can only develop after fertilisation, while 
 another can begin its development without fertilisation but cannot finish 
 it, and why a third is even able to complete its development. We 
 should also understand why one egg only passes through the first 
 stages of segmentation and is then arrested, while another reaches a few 
 more stages in advance, and a third develops so far that the embryo is 
 nearly completely formed. These differences would depend upon the ex- 
 tent to which the germ-jjlasm, originally present in the egg, was suiBcient 
 for the development of the latter ; development will be arrested as soon
 
 24 THE EVOLUTION OP SEX. [part i. 
 
 clear that Weismann regards the germ-plasm as homo- 
 geneous (in the limited sense indicated), and that its growth 
 is a mere increase in bulk, a mere adding-to-itself of a sub- 
 stance of like kind, a process comparable to that which acetic 
 acid undergoes in the ' continuous aetherification process.' 
 I venture to think, however, that whatever increase the germ- 
 plasm undergoes in the reproductive cell must be due, not 
 to mere growth, but to development — in short, to evolution, 
 growth (increase in mass) being of course included. 
 
 Assuming — and any other assumption appears to me 
 unwarranted — that the germ-plasm in the reproductive 
 cell is an independent unit, a microcosm complete in 
 itself, and essentially heterogeneous, different in all its parts, 
 what we have to do is to explain its coming into being — 
 the various phases of its evolution. Given such a micro- 
 cosm, how is it able to produce another like itself ? My 
 answer is : — By the ordinary laws of cell multiplication ; 
 and the merit of Weismann's hypothesis is that it enables 
 us to formulate this proposition. The answer, then, is to 
 be found in the answer to the further question : How 
 can a cell, or more accurately, a protoplasmic unit, reproduce 
 itself ? Let us consider only the most common method of 
 reproduction, namely, ' simple ' division, as it is called 
 (though it is quite clear that the process is by no means 
 
 as the nucleo-plasm is no longer capable of producing the succeeding 
 stage, and is thus unable to enter upon the following nuclear division" 
 (pp. 227-228). This paragraph shows what great stress Weismann lays upon 
 the quantity of germ-plasm as distinguished from the quality. He must 
 therefore regard it as in a manner homogeneous, if only in the limited 
 .sense I have indicated in the text. Assuming that he is correct as to the 
 significance of the first polar body formation in ordinary ova, does, it may 
 be asked, the formation of the second polar body support Weismann's view 
 that the ovum nucleus suffers thereby a mere diminution in bulk ? I con- 
 tend not. The nucleus divides, I suggest, into two more or less complete 
 units, or microcosms. Our knowledge of unicellular organisms teaches 
 us that conjugation takes place more readily after division, and we can 
 well imagine that the newly evolved female pronucleus, like a nascent 
 element, is in a favourable condition for union with the newly evolved 
 male pronucleus. It is thus that I would explain the second polar body 
 .formation.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 25 
 
 simple). Assuming the cell to be ' homogeneous,' a simple 
 diagonal splitting would be sufficient. But inasmuch as 
 all cells, and certainly all those which possess a nucleus, 
 have a very definite and complex structure, such a simple 
 splitting would be incompetent to produce two cells like the 
 orifjinal one. As a matter of fact we now know that the 
 division of a cell is no simple process, but, on the contrary, 
 very complex, the elements of the nucleus arranging them- 
 selves round two opposite poles. The process by which a 
 single complex unit can thus give rise to two similar 
 complex units is very remarkable, and is at present abso- 
 lutely unintelligible to us. To suppose that it is merely 
 one of division is as absurd as to suppose that we can 
 get two watches by the division of one. Imagine the 
 complex play of forces necessary to enable a watch so to 
 re-arrange its particles as to give rise to two watches ! I 
 contend — assuming Weismann's general conception of germ- 
 plasm to be correct — that the problem of heredity is 
 essentially locked up in this question of cell reproduction, 
 for we have to explain the coming into being of the germ- 
 plasm lirdts. To suppose, as Weismann does, that a more 
 or less homogeneous germ-plasm merely increases in mass 
 by growth and assimilation, is, as I have endeavoured to 
 show, unscientific. We must, therefore, suppose that the 
 germ-plasm units reproduce themselves after the manner 
 of ordinary cells. He who can explain the reproduction of 
 ordinary cells by division or otherwise, can explain the repro- 
 duction of these units, can explain the first stage of onto- 
 genetic evolution — Lc, the first of the two great problems 
 <)f heredity : What leads to the evolution of the essentially 
 reproductive portion of the sex-cell ? 
 
 Weismann's theory of the continuity of germ-plasm is, 
 all must allow, a great advance upon Darwin's doctrim; of 
 pangenesis ; but it is spoilt — so I think — by assuming 
 that the germ-plasm is, in a manner of speaking, homo- 
 geneous, and that the multiplication of the individual 
 germ-plasms of reproductive cells can be explained upon 
 the laws of assimilation.
 
 26 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 Evolution of the Nevj Being from, the Germ- Plasm. — This, 
 the second great problem of heredity, has been ably dealt 
 with by Niigeli and Weismann, among others, and I need not 
 do more here than allude to it.^ 
 
 1 The first segmentation nucleus, formed by the union of the two germ- 
 plasms, undoubtedly possesses a highly complex structure. A priori 
 reasoning leads to this conclusion, and microscopic observation has already 
 established it. I have elsewhere {vide "Causation of Disease," Part I.) 
 stated that any other supposition would be absurd. A study of Herbert 
 Spencer's "Principles of Sociology," in which he likens society to a 
 li\ing organism, has, however, suggested to me that we are not compelled 
 to postulate a highly complex structure for the germ-plasm, and that, 
 theoretically, a comparatively homogeneous protoplasm is capable of giving 
 rise to a highly complex being. Consider, for example, a highly complex 
 human society. Looked on as a living organism, it has a definite and 
 complex structure and correspondingly complex functions. Now such a 
 complex social organism is theoretically capable of developing from one 
 practically structureless, for it might have originated from two individuals- 
 — a male and a female — and a society consisting of two can scarcely be said 
 to have any structure. Nevertheless, such a structureless social organism, 
 xmder certain conditions of climate, geographical position, and so forth 
 (environment), is capable of evolving into a condition of great complexity, 
 — into an organism as complex in comparison with its original structure as 
 is the complex animal (or vegetable) organism in comparison with a 
 hypothetically homogeneous (or practically homogeneous) germ-plasm. In 
 each case the evolution starts by a multiplication of units. In the one there 
 are individual human beings ; in the other, individual cells, germ and sperm. 
 In each a division of labour occurs ; in this the specialised units arrange 
 themselves into definite organs and tissues, in that into social groups. 
 Now it may be stated positively that if two other individuals exactly like 
 those two in whom our hypothetical social organism originated, were 
 placed under exactly the same environmental conditions as the first two, 
 and if, moreover, those conditions remained exactly the same during the 
 entire evolution of this second social organism as during that of the 
 original one, the second would in every respect be like the first. From 
 which it follows that a social organism might give rise to an infinite 
 number of similar social organisms, if (i) it were capable of retaining 
 during its evolution, as part of itself, a number of individuals exactly Uke 
 the primary two whence it originated; and (2) if the environmental 
 conditions of the new social organisms were exactly like that of the parent 
 social organism. Such an organism might be regarded as a self-fertilising 
 hermaphrodite. Observe here the influence of the environment in develop 
 ment. The continual social development depends upon the continual 
 development of new environmental conditions, each new environmental
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 27 
 
 change being the condition of a fresh evolutionary advance ; in other words, 
 the behaviour of the social unit is influenced by its environment. That a 
 society thus evolves there can be no doubt, and the question therefore 
 arises : May not the animal organism similarly evolve ? May not, that is 
 to say, each step in the evolution of the individual organism be the 
 condition of the next step in advance, the evolution, in fact, being 
 largely determined by peculiarities in the individual cell environments, 
 just as the evolution of the social organism is, beyond all doubt, largely 
 determined by the individual environments of men and women ? Suppose 
 a social community to start with two individuals, man and woman (who, 
 we will suppose, differ only in regard to sexual particulars), and suppose, 
 further, that in the course of its growth each individual is subjected to 
 exactly the same conditions, being provided, let us say, without eifort, with 
 all the necessities and comforts of life ; then it is quite certain that there 
 will be no social evolution, the society will remain homogeneous ; and 
 similarly it may be argued of the individual cells of the organism. 
 
 Some interesting conclusions might be arrived at by pushing the above 
 analogy further. By so doing, however, we should be led too wide of our 
 subject. Obviously, too, the analogy in certain important respects fails. 
 I cite it in order to draw attention to the important part the individual 
 cell- environments may take in the development of the animal organism, but 
 we must not, on the other liand, omit to give due weight to the peculiarities 
 of the individual units themselves. It will be noticed that in the above 
 hypothetical society, in which I suppose every individual to be provided 
 with the same environment, I am careful to postulate an exact likeness on 
 the part of the parents except in sexual particulars, for without such exact 
 likeness the offspring would differ, and differing, would have different 
 needs and seek to surround themselves with different environments. We 
 must, therefore, take into account the parts which individual differences 
 play in the evolution of both the social and the animal organisms. 
 According to Weismann, the great purpose of sexual reproduction is to 
 originate differences among individual organisms. But the question may 
 be put : Does it take any part in causing differences among the individual 
 cells of an organism ? For we have seen that each cell in the soma is 
 made up of botli paternal and maternal germ-j)lasm, from which it follows 
 that each cell is, in a sense, the result of conjugation.
 
 OHAPTEE III. 
 
 SEPARATION OF THE SEXES. 
 
 There is no doubt that the clicecious state, that is, the state of 
 unisexuality, is iu all cases derived from a state of primitive 
 hermaphrodism. In other words, all organisms in which 
 the sexes are separate are derived from hermaphrodite 
 ancestors. This is rendered pretty evident by a study of 
 their develoj^ment. 
 
 There is no a iiriori reason why, in the initial stages of 
 organic evolution, the production of spermatozoa should 
 have been limited to one class of animals, and that of ova to 
 another. The purpose of sexual reproduction might have 
 been equally well fulfilled had each animal been both male 
 and female — nay, perhaps even better, for then each would 
 have been capable of acting as father and as mother, of 
 fertilising and of being fertilised. 
 
 But as evolution proceeded, hermaphrodism became, first 
 inconvenient, and before long, incompatible with the 
 increasing complexity of embryonic development ; hence 
 the sexes became separate. Let us briefly inquire how 
 this was brought about. 
 
 The ovum, as we have seen, provides the young embryo 
 with certain conditions necessary for its development, and 
 as the organic scale is ascended, these conditions become 
 increasingly complex. Hence, in the case of oviparous 
 animals, a point is at length reached at which an elaborate 
 ovum is needed, and for this purpose the ovum-producing
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 29 
 
 organism must be provided with large and complicated 
 glands for yielding yolk, albumen, and, it may be, shell. In the- 
 case of viviparous animals special and still more complicated 
 organs are required for the housing and nourishment of 
 the young embryo within the parent body for some time. 
 Wherefore it follows that, as structural complexity increases, 
 the female generative system becomes more and more 
 complex. All this involves a great expenditure of energy, 
 and we can clearly see how an ovum-producing organism 
 would benefit by being spared the additional effort required 
 for seeking out and impregnating another organism ; and 
 how, on the other hand, organisms whose main reproductive 
 feature is simply the production of spermatozoa would be. 
 better fitted for the work of search and impregnation, if 
 unhampered by a cumbersome female generative system. 
 Hence the advantage of the sexes being separate. 
 
 It is not difficult to trace the steps by which the separa- 
 tion has been effected. Suppose that in the evolutionary 
 career of a given species a stage has been reached at which, 
 while the organism still remains hermaphroditic, the female 
 generative system is fairly complex : then given an individual 
 varying in such wise that the female generative system i.s 
 better developed, and the male generative system not so 
 well developed as in an average member of the class, such 
 an individual will stand a better chance of leaving a 
 numerous progeny than the average member. And, 
 similarly, an organism possessing the male generative 
 system more developed than the female will be at an 
 advantage over others as regards its capacity for fertilising. 
 According to the laws of heredity as limited by sex, their 
 respective characters will tend to 1 le transmitted respectively 
 to certain individuals among the offspring, some developing 
 more of the female, others more of the male sexual 
 characters. 
 
 It is further evident that those of the offspring in whicli 
 the sexual disparity is greatest will stand the best chance 
 of leaving a numerous progeny to inherit their sexual 
 peculiarities ; and thus it happens that with each generation
 
 30 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 the female element will become more pronounced in one set 
 of individuals, the male in another, until one element in each 
 organism being finally eliminated altogether, the sexes become 
 quite distinct. 
 
 Nor is this a matter of mere speculation, for in certain 
 classes of animals — e.g., Vermes, the various intermediate 
 stages between the hermaphroditic and dioecious states may- 
 be actually traced. 
 
 The laws of heredity as limited by sex were obviously 
 intended by Darwin to refer to organisms in which the 
 sexes are distinct, but some such laws must also apply to 
 animals in the transition stage between hermaphrodism and 
 the dioecious condition, for it is manifest that the separation 
 of the sexes could never have occurred if the respective 
 sexual peculiarities, as fast as they were accumulated during 
 the hermaphroditic stage, had not been handed down 
 separately to individuals among the offspring. Clearly, one 
 set of tlie offspring must have inherited the peculiarities 
 pertaining to the production of the ovum, and another set 
 those pertaining to the generation of the spermatozoon ; and 
 it would happen that in those cases where the female 
 generative system was strongly developed, there would be 
 transmission of peculiarities tending to the development of 
 the female sex, while in those where the male generative 
 system was the stronger, the development would be towards 
 the male. 
 
 By carefully studying heredity as limited by sex, Darwin 
 formulated the following empirical laws, which, when the 
 dicecious stage has been reached, would apply to the further 
 evolution of the species : — 
 
 1 . When a character is acquired by one sex at an early 
 period of life it tends to be transmitted to both sexes 
 equally, though it shows a greater tendency to be inherited 
 by the same sex. 
 
 2. AVhen acquired by one sex during the period of pro- 
 creative life, it tends to be inherited by the same sex, and at 
 the same period of life. 
 
 3. Among the mammalia characters acquired by one sex
 
 PART 1.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 31 
 
 during the procreative period are more apt to be equally 
 inherited by both sexes than is the case with the other 
 vertebrates.' 
 
 ^ Weismann would no doubt object to the word acquired, as employed in 
 the above propositions, seeing that he does not believe in the inheritance 
 of acquired characters ; but he would probably accept the propositions 
 themselves, provided the word manifested were substituted.
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 SECONDARY SEXUAL CHAEACTERS. 
 
 Sepaeation of the sexes having been attained, each sex 
 will of course differ from the other in respect of the genera- 
 tive organs, these differences constituting the so-called 
 primary sexual characters. 
 
 It will also differ in other particulars — in particulars, 
 namely, not directly relating to the act of reproduction. 
 These were termed by John Hunter the secondary sexual 
 characters, but though it is thus convenient to make a sharp 
 distinction between the two kinds, they merge into one 
 another. We shall, however, avoid all difficulty if we 
 agree, witli Darwin, to include under primary sexual 
 characters tlie reproductive organs only, and regard all 
 other sexual characters as constituting secondary sexual 
 differences. 
 
 The genesis of these secondary sexual characters must 
 now occupy our attention. So soon as one set of organisms 
 takes upon itself tlie function of producing ova alone, and 
 another set the task of generating spermatozoa only, 
 secondary sexual differences necessarily follow. In the first 
 place it is obvious, on the principle of correlation, that 
 secondary sexual differences must succeed upon the primary ; 
 the presence of a complex generative system in the female 
 involves secondary structural characters not present in the 
 male ; and, similarly, the generative system of the male in- 
 duces structural peculiarities not present in the female. Then,
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 33 
 
 again, the mode of life of each sex will differ, and this 
 further increases the secondary sexual characters. 
 
 Into this we may inquire a little further. We have in 
 the two special functions of the ovum and the spermatozoon 
 a foreshadowing of the special functions of the two sexes. 
 Inasmuch as the ovum is specially endowed with a view to 
 provide the young embryo with the proper environment, we 
 should expect, when the sexes became separate, to find the care 
 of the embryo and the new-born offspring relegated to the 
 mother, and, in like manner, we should expect the male to 
 be provided with special means for finding and securing the 
 female. And such is the case. The female not only 
 possesses complicated organs for building up large ova, and, 
 in the case of viviparous animals, for housing the embryo in 
 her body for some time, but is further endowed with the 
 necessary instincts for hatching the eggs, and looking after 
 the young brood, or, when the young are born alive, for 
 regulating their environment during the early period of their 
 independent existence. The male, in a similar way, is 
 endowed with a stronc; instinct for seekino; out and fertilisinsj 
 the female — the almost universal law being that the male 
 shall be the seeker — and, furthermore, he is equipped with 
 many secondary sexual characters which shall enable him to 
 secure her ; such as extra strength, and weapons of offence 
 and defence for conquering rival males ; odoriferous glands, 
 and external beauty, by which he may attract or charm her ; 
 and, finally, special organs of prehension for securing her 
 when caught. 
 
 It is in these ways that the sexes have come to differ, not 
 only in respect of their generative systems pure and simple, but 
 in many otlier particulars. The secondary sexual characters 
 are usually more pronounced in the male, and this, as we 
 shall presently see, is to be explained by the fact that the 
 struggle is almost always among the males for the possession 
 of the females. In many species, indeed, so unlike are the 
 former to the latter, that on the ground of morphology alone 
 it would be impossible to class opposite sexes of the same 
 species under one and the same head. 
 
 c
 
 34 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 Although the male almost always seeks the female, and 
 the latter generally takes upon herself the sole responsi- 
 bility of hatching the eggs and looking after the newly 
 hatched or newly born offspring, yet it should be mentioned 
 that both these rules have exceptions. Thus in some few 
 cases the female seeks the male, as in certain species of 
 birds ; among some fish (e.g., stickleback) the male looks 
 after the eggs ; and many cock-birds, as is well known, help 
 to build the nest, hatch the eggs, and tend the young 
 brood. 
 
 The evolution of secondary sexual characters will be 
 specially dealt with in Qhapter VI. Meanwhile it will be 
 convenient to treat of the evolution of the sexual instinct.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT. 
 
 By the term ' sexual instinct ' I mean that instinct which 
 leads to the union of the two sex-elements. Used in this 
 broad sense it includes both the conscious instinct, which 
 causes individuals of opposite sexes to unite in sexual 
 congress, and the unconscious process by which the sperma- 
 tozoon seeks out and penetrates the ovum. 
 
 We have seen that the task of effecting the union of the 
 reproductive cells belongs chiefly to the male organism and 
 male reproductive cells, both of which are specialised for 
 this purpose ; the female organism and the ovum, on the 
 other hand, being specialised with a view to provide a fit 
 environment for the new being. Now, inasmuch as the 
 essentially reproductive portions of the male and female sex- 
 cells are probably of equal (or nearly equal) reproductive 
 value, we may say that the male and female organisms 
 differ essentially in the particulars referred to — that part of 
 the sexual energy which in the female is directed to 
 the nourishment and the care of the young, being in the 
 male adapted to the search for, and impregnation of, the 
 female organism. All the salient points wherein the male 
 differs from the female have reference to these two grand 
 differences — a fact which prepares us for the conclusion 
 that the conscious sexual instinct, or sexual appetite, is 
 stronger in the male than in the female. 
 
 In order to trace the evolution of this conscious sexual
 
 36 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 instinct, it is necessary to begin our study very low down in 
 the animal kingdom, at a point, in fact, where anything 
 worthy of the name of consciousness cannot be said to exist. 
 We liave seen that even among unicellular organisms true 
 sexual reproduction is preshadowed : two cells unite, their 
 union being followed by increased activity. We may suppose 
 that in such cases each cell takes a more or less equal 
 share in effecting the union, and although, undoubtedly, 
 there must be agencies at work tending to bring it about, we 
 can scarcely speak of a sexual instinct doing so. So soon, 
 however, as a differentiation of sex-cells, of ova and sper- 
 matozoa, occurs — and' this takes place, as we have seen, in the 
 most primitive multicellular organisms — unconscious sexual 
 instinct may be said to make its appearance : we may 
 regard the active spermatozoon as being endowed with an 
 unconscious instinct to seek out and fertilise the inert and 
 heavily laden ovum.^ It is true that we have here to deal 
 with purely mechanical forces, similar to those which effect 
 the conjugation of unicellular organisms, but, inasmuch as 
 the spermatozoon is specially adapted for the purpose of 
 seeking out the ovum, we may for convenience speak of it as 
 being endowed with an unconscious sexual instinct. 
 
 At this early stage of evolution there is, be it noted, no 
 seeking out of one organism (male or female) by another, 
 the unconscious sexual instinct being confined to the male 
 reproductive cell. To take an example : The ascidians, by 
 some supposed to be our remote pre-vertebrate ancestors, 
 are fixed hermaphrodites ; the ova and spermatozoa, how- 
 ever, mature at different times, so that self-fertilisation is 
 prevented. Now, these organisms being fixed, it is mani- 
 festly impossible for them to come together sexually. What 
 happens is this : the reproductive elements are cast into 
 the water, where the sexual union occurs — the spermatozoon 
 playing the chief part in effecting this union. 
 
 In the case of hermaphrodites which are free to move, 
 
 ^ It is much easier for the male element to seek the female than for 
 the reverse to occur ; such an arrangement, as Darwin observes, leads to a 
 saving of force.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 37 
 
 and in which actual contact of two organisms is necessary to 
 fertilisation, some instinct, conscious or unconscious, is clearly 
 necessary to bring it about. These cases I pass by, and 
 come to that higher stage of sexual evolution at which the 
 sexes are separate. Here also it is quite clear that some 
 conscious instinct is required to bring organisms of opposite 
 sex together. Actual contact is not always needful ; thus, 
 in the case of most fishes the female deposits her ova in the 
 water, while the male follows in her wake, coverino; them 
 with spermatozoa, being thus manifestly guided by some con- 
 scious instinct. In other cases individuals of opposite sexes 
 have to be brought into direct contact, though this does not 
 always imply an actual insertion of a male organ, for in some 
 of these cases, as happens with many fishes and amphibia, 
 the ova are fertilised in the water. But whether actual 
 copulation takes place or not, it is obvious that some form 
 of conscious instinct is necessary to bring about the sexual 
 contact' ; and in all these cases it is the male that seeks tlie 
 female and takes the chief part in effecting the union of sex- 
 cells. 
 
 The male sexual instinct evolves by selection : those males 
 in which it is most perfectly developed having (other things 
 being equal) the best chance of leaving a numerous pro- 
 geny, the males of which will tend to inherit the like sexual 
 adequacy. Thus from dim beginnings a sexual desire is 
 eventually evolved ; and at this stage the males begin to 
 contend among themselves for its satisfaction. Naturally, 
 the struggle for the possession of the females is fiercest 
 among polygamous males, for in their case only a small 
 proportion can succeed in leaving progeny. Success will 
 doubtless be very largely due to superiority in physical en- 
 dowments, but it is clear that such superiority must be backed 
 up by an intense sexual passion, for nothing short of this would 
 prompt an animal to risk its life in struggling for the female. 
 
 Thus through countless generations there has been a 
 searching selection of the most eager males, and this — above 
 
 ^ Actual copulation takes place much lower in the scale than in the 
 amphibia, as in insects and in many hermaphrodites.
 
 38 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 all among polygamous animals, to which class man belongs — 
 has culminated in the intensely powerful male sexual in- 
 stinct which characterises the higher animals. 
 
 The female, on the other hand, plays a much more passive 
 part in effecting sexual union ; in some animals, as in the 
 case of the fish whose ova are impregnated in the water, she 
 cannot be said to take any. Nevertheless, in most cases in 
 which actual copulation occurs, she must lend herself to the 
 act, and this implies sexual instinct. This instinct has, in 
 many cases, evolved to a high intensity, and the manner of 
 its evolution is sikin to that of the evolution of the male 
 sexual appetite : those females distinctly averse to the sexual 
 act would leave no progeny to inherit the deficiency ; while 
 those possessing the greatest desire would, other things being 
 equal, stand the best chance of leaving the most numerous 
 progeny to inherit the like strong instinct. Inasmuch, how- 
 ever, as the rivalry is (with a few notable exceptions) never 
 among the females for the males, the selective process is not 
 so actively at work among the former as among the latter, 
 and consequently the sexual appetite has not evolved in 
 them to the same strength. For all this, the desire of the 
 female, though on an average below that of the male, may 
 be very intense. Thus it is well known that during the 
 period of rut the female may become very excited, though 
 rarely to the same degree as the male. Writing upon the 
 subject of insanity among the lower animals W. L. Lindsay 
 observes : " While females are more impressionable than males, 
 in connection with such functions or conditions as pregnancy 
 and parturition, the males are more subject to the excitement 
 of the rut ; so that in them — in the stags or bucks, for 
 instance of various deer, including the red, fallow, and roe 
 deer — erotomania is most frequently developed." ^ And 
 again, "Erotic forms of insanity — the erotomania of authors — 
 is better known as it occurs among stags, stallions, and other 
 male animals — to which sex, however, it is by no means con- 
 fined, for Nymiohoniania is to be met with as well as 
 
 ^ " The Pathology of Mind in the Lower Animals," W. Lauder Lindsay, 
 M.D., Jour. Ment. Science, vol. xxiii. p. 27.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 39 
 
 Satyriasis. It is well known that stags in spring 'are 
 transported with erotic fury.' " ^ 
 
 I have said that with most animals the female must lend 
 herself to the sexual act, and that this cannot be done with- 
 out sexual instinct. In the human race, however, the case 
 is different. In the first place, the woman need not be a 
 willins agent ; among savages and semi-barbarous com- 
 munities it often happens that she has no voice in the 
 matter, and therefore among our primitive ancestors, sexual 
 instinct in the woman has not been essential to the 
 successful performance of the sexual act. It follows that 
 the selective process as regards sexual desire in the female 
 has not been as active in the remoter times of our race as 
 among the females of the mammalia, and, such being the 
 case, one would rather expect the sexual desire to be less in 
 the one case than in the others. 
 
 Further, in civilised communities the woman, while 
 voluntarily submitting to the sexual act, may have no desire 
 whatever, being prompted in her behaviour by what she 
 conceives to be her duty rather than by instinct. Here 
 again what Weismann calls ' panmixia ' is interfered with, 
 and hence the sexual instinct in the civilised woman is, I 
 believe, tending to atrophy. This subject will be considered 
 in greater detail in a future chapter on the comparative 
 sexual desire of man and woman. 
 
 ^ Animal World, July 1876, p. 98.
 
 * CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BEAKING OF SEXUAL SELECTION ON THE EVOLUTION 
 OF THE SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS. 
 
 We will now proceed to discuss, in somewhat greater detail, 
 the evolution of the secondary sexual characters, a subject 
 already briefly treated of in Chapter IV. 
 
 In order to do this we must keep clearly before us the 
 three methods by which species have evolved, viz., (i) by 
 natural selection ; (2) by sexual selection ; (3) by the 
 direct action of the environment, independently of selection. 
 In the two former cases the organism is adapted to its 
 environment by indirect means, and therefore Herbert 
 Spencer speaks of the process as one of ' indirect equilibra- 
 tion ; ' ^ while in the latter case the adaptation is direct, 
 and therefore he calls it ' direct equilibration.' 
 
 Natural selection relates to the advantages which one 
 animal possesses over another, independently of the propaga- 
 tion of the species. 
 
 Sexual selection relates to the advantages which one 
 animal possesses over another of the same kind and sex 
 solely in respect of reproduction. In the language of Darwin, 
 " Sexual selection depends on the success of certain indi- 
 viduals over others of the same sex in relation to the pro- 
 pagation of the species; whilst natural selection depends 
 
 ^ Spencer does not, I believe, make any specific mention of sexual 
 selection, but manifestly he would couple it with natural selection under 
 the head of 'indirect equilibration.'
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 41 
 
 upon the success of both sexes, at all ages, in relation to 
 the general conditions of life " (the Environment).^ 
 
 The influence of the environment in modifying a race, 
 independently of selection, natural or sexual, has recently 
 been questioned, the theory that there exists such an influ- 
 ence resting on the assumption that acquired characters are 
 inheritable, for all peculiarities of structure impressed upon 
 an organism by the environment are essentially acquired. 
 The influence of natural and of sexual selection rests upon 
 no such assumption, seeing that the selected characters are 
 not acquired, but are essentially, so it is assumed, of ger- 
 minal origin. The question of the inheritance of acquired 
 characters is of such importance to our subject that I shall 
 consider it at some length later. 
 
 The first two of the above methods have certainly, and 
 the last has possibly, played a part in rendering the sexes 
 innately unlike. I shall discuss each separately, beginning 
 with sexual selection — in my view the most important in this 
 connection. Before doing so, however, 1 w^ould observe that 
 very few secondary sexual characters have evolved by any 
 one of the above methods alone. Many have resulted from 
 the action of two of them ; some, of all three. I cannot, 
 therefore, classify secondary sexual differences as those due 
 to natural selection, those due to sexual selection, and so 
 forth ; and when I wish to direct attention to the patho- 
 logical importance of any one in particular, I can only choose 
 such place as appears most convenient. 
 
 Sexual Selection. 
 
 Whatever increases an animal's chance of reproduction 
 falls within the province of sexual selection, which, as we must 
 carefully bear in mind, is quite distinct from natural selec- 
 tion. The latter relates to the struggle for existence, and 
 an animal might be eminently fitted for this struggle thougli 
 altogether incapable of producing offspring. The males 
 possess many secondary sexual characters necessary to their 
 
 "Descent of Ma.n," 2nd ed. revised, p. 614.
 
 42 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 success in the struggle for the females, but of no use to them 
 in the struggle for existence ; while the female, devoid of 
 these characters, is just as successful in the life-struggle. 
 Curiously enough, Darwin considers that the primary sexual 
 organs and those for nourishing and protecting the young, 
 come under the influence, not of sexual, but of natural selec- 
 tion — " for those individuals which generated or nourished 
 their offspring best would Leave, cccteris paribus, the greatest 
 number to inherit their superiority ; whilst those which 
 generated or nourished their offspring badly, would leave but 
 few to inherit their weaker powers." ^ Yet, just before 
 making this statement, he tells us that sexual selection 
 " depends on the advantage which certain individuals have 
 over others of the same sex and species solely in resjject of 
 reproduction." Now the primary sexual organs and the 
 sexual instinct have reference to reproduction solely, and an 
 individual might fail in these respects and yet be perfectly 
 adapted to his environment. Wherefore, if we hold by 
 Darwin's definition of sexual selection (and it seems to me 
 the only one we can adopt without involving ourselves in 
 confusion), we must regard the sexual organs themselves 
 {i.e., the primary sexual characters) as having evolved 
 through sexual selection alone, and with this, I think, my 
 previous remarks coincide. No doubt natural selection 
 frequently works with and aids sexual selection, the most 
 vigorous and healthy generally succeeding best not only in 
 the struggle for individual existence, but also in the propa- 
 gation of their kind. 
 
 Sexual selection operates much more potently among the 
 males than among the females. If the sexual system, or 
 the sexual instincts, in the female be defective, no offspring 
 will be born to inherit the like deficiency, while females 
 with the best developed sexual systems and the most perfect 
 sexual instincts will stand the best chance of leaving a 
 numerous progeny. But while the male comes similarly 
 under the influence of sexual selection, in his case it acts 
 in a further manner. Owing to the greater eagerness of 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 209.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 43 
 
 the males there is almost always a struggle among them for 
 the females, and in order that the male may be successful 
 in the struggle, he requires other characters than mere 
 sexual instinct and properly constructed sexual organs. It 
 is this sexual rivalry among the males which, resulting in 
 the continued selection of such of them as possess characters 
 giving them an advantage over others in winning the female, y^ 
 has played the chief part in the evolution of their secondary 
 sexual characters. 
 
 In the struggle of the male for the female, success may 
 be determined by the law of battle, and may thus depend 
 upon (o) superior courage, vigour, and strength on the part 
 of the male ; (&) on his possession of special weapons — e.g. 
 the horns of the stag, or the spurs of the cock ; or it may 
 possibly be determined by the choice of the female.^ 
 
 Under the influence of the law of battle the male has 
 become more courageous, powerful, and pugnacious than 
 the female, and endowed in many instances with special 
 weapons for conquering rivals. Thus, for instance, man's 
 semi-human male ancestors acquired the great canine teeth, 
 which, however, subsequently diminished in size as the 
 power and cunning of the hand increased, and other and 
 more potent means of offence and defence were obtained. 
 So too, the male has in the struggle often acquired great 
 beauty, success on his part depending largely, in many 
 •cases, upon the choice of the females, who are supposed to 
 select the most beautiful mates. This is thought to be 
 notably the case with birds. 
 
 Now the above sexual differences depend, be it noted, 
 
 ^ Some biologists, e.g., Wallace and Geddes, do not believe that choice on 
 the part of the female has played any part in modifying the male. Darwin, 
 as is well known, attributed the more brilliant colouring and greater beauty ^, 
 
 of cock-birds to the continued selection of the most beautiful male birds 
 by the females. Wallace accounts for the difference by the fact that 
 brilliance of colour on tlie part of the female would have rendered her a 
 conspicuous object while sitting, and looks upon her subdued colouring as 
 acquired for protective purposes. Geddes, on the other hand, contends 
 that the male is the more beautiful on account of a fundamentally distinct 
 physiological habit. I shall return to tliis author's views later.
 
 X 
 
 44 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 upon the rivalry among the males. One difficulty here 
 presents itself. If, as Darwin at first supposed, the males 
 were more numerous than the females, there would neces- 
 sarily be sexual rivalry. But it appears that there is no 
 such numerical disparity. Many males are, however, poly- 
 gamists — i.e., one male " pairs " with two or more females, 
 and where this happens there must obviously be fierce 
 rivalry among them, if the numerical proportion of the 
 sexes be the same. But again, many animals are mono- 
 gamous, and the numerical proportion being about equal, 
 it would seem that in these cases there can be no sexual 
 rivalry. This difficulty, however, Darwin satisfactorily 
 explains,^ and I therefore need do no more than refer to 
 it here. 
 
 Since sexual selection acts most potently when sexual 
 rivalry is greatest, the degree to which the so-called 
 secondary sexual characters are developed in the male will 
 be a more or less accurate measure of the extent to which 
 sexual rivalry exists among the species to which he belongs. 
 Hence we may lay it down as a tolerably safe rule that 
 the pronounced development in the male of secondary 
 sexual characters is evidence of severe sexual rivalry ; and 
 as extreme rivalry is most common among polygamous 
 animals, their development becomes also an evidence of 
 polygamous habits. 
 
 Thus among the terrestrial carnivora, the lion is the sole 
 polygamist, " and he alone presents well-marked secondary 
 sexual characters."- Similarly, the common cock, the 
 peacock, and the pheasant are polygamous, and, as every 
 one knows, they are much more beautiful than the corre- 
 sponding hen-birds. On the other hand, the guinea-fowl 
 and the partridge are monogamous, and hence the male 
 birds present very slight secondary sexual differences. It 
 has, however, to be admitted that many species of birds 
 in which the sexes differ greatly from each other are 
 monogamous. 
 
 Coming near to man and applying these reflections to his 
 
 1 0]). cit. p. 213. 2 Ibid. p. 218.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 45 
 
 case, we find that both the gorilla and the baboon are 
 polygamous, and there can be little doubt, I imagine, that 
 the semi-human ancestors of man were so likewise. We 
 should, therefore, rather expect man himself to be polygam- 
 ous, and one naturally turns to savage tribes for evidence 
 on this point. According to Sir John Lubbock, primitive 
 tribes indulged in promiscuous intercourse, or as he terms it 
 " communal marriage." Whether this is true or not, there can 
 be little doubt that polygamy has prevailed among mankind 
 to a large extent. It is certainly almost the universal 
 custom among the chiefs of existing savage tribes, although 
 it is equally certain that monogamy prevails among some of 
 the lower races. Savages, like other polygamous animals, 
 still fight for the possession of the females, and even at the 
 present day we occasionally witness among civilised peoples 
 a survival of the law of battle. 
 
 Apart from the consideration that the man is polygamous 
 by virtue of his descent, we have further proof of his poly- 
 gamous nature in his instincts as at present developed. No 
 one will deny, I imagine, that the instinct for promiscuous 
 intercourse is much stronger among men than women, and 
 unquestionably the husband is much more frequently all in 
 all to the wife than she to him. Another proof is to be 
 found in his marked secondary sexual characters. ]\Ian is 
 so much bigger, more powerful, more courageous, and more 
 combative than woman, that it is quite certain there has 
 been intense sexual rivalry among his male ancestors, for 
 even those who do not believe in his polygamous nature — 
 a point to which Darwin does not specifically allude — will 
 not deny that this marked development of secondary 
 sexual differences is the result of such rivalry, whether due 
 to polygamous intercourse or other causes ; and with the 
 numerical equality of the sexes fairly established, the 
 inference is at least in favour of his being essentially 
 polygamous. 
 
 Bearing, then, in mind that man is derived from essen- 
 tially polygamous ancestors, and that sexual selection acts 
 very potently among the polygamous, we have a clue to
 
 46 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 several of the mental differences between man and woman. 
 In the struggle between the males for possession of the 
 female, victory, as Darwin points out, has depended upon 
 strength, and upon various mental endowments, such as 
 courage, determined energy, observation, and ingenuity ; for 
 not only have the females had to be won, but also to be retained 
 when won. The males have also had " to defend their 
 females, as well as their young, from enemies of all kinds, 
 and to hunt for their joint subsistence." The mental 
 characters thus acquired by primitive man " will have been 
 continually put to the test and selected during manhood ; 
 they will moreover be strengthened by use during the same 
 period of life. Consequently .... we might expect that 
 they would at least tend to be transmitted chiefly to the 
 male ofispring at corresponding periods of manhood." ^ 
 
 The woman, on her part, has been similarly affected by 
 sexual selection. Her chief mental characteristic, that round 
 which her whole mental being centres, viz., the maternal 
 instinct, has evolved through its action. The very existence 
 of the children depends upon the mother's love, for, it being 
 absent, they do not receive the care needed for their success- 
 ful rearing. 
 
 Although the rivalry is almost always between the males 
 for the females, yet, as already observed, matters are some- 
 times reversed, the female competing for the male. Notably 
 is this the case with certain birds, and the instances are very 
 interesting because affording convincing proof that the 
 secondary sexual characters of the male are largely due to 
 sexual selection, for with such ' polyandrous ' birds we find 
 that the female is endowed with all the secondary characters 
 of the polygamous male : she is the more beautiful, the 
 more courageous, the more pugnacious. We thus see that 
 some of the most prominent secondary sexual characters are 
 in a manner accidental — I mean that they are not absolutely 
 and inevitably necessary : matters might have been otherwise. 
 This is an important fact ; it shows that woman is not what 
 she is, and man is not what he is, simply because the one 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 564.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 47 
 
 has ovaries and a uterus, and the other testicles ; and it at 
 least strongly suggests that all the secondary sexual 
 characters in man and woman might be transposed — that the 
 strength, courage, and fire of the man might be transferred 
 to the woman ; the weakness and timidity of the woman, to 
 the man. For my part I have little doubt that such a 
 transposition might be brought about in respect of most of 
 the nervous differences by a process of artificial sexual 
 selection carried on through many generations. In this 
 connection it should be remembered that secondary sexual 
 characters are highly variable ; whence arise abundant 
 opportunities for the operation of selection. In evidence of 
 such variability, we sometimes find men widely diverging 
 from the average type of manliness, and displaying a marked 
 effeminacy of nervous constitution : contrariwise, some 
 women show a distinctly masculine bent. 
 
 The process of sexual selection as it obtained among our 
 primitive ancestors is largely interfered with among civilised 
 peoples. I do not propose to discuss this subject at length ; 
 it will be sufficient to observe that in modern civilised com- 
 munities those men who are endowed with a high degree 
 of mere animal strength and courage, are only in a small 
 degree sexually selected ; and this, I take it, in large 
 measure explains the fact that with savages there is much 
 greater equality among the men in nervous strength 
 than is the case among civilised peoples. Many effeminate 
 men nowadays survive and propagate their kind, who in 
 an earlier age would have been rapidly exterminated. 
 Ability to support a wife, rather than animal strength and 
 courage, determines the selection. This distinction is, of 
 course, not so true of the lower as of the upper classes, but 
 I believe that the lower classes rear a proportionately smaller 
 number of children. I say, be it noted, rear, not produce. 
 The poorer classes are certainly highly prolific, but the 
 mortality among their offspring is relatively very high, 
 especially in large towns. Amongst the upper classes there 
 can be little doubt that there is a distinct selection of 
 particular mental types. One type of man does not marry
 
 48 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 for prudential reasons, being unable to support a wife. 
 Many men, again, do not marry because the primordial 
 polygamous instinct is strong in them ; nor do these leave 
 a numerous progeny, for the mortality among illegitimate 
 children is enormous : a very large number, as every 
 physician knows, are let die — than which there is nothing 
 easier. Others, again, do not marry because incapable 
 of comporting themselves in a manner fitting the social 
 position to which they are born. Such perhaps marry into 
 a lower class of society, and their offspring probably come 
 under the law of increased mortality for the children of 
 the poor, a law doubly operative in their case, for such ill- 
 assorted unions lead, in the majority of cases, to miserable 
 homes and a peculiarly high child-mortality. 
 
 Another point worthy of mention here is that many 
 women are chosen on account of their wealth, and this tends 
 to modify the masculine mind thus : The bulk of women 
 possessed of wealth inherit it from a father who has made 
 that wealth, and they will be likely, according to the law of 
 sexual heredity, to transmit to their sons the same capacity 
 to amass wealth. 
 
 Where there is a struggle among the males for the females, 
 the latter often, as we have seen, exercise a choice, and 
 thus Darwin explains the evolution of the beautiful plumage 
 of cock-birds. But in the case of the human race not only 
 has the rivalry been among the men (as to some extent it 
 still is), but choice also has been chiefly exercised by them, and 
 inasmuch as all are strongly attracted by beauty, the 
 females by a course of selection in the past have become 
 more beautiful than the males — a process that is still going 
 on. Wherefore, as Darwin observes, they attach value to 
 their beauty, and delight in adorning themselves, decorating 
 themselves indeed, by a curious reversal of matters, with those 
 very plumes originally acquired by male birds to attract the 
 females. All over the world it is the women who adorn 
 themselves rather than the men. This is to be noticed, 
 as Ploss^ points out, even among savages : " the collections 
 ^ " Das Weib in der Natur- imd Volkerkunde," Band i. s. 241.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 49 
 
 in all ethnographical museums afi'ord abundant proof of 
 this." It is also very painfully shown in insanity. The 
 women in asylums display an infinitely greater tendency 
 to decorate themselves than the men — and the acts of the 
 unhappy Ophelia illustrate the same truth. 
 
 I)
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BEARING OF NATURAL SELECTION ON THE EVOLUTION 
 OF SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS. 
 
 While sexual selection has been evolving characters 
 enabling an animal to propagate its species, natural selec- 
 tion has been evolving characters that constitute fitness to 
 survive. 
 
 The sex usually determines, in a large measure, the 
 manner of life, and it has been the work of natural selection 
 to adjust each sex to its own particular environment. Thus 
 — and more especially among animals low down in the 
 scale — each sex may be provided with structures not in any 
 way needful for reproduction, but useful solely in adapting 
 it to its special mode of life. These structures are some- 
 times modifications of characters useful in reproduction, but 
 sometimes they have no connection with this function, and 
 in some cases, as we have already noticed, the males are so 
 different from the females that it would be impossible, on 
 the ground of morphology alone, to refer them to the same 
 species. As an example of structural modifications acquired 
 for the purpose of adapting the sexes to different modes of 
 life, it may be mentioned that " the females of certain flies 
 are blood-suckers, whilst the males, living on flowers, have 
 mouths destitute of mandibles."' The females are carnivo- 
 rous, the males herbivorous ! Such differences, and we 
 1 Darwin, " Descent of Man." p. 208.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 51 
 
 might multiply examples, have of course been wrought 
 through natural selection. 
 
 Turning to the case of man, we find the man and the 
 woman following different modes of life, and accordingly 
 natural selection coming into play and helping to accentuate 
 and intensify their unlikeness. The ancestors of civilised 
 man fought for other motives than for the possession of 
 women, and thus by natural selection their courage, strength, 
 and cunning became intensified ; for among primitive 
 men victory and survival were to the strongest, bravest, and 
 most skilful. Civilised warfare, on the other hand, leads to 
 the survival, in some measure at least, of the weaker and 
 less brave, though these are not altogether disqualified for 
 the profession of arms.^ And since the environment of men 
 on the one hand, and of women on the other, maintains 
 always a certain sameness, it is clear that natural selection 
 is not only operating very differently, but also with a certain 
 stability of method, on each, and thus it must be tending to 
 increase the existing differences between the sexes. 
 
 Although more male infants are born than female, the 
 female population after a time becomes larger than the male, 
 owing to greater mortality among boys and men. This 
 increased mortality among men is in great measure due to 
 peculiarities of environment. Many deaths no doubt result 
 from sheer accident, yet there is, on the whole, a survival of 
 the fittest, and this will tend to the physical advantage of 
 the men, for the greater the extent to which elimination 
 goes on, the greater the fitness of the survivors. The con- 
 ditions against which women have to contend being less 
 rigorous, or, to put it in another way, their environment 
 being more easy, there is a survival of many weak types 
 which, if exposed to the rigour of the male environment, 
 would be weeded out. True, men and women alike tend, 
 under the infiuence of natural selection, to become perfectly 
 
 ' "Such I hold to be the genume use of gunpowder; tl at it makes all 
 men alike tall. Nay, if thou be cooler, cleverer than I, if thou have more 
 mind, though all but no body whatever, then canst thou kill luc firj-t and 
 art the taller." — Carlyle, .SVtrtor Besartus
 
 52 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 adapted to the mode of environment which sex prescribes 
 for each — the women to the average female environment, 
 the men to the average male ; nevertheless, this unequal 
 action of natural selection cannot fail to render the male the 
 more capable of the two to withstand the average quantity 
 of nocuous environment — what may be termed the ' neces- 
 sary-mal-environment ' — which falls to the lot of humanity. 
 
 We may now fitly consider some of the special ways in 
 which natural selection has differentiated the woman from 
 the man mentally. 
 
 The Intuition of Women. — Mr. Grant Allen attributes the 
 intuition of women to the survival for ages past of those 
 who were quickest to detect the signs of rising wrath in 
 their husbands. Such, according to him, would escape the 
 vengeful blow which dashed out the brains of the stupider 
 woman. But I think that this, if it were a factor at all, 
 can only have been one among others. It must not be for- 
 gotten that the man, equally with the woman, has had to be 
 continually on the alert against danger, and the ability to 
 rapidly detect its approach has therefore been quite as 
 needful to him as to her. It is, however, worthy of note 
 that woman's intuitions essentially pertain to human 
 actions : she is peculiarly quick m learning character, and 
 in divining her husband's varying moods, thereby soon get- 
 ting, as is often remarked, to " understand all his little 
 ways " ; whereas, on the other hand, she is not so quick as 
 he to detect the signs of excellence, or the reverse, in horses, 
 dogs, and cattle. But this may be due entirely to the 
 differences in their education. 
 
 The rapidity of the feminine perception will be alluded 
 to again in the second part of this work. It is sufficient 
 here to point out that it harmonises with the inferior intel- 
 lectual power commonly attributed to her, rapidity of per- 
 ception being a characteristic of the lower races of man. 
 
 Mental Adaptability. — Woman appears to adapt herself 
 mentally to varying circumstances more readily than man, 
 a fact which, as will be pointed out in due course, has 
 practical application. This peculiarity may be attributable
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 53 
 
 to the necessity which she has been under of adapting her- 
 self to man, always her superior in strength, and always, 
 therefore, possessing the authority whicli strength confers ; 
 and it must have been educed upon the ordinary lines of 
 evolution, but how far by natural selection, and how far by 
 the direct action of the environment, I do not suggest/ 
 
 Since each sex constitutes part of the environment of the 
 other, each must have played a part in modifying the other. 
 The woman, being weaker than the man, has, during the long 
 past, been repressed by him, and cannot fail to have been 
 moulded accordingly. For an environmental peculiarity 
 lasting over many generations necessarily leads to a parallel 
 structural peculiarity. This much we may assert confi- 
 dently, even though we may not be able to determine by 
 what exact means the mouldin<T has been effected : whether 
 by selection, by the direct action of the environment inde- 
 pendently of selection, or by both. I desire to direct the 
 reader's attention especially to this proposition. 
 
 The mental adaptability of women to varying circum- 
 stances is of a twofold order. It displays itself {a) in Tact, 
 or what Ruskin calls " the touch faculty." It is chiefly, I 
 take it, this form of adaptability which may be referred to ^y 
 
 the moulding influence of the stronger sex, for the woman 
 finding herself opposed to brute force, and being no match 
 for her husband in this respect, has had to depend upon 
 other resources, defensive and offensive. Lotze points out that 
 the inferior strength of the woman is compensated for by 
 the superior ease she displays in adapting herself to diverse 
 circumstances,' though he does not attempt to explain how 
 this adaptability has been acquired. It seems scarcely un- 
 reasonable to suppose that it may be directly traceable to 
 her physical weakness. Tlie ability to ' manage ' their lords 
 depends not only upon sympathetic tact, in the ordinary 
 sense of the word, but also upon cunning, finesse, dissembling, 
 — weapons ever more powerful than brute force. " Women," 
 
 ^ According to Weismann and his school, the direct action of environ- 
 ment npon the individual plays no part in racial evolution. 
 ^ Mikrokosmus, &c., Band ii., Leipzig, 1869, s. 382.
 
 54 THE EVOLUTIOX OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 it has been said, " are born actors." May not the cunning 
 and dissimulation so frequently found in the hysteric state 
 be in some measure attributable to an innate tendency in 
 this direction, evolved in the manner indicated ? But, be 
 the mode of evolution what it may, it is quite certain that 
 women have the power of managing men : and to do this they 
 often act strictly upon the lines of the Baconian philosopliy 
 of ' ruling by obeying.' I presume there can be little doubt 
 that women, on the whole, know better how to manage men 
 than men women. 
 
 (b) The adaptability of woman further displays itself in 
 the readiness with which she becomes at ease in entirely 
 new surroundino's. Thus it is noticed that a woman of 
 humble rank more readily adapts herself to a higher social 
 sphere than a man under like circumstances, and over and 
 over again her power to make " home " out of the most 
 unpromising conditions has been remarked. This facility 
 of adaptation may perhaps be partly explained by woman's 
 greater passivity and resignation. 
 
 Passivity, Bcsignation. — The greater pugnacity and activity 
 of the man are chiefly due to sexual selection, but it is pos- 
 sible that natural selection may have helped to bring about the 
 result, and in the following way. A tendency to pugnacity 
 on the part of the woman would, in a primitive state of 
 society, diminish her chance of survival, for any attempt to 
 resist forcibly the pleasure of lier lord would provoke his 
 anger and put her life in danger ; whereas the passive, 
 resigned woman would run no such risk. Here at any rate 
 we may have one of the reasons why women are more 
 passive and more resigned than men. That they are the 
 latter is unquestionable. A man is apt to angrily resent, 
 or to defy misfortune : a woman ordinarily resigns herself to 
 it. Of course in her case this is often in large measure due 
 to religious conviction, which is usually much stronger, and 
 certainly much commoner, among women than among men ; 
 but there seems to me little doubt that it is also to be 
 traced to some such origin as I have indicated. 
 
 The great resignation of the woman is of interest to the
 
 PAKT I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 55 
 
 physician, for it is this which enables her to bear with forti- 
 tude long and painful, and, it may be, incurable disorders. 
 Nothing has surprised me more than the extraordinary 
 resignation, almost it would seem apathy, with which many 
 women endure physical suffering, and face impending 
 death. 
 
 Depeiidence. — Another characteristic of woman, which 
 with resignation, passivity, tact, and other qualities we may 
 associate with her inferiority in point of strength, is her 
 sense of dependence. Ages of subjection cannot fail to 
 have generated this. She has so long looked to the man as 
 protector, breadwinner, almost as owner, as the one to 
 initiate, to lead, to control, that her capacities have been 
 dwarfed in these directions ; her powers of self-reliance, 
 origination, invention, have found no outlet, and have in 
 consequence remained quiescent, or, at least, have but feebly 
 developed, her mental growth being rather in the direction 
 of such qualities as are comprised under what has, in con- 
 sequence, come to be called — perhaps somewhat vaguely — 
 womanly sweetness, or more briefly, womanliness. Hence 
 we find her leaning for moral support, shrinking from specu- 
 lative enterprise, easily quelled by any opposing forces (so 
 long as her affections or her conscience are not involved in 
 maintaining her ground), and clinging to her home, with its 
 sense of safety and familiarity, afraid to launch her barque on 
 the untried waters of the outer world. To this feeling of de- 
 pendence we may also in part attribute her desire for com- 
 panionship, her self -depreciation, her love of approbation, her 
 vanity (with the accompanying faculty for self-adornment), 
 and, as already noticed, her tactfulness. Lastly, it is pro- 
 bably here that we find the origin of what may be termed 
 her genius for religion. The sense of dependence upon a 
 protector not always able, or even ready, to protect, has set 
 her in search of something outside and beyond the known 
 and fallible, and lias prepared her to accept with eagerness 
 any professed revelation of the Infallible Unknown. 
 
 If these conclusions are correct, subsequent ages must 
 expect to see a new departure in the mental evolution of
 
 56 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 woman, and there are not wanting signs that the first step 
 has already been taken. Over-population, and the conditions 
 of modern society generally, are forcing women more and 
 more to take active personal share in the battle of life, and 
 as their dependence on their men-kind for subsistence 
 and protection diminishes, we may look for a corresponding 
 increase in those powers which that dependence has held 
 in check. Already the altered conditions of life are observed 
 to have made their impress on the American woman.
 
 CHArTER VIII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT ON STRUCTURE- 
 ENVIRONMENTAL MOULDINGS. 
 
 Following a natural sequence we should now discuss the part 
 played by the environment, acting independently of selection, 
 in rendering the sexes unlike; but, unfortunately, biologists are 
 not yet agreed as to whether the direct action of the environ- 
 ment takes any part at all in organic evolution. This is 
 beyond doubt the most important biological — and I may, 
 I believe, add pathological — cpiestion of the day. I shall, 
 therefore, consider it at some length. The subject falls 
 under two heads : (a) The influence of the environment on 
 structure ; (b) The inheritability of the structural changes, 
 or, as we may conveniently term them, cnviro7wicntal mould- 
 ings, thus wrought. The present chapter will be devoted to 
 the consideration of the first of these two questions, and the 
 following to the second. A brief space may first be devoted 
 to the historical aspect of the subject. 
 
 Historical. — Only a few biologists of the present genera- 
 tion attach signal importance to the direct action of the 
 environment as a factor in the evolution of species, but by the 
 older biologists it was supposed to have played a prominent 
 part. 
 
 The grand trutli of organic evolution had Ijcen dawning 
 on man's mind many centuries before Darwin, but, so far as 
 biology is concerned, Buffon (1749) was the first to put the
 
 58 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 idea into definite shape. He, Erasmus Darwin (1794), and 
 Lamarck (1801) sought to explain organic evolution by 
 assuming an inherent tendency on the part of organisms to 
 progress, acting in concert with the moulding influence of 
 the environment, which was supposed to ailect the organism 
 chiefly by causing modifications in function ; and as examples 
 of the structural alterations induced by a new departure in 
 function, the long necks of the giraffe and the swan were 
 instanced. These were thought by Lamarck to be caused 
 by the constant reaching for food up to the branches of 
 tall trees, or down to the bottom of deep waters. In like 
 manner, he supposed the web between the toes of swimming- 
 birds to be due to the continual attempt to oppose as large a 
 surface as possible to the water. 
 
 When, later (1859), the doctrine of natural selection was 
 propounded, it gained so strong a hold upon the younger 
 biologists, that these two factors — the inherent progressive 
 tendency and the influence of the environment — were for 
 the time somewhat disregarded. Recently, however, they 
 have again come to the front. Thus Niigeli, Mivart, Geddes, 
 and Eimer appear to regard organisms as possessing an 
 innate tendency to progress, and to attribute only a sub- 
 sidiary influence to selection and the direct action of the 
 environment — so returning in some measure to the views of 
 the older biologists ; ^ while others ascribe to this last the 
 
 ^ Herbert Spencer argues, and surely conclusively, that organic evolution 
 cannot result from any inherent progressive tendency in living bodies (see 
 " Principles of Biology," §§ 153-158). Weismann also has some forcible 
 remarks upon this head. The supposition of an internal transforming 
 force has, in his opinion, the greatest defect that any theory can have — 
 
 " It does not explain the phenomena It is the renunciation of 
 
 all attempts at explanation" {op. cit. p. 263). Geddes, Niigeli, and their 
 school found their argument upon the fact that evolution tends to proceed 
 upon certain developmental lines. Naturally it does, for, as Weismann 
 observes, "every species must have been directly continuous with the old 
 one from which it arose, and this fact alone implies that the phyletic 
 development {i.e., the evolution of the species, as distinguished from that 
 of the individual = ontogenesis) must necessarily follow certain lines. I can 
 fully understand," continues this philosophical writer, " how it is that a 
 botanist has more inclination than a zoologist to take refuge in internal de-
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 59 
 
 preponderating influence. Thus Herbert Spencer has for 
 years uphekl the importance of the environment in evolution. 
 In no country, however, is that influence thought so much 
 of at the present time as in America. Here a number of 
 biologists have revived the views of Lamarck, and are known 
 as the Neo-Lamarckian school. 
 
 Influence of the Environment on Structure. — I now proceed 
 to make some general remarks on the influence of the 
 environment on structure. 
 
 We shall do well to bear in mind that life consists in the 
 " continuous adjustment of internal to external relations." ^ 
 This adjustment may be expressed in another way by saying 
 that every series of forces acting upon an organism from 
 without must be met by a corresponding series of interna-l 
 forces ; the two, in order to proper life, must balance one 
 another, and when an organism is thus able to adjust in- 
 ternal to external relations, it is said to be adapted to, or in 
 correspondence with, its environment. Note the use of this 
 v/ord correspondence. It indicates that in healthful life 
 there are two parallel sets of forces : — {a) those pertaining to 
 the organism, and {h) those pertaining to its environment, 
 and that there is a corresp)ondence between them. Thus, 
 when an animal flies its foe, or seeks its prey, it opposes, 
 by a delicate and intricate combination of muscular actions, 
 a complex series of internal forces to a corresponding series 
 of external forces. Nay, in the mere act of locomotion, we 
 have an instance of such complex adjustment, the internal 
 forces having to be regulated or adjusted so as to balance 
 those external forces whicli tend to overthrow the equili- 
 brium." The internal forces must change in ' correspondence ' 
 
 velopmental forces. The relation of form to function, the adaptation of the 
 organism to the internal and external conditions of life, is less prominent 
 in plants than animals ; and it is even true that a large amount of observa- 
 tion and ingenuity is often necessary in order to make out any adaptation 
 at all " (1?^;. cit. p. 259). The succeeding portions of Weismann's argument 
 are equally forcible. 
 
 ^ "'The Principles of Biology,'' § 30. Herbert Spencer. 
 
 - Ihhl § 2S.
 
 6o THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 with the external. The whole purpose of organic struc- 
 ture is such an adjustment of internal to external relations ; 
 the more complex the environment, the more complex the 
 structure ; in short, structural and environmental complexity 
 rise and fall together. 
 
 Thus as the organic scale is ascended, the structure in- 
 creases in complexity, in order to meet the ever-growing com- 
 plexity of the external forces acting upon it. Wherefore 
 the degree or quantity of correspondence is continually in- 
 creasing ; and in proportion as it increases, in that proportion 
 does the degree of life increase. Hence Spencer's formula : 
 "The degree of life varies with the correspondence."! In 
 unicellular organisms the degree of correspondence is 
 small ; a comparatively simple series of environmental forces 
 is met by a correspondingly simple internal adjustment ; 
 while in man, at the top of the organic scale, the corre- 
 spondence is proportionately great — he can adjust himself 
 to an infinitely complex environment. 
 
 We may express the same idea by saying that the degree of 
 life rises in proportion as the individual is capable of master- 
 ing his environment, of successfully battling with the manifold 
 circumstances constantly tending to compass his dissolution ; 
 and it is needless to add that the chief means whereby th^s 
 increase of capacity is effected, is by the evolution of 
 mind.^ 
 
 The capability of an organism to place itself in correspond- 
 ence with its environment is at bottom chiefly dependent 
 upon heredity. Here let us carefully distinguish between 
 actual adaptation, and adaptability, or potential adaptation. 
 
 By heredity the organism is endowed with certain charac- 
 ters, such as lungs, teeth, and various instincts, which serve to 
 adjust it to its environment. These are actual adaptations. 
 But it is also endowed with many potentialities which are 
 capable under certain conditions of becoming, but which 
 may, or may not, become actualities. The organism is not, 
 
 ' "The Principles of Biology," §§ 31-36. 
 
 - See on this subject Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Psj-chology," 
 §§ 129-176.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 6i 
 
 i.e., compelled by heredity to develop after an absolutely 
 fixed and rigid plan, but has, so to speak, a certain latitude 
 allowed it in its development. For this reason it is not 
 easy to determine how much of the peculiar structure of an 
 organism is the pure outcome of heredity, and how much is 
 traceable to external moulding influences. Theoretically, 
 we may say that such structural peculiarities as would 
 develop under the most negative environment compatible 
 with life are the products of heredity, pure and simple ; 
 while all others result from the action of the environment, 
 i.e., are acquired. Among the higher organisms, and notably 
 in the case of man, all those structural peculiarities which 
 underlie knowledge are strictly acquired, resulting as they do 
 from the moulding influence of the environment upon the 
 nervous organisation ; but leaviug mental development out_ 
 of consideration, let us briefly consider the influence of the 
 environment upon the physical being. 
 
 The environment may so mould the structure of the 
 organism as to adapt it better to itself ; and, on the other 
 hand, far from improving structure in relation to itself, it 
 may cause structural deterioration, and in the end complete 
 dissolution. Thus the continual using of the hands in 
 rough work causes, among other changes, a thickening of 
 the skin, notably of the epidermis ; the hands become horny, 
 and thereby improved in relation to their environment. 
 Similarly, a muscle hypertrophies in response to increased 
 exercise ; it becomes better adapted to the conditions which 
 lead to such increase. On the other hand, the continued 
 inhalation of irritating particles leads, not to an improve- 
 ment of structure (although possibly it may tend to its 
 adaptation to this particular environment), but to structural 
 deterioration, slowly but surely diminishing the capacity of 
 the entire organism to place itself in correspondence with 
 its environment, or, what comes to the same thing, lessening 
 the degree of life.^ 
 
 ^ It is probable that many injurious environments, though causing 
 partial dissolution of structure, may nevertheless improve structure iti 
 relation to themselves. Thus it is possible, as above hinted, thatj the
 
 62 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 Wherefore it follows that the changes wrought in an 
 organism by its environment are of two kinds — adaptive 
 and non-adaptive. Hence the two propositions — 
 
 1 . The environment is capable of affecting structure ; 
 
 2. The environment is capable of producing structural 
 
 adaptation — 
 are not identical. The latter asserts something in addition to 
 the former, not only, namely, that the environment is capable 
 of modifying structure, but that it is able to modify it in 
 such a way that the midual interaction of the two shall 
 issue in health. The capability of living organisms to 
 become so moulded by their environments that their struc- 
 ture shall be improved in relation to them, is very remark- 
 able. Did we not know that they possess such capability, 
 we could only by a remote inference assume it. For aught 
 we could tell, the structural change might be always non- 
 adaptive, diminishing, instead of increasing, the degree of 
 correspondence between the organism and its environment.' 
 As it is, we may fittingly speak of a special " structural 
 adaptability," a property which, as I have already said, we 
 must not confound with structural adaptation. The latter 
 is the actual, the former the potential. Now, is this 
 structural adaptability a primary attribute of living 
 organisms, or has it undergone a separate and special 
 evolution ? I am not sure that biologists have sufficiently 
 
 fibrosis of the lung resulting from the inhalation of irritating particles 
 may help the lung to resist their evil effect ; in which case it would happen 
 that while the capacity of the organism to place itself in correspond- 
 ence with the average environment was diminished — for the increasing 
 fibrosis would sooner or later lead to ill effects all over the body— the 
 lung might possibly be improved in relation to its own specific environ- 
 ment. These remarks apply to all injurious occupations. Most individuals 
 become more or less adapted to enduring pathogenic environments, but 
 sooner or later the general health suffers, the body maintaining a less per- 
 fect correspondence with the average, or general, environment. 
 
 ^ " It is quite conceivable that aggregates should be rendered more 
 heterogeneous by changing incident forces, without having given to 
 them that peculiar form of heterogeneity for carrying out the functions 
 of life " (" The Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy," by Howard Collins, 
 p. 119, 1889).
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 63 
 
 cousidered this question. According to Herbert Spencer, 
 " any fresh force brought to bear upon an aggregate in a 
 state of moving equilibrium must do one of two things : 
 it must either overthrow the moving equilibrium altogether, 
 or it must alter without overthrowing it ; and the alteration 
 must aid in the establishment of a new moving equilibrium. 
 Hence, in organisms, death, or the restoration of the phy- 
 siological balance, is the only alternative."^ This is an 
 a priori conclusion. It does not, however, follow, although 
 at first sight it may appear to do so, that the restoration 
 of the physiological balance, or, in other words, the adapta- 
 tion to the new order of things, requires no explanation. 
 The knowledge that one of two things must happen does 
 not explain the ' how ' of tlieir happening. The proposition, 
 " A man must either die from a disease or recover," takes no 
 account of the means whereby his death or recovery shall b'e 
 effected. 
 
 The capability tc undergo adaptive structural change in 
 response to alterations in the environment is essential 
 to life, for without it any enduring change in the environ- 
 ment would lead to death — overthrow the moving 
 equilibrium altogether. Now, since it is absolutely impos- 
 sible, as every student of molecular physics will readily 
 allow, for the most primitive organism, living in the most 
 primitive environment, to be subjected to exactly the same 
 external conditions throughout its lifetime, there must, with 
 every prolonged change in the environment, be a corre- 
 sponding change — of an adaptive kind — in the molecular 
 structure of the organism; and the power of undergoing 
 adaptive structural reactions, which many unicellular organ- 
 isms possess, is greater than one might at first sight expect. 
 By skilfully modifying their environment we may cause 
 them to become profoundly changed in their nature ; an 
 organism capable of inducing a certain kind of fermenta- 
 tion may, for example, be so intluenced by its environment 
 that it shall lose this power, and acquire the power of 
 inducing an altogether different kind of fermentation — 
 1 See Collins' " Epitome of Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy,'' p. 119.
 
 64 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 a result obviously the outcome of definite structural 
 modification. 
 
 Structural adaptability being thus necessary to even the 
 most primitive forms of life, we may regard it as a funda- 
 mental property of protoplasm, evolved, like all other vital 
 properties, on the ordinary lines of organic evolution, 
 whatever these may be. If, for instance, we may accept 
 Weismann's ^dew of evolution — i.e., that it takes place, 
 by natural selection alone — we must suppose that it has 
 arisen through the most adaptable organisms being selected. 
 But although it is, in a sense, a fundamental and primary 
 attribute of living matter (for without it life is impossible), 
 yet in another sense, as will at once be seen, it is secondary 
 and derived, and granting that it is allowable to speak of it 
 as a primary attribute of the simplest forms of life (of 
 unicellular organisms, for instance), the case is far other- 
 wise with the higher multicellular organisms. The 
 structural adaptability which they manifest is a highly 
 elaborated property, for they are able to adjust themselves 
 structurally to a multiplicity of environments. Instance 
 the alteration in bulk which a muscle undergoes according to 
 the work it performs. Such adaptability to circumstances 
 cannot, in any sense, be regarded as a primary attribute of 
 muscle : it is rather a special physiological property which 
 has needed a special evolution ; matters are so arranged 
 that increased muscular exercise causes hypertrophy, but 
 they might conceivably have been different, atrophy resulting 
 instead. At all events, the mechanism of muscular hyper- 
 trophy is by no means simple. The two chief factors are — 
 a, increase of the plasma environing the muscle-cells, 
 the result of a nicely regulated vaso-motor activity ; h, 
 increased functional activity, i.e., increased contraction of 
 the muscle. It is quite clear that the adaptability in this 
 case is intricate in nature, and can only have been very 
 gradually evolved. 
 
 Nageli, while largely attributing organic evolution to an 
 inherent progressive tendency in organisms, yet acknowledges 
 that adaptive changes may be wrought in them through the
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 65 
 
 environment. He does not, however, attempt to explain 
 these ' purposeful reactions,' contenting himself with merely 
 asserting their existence. Weismann also recognises them, 
 but he contends, and rightly, that Niigeli has exaggerated 
 their importance. The fact is, the latter biologist has 
 confounded hereditary adaptation with individual adapta- 
 bility, or the capability of organisms to hccome structurally 
 adapted to the external forces to which they are exposed. 
 Thus he makes the mistake of supposing that the thick hairy 
 coat of Arctic mammals is the result of this adaptability, 
 calling it a ' purposeful reaction ' — whereas it is really an 
 inherited adaptation, which has evolved through natural 
 selection — a fact which Weismann is not slow to point 
 out. Nevertheless, Nageli is correct in attributing a very 
 decided influence to the environment as a moulding agent 
 — in recognising, *'.c., a considerable adaptability in organisms. 
 And herein I venture to think Weismann is at fault, for, 
 though admitting its existence, he evidently does not realise 
 how wide is its range. " The reactions," he says, " are not 
 usually purposeful."^ He seems to forget how, in the case 
 of man, every occupation has its peculiar environment, 
 and how each such environment specifically moulds the 
 organism, so that it is, on the whole, improved in relation 
 to it. 
 
 All complex organisms are of course (as I have 
 more than once observed) already hereditarily adapted to 
 a complex environment, but, over and above this, they must 
 possess the power of becoming adaptively moulded by 
 alterations in that environment, because the chances are that 
 it will constantly differ in many respects from the ancestral 
 environments. Hence all complex organisms have evolved the 
 power of being moulded adaptively in many different ways ; 
 and the greater this moulding capability — this plasticity, the 
 greater the chance of survival. We know that some people 
 are much more adaptable than others. Thus the white races 
 are more adaptable than the coloured, and among the 
 former none are apparently more so than the English, who 
 
 ' " Essays upon Heredity," p. 302. 
 
 K
 
 66 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 probably owe to this characteristic much of their remarkable 
 success as colonists. 
 
 Whether men or women are physically the more adapt- 
 able, I am unable to say, but mentally, as we shall see later, 
 women have the advantage in this respect. 
 
 Tendency to minimise the Influence of the Environment 
 in modifying Structure. — The environment of an organism 
 consists of the sum total of external forces acting upon it 
 during its entire existence. Often these forces produce their 
 effects in an indirect manner by causing a modification in 
 the internal-cell-environment, and in such cases their 
 influence as moulding agencies is apt to be overlooked. 
 One of the chief ways in which the environment causes 
 structural change is by leading to use and disuse of parts, 
 and in all such instances, as I cannot too strongly insist, 
 the result is achieved by means of a modification of the 
 individual cell -environments of the part influenced. In 
 order to illustrate this truth, let us consider the present 
 condition of the wing- and leg-muscles of the domestic 
 duck. 
 
 The environment of this bird is such that it is no longer 
 compelled to use its wing-muscles to any notable extent ; 
 and the wings being used less, the legs are used more. 
 Each muscle-fibre, like each and every cell in the body, is 
 a more or less independent organism, having its own special 
 environment, the environment in this case consisting of 
 influences striking the cell {a) through the plasm bathing 
 it, and (b) through the motor end-plates. When a muscle 
 is made to contract, vaso-motor influences pass to its blood- 
 vessels, causing them to dilate (probably through the medium 
 of the vaso-dilator fibres), and, as a consequence, the cell is 
 flushed with an abundance of plasm, a profound molecular 
 disturbance being at the same time wrought in it by means 
 of the efferent nervous influences. Wherefore, every time a 
 muscle-cell contracts, its environment is altered ; and inas- 
 much as such contraction has essentially for its end the 
 meeting of some peculiarity in the external-body-environ- 
 ment — as when the bird pursues or is pursued — it is
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 67 
 
 evident that the latter is capable of determining the in- 
 dividual cell-environment, and ultimately the structure of 
 the muscle-cells : the conditions wliich lead to oft- repeated 
 contraction so modify the muscle-cell environment as to 
 induce increased growth ; those which cause diminished 
 contraction so alter it as to induce atrophy ; while, whatever 
 tends to prevent contraction tends to produce complete 
 degeneration. We see, therefore, that the atrophy of the 
 wing- and the hypertrophy of the leg-muscles in the 
 domestic duck are ultimately dependent upon modifications 
 in the external-hody-environment ; and, similarly, it may 
 be shown that use and disuse of each and every structure 
 of the body are essentially determined by the external 
 environment, which is thus capable of working profound 
 bodily changes.^ 
 
 ^ Most biologi?ts consider that the environment influences structure by 
 first modifying function, the modification of function leading secondarily 
 to modifications in structure. To me it seems that modifications in 
 structure and function proceed pari passu, that the two are inseparable, 
 the one being the morphological, the other the physiological side of a 
 change wrought through the environment, and that it is impossible to 
 sever the two. I would argue the matter thus. It will be allowed by all 
 that the only way in which the function of a cell can be modified is by a 
 modification of its environment. Now, directly its environment is modified, 
 the cell necessarily undergoes some change in molecular structure, for the 
 slightest conceivable modification in the forces acting upon plastic organic 
 matter leads to some alteration in the arrangement of its atoms and 
 molecules. Thus a structural change is wrought which is at first undis- 
 coverable, but by the continued operation of the changed environment it is 
 accentuated, and the undiscovcrable change gradually becomes discover- 
 able. Probably those authors who assume that modifications in structure 
 occur secondarily to modifications in function use the word ' structure ' 
 in a more limited sense than I, structure to them meaning ' discoverable 
 structure.' Professor Huxley has said of the lowest rhizopods that they 
 exhibit life without organisation, from which Herbert Spencer argues that 
 function must he regarded an taJciny precedence of structure (" Principles of 
 Biology," § 55). Here the words 'organisation' and ' structure' obviously 
 refer to what may be discovered by the senses, whether aided or not — an 
 altogether too arbitrary use of the words, I conceive. I have elsewhere 
 suggested the use of the terms ' discoverable ' and ' undiscovcrable ' 
 structure, and they explain themselves. No doubt function precedes dis- 
 coverable structure ; but Herbert Spencer would, I believe, be the first to 
 allow that function and undiscoverable structure rise and fall together.
 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE INHERITABILITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOULDINGS. 
 
 Seeing that the environment is capable of effecting 
 structural changes in the living organism with a view to its 
 adaptation, it is not surprising that many have attributed 
 to it a considerable share in the process of organic 
 evolution. 
 
 The continual operation of a specific environment upon 
 several successive generations of a species would manifestly 
 be competent to induce considerable structural modifications, 
 provided such modifications were inheritable, for they would 
 thus accumulate as the species was perpetuated. The question 
 we have to answer, therefore, is : Are the environmental 
 mouldings inheritable, or do they die with the individual ? 
 If they are inheritable, then not only must we conclude that 
 the environment has played a considerable part — I mean 
 direct part — in organic evolution, but that it has also 
 helped largely to increase sexual divergence, for inheritable 
 characters peculiar to one sex show a tendency to be 
 inherited chiefly or solely by that sex in the ofispring. 
 
 The assumption until recently has been that changes 
 thus impressed are inheritable, but Weismann denies this, 
 and, if he is in the right, the ground is at once cut from 
 under the feet of the Lamarckians, and it follows that — 
 unless we assume that organisms are endowed with an 
 inherent tendency to evolve in different ways — we must
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 69 
 
 regard ' selection ' as the chief means by which organic 
 evolution has proceeded/ 
 
 In this country Weismann's view, though at first eagerly 
 hailed, has not obtained wide acceptance ; few English 
 biologists, except Eay Lankester and the translators of 
 Weismann's essays, have adopted it, and at present there 
 is rather a reaction against it. It deserves, however, our 
 serious consideration, for until the point is settled one way 
 or the other, any real progress in biological research is at 
 a standstill. Upon it turns, in very large measure, the 
 future of mankind. If acquired characters are inheritable, 
 then may we hope to mould our race in a very definite 
 manner. Herbert Spencer, assuming the point, has taught 
 that the inherent tendency to morality in civilised man has 
 evolved by the inculcation in him, from generation to 
 generation, of moral principles ; and if such be the case we 
 may expect that the process will finally issue in the evolution 
 of a perfect moral nature — a brilliant vision indeed ! Xor 
 does it end here ; we may further look for a rapid improve- 
 ment in his intellectual and esthetic nature also — nay, in 
 his entire mental being. But if Weismann's view be correct, 
 such hopes are dashed to earth at once, for on his theory 
 improvement in the inherent moral nature can only be 
 achieved through natural selection ; that is to say, through 
 the continual weeding out of the most depraved by hanging, 
 imprisonment, and the like ; while other mental improve- 
 ment can be compassed only by indirect means ; the 
 
 1 In a work in which I have attempted to apply the principles of 
 evolution to disease, I have taken it for granted that acquired characters 
 may be inherited ; for though, when that work was written, the supposition 
 was already disputed, I had not seen grounds to renounce the views I had, 
 in common with most biologists, accepted. Owing to the recent develop- 
 ment of this question, however, I have deemed it advisable to consider it 
 here at some length ; nor do I think the fitness of my procedure will be 
 challenged, inasmuch as the importance of the subject from the patho- 
 logical point of view cannot well be exaggerated. Not only does the 
 question of the inheritability of disease turn upon it, but it is of the utmost 
 importance to our present inquiry, for it is essential that we should have 
 clear ideas as to the infiuence of the environment if we are to determine 
 how far that environment has operated in causing sexual divergence.
 
 7° 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 
 
 [part I. 
 
 inherent intellectual capacity, for instance, could in such 
 case improve only through the survival of those whose 
 wits were sharp enough to compete successfully in the 
 world's struggle. That the intellect has thus very largely 
 evolved there can be no doubt, and T would here express my 
 belief that the growth of morality may similarly, to a very 
 great extent, be traced to the action of natural selection, for 
 the abjectly immoral stand little chance of propagating their 
 kind. On the other hand, one cannot well see how the 
 aesthetic instincts could thus have evolved.^ 
 
 Somatogenctic ami Blastogenetic Gharacte7's. — In consider- 
 ing the question of the heredity of acquired characters, it is 
 necessary to make a sharp distinction between somatogenctic 
 and blastogenetic characters, Somatogenctic characters are 
 such as arise by the action of the environment upon the 
 soma, i.e., the body as distinguished from the reproductive 
 elements. They are what one ordinarily understands by 
 acquired chaiacters.'' Blastogenetic characters arise out of 
 the reproductive elements. We distinguish two varieties of 
 these, («) those due to influences operating upon germ and 
 
 1 Mr. Wallace does not believe, as the strict evolutionist must, that 
 " man's entire nature and all his faculties, whether moral, intellectual, or 
 spiritual, have been derived from their rudiments in the lower animals, in 
 the same manner and by the action of the same general laws as his 
 physical structure has been derived." We can only find an adequate 
 cause for certain of man's intellectual and moral faculties "in the unseen 
 universe of Spirit." (For some interesting remarks on this head see 
 " Darwinism," by A. K. Wallace, pp. 461-478. Also Weismann's Essays, 
 pp. 95-98- ) 
 
 - The capacity to acquire a particular character is, of course, inherited. 
 It is, as I have already remarked, by no means always easy to distinguish 
 between what is purely hereditary and what is acquired, but it will be 
 sufficient for our purpose to define a somatogenetic character as one 
 which is induced by some specific environment, which does not, that is, 
 develop unless the organism be subjected to that environment. A corn, 
 for instance, is, as far as we know, purely somatogenetic, for it does not 
 develop unless a certain part of the organism be subjected to pressure. 
 If, however, a corn developed in an individual independently of pressure, 
 if would be purely hereditary. The same argument applies to the drill- 
 bone found in soldiers.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 71 
 
 sperm before their union ; (b) those resulting from the union 
 of germ and sperm having unhke liereditary tendencies. 
 According to Weismann blastofrenetic characters alone are 
 inherited ; ' and he further contends that of these the 
 characters due to influences operating upon the delicate 
 structure of germ and sperm ( = a) are restricted in degree 
 and kind, being simply the result, in fact, of their increased 
 or diminished nutrition, and not, therefore, taking any part 
 in evolution — in producing, i.e., new characters on which 
 natural selection may operate ; organic evolution, in his 
 belief, resultino- from the natural selection of those 
 blastogenetic variations arising from the union of germ and 
 sperm having unlike hereditary tendencies ( = &) ; indeed, he 
 maintains, as we have seen, that the chief purpose of sexual 
 reproduction is the originating of inheritable variations for 
 selection to operate upon. If he is right, it follows that 
 organic evolution has essentially been an evolution of germ- 
 plasm.^ Eeduced to its simplest expression, his theory is 
 that the function of the soma has been to " provide the 
 nutritive soil from which the germ-plasm may grow." 
 The (hypothetical) germ-plasm which is handed on from 
 generation to generation has never, be it noted, developed 
 into a soma. Weismann holds that it has ever remained, 
 and will ever remain, a mass of potentialities, for those 
 portions of it which develop into somata are permanently 
 used up in development, and are not handed on to future 
 generations. Hence there must be two great organic 
 kingdoms : that which may lie fitly termed the kingdom 
 of potentialities — the vast kingdom of undeveloped plasm, 
 potentially constituting the visible organic world, and 
 the evolution of which is essentially the evolution we have 
 to explain ; and the kingdom of developed organisms — of 
 
 ^ Permanent hereditary variability results from the " direct change in the 
 germ or sperm effected by external influences," or from " the mixture of the 
 two individually distinct germ-plasms" ("Essays upon Heredity," p. 327). 
 
 2 This Weismann appears to recognise in the following passage : — 
 " Although natural selection appears to operate upon the qualities of the 
 developed organism, it in trutli works upon the peculiarities which lie 
 hidden in the germ cells " {Ibid. p. 103).
 
 72 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 soniata, which are so many appendages of, or outgrowths 
 from, the undying germ-plasm. 
 
 Inheritcibility of Somatogenetic Characters. — Having seen 
 how new characters may arise, we may now consider the 
 question of their inheritability.' And first as to soma- 
 togenetic characters. Assuming Weismann's view as to 
 the continuity of the germ-plasm to be correct, it is 
 manifest that no impress made upon the soma can 
 be inherited, for the latter in. no sense originates 
 the continuous plasm. Weismann goes so far as to 
 assert that he has failed to discover a single case offering 
 unmistakable proof of the inheritance of somatogenetic 
 characters, all supposed instances of such inheritance break- 
 ing down upon careful examination. So far as mutilations 
 are concerned, this uninheritability seems to have been 
 definitely proved, but many still believe that impressions 
 wrought more gradually upon the soma, as, for instance, the 
 structural effects caused bv use and disuse, are transmitted. 
 Weismann, however, contends that such apparently con- 
 clusive cases of inheritability may be explained in a 
 different way. One of the most remarkable instances in 
 point is afforded by the eyes of certain species living in 
 darkness through a number of generations. Certain insects 
 and reptiles inhabiting dark caves are not only quite 
 blind, but their eyes are of a very rudimentary kind. Here 
 is apparently a striking example of the inherited effects of 
 disuse— -i.e., of the inheritance of a somatogenetic character. 
 How otherwise can such extensive atrophy be brought 
 
 1 Brook's theory of heredity may here be alluded to. It is a combina- 
 tion of Darwin's doctrine of Pangenesis and Weismann's theory of a 
 continuous germ-plasm. It assumes that somatogenetic characters are 
 transmitted to future generations by means of gemmules which attach 
 themselves to the germ-plasm. The organism, so far as it is a pure 
 product of heredity', is potentially contained in the germ -plasm of the ovum 
 from which it developed, but such of its characters as are due to 
 environmental moulding are transmitted by means of gemmules which 
 are cast off by the altered tissue to form part of the germ-plasm. They 
 are, he further assumes, transmitted chiefly, if not solely, by the male.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 73 
 
 about ? Hardly by natural selection, it may be argued, 
 inasmuch as the possession of perfect eyes would not place 
 the animal at a disadvantage. Weismann's explanation is 
 as follows : — 
 
 (a) Natural selection does not cease to operate when an 
 organism has become perfectly adapted to its environment ; 
 it continues in order to maintain it at its high level of per- 
 fection, for the undesirable variations which must ever and 
 anon occur require to be eliminated. This process Weis- 
 mann terms ' panmixia,' and he contends that on its ceasing 
 to act upon the eyes of animals living in the dark, these 
 organs slowly degenerate. While admitting that the cessa- 
 tion of panmixia has helped towards the general result, I 
 do not attribute to it the importance that Weismann does. 
 Panmixia has virtually ceased to operate upon the human 
 eye in civilised countries ; and although, as Weismann 
 rightly insists, that organ is deteriorating in consequence, 
 the cessation is scarcely likely to lead to any sensible 
 degree of blindness. Indeed, this explanation, though at 
 first sight ingenious, is, if anything, damaging to his case ; 
 for if the cessation of panmixia as regards the hviman eye is 
 leading to any notable effect in it, it is above all leading to 
 myopia — i.e., to a larger and more prominent eye. A 
 considerable degree of hypermetropia might exist in a 
 savage race, but an individual with even slight myopia 
 would be promptly exterminated, as he would be useless in 
 the hunt and in the fight ; and the same line of argument 
 may be applied to the case of the lower animals. 
 
 (h) Weismann further argues that the excessive de- 
 velopment (by natural selection) of other organs, such as 
 organs of touch and hearing, of such delicacy as to com- 
 pensate for the loss of so important a sense as eyesight, 
 will indirectly lead to atrophy of the eyes, on the principle 
 of organic economy ; for the animals born with an extra- 
 acute sense of touch and hearing will be less likely than 
 others not thus endowed to excel in their sight organs, 
 and by the natural selection of animals excelling in the 
 former particulars, there will be a selection of individuals
 
 74 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 possessing imperfect eyes, and the eye will thus tend to 
 deteriorate from generation to generation. I think all must 
 admit that there is considerable force in this argument. 
 Two further arguments which, however, Weismann does 
 not employ, may also be advanced in explanation of the 
 rudimentary eyes of animals inhabiting the dark. 
 
 (c) Professor Eay Lankester has ingeniously pointed out 
 that animals with the best developed eyes are likely to be 
 attracted by the light, and thus to find their way into the 
 open. 
 
 (d) I venture to suggest that the possession of eyes, far 
 from being, as Weismann assumes, of no disadvantage to 
 the animals in question, is a very decided drawback. The 
 human eye, though so cunningly protected, is liable, even 
 in broad daylight, to considerable injury, and it would be 
 still more so if human beings had to carry on their life- 
 struggle in the dark. One can scarcely doubt, therefore, 
 that the possession of well-developed eyes — and the eyes of 
 the species in question are, under ordinary circumstances, 
 distinctly prominent — exposes the animals to frequent 
 injury of those organs, and all the ill- consequences ensuing 
 therefrom, so that there tends to be an elimination of 
 individuals having prominent eyes — a first step to their 
 complete atrophy. 
 
 I have spent some time in considering this particular case 
 because it shows that we must not too readily assume the 
 inheritability of somatogenetic characters, even in the 
 apparently most conclusive instances. One other example 
 of the apparent transmission of effects wrought through use 
 and disuse may be cited — that of the domestic duck already 
 alluded to. Weismann thinks that the difference in size 
 between the leg- and wing-muscles of this bird may be 
 largely accounted for by the effects of use and disuse during 
 a single lifetime only, and no one who has witnessed the 
 enormous hypertrophy which certain muscles may undergo 
 in infantile paralysis in compensation for the atrophy of 
 others can deny some probability to this view. But whether 
 use and disuse account entirely for the differences in the
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 75 
 
 wing- and leg-muscles of the domesticated bird as com- 
 pared with its wild congener is a different matter. To 
 answer this question it would be necessary to compare the 
 young of either variety immediately after hatching. There 
 can be no question, however, that use and disuse are capable 
 oi producing very marked effects during a single lifetime ; 
 wherefore, even assuming that somatogenetic characters are 
 not inheritable, we are able to refer very considerable 
 structural effects to peculiarities of environment, and we 
 shall be prepared to admit that the differences in the 
 respective environments of man and woman are competent 
 to increase very greatly those structural differences which 
 are the pure outcome of heredity. 
 
 Whatever the truth concerning the inheritance of soma- 
 togenetic characters — and it seems to me at present impos- 
 sible to decide absolutely one way or the other — I venture 
 to think that the views respecting such inheritance will 
 have to be very considerably modified, even if belief in it 
 has not to be surrendered altogether. The question is one 
 to be decided by experiment alone.' 
 
 ^ In order to show how difficult (if not impossible) it is to settle this 
 point without direct recourse to experiment, I add to those above quoted 
 the following two cases, which at first sight tend to prove that somato- 
 genetic characters may be inherited. They occurred to me while seeking 
 for arguments for and against Weismann's theory, but, as will be seen, they 
 prove nothing. 
 
 The great toe in man normally tends to stand out in partial abduction 
 from the other toes, a fact not lost upon sculptors. This tendency is par- 
 ticularly marked in new-born infants, and also, I believe, in those persons 
 who have never worn shoes or boots. In the human foetus, moreover, the 
 great toe stands out very noticeably, thus recalling the condition obtaining 
 among existing primates. It is well known, however, that in civilised man 
 the big toe frequently bends towards the others, and that there is sometimes 
 a distinct overlapping of the first, second, or even of the third toes. Now, 
 this overlapping is, beyond all question, due to the wearing of shoes and 
 boots ; and if it could be shown that it, or a tendency to it, occurred among 
 the children of civilised communities before they had worn anything on 
 their feet, then the inheritance of somatogenetic characters would be proved 
 beyond dispute. There could be no question here of the cessation of 
 panmixia, or of an elTect referable to organic economy. Unfortunately, I 
 have not been able to observe children who for the first years of their lives
 
 76 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 Inhcritahility of Blastogenetic Characters. — Of the two 
 kinds of blastogenetic characters only one kind, viz., those 
 due to the influence of the environment upon germ and 
 sperm, need occupy our attention, since characters arising 
 from the union of reproductive elements having unlike 
 hereditary tendencies obviously cannot be said to result from 
 the direct influence of the environment. 
 
 Weismann, as we have seen, does not think that the 
 action of the environment on germ and sperm is competent 
 to produce marlied individual hereditary variations. He re- 
 gards the germ-plasm as very stable ; how otherwise, he asks, 
 
 have gone barefoot ; therefore I cannot say whether a tendency to overlap 
 ever occurs in their toes ; but I have noticed distinct overlapping in very 
 young children whose parents have assured me that they have taken every 
 care not to cramp the feet. Some of these cases I have carefully watched 
 from birth. Thus in one boy, two years of age, the second toe overlapped 
 the first, after the same fashion as in the mother's case. The mother, an 
 intelligent, sensible woman, declared that she had always been careful to 
 provide the child with shoes "too large, if anything." Only the wearer, 
 however, can tell "where the shoe pinches," and it is quite possible, nay, even 
 probable, that all these cases of deformity are strictly acquired, for I have 
 noticed that when in such instances the naked feet are put naturally to the 
 ground there is a more or less complete return of the toes to their normal 
 position, all that is inherited seeming to be the tendency to overlap, namely, 
 a peculiar condition of the toes which renders them, when compressed, 
 very liable to displacement. It is clear that a child with long toes would 
 more readily acquire the deformity than one with short, and, of course, tliese 
 might be inherited from one of the parents. From cases like the above we 
 cannot, therefore, conclude that somatogenetic characters are inheritable, 
 although I venture to assert that the occurrence in a child so young as two 
 years of a peculiar and unusual overlapping of the toes, added to the facts 
 that the mother exhibited the same deformity, and that apparently every 
 precaution had been taken to guard against it, would, by 99 out of 100, be at 
 first sight attributed to inheritance. 
 
 The other apparent example of the inheritance of a somatogenetic 
 character is afforded by baldness. That the tendency to baldness runs in 
 families is indisputable. Now, it seems to be a well-established fact that 
 baldness is, in large measure, caused by wearing hats, and the question 
 therefore arises whether this practice leaves an inheritable impress on the 
 scalp, so that the tendency to baldness increases from generation to 
 generation. It is at present impossible to say, but it is not improbable 
 that an individual may inherit baldness by inheriting a condition of scalp 
 peculiarly susceptible to the ill-effects of a head covering.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 77 
 
 can we account for the fact that certain animals, such as the 
 crocodile, have not varied for thousands of years ? But here 
 he would appear to overlook a fact he was one of the first 
 to point out, namely, that the operation of panmixia would 
 be quite sufficient to maintain such structural fixity. For 
 if the environment remains practically unchanged throughout 
 a series of generations, it seems not unreasonable to suppose 
 that a species perfectly adapted to tliat environment would 
 remain unchanged also. There can be little doubt that all 
 organic matter is highly impressionable, and in consequence 
 capable of being profoundly modified in its structure by the 
 incidence of external forces ; and indeed Weismann himself 
 admits that the germ-plasm can be influenced by the en- 
 vironment in such wise that the offspring shall be affected, 
 citinff the fact that when horses are introduced into the 
 Falkland Islands the successive generations get smaller and 
 smaller until they sink to a certain level. He also allows 
 that a species may be modified favourably under circum- 
 stances favourable to nutrition, but he contends that all 
 such structural changes are due to improved or diminished 
 nutrition of the germ-plasm. We shall presently show that 
 they cannot be merely referred to such an origin, inasmuch 
 as they are very varied and definite. 
 
 But while Weismann admits that distinct inheritable 
 effects may be induced by the operation of the environment 
 upon the germ-plasm, he maintains that the changes thus 
 wrought take no part in evolution, seeing that they are 
 common to the entire number of animals occupying the same 
 area ; they are not individual, like the characters which 
 result from the union of unlike plasms. Wherefore, there 
 being no individual tyiKs upon which natural selection may 
 operate, the influence of the environment upon the repro- 
 ductive elements has played no part in evolution. 
 
 But even granting, which I am far from doing, that 
 characters arising in this way have taken no part in evolu- 
 tion, one can scarcely doubt that distinct pathological 
 conditions may be thus induced, and that the tendency to 
 disease may thereby accumulate from generation to genera-
 
 78 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 tion. Thus residence among the slums of a large city pro- 
 duces distinct physical deterioration, which increases with 
 each generation until family extinction finally ensues ; 
 thus also the excessive indulgence in alcohol by two or 
 three successive generations leads to the gradual develop- 
 ment of a distinct neurotic taint. This cannot be explained 
 on the supposition that the alcohol causes a diminished 
 nutrition of germ-plasm. We might, perhaps, in this way 
 explain the gradual deterioration and ultimate extinction of 
 a town-dwelling family, but not the transmission of a neurosis 
 induced by intemperance, as may be very simply shown. 
 If the mother is habitually intemperate during the whole 
 term of gestation, the foetus may truly be said to be con- 
 tinually intoxicated ; and the nervous tissues, upon which 
 alcohol has a peculiarly injurious effect, being constantly 
 soaked in alcohol during this important period of their 
 evolution, it is no wonder that the child should have a 
 highly neurotic nervous system. But it is a very remark- 
 able fact that the erring parent in these cases of hereditary 
 neurosis is more frequently the father, and consequently 
 this explanation falls to the ground. We learn from 
 Bevan Lewis ^ that intemperance is a potent cause of 
 all the convulsive neuroses, that it is responsible for over 
 two-thirds of the adolescent forms of insanity, and 
 that m 80 per cent, of these cases the father is at fault ! 
 Now, adopting Weismann's theory of germ-plasm, we must 
 assume that in the large majority of cases the paternal 
 germ-plasm is very specifically influenced by the alcohol, 
 its molecular structure being altered in such a way as to 
 give a peculiar impress to the nervous system of the new 
 being which it helps to form. (I am aware that in many 
 cases of parental intemperance, the intemperance is itself a 
 symptom of nervous temperament ; neither do I lose sight of 
 the fact that drunkenness is more common in men than in 
 women ; but while due account should be taken of these 
 facts, it can scarcely be doubted that parental intemperance, 
 especially if continued during several successive generations, 
 
 1 "A Text-book of Mental Diseases," p. 204.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 79 
 
 is capable of engendering a distinct neurotic diathesis.) I 
 say, adopting Weismann's hypothesis in its broad features, 
 we must conclude — contrary to him — that the germ-plasm 
 may be affected by environmental influences in a very 
 definite manner, and that in this way a disease-tendency 
 may accumulate from generation to generation. We need 
 not, in fact, abandon the belief, long held, that acquired 
 disease may be inherited. We cannot, I repeat, if we 
 hold by Weismann's theory, escape from the conclusion 
 that the germ-plasm may be very definitely shaped. How 
 otherwise, to take another example, can we account for the 
 peculiar moulding which the inhabitants of certain parts of 
 the United States are undergoing — how explain the spare 
 frame, the high shoulders, the pigmented skin, the com- 
 paratively hairless face, the peculiar voice ? These and other 
 characters must, according to his hypothesis, be due to the 
 influence of the environment on germ-plasm during several 
 generations. To say that they are due to nutritional differ- 
 ences of germ-plasm is scarcely an explanation, for on the 
 same hypothesis there must be as many peculiar forms of 
 germinal nutrition as there are peculiar forms of environ- 
 ment capable of producing inheritable effects. Instead of 
 regarding these different forms of environment, as Weismann 
 obviously does, as the cause of different nutritional modifi- 
 cations in the germ-plasm, I believe that they very definitely 
 mould the reproductive units — the microcosms. 
 
 Inheritance of Blastogcnctic Characters as Limited by 
 Sex. — According to the already quoted law of heredity as 
 limited by sex, characters manifested by one sex at a parti- 
 cular period of life tend to appear in the offspring at the 
 same period. When Darwin formulated this law he was 
 particularly referring, I imagine, to somatogenetic characters. 
 Thus, according to it, the greater muscular activity of 
 the man as compared with the woman would tend to 
 increase in the offspring the differences in the muscular 
 systems of the two sexes. The environments of the two are, 
 in fact, different in many respects ; hence the somata are
 
 8o THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 impressed differently, and this, according to Darwin, would 
 in many ways lead to increased sexual divergence. But if 
 somatogenetic characters are not inherited at all, it is 
 obvious that they cannot be transmitted along one sexual 
 line. 
 
 Blastogenetic characters, however, are, as we have seen, 
 inheritable, and there remains the question how far Darwin's 
 law applies to these. There can be no doubt that those 
 characters due to the mixing of unlike germ -plasms come 
 under it, but how about those which are due to the action of 
 the environment upon the germ-plasm ? If, for instance, 
 the female sex were exposed, during several successive 
 generations, to a specific environment — let us say, to certain 
 pathogenic conditions, such as long confinement indoors — 
 would the effects thereby wrought on the maternal germ- 
 plasm lead to hereditary resvilts chiefly confined to the 
 female offspring, or would they be equally distributed along 
 both sexual lines ? Or, to take another example : suppose 
 the deteriorated mares in the Falkland Islands were crossed 
 with healthy stallions imported from this country, would 
 the female progeny show a greater tendency to deterioration 
 than the male ? 
 
 Gout in man is, as we know, chiefly confined to the male 
 sex, and this may very plausibly be explained by supposing 
 that this sex has, during many successive generations, been 
 exposed to a gout-producing environment. The tempting 
 conclusion, however, may be wrong. The greater frequency 
 with which gout occurs among men may depend upon some 
 physiological peculiarity ; and it is possible that if all men 
 were henceforth to lead perfectly healthy lives, and all 
 women to follow a mode of life especially calculated to 
 induce gout, the proportion of innate tendency to this 
 disorder among the sexes would yet be very much the same 
 as it is at the present time. 
 
 It will be seen from this and the preceding chapter that 
 we still have inuch to learn concerning the inheritability of 
 characters which have been impressed upon the organism
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTIOX OF SEX. 8i 
 
 by its environment. I would, however, remind those who 
 believe that the direct action of the environment has had 
 no share in the differentiation of the sexes that, though the 
 innate sexual divergences may not thus have arisen, yet the 
 environment may work a very considerable modification even 
 in a single lifetime, being well-nigh competent to produce 
 such marked differences as those, for instance, which obtain 
 between the oft-quoted domestic and the wild duck in respect 
 of the leg- and wing-muscles ; and I have little doubt that 
 the different environment to which the sexes are subjected 
 during their entire post ixirtuni life is responsible for many 
 peculiarities usually regarded as innate.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PART PLAYED BY THE ENVIRONMENT INDEPENDENTLY OF 
 SELECTION IN RENDERING THE SEXES UNLIKE. 
 
 Seeing that the environment, which is capable of working 
 distinct modifications in structure, differs for the two sexes, 
 its action is manifestly a possible cause of sexual divergence, 
 independently of selection. Under it each sex is necessarily 
 moulded differently, but whether the offspring are thereby 
 affected is a different question. 
 
 Woman, from the very nature of her being, is compelled to 
 live for the most part a quiet and secluded life. During the 
 procreative period her chief energies and her time are 
 devoted to the production and rearing of children, while to 
 the man falls a more active and a far less circumscribed 
 career. It is true that many savages treat their women as 
 slaves and leave to them most of the heavy manual labour, 
 but they themselves, though less laborious, are always active, 
 being occupied chiefly in the chase and in warfare. Among 
 civilised peoples it is the almost universal rule for the man 
 to till the soil and to go forth and compete with other men 
 in the manifold activities of bread-winning, the women 
 occupying themselves with the care of their children and 
 other domestic duties. The man has, in short, to exercise 
 mind and body more than the woman ; what wonder then 
 that these, already rendered stronger than in the woman 
 through sexual and natural selection, should by this means 
 become stronger still ?
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 83 
 
 Thus it comes to pass that each sex is unconsciously edu- 
 cated in those very qualities which are essential to it, the one 
 in animal strength, intellect, and courage, the other in ma- 
 ternal solicitude, unselfishness, and sympathy. Note the two 
 latter. The woman is constantly consorting with children, 
 more especially during her procreative life, and thus, not 
 only is there a fostering of the maternal instinct already 
 evolved through sexual selection, but, because the proper 
 care of children entails constant self-sacrifice and devotion, 
 her power of sympathy and self-abnegation is much more 
 developed than the man's. Maternal love is a gentle, 
 voluminous emotion, smiting 
 
 " — the chord of Self, that, trembling pass[es] in music out of sight," 
 
 and I would here remark that it probably needs a corre- 
 sponding refinement of nervous organisation ; that is to say, 
 the so-called ' tender ' emotion is the outcome and the 
 expression of a fine, delicate, ' tender ' nervous system. 
 And meanwhile the woman is not called upon to protect 
 and provide for herself and her young to any large extent ; 
 that is the work of the husband and father (names signify- 
 ing literally the 'house-manager,' the 'one who feeds'), 
 and therefore, in her, courage, pugnacity, and daring are 
 developed in a minor degree. 
 
 The man, during his long past, has received a totally 
 different training. He has not been educated in unselfish 
 devotion. He has been, as he is now, engaged chiefly in 
 competition with other men, and this not in the limited 
 sphere of home life, but in a wide arena where his courage, 
 his combativeness, and his cunning have been continually 
 tested and proportionately developed. 
 
 Hence in bravery, daring, pugnacity, love of adventure, and 
 ingenuity he is superior to the woman, while in unselfishness 
 and domestic affection he is her inferior. He is at one and 
 the same time more intellectual, yet more passionate ; more 
 violent in the expression of his emotions, yet less deeply 
 permeated by their influence. This no doubt partly arises 
 from the fact that the complex sexual system in the woman
 
 84 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 is a perennial fountain of feeling, and that the maternal 
 instinct is largely bound up with the emotions ; and partly 
 from the fact that woman is less intellectual than man, the 
 emotional and intellectual portions of our being standing 
 to one another somewhat in inverse ratio. 
 
 Another characteristic mental trait of man as dis- 
 tinguished from woman is possibly in some degree traceable 
 to the influence of his environment in that past period when 
 tribal conditions prevailed. To the men fell the duty of 
 defending the family, and that association of families which 
 constituted the tribe, against the attacks of neighbouring 
 tribes, and being thus knit together in bands, fighting 
 against a common enemy in a common cause, a spirit of 
 clannishness, or esprit de corps, gradually evolved among 
 them, to which the women, occupied in the care of children 
 and the like, remained comparative strangers. The 
 advantage of a cohesive force which shall combine the units 
 of a community, like the atoms in a molecule, is obvious, 
 and although natural selection probably shared in its 
 evolution, it is possible that it originated partly in the 
 manner I have indicated — i.e., by the direct action of the 
 environment. This clannishness, so strong among men and 
 so weak among women, is, as we shall see later, a fact of 
 some interest to the physician. 
 
 The foregoing considerations throw some light on the 
 tendency to disordered nervous action which women display. 
 Circumstances have combined to make the nervous system 
 of the man more vigorous and stable than that of the 
 woman. Intense combativeness and courage tend to go 
 along with sturdiness and stability of the nervous system, 
 while a high degree of emotional development conduces to 
 nervous instability : in proportion as the emotions are 
 brought under intellectual control, in that proportion, other 
 things being equal, will the nervous system become more 
 stable. Am I not right in saying that the intellectual 
 lighter, as well as the prize-fighter, is generally a man of 
 tough nervous fibre ? It must, however, be acknowledged 
 that courage and pugnacity may co-exist with a highly
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 85 
 
 sensitive nervous organisation, as may also a high degree of 
 intellectual development. The bravest warrior will some- 
 times blush like a girl from very bashfulness, and is not 
 infrequently the victim of some serious neurosis. Most 
 physicians will be able to recall such instances. Marlborough 
 and Gordon suffered from angina pectoris ; Csesar and 
 Napoleon, from epilepsy. 
 
 Now, not only do the sexes lead different lives, but the 
 mode of life regarded as proper to each sex, and in part 
 determined by natural laws, begins to be apportioned at a 
 very early period in the career of the individual. Boys and 
 girls are placed by their parents, from choice rather than 
 from necessity, amid different environments ; they are, in short, 
 educated differently, that they may each receive the training 
 best calculated to fit them for performing their proper share 
 in the world's work. (How far this desirable end has been 
 attained by the methods hitherto employed we need not 
 here discuss.) Education, in its narrowest sense of 
 ' scholastic,' has probably played a far less important part 
 in evolution than is commonly supposed, for we must 
 remember that even the most favourably circumstanced are 
 not, from the biologist's point of view, very distantly 
 removed from ancestors who formed part of the masses, and 
 that these masses have only recently received any education 
 at all ; and inasmuch as evolution deals not with a few, but 
 with many generations, it is clear that scholastic education 
 cannot have materially contributed towards the differences 
 in the sexes. Moreover, such dissimilarities as are traceable 
 to it are obviously confined to the so-called upper classes. 
 
 But with tliis limitation, education has no doubt tended 
 to accentuate sexual peculiarities. The woman's lot in life 
 being of the quiet, domestic order, she has been taught to 
 be gentle, graceful in her movements, sedate ; the natural 
 impulses to vigorous and healthful exercise of mind and 
 body have been curbed. She has been cramped in her 
 muscles, and cramped, too, in her brain ; for although great 
 pains have been bestowed on what may be called the super- 
 ficial adornment of her mind, no determined effort has been
 
 86 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 made to secure for her a robust and well-developed intellect. 
 Men, on the other hand, have been taught to be nimble, 
 physically and intellectually, and they alone, till very 
 recently, have been admitted to the learned professions. 
 These educational disparities cannot fail to have impressed 
 the sexes in the upper classes differently. 
 
 But much as woman has been, as a rule, handicapped 
 intellectually, she has suffered still more in another direction. 
 In civilised communities the women lead a much more indoor 
 life than the men, and they must have thereby been phy- 
 sically injured. There can be no doubt that man, like 
 most other terrestrial animals, is essentially adapted to an 
 outdoor life. All the mammals — practically all — spend 
 their lives in the open, and it is certain that our semi- 
 human ancestors did so too. Man, having therefore evolved 
 under these conditions, is structurally adapted to them, 
 and his health invariably suffers if they are withdrawn. 
 No doubt if his dwellings were properly constructed, due 
 attention being paid to ventilation and other sanitary details, 
 the ill-effects of his present mode of life might be reduced 
 to a minimum ; but for ages past houses have been built 
 without regard to hygienic principles, and they have in 
 consequence been very far from affording that kind of 
 environment to which man is by his nature fitted. Now, 
 inasmuch as domestic duties tie the woman to her home 
 during the greater part of the twenty-four hours, she more 
 especially has suffered in this direction. The man, on the 
 other hand, has been, and is still, for the most part engaged 
 in outdoor pursuits, and hence, since the earliest dawn of 
 civilisation, the two sexes have been exposed to a markedly 
 diJBferent form of environment ; and the advantage being all 
 on the side of the man, the health standard of the woman 
 must inevitably have been relatively lowered. Thus it 
 happens that women are apt to break down in health and 
 to 'go off ' rapidly after maturity, and especially after 
 matrimony, while men preserve their vigour and whatever 
 comeliness they possess far on into adult life. The 
 beauty of the woman, like that of a flower, is delicate and
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 87 
 
 fleeting : it buds and blossoms, and is gone while we look 
 at it. 
 
 In agricultural communities the girl, until she reaches 
 womanhood, lives almost as much in the open air as the 
 boy. It is when she becomes a woman, marries, and has 
 to look after her home that a marked contrast between her 
 environment and the man's obtains, and it is then that she 
 tends to fail in health. There is, it is true, some contrast 
 always between the environment of the boy and of the girl, for 
 boys are, as a class, the more active, enterprising, and adven- 
 turous ; but from the health point of view alone, their 
 environment is more or less equal, and even supposing the 
 girl's to be much more healthy than the boy's, the evil effect 
 upon her would not show the same tendency to be trans- 
 mitted in the female line as if induced after adult life, for, 
 as already observed, characters manifested by one sex before 
 the procreative period tend to be inherited by both sexes 
 alike. 
 
 During recent years the urban population of this and 
 many other countries has increased at the expense of the 
 rural population, and among the former the contrast 
 between the two sexes as regards confinement is obviously 
 not so great as among the latter. But evolution does not 
 deal with a few, but with many generations ; and if we 
 extend our survey, not over years, but over centuries, we 
 shall find that the general rule has been for the woman 
 to be much more confined than the man. It should be 
 remembered, moreover, that families rarely live for many 
 consecutive generations in towns. Migration from town 
 into country and from country into town is constantly 
 occurring, so that, apart from the fact that residence in 
 large towns tends to family extinction, for this reason 
 alone it seldom happens that a family is purely town-bred for 
 long together. Except, indeed, in fairly large towns this 
 would be impossible, for in the smaller ones families are 
 compelled to intermarry to some extent with the surrounding 
 agricultural population ; in such towns, moreover, a goodly 
 number of the men follow outdoor pursuits. That the
 
 88 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 confinement entailed by town-life exerts an injurious 
 influence on the men, and makes them more like women in 
 their nervous health, is evident to every one who has oppor- 
 tunities of comparing country with town people. The Jews 
 are essentially a town- bred people, and there has therefore 
 not been, in their case, that contrast between the environ- 
 ment of the two sexes which has obtained with others. 
 Now, it is well known that among the Jews the men are 
 highly nervous and excitable. 
 
 I must guard against any misapprehension of my remark 
 respecting the weakened health of the girl when she 
 reaches womanhood. I do not say that the more or less 
 sudden change of environment she then experiences is the 
 sole cause of the failure in her health, but that the predis- 
 position to functional disorder which she then shows, and 
 which, no doubt, is due chiefly to the activity of her sexual 
 system, is increased by the change. The presence of a 
 complicated sexual system does not necessarily imply in- 
 ferior health, as may be proved by studying the health of 
 savages and the lower animals. Among the former the 
 men and women live equally exposed lives, and there is not 
 that broad contrast between the nervous health of the sexes 
 which is noticeable among civilised races ; this is, I believe, 
 also true of the gipsies. At the same time, her complex sexual 
 system undoubtedly predisposes the woman to nervous 
 troubles, apart altogether from the ill-effect of her 
 usual environment, and this is proved by the fact that in 
 spite of her indoor mode of life she almost always enjoys 
 much better nervous health after the climacteric than 
 during the period of sexual activity. Her nervousness 
 is, in fact, more or less co-extensive with her sexual life. 
 Furthermore, the women of primitive peoples show the 
 characteristic feminine tendency to nervous disorders. Thus 
 the only negress patient who ever came under my observa- 
 tion manifested in a well-developed form those symptoms 
 of the climacteric which are so common among the women 
 of white peoples. 
 
 It is not only from the effects of indoor confinement, pure
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 89 
 
 and simple, that woman lias suffered ; the responsibilities, 
 worries, and anxieties which the care of children entails can- 
 not have failed to render the nervovis system highly irritable. 
 True, the man has his cares and troubles also, but they are 
 probably not of that irritatinr/ kind which the mother has 
 to bear. The farmer, pondering on the possible failure of 
 his crops, is not subjected to the same nervous strain as his 
 wife who sits up all night with a teething baby. For it is 
 not so much the o-reat troubles of life that wear and fret as 
 the little cares. The former a man gathers up his strength 
 to face ; the latter insidiously eat that strength away. 
 Most of us have known men who have met the reverses of 
 fortune with equanimity, and who yet have given way to 
 violent outbursts of impatience at trifling losses and dis- 
 comforts. And so it is that incessant, petty worry — " the 
 fretful stir unprofitable " — has a more disastrous effect upon 
 the nervous system than real misfortune. Nor is this 
 surprising, for life, after all, is made up of trilles, and the 
 rock that defies the impact of the storm yields to the 
 corrosive action of the raindrop. 
 
 In the present age, when the struggle for existence is 
 fierce, men have far more business anxieties than they had 
 in former times, but, taking one thing with another, I do 
 not believe that the business troubles of a man are so 
 harassing as the domestic troubles of the average woman. 
 Where means are ample many of these no doubt are 
 removed by servants, yet even then a conscientious and 
 devoted mother cannot hope to go scot-free ; there are 
 anxieties which no paid help, however efficient, can bear for 
 her. But ample means, it must be remembered, are the 
 lot of a very small minority, and among the multitudinous 
 poor the men, there can be no question, are far less worried 
 than the women. Let any one compare the daily lot of the 
 poor man, working away from home, with that of his wife, 
 incessantly busied in the house, itself usually more or less 
 squalid, amid the tunmlt and interruptions of her small flock. 
 
 Tliat children may be very irritating to the mother, 
 especially when cooped up in a narrow space, is obvious 
 
 L^^
 
 90 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 enough. One of the commonest complaints a woman makes 
 when suffering from nervousness is that her children ' worry ' 
 her. Under ordinary circumstances she can put up with 
 their tricks and the trouble they cause, but when her health 
 sinks below par, she can do this no longer. Losing all self- 
 control, she is apt to give way to angry outbursts, and a 
 woman will often tell us, with tears, that she has had, by 
 the strongest effort of will, to rush away from her children 
 lest she should lay too violent hands upon them. Sometimes 
 this feeling is actually homicidal ; the wretched woman is 
 afraid to be near a knife for fear she shall destroy one of them. 
 No doubt, in such cases we are on the borderland of 
 insanity, and must not attribute too much of the causation 
 to the worry of the children ; but few, I suppose, will deny 
 the main truth of my contention. 
 
 Indeed, it is a matter of great wonder how the women of 
 the poorer classes continue to exist under the constant 
 stress of poverty and the never-ending worry of a large 
 family. The fact is, as we have already had occasion to 
 notice, women have extraordinary endurance under trial. 
 Here is a case in point. A woman thirty-five years old 
 came to me with her child who was sickening with measles. 
 She was dressed in mourning and had, in fact, "just buried 
 two children." She was very pale and hollow-cheeked, 
 there were large black marks under her eyes, and almost all 
 her front upper teeth had broken off from decay. She was 
 big with child and expected very soon to be delivered ; her 
 husband was out of work, and every available article had 
 been pledged. Truly, in her case sorrows had come " not 
 single spies, but in battalions." How flesh and blood can 
 endure such trials is, I say, very wonderful, but resignation 
 and endurance are two of woman's chief characteristics ; 
 they have been educated in her from the remotest times. 
 Long before man attained his present form he had dominated 
 woman, and she had learned to bear. 
 
 Many will dispute that the woman is exposed to a more 
 harassing form of mental environment than the man, and 
 they may cite as opposed to this view the fact — certainly
 
 PAKT I.] THE EVOLUTION OF kSEX. 91 
 
 somewhat remarkable since the woman has a far more un- 
 stable nervous system — that more men go mad than women. 
 Maudsley without hesitation explains this simply by refer- 
 ence to the differences in the environment of the sexes. He 
 sums up the position thus : Men are exposed to more power- 
 ful extrinsic causes : women to more powerful intrinsic 
 causes. " The strain of work," he writes, " for competence 
 or wealth, the anxieties and apprehensions of business, the 
 burden of family responsibilities, weigh more heavily as a 
 rule upon the men who are the breadwinners than upon 
 women." ^ He further goes on to remark that intemperance 
 and sexual excesses, both of which are strongly predisposing 
 causes of insanity, are more common among men than 
 women. 
 
 To my mind, these alone are fully adequate to 
 account for the excess of insanity among men, quite inde- 
 pendently of an extra mental strain, which extra strain, 
 moreover, I am — as I have stated above — inclined to dis- 
 believe in, holding it to be more than counterbalanced by 
 the harassing effect of home worries upon the woman. 
 
 A question of some interest here presents itself. If all 
 the afore-mentioned external influences tending to over- 
 turn the mental balance are stronger in the case of man 
 than of woman, should we not expect the nervous system, 
 or, at all events, that highest portion of it which consti- 
 tutes the material substratum of mind, to become gradually 
 less and less stable in him as time goes on ? This surely 
 must be the necessary result if structural characters 
 acquired by the male during procreative life tend to be in- 
 herited by the male offspring daring the same period, the 
 continued inheritance and accumulation of nervous weak- 
 ness inevitably rendering the male, so one would think, tlie 
 more nervous of the two. 
 
 It is, however, probable tliat a tendency to insanity does 
 
 not necessarily go liand in hand with weakness of the 
 
 entire nervous system ; tlie subjection of man during many 
 
 generations to an excessive action of the influences under 
 
 ' " Pathology of Mind," 1879, p. 2.
 
 92 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 discussion might very conceivably induce instability of the 
 higher, or mind, centres, while the inferior nervous centres 
 retained their stability, so that in general nervous health 
 the man might still remain superior to the woman. 
 Against this it may of course be urged that all neuroses 
 are interchangeable — that is to say, that the fundamental 
 weakness of the nervous system manifesting itself in one 
 instance in loss of mental balance may express itself in 
 many other ways ; but, all things considered, we shall 
 probably be right in regarding the insane diathesis and the 
 general tendency to nervousness as separate, and in a 
 measure independent of each other. Therefore, supposing a 
 brother and sister to inherit an equal tendency to insanity, 
 we should, when each becomes adult, expect the woman to 
 1)6 the more nervous. Exposed as her sex has been for 
 ages past to conditions which lower the general bodily 
 health, and to the harassing and irritating worries of 
 domestic life, and possessed, moreover, in her own person of 
 a highly complicated generative system, she is the inheritor 
 of a delicate and unstable nervous organisation, which 
 manifests itself in that condition rather vaguely expressed 
 by the term ' nervousness,' and although such nervousness 
 will probably always be greatest in those women who have 
 the insane diathesis, it may be present in a highly marked 
 degree without any special tendency to insanity. 
 
 But though we may expect the woman always to remain 
 the more nervous of the two, and this in spite of the ill- 
 effects on the man of intemperance, sexual excess, and 
 brain strain, it is nevertheless probable that if men con- 
 tinue from this time forward to be more exposed than 
 women to conditions inducing insanity, they will become 
 increasingly nervous ; and it seems to be generally acknow- 
 ledged that this is what is actually happening. 
 
 Seeing, then, that the different environment to which 
 each sex is exposed tends to mould each in a particular way, 
 it follows that we have in our hands a po\^'er whereby we 
 can alter the structure of both : we have only to subject 
 each to a specific form of environment. Whether acquired
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 93 
 
 characters are, or are not, inheritable, we can at least benefit 
 the individual ; and until the reverse is proved we shall, for 
 practical purposes, do well to assume their inheritability. 
 
 According to Darwin's laws of heredity, characters 
 acquired before the period of procreative life tend to be 
 inherited by both sexes equally, and, if such is the case, we 
 are debarred from exercising a specific influence on one sex 
 alone before puberty. If, for instance, all girls were trained 
 to habits of activity and perseverance from an early age, 
 and all boys to habits of laziness and effeminacy, we should 
 not thereby and directly obtain a race of effeminate boys 
 and of masculine girls. Yet, indirectly, we should no doubt 
 produce a specific racial effect upon the two sexes, because 
 such different modes of training would affect the whole 
 future of the individual, and the sexes thus differing in 
 energy and perseverance during, as well as before, procreative 
 life, would tend to transmit their peculiarities to the corre- 
 sponding sexes in their offspring. 
 
 But in order to modify either sex alone we must 
 begin in the nursery and the schoolroom, and we should, 
 as Darwin observes, be increasingly careful, as adult life ap- 
 proaches, that the influence exerted be beneficial ; we should 
 then have ground to hope for an inheritance of the improve- 
 ment thus wrought by one sex m the offspring at the corre- 
 sponding period of life. But, as already stated, it is at this 
 very period that the environment of the woman is injuri- 
 ously altered : now is the time when it is no longer thought 
 proper to allow her to obey the natural promptings of girl- 
 hood, and now it is that her long turn of incarceration begins, 
 — or so at least it has been till quite recently ; the modern 
 movement towards the emancipation of woman from time- 
 honoured restraints will no doubt work important changes 
 in this respect as time goes on. 
 
 I have said that the environment is competent to produce 
 very marked structural modifications in the course of a 
 single lifetime. I am, indeed, confident that the different en- 
 vironments to which the two sexes are exposed are capable of
 
 94 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 producing during a simple lifetime many of the sexual pecu- 
 liarities (psychic or otherwise) usually regarded as innate ; 
 which is as good as saying that if men and women were to 
 change places, and each follow the other's mode of life, the 
 men would be much more effeminate, and the women more 
 masculine than at present. 
 
 In order to realise the truth of these statements it is need- 
 ful to remember how very different the environments of the 
 two sexes are in their psychic aspect ; how circumscribed, 
 for instance, is the life of a woman, how calculated to 
 foster an unhealthy narrowness of mind. It is certain 
 that many of the little weaknesses which are regarded as 
 peculiarly feminine, belong essentially no more to the 
 woman than to the man ; they are but the result of her 
 restricted field of mental action. A dull routine of house- 
 hold duties, with few or no mental distractions, could not 
 fail to act with equally injurious effect upon the masculine 
 mind if imposed upon it. 
 
 Then as regards the influence of the environment on the 
 general bodily health. The ill-effects of woman's customary 
 environment as contrasted with that of man, is well brought 
 out by those cases in which the narrow, circumscribed, and 
 comparatively monotonous life of the average woman is 
 replaced by the bustling, active career of the actress, public 
 singer, or the like. There seems to be little doubt that the 
 latter, as a class, enjoy very good health, and this in spite 
 of late hours and other unhealthy conditions. The beneficial 
 influence of an active, stirring life upon the general health 
 was well shown in the following case. A young woman, aged 
 nineteen, had been for two or three years delicate ; in fact, she 
 was thought to be in a decline. She had a spare frame, was 
 very anaemic, and suffered from the many symptoms, nervous 
 and other, which usually accompany such a condition. As 
 she gave promise of a good voice, she was at this time sent 
 up to London to go through a regular course of musical 
 training. During her two or three years of study her health 
 improved somewhat, but at the end of this time she was 
 still regarded as decidedly delicate. Shortly after she made 
 her appearance in public, however, she took a decided turn
 
 PARTI.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 95 
 
 for the better ; the constant travelling from place to place 
 to fulfil her engagements, and the attendant excitement, 
 acted apparently as a tonic ; she grew rapidly strong and 
 stout, and at the present time it would be difficult to find a 
 more robust specimen of her sex.' 
 
 ^ Doubtless the healthy exercise of singing has in this case had much to 
 do with the good result, and here let me say that I do not think we make 
 sufficient use of singing as a therapeutic agent. In it we have a most effec- 
 tive means of developing the lungs. The very deep inspirations which the 
 singer is compelled to make cause a distension of a number of air-vessels 
 ordinarily in a condition of semi-, or almost complete collapse ; and, as a 
 result, the circulation is hurried on through them, and they are able to 
 grow to their fullest capacity. The same is true of the entire lung. Now, 
 well-developed lungs, by facilitating the process of oxygenation, favour the 
 nutrition of the body in general ; therefore, by exercising the lungs in the 
 manner indicated, we indirectly work a beneficial effect on the entire body. 
 I believe that .singing is a valuable adjunct in the treatment of anaemia, 
 and that it is also very useful in the case of individuals possessing phthi- 
 noid chests. For what is a phthinoid chest but one encasing small, ill- 
 developed lungs ? The individual is phthinoid simply by virtue of these, 
 and it is possible that the inherent predisposition to the disease is due 
 entirely to his having inherited them — small, feeble, sickly lungs being 
 unable to resist the repeated onslaught of the tubercular bacillus. Even 
 the most healthy lung is predisposed to tuberculosis, for its structure 
 peculiarly fits it to entangle and detain the parasites ; how much more 
 predisposed must a congenitally weak lung be ! 
 
 That the vital capacity of the lung may be increased by habitually 
 taking a series of deep inspirations is a well-known fact ; many people, 
 in fact, never use their lungs to their full extent. These organs do not, 
 in ordinary breathing, extend downward to the extreme limit of the thorax, 
 the diaphragmatic and costal pleura being in apposition for some distance, 
 especially in front. Thus, the right lung, in ordinary inspiration, only 
 extends down to the sixth rib in the nipple line ; but during extraordinary 
 inspiration the lungs insinuate themselves between these two layers of 
 pleura, and in those who are accustomed to take deep inspirations their 
 lower margins can be brought as low as the costal arch. The average 
 individual, however, cannot inflate to this extent. The hypertrophy of the 
 lung resulting from this kind of exercise manifests itself chiefly in increased 
 depth of chest, as is strikingly shown by our great public singers. It 
 must not be forgotten, however, that good singers start in the first instance 
 with large chests, without which success in public singing is impossible. 
 
 I have said that deep inspirations favour the flow of blood through the 
 lungs, from the right to the left side of the heart. Thus it is that 
 occasional sighs (in other words, deep inspirations) interrupt the shallow 
 breathing! constituting so-called 'breathless attention.' The shallow 
 breathing leads to stagnation of blood in the right heart, and an
 
 96 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 occasional deep inspiration is necessary to relieve this. One is rather apt 
 to lose sight of the fact that the respiratory movements are absolutely 
 necessary to proper pulmonary circulation. That such is the case, how- 
 ever, is readily proved by holding the breath for a moment or so, when the 
 stagnation of blood in the right heart will provoke epigastric pulsation 
 and cause the veins in the head and neck to swell. It is further proved 
 by the fact that the right heart is found engorged after death from 
 suffocation or drowning, or, indeed, whenever respiration has stopped 
 before the heart has finally ceased to beat. Lastly, it is shown by the 
 remarkable hypertrophy and dilatation which the right heart undergoes 
 in chronic lung diseases. In all these, the breathing is shallow, there is 
 interference with the proper expansion and collapse of air vesicles, and one 
 of the most important agents in pulmonary circulation is thus rendered 
 less effective, with the result that the right heart has more than its 
 normal share of work. This I believe to be the chief cause of those changes 
 in the right heart which follow upon lung disease, though no doubt 
 obliteration of vessels and narrowing of capillaries by longitudinal 
 stretching (as in emphysema) are minor factors. That mere interference 
 with respiration is competent to produce the cardiac change in question, is 
 proved by the right heart suffering in spasmodic asthma unaccompanied 
 by organic lung mischief. Periodic interferences with respiration are thus 
 alone sufficient to affect the heart. 
 
 The above conclusion seems so evident that it is a wonder it has not 
 been universally accepted, but in such works as I have consulted this 
 important factor in the production of right heart disease secondary to 
 lung mischief is not mentioned. Thus Greenhow, in his Lectures on 
 Bronchitis (XIII. and XIV.), while attributing the consecutive changes in 
 the right heart to ' pulmonary obstruction,' does not attempt to account for 
 this obstruction ; yet it is quite evident that some obstruction there must 
 be, and the question we have to answer is : What is its exact nature ? 
 Similarly, Balfour, in his excellent clinical lectures on heart diseases, 
 lays great stress upon the diminution in the capillary area as the cause 
 of the right heart change, but in the tricuspid regurgitation which not 
 infrequently attends, temporarily, an attack of acute bronchitis and in 
 which there is no such narrowing, he attributes the cardiac implication to 
 "febrile relaxation and malnutrition " of the right heart (p. 146). Yet 
 these conditions obtain in many other disorders than bronchitis 
 without any such marked implication of the right heart, and although 
 such relaxation and malnutrition play some part in provoking this latter, I 
 have little doubt that the chief cause lies in the lungs themselves. During 
 acute bronchitis there is a marked interference of that rhythmic expansion 
 and contraction of air-vessels which is absolutely necessary to the proper 
 flow of blood through the lungs ; there is an impediment in the capillary 
 area, and hence increased work is thrown on the right heart, and this 
 may result in temporary tricuspid regurgitation, and, if long continued, to 
 hypertrophy and dilatation of its chambers.
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 THE VIEWS OF GEDDES AND THOMSON. 
 
 It was shown in an earlier chapter that germ and sperm 
 cells contain in their nucleus or ' nucleoplasm ' a substance 
 (called by Weismann ' germ-plasm ') which is the bearer of 
 hereditary tendencies, and that the differentiation in the 
 bodies of the two sex-cells has for its objects the bringing 
 together of the two kinds of germ-plasm, and the nourish- 
 ment, in the earlier stages of its career, of the new being 
 arising from their union. 
 
 Whether or not we accept Weismann's view as to the 
 existence of ovogenetic and spermogenetic nucleoplasm, few 
 biologists will deny that the nuclei of the ovum and of the 
 spermatozoon contain the essential germinal material, or 
 ' germ-plasm.' Few, again, will deny that the germ-plasms 
 of the ovum and spermatozoon take, on an average, an equal 
 share in shaping the destiny of the new being to which they 
 give origin. Sometimes the germ-plasm of one sexual 
 element, sometimes that of the other, exerts the greater in- 
 fluence, so that in one case the offspring is more like the 
 father, in another more like the mother; but, striking a 
 general average, we may say that the germ-plasms of the 
 ovum and spermatozoon share equally in determining the 
 structure of the offspring. 
 
 Here we must again ask whether the primary object of 
 fertilisation is the bringing together of two germ-i)lasms 
 which differ only in that they are the bearers of different 
 
 c.
 
 98 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 hereditary tendencies ; or whether it is the union of two 
 germ-plasms having quite different 'physiological 7iatures. 
 Let us carefully distinguish between the two. Granting 
 that the two reproductive cells are equal as bearers of 
 hereditary tendencies, it is still open for us to suppose that 
 they are physiologically different, that each is characterised 
 by physiological properties peculiar to it, and that it is the 
 coming together of two such physiologically unlike plasms 
 which constitutes the essential object of fertilisation. 
 
 We have seen that, while Weismann acknowledges sexual 
 reproduction to have arisen in the first instance from some 
 physiological necessity for the union of different cells (as in 
 the conjugation of unicellular organisms), he is unwilling to 
 allow that such necessity now exists among the higher 
 organisms, contending that in the process of evolution this 
 need has died away and been gradually replaced by the 
 necessity for the union, not of cells possessing different 
 physiological, but different hereditary tendencies, in order 
 that, by the commingling thereof, abundant variations shall 
 arise on which natural selection shall operate. Geddes and 
 Thomson, on the other hand, although admitting that sexual 
 reproduction has in this latter way very materially aided 
 evolution, contend that the essential purpose of sexual union 
 was at the beginning, is now, and is likely to continue to 
 be, the union of cells physiologically unlike. 
 
 According to these writers, the differences in the bodies of 
 the ovum and spermatozoon do not subserve secondary ends 
 but constitute primary physiological differences, which are 
 supposed to j)ermeate the entire reproductive cell, in- 
 cluding its nucleus. They maintain, moreover, that these 
 physiological differences are not limited to the sex-cells, but 
 characterise the entire individual — that the male individual 
 and male reproductive cell on the one hand, and the female 
 individual and female reproductive cell on the other, have 
 physiological characteristics which constitute in the one 
 case the essence of ' maleness,' in the other the essence of 
 ' femaleness.' 
 
 These differences they sum up by saying that the male
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 99 
 
 organism is the more katabolic, and the female organism the 
 more anabolic. In other words, the male organism is 
 characterised by the tendency to a rapid breaking down of 
 complex molecules, and by a corresponding activity (expen- 
 diture of energy) ; the female organism by the tendency to 
 a building up of molecules and by a corresponding inactivity 
 or passivity (storage of force). 
 
 Similarly in regard to the reproductive elements : the 
 spermatozoon is essentially katabolic ; its energy is ex- 
 pended, not stored up, the cell being highly active and 
 correspondingly minute ; while the ovum is essentially 
 anabolic, there is a strong tendency to the building up of 
 molecules and storage of energy, and the cell is correspond- 
 ingly large and inactive. 
 
 Thus the large, sluggish, inert ovum stands in striking 
 contrast with the small, active, katabolic spermatozoon.' 
 
 It will be seen that in these authors' opinion the anabolic 
 and katabolic tendencies constitute the criteria of maleness 
 and femaleness — the degree of maleness and katabolism on 
 the one hand, the degree of femaleness and anabolism on the 
 other, rising and falling together. 
 
 Now I presume no one will for one moment deny that 
 the ovum is more anabolic than the sperm, and the female 
 orofanism more anabolic than the male, but the view taken 
 in this work, and probably that which most modern biologists 
 will be inclined to follow, is that the predominant anabolism 
 on the one hand, and the predominant katabolism on the 
 other are contingent, and result from the division of labour. 
 According to this view, the spermatozoon has become modified 
 for the purpose of securing the union of the two nucleo- 
 plasms, the body being especially adapted for motion, for 
 seeking out and impregnating the ovum. The latter, on the 
 
 1 'r 
 
 The difference in size, answering to the difference in anabolic and 
 katabolic tendency, is not always maintained, for while the germ is always 
 larger than the sperm, and sometimes enormously larger, the female is 
 by no means always larger than the male. Up to the level of the am- 
 phibians she generally is, but the reverse is the rule in the case of birds 
 and mammals.
 
 loo THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 other hand, has become modified for the purpose of providing 
 a fit environment for the young embryo, notably for furnish- 
 ing it with proper food-stuffs at a period of its existence 
 when it is not yet able to shift for itself. Similarly, 
 the entire male organism has become modified Math a view 
 to seeking out and impregnating the female ; and the latter 
 for seeming the proper environment for the new being 
 during the earlier periods of its career. 
 
 Geddes and Thomson, however, hold a very different 
 opinion regarding the morphological differences between 
 sperm and germ, and between male and female. Eespecting 
 the latter, they write: " The agility of the male is not a 
 special adaptation to enable that sex to exercise its functions 
 with relation to the other, but is a natural characteristic of 
 the constitutional activity of maleness. So brilliancy of 
 colour, exuberance of hair and feathers, activity of sweat 
 glands, are not and cannot be (except teleologically) ex- 
 plained by sexual selection, but in origin and contimied 
 development (the italics are mine) are the outcome of a male, 
 as opposed to a female constitution. To sum up the posi- 
 tion in a paradox, all secondary sexual characteristics are at 
 bottom primary, and are the expression of the same general 
 habit of body as results in the production of male 
 elements in the one case, or female in the other." ^ 
 Later, however (pp. 29, 30), while asserting that each sex has 
 differentiated towards its respective goal by virtue of its 
 inherent maleness or femaleness, they admit that sexual 
 selection has been a " minor accelerant in the differentiation 
 of the sexes," and, indeed, this concession is necessary to 
 explain the greater size of the males of birds and mammals ; 
 for otherwise, to be consistent with their theory, the males 
 should be smaller than the females, just as the spermatozoa 
 are smaller than the ova. 
 
 1 " The Evolution of Sex." Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, 
 p. 22. I fail to see the grounds on which the authors make this statement. 
 The continual selection of the most beautiful, most powerful, or otherwise 
 specially endowed males is surely competent to account for these sexual 
 ftharacteristics without any recourse to teleology.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. lor 
 
 Now, in my belief, this theory of a fundamental physio- 
 logical distinction between the male and the female organism 
 is demonstrably erroneous. The fact that the secondary 
 sexual characters are occasionally transposed is surely of 
 itself absolutely fatal to it. Yet, curiously enough, those 
 singular cases in which the hen bird is the more gaily 
 decked, active, eager, combative, ferocious, and courageous, 
 and the male the more passive and sober coloured, are 
 actually cited in support of it, its advocates arguing that in 
 these special instances the female is the more katabolic, 
 the more male, while the male is the more anabolic, the 
 more female ; so that the fundamental physiological differ- 
 ences necessary to sexual reproduction still obtain, being 
 merely differently distributed. But the fact is strangely 
 overlooked that in these cases there are no corresponding 
 differences between ova and spermatozoa. The ova of 
 the katabolic females are as anabolic as ova in cjeneral, 
 while the spermatozoa of the anabolic males are as katabolic 
 as they usually are .... Could we have a more perfect 
 proof that, as far as sexual individuals are concerned, the so- 
 called maleness and femaleness are not primordial and 
 essential differences, but secondary and derived, the result, 
 in fact, of .sexual selection ? [I lay particular stress upon 
 these cases of transposition of secondary sexual charac- 
 ters, because they prove conclusively the unsoundness of the 
 above views.] 
 
 Another argument against these conclusions is afforded 
 by hermaphrodite organisms. Such organisms are both 
 male and female, but how, I would urge, is it possible (as 
 it must be, if maleness and femaleness are synonymous 
 with katabolism and anabolism,) for one individual to be 
 pervaded through its entirety by two diametrically opposite, 
 and fundamentally distinct physiological habits ? How can 
 one organism be throughout, at one and the same time, 
 essentially anabolic and essentially katabolic ? The presence 
 of the one tendency involves the absence of the other. It 
 is true that many hermaphrodites are dichogamous ; but it is 
 almost certain (although Geddes denies this) that such
 
 I02 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 dichogamy takes place because it is of advantage to the 
 organism that self-fertilisation should be prevented, and not 
 because the ripening of the two sexual elements at the same 
 time is physiologically impossible. And again, a large 
 number of organisms are not dichogamous, they can produce 
 the male and female elements at the same time ; in which 
 cases tracts of tissue in close proximity give rise simulta- 
 neously to highly anabolic and highly katabolic cells. 
 Hence it is manifestly impossible that the production of 
 either kind of cell by a unisexual organism implies a pervad- 
 ing tendency throughout the organism either to anabolisra 
 on the one hand or to katabolism on the other. 
 
 While, therefore, we cannot agree with Geddes and 
 Thomson, that tlie katabolism and anabolism which un- 
 doubtedly characterise the male and female sexes respectively, 
 express primary and fundamental sexual differences, we shall 
 nevertheless find it useful to direct our attention very care- 
 fully to what is in any case a most important sexual differ- 
 ence, and one having no small pathological significance. I 
 therefore now propose to consider the chief arguments on 
 which their conclusion is founded. 
 
 The cochineal insect affords a good example of the 
 characteristic katabolism and anabolism of the male and 
 female respectively. " The female cochineal insect, laden 
 with reserve products in the form of the well-known 
 pigment, spends much of its life like a mere quiescent 
 grub on the cactus plant. The male, on the other hand, 
 in his adult state is agile, restless and short-lived .... 
 a vivid emblem of what is an average truth through- 
 out the world of animals — the predominant passivity 
 of the females, the predominant activity of the males." ^ 
 Again : " The insect order of bee parasites is remarkable 
 for the completely passive and even larval character of 
 the blind parasitic females, while the adult males are 
 free, winged, and short-lived. Throughout the class of 
 insects there are numerous illustrations of the excellence 
 ^ Cjj. cit. The italics are mine.
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 103 
 
 of the males over the females, alike in muscular power 
 and sensory acuteness. The diverse series of efforts by 
 which the males of so many different animals, from cicadas 
 to birds, sustain the love-chorus affords another set of 
 illustrations of pre-eminent masculine activity," 
 
 This contrast is, however, not so marked among the 
 higher animals. In them " it shows itself rather in many 
 little ways than in any one striking difference of habit, 
 but even in the human species the contrast is recognised. 
 Every one will admit that strenuous, spasmodic bursts of 
 activity characterise men, especially in youth and among 
 the less civilised races ; while patient continuance, with less 
 violent expenditure of energy, is as generally associated with 
 the work of women." 
 
 It is further pointed out that the body temperature is 
 in many cases lower in the female than in the male. It 
 is, for instance, in plants, insects, and the human species, 
 and this is taken to indicate that with them the females 
 are more anabolic than the males. The fact that in many 
 species the females are longer-lived than the males points in 
 the same direction, and the authors suggest that women are 
 longer-lived than men, apart altogether from the greater 
 immunity of the former from unfavouring external circum- 
 stances. 
 
 They also contend that the predominant katabolism of 
 the males is shown by their frequent brilliant colouring. 
 Pigments being waste products, an excessive production of 
 them is "the expression of intense katabolism."^ They 
 similarly explain the superabundant growth in the male sex 
 of hair and feathers, the exaggerated activity of the sweat- 
 glands, and the development of combs, wattles, horns, and 
 such-like skin excrescences — all of which, they hold, point 
 
 1 The theory that the various skin appendages may subserve the purpose 
 of excretion was, I believe, first advanced by Sir James Paget in his 
 classical lectures on surgical pathology :" The hair, for example, in its 
 constant growth, serves, not only local purposes, but for the advantage of 
 the whole body, in that, as it grows, it removes from the blood the various 
 constituents of its substance, which are thus excreted from the body." — 
 3rd Edit., p. 18.
 
 I04 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 to " a predominant activity in the skin of the feverish 
 males ; " and they quote Eolf to the effect that it is the 
 vigorous growth of the blood-vessels in the horn protuber- 
 ances of the stag and in the feather papillae of birds which 
 ' conditions ' the excessive growth of horns in the one 
 case, and of feathers in the other — a position which no one 
 is likely to dispute with them. But what, I would ask, 
 conditions the arrangement of the blood-vessels, so that the 
 various skin appendages shall grow according to a fixed 
 and definite design ? That the frontal protuberances of the 
 stag, for instance, receive during the growth of the antlers 
 an abundant blcod-suiDply is only what might be asserted 
 d, 'priori, but the existence of this abundant blood-supply 
 does not explain how the antlers have, through the ages, 
 evolved to such beautiful proportions, and the only reply 
 forthcoming is that here sexual selection must be admitted 
 to have played some part, thougli its influence has been 
 secondary to that of the predominant katabolic habit of the 
 male. 
 
 Again, though the assumption that the brilliant colouring 
 of the males is due to extreme katabolism is ingenious, it is 
 one against which strong arguments may be advanced. 
 
 In the first place, the excretion of jDigments by the skin 
 is a very slow and laborious process : pigments may be 
 eliminated far more rapidly by means of the bile and 
 urine. Then, again, the females may be more brilliantly 
 coloured than the males (but to this objection it is replied 
 that in such cases the females are the more katabolic). 
 It may further very pertinently be asked — Does the 
 hypothesis account for the fact that the pigment in its 
 excretory passage through the skin paints it in beautiful 
 designs ? It might be just as satisfactorily eliminated 
 in the form of compounds of a dull, uniform tint ; never- 
 theless, there is great variety of colour and infinite com- 
 plexity of design. Surely this variety and orderliness of 
 pigmentary deposit subserve a purpose ? I am aware that 
 the anatomical arrangement of the bones and blood-vessels 
 accounts in some measure for the design ; but that it does
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 105 
 
 so only partially is evident from the fact that the colouring 
 matter is most profusely excreted in those parts where it 
 can be best displayed, and this seems to suggest some 
 other purpose than mere excretion. It is true that light 
 is favourable to pigmentary deposit, and therefore we should 
 expect it to be most abundant in the most exposed parts ; 
 pigment, however, may be profuse in unexposed parts, as in 
 the axilla of man. Moreover, if the pigmentary deposit is 
 a mere expression of maleness, why does the cock-bird take 
 such pains to show off the beautiful colours and design of 
 his plumage before the hen ? ^ 
 
 Finally, it may be pointed out that the colouring of 
 animal (as well as of vegetable) organisms is very completely 
 under the control of selection. One has, in support of this 
 statement, merely to allude to the wonderful protective 
 colouring displayed throughout the animal and vegetable 
 worlds, and so ably and interestingly described by Wallace. 
 
 Against Darwin's explanation of the greater beauty of 
 the male birds an objection is urged which seems, at first 
 sight, to have some weight — namely, that his explana- 
 tion presupposes a permanent lesthetic standard on the 
 part of the females — " a standard fashion from genera- 
 tion to generation ; " for, if the females were to select 
 according to individually different tastes, uniform types of 
 beauty would be impossible ; and yet these certainly obtain. 
 Seeing that in the human species fashion is so tickle, how, 
 they ask, can it be constant among the lower animals ? To 
 which it may be replied that, although fashion in dress is 
 continually changing among modern civilised communities, 
 yet the standard of human beauty is fairly constant for any 
 one people ; and that although it is to a certain extent true 
 that ' every eye forms its own beauty,' nevertheless, in any 
 given community there is a fair agreement as to what 
 constitute, unmistakably, ' types of beauty.' Moreover, it 
 must be remembered that fickleness of fashion is a mark 
 more especially of the progressive races ; in the East, where 
 all is stationary and stereotyped, and men to-day are living 
 1 See " Note " at the end of the chapter.
 
 zo6 THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 as their ancestors have lived for hundreds — nay, thousands 
 — of years there is no such constant change in decorative 
 art, personal or other. The Hindu still weaves the brilliant 
 threads in which he delights into the same designs as his 
 father and his father^s fathers did before him ; the metal 
 worker of Benares still hammers his brass into patterns as 
 old as his craft itself ; the Bedouin Arabs of to-day dress 
 very much as did the patriarchs ; the Syrian woman still, 
 like Hannah of old, ' exalts ' her horn. And among the 
 lower races of mankind we find the same uniformity, the 
 same conformity to ancient modes ; and though their standard 
 of beauty is very different from that of civilised peoples, it 
 is very definite and stable ; they do not adopt, for instance, 
 European standards on coming in contact with Europeans. 
 The Hottentot mother still squeezes her baby's nose flat in 
 the belief that a snubnose is the most beautiful ; the dandy 
 of the Andaman Isles still paints one side of his face red, 
 the other green ; and the Eed Indian brave looks with 
 contempt upon the ' pale-face,^ just as the more cultured 
 Chinaman does on the ' ugly, red-haired English/ and the 
 big-footed Western ladies. The fact is, that as the organic 
 scale is descended, the more instinctive does the organism 
 become, the more stereotyped the nervous system. Hence 
 it is that the sexual instincts of the lower animals are 
 stereotyped, in the strictest sense of the word, and it would 
 be surprising if the taste with which Darwin accredits certain 
 hen-birds were not stereotyped along with the rest. 
 
 The authors find a further argument in favour of their 
 view in considering the question — What determines sex ? 
 Every unisexual individual is at one stage of its career 
 hermaphrodite. What determines its ultimate sex ? Does 
 the organism carry within itself its future sexual destiny ? 
 Or is the sex which it ultimately assumes the result of 
 environmental conditions ? It is quite certain that in 
 some cases the sex is determined by modifying the en- 
 vironment, but whether this is true in all it is at present 
 impossible to say. As a rule, it is found that circum-
 
 PART I.J THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 107 
 
 stances favouring anal»olism favour also the development 
 of the female sex, while circumstances favouring kata- 
 bolism tend to the development of the male sex. Thus the 
 proportion of female to male tadpoles rises when the supply 
 of food is increased ; in the case of certain fish the per- 
 centage of females has been actually increased, with increase 
 of food, from 56 per cent, to 96 per cent.; and, as regards 
 bees, " within the first eight days of larval life the difference 
 of a little food will determine the striking difference between 
 the worker and queen." A similar result follows from 
 increasing the food-supply of files, moths, crustaceans, and 
 even mammals. Of the highest mammal — man — it is said, 
 for instance, that more boys are born after wars than during 
 a long-continued peace, and after serious epidemics than 
 under circumstances of healthy existence, when the per- 
 centage of female births rises. In the one case circumstances 
 favour katabolism, in the other anabolism, and " if influences 
 favouring katabolism make for the production of males, 
 and if anabolic conditions favour females, then we are 
 strengthened in our previous conclusion, that the male is 
 the outcome of predominant katabolism, and the female of 
 equally emphatic anabolism." 
 
 Note. — Although I believe selection to have played an important part in 
 the evolution of beautiful animal forms, yet it is quite certain that much of 
 their beauty has arisen independently of it. This is suggested by the fact 
 that the beauty of the vegetable world and of inanimate nature cannot be 
 explained on the principle of selection. We cannot— e.^., adequately 
 explain the beautiful forms and colouring of wild-flowers on the supposition 
 that they have evolved by natural selection to attract insects and thus 
 ensure cross-fertilisation. Variet}-, brilliancy, and delicacj' of colour may 
 in some measure have evolved by this and kindred means, but assuredly not 
 grace of outline. 
 
 How, then, are we to account for the beauty of flowers, and other natural 
 objects — in a word, for the beauty of ' nature ' ? The popular belief that the 
 surface of our planet is in itself and of itself beautiful ; that is to say, that 
 there is in the world outside us an actual concrete beauty similar to that 
 which exists in consciousness, cannot of course be accepted. Beauty is 
 purely mental, and no more exists independently of mind than does taste, 
 smell, or any other phenomenon. No one would for one moment maintain 
 that a saline taste is inherent in salt ; it is on all hands acknowledged
 
 loS THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 that salt is merely an agent capable, when applied to certain nervous 
 structures, of exciting a certain sensation, or mental state which, 
 however, bears no analogy to anything existing in the agent producing it, 
 though it is to that agent that we apply the terms ' salt taste,' ' saline,' 
 ' saltness.' And in like manner it cannot be said that beauty exists in 
 nature. Here likewise it has to be admitted that the external world is 
 merely a cause of a certain mental state distinguished, as far as language is 
 concerned, from other mental states by terming the exciting causes of it 
 beautiful ; in other words, that certain external agents operating upon 
 certain of our end-organs are capable of pleasurably affecting that part of 
 our consciousness which we call our aesthetic faculty, though these 
 aesthetic eflEects bear no likeness whatever to anything in those agents. 
 We will, for convenience, denominate this power of the external world to 
 excite assthetic feelings within us, its ' aesthogenic ' power. 
 
 But while it will be readily conceded that there is no concrete beauty in 
 nature, it may still be argued that nature is necessarily cestJiogenic, that it is 
 so constituted as to excite our aesthetic being and to create in us the 
 belief that it is inherently beautiful. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to 
 show that even this assumption is false. The truth is, not that nature is 
 necessarily and essentially aesthogenic {i.e., to all and every conceivable 
 creature under all and every conceivable circumstance) but that it has 
 accidentally become cesthogenic by virtue of its operation on the nervous 
 systems of man and other . animals during their evolution. One can 
 conceive of beings belonging to other worlds, with nervous systems some- 
 what like our own, but evolved under different conditions, to whom this 
 planet, if they were transported to it, would appear unlovely. 
 
 But in order to substantiate this conclusion, let us consider the case of 
 simple sensations. Take, for instance, taste again. Everybody knows 
 that a certain sapid substance cannot be regarded as necessarily agreeable 
 or the reverse (or, more accurately, as necessarily producing agreeable 
 sensations or the reverse) ; and that its pleasant or unpleasant ' taste,' as 
 we denominate the sensation it produces, depends essentially, not upon 
 its inherent nature, but ujaon the nervous organisation of the individual 
 tasting it. Different species of animals are very differently affected by 
 the same substance, its effects depending upon the peculiar way in which 
 the nervous system has in each case evolved. Each species has evolved 
 so as to be agreeably affected by certain substances, and disagreeably by 
 others, the object being to attract the organism towards the former as 
 beneficial, and to guard it against the latter as deleterious. We cannot, 
 therefore, arbitrarily divide substances into those which necessarily 
 produce pleasant, and those which necessarily produce unpleasant tastes 
 (sensations). There is nothing intrinsically peculiar to either class. 
 And what is true of taste sensations is true also of all others. It is, there- 
 fore, manifest that those things which produce pleasant sensations in us 
 do this by virtue of the peculiar way in which the human nervous system 
 responds to contact with them, and hence it follows that had the various 
 external agents operating upon us been quite different from what they
 
 PART I.] THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. 109 
 
 actually are, our nervous organisation would also have evolved differently, 
 and therefore be differently affected by them. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as the Eesthetic impressions made on us by nature are 
 but a complex of such simple sensations as we have been examining, it is 
 evident that we cannot, from the premiss that nature produces aesthetic 
 enjoyment in us, argue the conclusion that therefore it is of itself and 
 in itself beautiful ; all that is proved is that our nervous system is now 
 such that nature is for it ajsthogenic ; in other words, that certain 
 aithereal and atmospheric undulations and vibrations striking on our end- 
 organs produce in us the pleasurable effect we call ' beauty' in the object 
 or objects producing it. For in thought and speech we transfer the 
 impression made upon ourselves to the thing making that impression, and 
 think and speak of the latter as an attribute or property of the former. 
 
 Taking the truth of the above assumptions as granted, we have now to 
 ask : How can we explain this peculiar evolution of the nervous system 1 
 Natural selection does not solve the problem for us, for while such crude 
 sensations as tastes and smells serve very definite purposes in informing 
 the individual of what is useful or innocuous, and what harmful to him, and 
 have thus come under the influence of natural selection, this has not been 
 the case with the complex sesthetic effects evoked by nature, for the 
 capacity to be jesthetically affected by natural objects and conditions does 
 not increase one's chance of survival. To many a healthy man " a 
 primrose by the river's brim " is a yellow primrose and nothing more. 
 Indeed, it is probably those most susceptible of Eesthetic emotions who 
 tend to be morbidly sensitive in their nervous organisation, and certainly 
 neuroses appear to be very common in ajstheticaUy endowed families, 
 
 Herbert Spencer has suggested that the esthetic faculties (e.g., the faculty 
 of music) have developed by education, conscious or unconscious, from 
 generation to generation — i.e., by direct equilibration. This view Weismann 
 naturally confutes, inasmuch as he denies the inheritability of somato- 
 genetic characters, and our inability, with our present knowledge, to decide 
 upon this latter question renders Spencer's explanation of their evolution, 
 otherwise so plausible, problematical. Bearing, then, in mind the doubtful 
 nature of any speculations which postulate the inheritability of somato- 
 genetic characters, I may mention that it has often occurred to me, and in 
 this I presume I have been unconsciously following Spencer (although I 
 must hold myself entirely responsible for the suggestion), that the sense of 
 beauty with which the external world inspires us has evolved by the 
 continual operation upon the nervous organisation of those external agents 
 which stimulate the senses. There is no doubt whatever that such agents 
 are capable of so moulding the different sensory systems of an individual 
 that one which at first causes a disagreeable sensation shall after a time 
 cause an agreeable one ; and assuming the inheritability of somatogenetic 
 characters, we may suppose that many stimuli have in this wa}', quite 
 independently of natural selection, become capable of exciting agi-eeable 
 sensations in an organism on the first contact. And if such is the case 
 with crude sensations, may it not be also with that more complex sense of
 
 no THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. [part i. 
 
 the beautiful excited in us by a contemplation of nature — may not, in 
 fact, the sesthogenic power of the various forces, collectively known as 
 ' Nature,' have evolved by their continual operation throughout countless 
 generations upon various portions of the nervous organisation, the nervous 
 system becoming the while so adapted to them that the respondent nervous 
 changes issue in complex pleasurable mental states ? 
 
 Here it is needful to observe that much of what is beautiful is beautiful 
 by association and by suggestion, and not merely by reason of intrinsic 
 properties, not, i.e., by virtue of the simple sensations directly excited by 
 it. Indeed some {e.g., Alison, and yet more forcibly Jeffries) have denied 
 the existence of intrinsic beauty on this ground alone, maintaining that 
 whatever is beautiful is beautiful by association, and by association only, 
 that white owes its {esthetic charm to the notion of purity it suggests ; 
 the mountain cataract, the boundless ocean, the vault of heaven, the 
 thunderclap, the lightning flash, to the suggested idea of power ; the 
 rugged castle, to its suggestions of past glory and of might; certain move- 
 ments, such as the spring of a mountain goat, to their suggestion of ease ; 
 certain curves, by calling forth similar associations. A white, smooth skin, 
 delicately tinted with red, suggests health, youth, and soft, warm touch 
 sensations ; a shrunken, dry, yellow skin, calls up the idea of infirmity and 
 age, and lacks the suggestion of agreeable contact. 
 
 It need scarcely be remarked that this view is in favour of my proposi- 
 tion that ' nature is not necessarily ^sthogenic' I cannot, however, go 
 the length of Jeffries, who even maintains that all the beauties of music 
 arise by association ; for, beyond all doubt, certain sounds are pleasing 
 independently of it, and though, doubtless, the highest aesthetic effects 
 are largely due to association, we have still to acknowledge that nature is 
 to some extent sesthogenic independently of it. 
 
 The adequate consideration of this question would require more space 
 than I can here allow myself. I shall not, therefore, seek further to 
 substantiate my view, but will merely add that it is not inconsistent, 
 although at first sight it may appear to be, with the teachings of those 
 writers (e.g., Ruskin) who assert the existence of ideal beauty, and who 
 maintain that in proportion as art realises this ideal it is perfect ; in pro- 
 portion as it falls short of it, imperfect. The fact that there is no concrete 
 beauty outside us, answering to our sense of the beautiful (which is a 
 mental state, of which alone we can know anything) ; and the further fact 
 that the visible universe is not intrinsically, but only accidentally, Eestho- 
 genic, must not blind us to the reality of beauty. Beauty is as real, and in 
 the same way real, as anything else of which our senses make us cognisant ; 
 as real as light, heat, saltness, sound, scent; and, like all these, is subject 
 to definite laws, to elucidate which is the task of such masters as Reynolds 
 and Ruskin. The position they take up is, I presume, somewhat as 
 follows : All those whose Eesthetic sense is most acute and most highly 
 cultivated agree upon certain principles, certain criteria, by which to decide 
 what is beautiful and what is not ; from which it may be argued that an 
 individual whose taste does not conform to these principles shows imperfect
 
 PART I.] THE E\^OLUTION OF SEX. in 
 
 aesthetic development. Should he, however, admire something which 
 appears unlovely to one endowed with keener aesthetic sense than him- 
 self, it would not be correct to assert that there is no beauty in that 
 which he admired, for if he admires it, it is beautiful to him ; the 
 true position is this : If such an one were to develop his aesthetic faculties 
 to the full, that which before was beautiful to him might — probably would 
 — become ugly, but he would not thereby be a loser ; he would now be 
 capable of more varied and more intense aesthetic pleasures, he would 
 stand upon a higher aesthetic level. Or, to put it another way, if the 
 aesthetic faculty were incapable, by the most careful education, of 
 attaining a higher level than that it attains in the average uncultured 
 individual, the canons of art would be quite different from what they are 
 now, and yet one might still, and with equal justice, speak of ideal beauty, 
 as Ruskin does. Only the ideal would be changed. In short, the ideal 
 shifts as evolution advances.
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHIEFLY CONCERNED WITH THE PATHOLOGICAL 
 APPLICATION OF CONCLUSIONS ARRIVED 
 AT IN PART I. 
 
 H
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GEDDES AND THOMSON'S VIEWS APPLIED TO MAN. 
 
 The consideration of the views of Geddes and Thomson 
 has emphasised the fact that the male sex is for the most 
 part more katabolic than the female. There can be no 
 doubt that it is so in the human species, and we shall find 
 it very useful to bear this truth in mind in the study and 
 treatment of disease. It is needful, however, to point out 
 that there are exceptions. Some men — those whom we 
 should term lymphatic — are essentially anabolic ; and simi- 
 larly there are women — of the nervous, energetic type — who 
 are essentially katabolic. In all cases of nervousness it is 
 desirable to determine under which category our patient 
 should be placed, and the task will be found as interesting 
 as it is useful ; but before showing the practical applica- 
 tion of these remarks, we may consider the evidence in 
 support of the above proposition — viz., that women are on 
 an average predominantly anabolic and men predominantly 
 katabolic. 
 
 Women, as a class, show a greater tendency to put on 
 fat than men, and the tendency is particularly well marked 
 at puberty, when some girls become phenomenally stout. I 
 would here remark, by the way, that one possible cause of 
 this may be the periodic loss of blood which begins at that 
 time : for it was noticed by Hippocrates that the periodic 
 bleeding of animals is conducive to the laying on of fat. I 
 only suggest this, be it noted, as a possible factor ; it is
 
 ii6 THE ANABOLIC AND [part ii. 
 
 certainly not a leading one. Not only do women put on 
 fat more readily than men, but they lose it very rapidly — 
 more rapidly, I should think, than men, but of this I am not 
 sure. It is well known that of all the tissues of the body 
 adipose tissue gains and loses in weight the most readily, 
 and the facility with which women gain fat is obviously an 
 important physiological attribute, it being necessary that they 
 should be able to store up food-stuff's for the nourishment of 
 the growing foetus and new-born child ; and, further, that 
 they should be able to draw rapidly upon this stored-up 
 material. It is most interesting to note how individual 
 women differ in their fat-storing tendencies. Sometimes, as 
 already observed, fat is stored up at the time of puberty in 
 abundance, but in these cases it generally happens that the 
 individual becomes thinner by about the age of twenty, and 
 two or three years after this she may become very much 
 thinner. As a rule, during the first months of pregnancy 
 fat is absorbed, but in many cases this is again deposited 
 during the later months. The effects of lactation vary 
 widely : some women increase very considerably in weight 
 during this period ; others show an equally marked tendency 
 to lose weight ; in others, again, the weight remains sta- 
 tionary. These differences serve as an index of the natural 
 tendency, whether to anabolism or katabolism, and need to 
 be inquired into if we wish to gauge it. 
 
 Just as women differ widely among themselves in their 
 fat-forming tendencies, so also do men, and it is often 
 desirable that we should know the past history of our 
 patient in this respect. Some men, like some women, 
 cannot be got to put on fat under any circumstances ; 
 others, no matter how active nor how careful in regard to 
 food, remain abnormally stout. Of course it must be borne 
 in mind that the anabolic or katabolic tendency of the 
 body does not necessarily indicate a correspondingly ana- 
 bolic or katabolic habit of the entire nervous system. Occa- 
 sionally individuals intellectually very katabolic — like Dr. 
 Johnson — are physically distinctly anabolic ; and it is cer- 
 tainly not rare to meet with men and women who, in spite of
 
 PART II.] KATABOLIC HABIT. 1 1 7 
 
 excessive stoutness, are very active, both in body and mind. 
 As a rule, however, the reverse is the case : the naturally 
 lean are generally the most energetic; I say the witurally 
 lean, because the leanness may be merely a result of the 
 activity. 
 
 The anabolism of women is shown in another way : 
 women, as a class, are much less active than men — much 
 more stay-at-home. Particularly is this the case with 
 married women, although it is not infrequently true of the 
 young and unmarried. Thus we have on the whole a much 
 greater difficulty in getting women to take sufficient exercise 
 than in getting men. After the climacteric, however, women 
 frequently become much more active than during their 
 menstrual life. 
 
 The anabolic tendency of women often manifests itself 
 some time before, during, and some time after puberty. For 
 two or three years before puberty the girl is very apt to 
 become listless and languid, to tire easily, and to display a 
 tendency to loll about ; and she may continue in this condi- 
 tion two or three years after puberty has distinctly declared 
 itself. A similar tendency, accompanied by lethargy, is very 
 apt to attend the menstrual periods throughout the whole of 
 menstrual life. 
 
 The anabolic habit of women is further shown by the 
 fact that they require more sleep than men ; for on the 
 whole the quantity of sleep which an individual takes is a 
 fairly accurate measure of his anabolic or katabolic tendency, 
 small sleepers being for the most part katabolic, great 
 sleepers anabolic. This perhaps does not hold good before 
 the period of puberty, for more sleep is taken during child- 
 hood than after, and yet children are active and katabolic. 
 It should be observed, liowever, that while children expend 
 a large amount of energy, they are also continually storing 
 it up in the form of new tissue. 
 
 Although women sleep longer and show a greater disposi- 
 tion to sleep than men, Macfarlan states that they can 
 better bear the loss of sleep, and most physicians will agree 
 with him. This seeming paradox may perhaps be explained
 
 ii8 A^'ABOLIC AND KATABOLIC HABIT, [part ii. 
 
 as follows : — Women, being more anabolic, have, as a rule, 
 a relatively larger fund of reserve energy to draw upon ; 
 and, moreover, their nerve force does not run out so rapidly 
 as in men ; men, on the other hand, expend their energy 
 rapidly, and have not, therefore, a large reserve store to fall 
 back on ; consequently they rapidly feel the effects of 
 diminished sleep. 
 
 In woman the pulse-rate is more rapid than in man, 
 beating on an average 80 per minute in the former, and 
 71.5 per minute in the latter. Now, one would rather 
 expect women, as the more anabolic, to have the slower 
 pulse — katabolism implying an active circulation. The 
 pulse-rate, however, bears a peculiar relation to the height 
 of the body, diminishing in inverse proportion to it,^ and 
 inasmuch as women are, on an average, considerably shorter 
 than men, we may, I think, in this way reconcile the 
 apparently contradictory facts. 
 
 The re,spirations also are more rapid in women than men, 
 and a similar explanation applies here. 
 
 Lastly, women bear the loss of blood better than men — 
 another fact which may be associated with their anabolic 
 tendency, implying, as it does, a large reserve of energy. 
 Whether they recover more readily from surgical operations 
 I have not been able to ascertain. One would rather 
 expect they would, but Sir James Paget, to whom I applied 
 for information on this head, informed me that he had not 
 observed any difference in this respect. 
 
 •^ See Landois and Stirling's Phrsiology, 3rd edit., p. 107.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GEDDES AND THOMSON'S VIEWS PATHOLOGICALLY APPLIED. 
 
 We now turn more particularly to the pathological 
 application of Gecldes and Thomson's views. 
 
 The great constitutional anabolism of women causes them 
 to submit more readily to enforced rest than men. Of 
 course individual peculiarities have to be taken into account, 
 but the naturally active man is very apt to revolt against 
 this regimen, and women of katabolic tendency also bear it ill. 
 They may even lose weight in bed, and make rapid strides 
 towards recovery directly they are allowed to get up. On 
 the other hand, the man of anabolic tendency does not feel 
 the restriction of his activity so much as the one who is 
 ordinarily katabolic. 
 
 The fact that women bear rest well, and also rapidly 
 store up energy, i.e., increase in weight, enables us frequently 
 to produce striking ell'ects merely by putting them to bed 
 and feeding them up. In this way we cure uhe emaciated 
 hysteric. 
 
 Not only do women, as already noticed, sleep longer than 
 men, but they, moreover, show a greater readiness to sleep, a 
 fact which harmonises with their anabolic disposition. 
 Hence we should expect women to suffer less frequently 
 from sleeplessness than men ; and this, I believe, is the case. 
 One of the greatest difficulties we have to contend with in 
 nervous men is sleeplessness, a result, no doubt, of excessivi; 
 katabolism ; their nervous centres do not readily take on
 
 I20 THE ANABOLIC AND [part ii. 
 
 that quiescent or anabolic state which constitutes the essence 
 of sleepiness, but are abnormally alert ; they unduly expend 
 energy, are too katabolic, and the more nervous the man, the 
 more excessive, probably, this tendency. 
 
 Here we may allude to the amount of sleep required by 
 different people. In this, as in all things medical, experi- 
 ence is the great test. Most intelligent people can find out 
 for themselves what is good or bad for their health, though 
 it is true that many do not realise the necessity of making 
 common-sense observations to this end until they are fairly 
 advanced in life, and some not even then. Thus, when 
 a patient asks his physician whether such and such a 
 thing is good for him, the latter can often best answer him 
 by putting another question : by asking, namely, whether any 
 ill-effect is experienced after it. If not, then in all pro- 
 bability, it is not harming him (I say, in all probability, 
 inasmuch as an injurious agent may work its effect insidi- 
 ously ; generally, however, this guide is a safe one). We 
 are asked, for instance, whether alcohol is good or bad for a 
 particular individual. In many cases we can at once 
 answ^er definitely, but in others we cannot. We then ask 
 our patient to abstain totally from alcohol for two or 
 three months, and meantime to compare his health with 
 what it was while he w^as taking alcohol. If the circum- 
 stances of the individual are the same during each period, 
 save in respect of the alcohol, we have a scientific means of 
 answering him with the utmost precision. Similarly in 
 respect of sleep ; most people can tell from their own 
 observation how much sleep is good for them — what is too 
 much and what too little. But independently of their own 
 observation we may be guided to a right conclusion by 
 another consideration. The excessively anabolic we should, 
 on a 'priori grounds, expect to err on the side of excessive 
 sleep, excessive anabolism predisposing to laziness, drowsiness, 
 sleep — in all of which conditions the nerve-centres are in 
 an essentially anabolic state. Hence the fat, lazy, ' lym- 
 phatic' individual, who shows an excessive tendency to sleep, 
 should not indulge it ; the centres should be encouraged to
 
 PART II.] KATABOLIC HABIT. 121 
 
 become more katabolic. On the other hand, the active, 
 restless, nervous individual, should be encouraged to 
 sleep long, that the centres may be rendered more 
 anabolic. Many cases of serious nervousness can, I feel 
 convinced, be traced to excessive nervous katabolism — an 
 undue tendency to nervous explosion. I do not now so 
 much allude to sudden and temporary nerve-storms as to 
 that continuous exjilosive hahit which manifests itself by 
 incessant activity of brain and muscle — by a mind ever 
 on the alert, and by restless movements of the facial 
 muscles, eyes, hands, and other parts. In such cases our 
 business is to induce aiiabolism, and to this end we 
 should encourage the disposition to sleep. 
 
 The great recuperative power of women is worthy of note. 
 Not only do they bear loss of blood extremely well, but 
 many of the most sickly show an extraordinary power of 
 lighting against exhausting diseases. Tenacity of life, in 
 fact, appears to be greater among them than among men, 
 and I know of few facts in biology more remarkable. So 
 much, indeed, is male mortality in excess of female that, 
 though the number of males born is decidedly greater than 
 the number of females, the female population is consider- 
 ably larger than the male. And this excessive mortality of 
 the male sex obtains not merely in the case of a few 
 diseases, but in almost all. Thus, exclusive of deaths from 
 diseases connected with the female generative system, the 
 mortality of the male sex is greater than that of the female 
 in practically all diseases excepting cancer, chorea, gallstones, 
 peritonitis, diphtheria, and whooping-cough.^ The number 
 of males born in England during the years 1878-87 
 was 1038 to every 1000 females;^ yet in 1888 the popu- 
 lation of England and Wales was 1 3,93 1,592 males and 
 14,697,212 females,^ and the tables given for the last fifty 
 years show a similar excess. Again, the average death-rate 
 in England in 1888 was for the males 18.8; for the 
 females, 16.8; increased in London to 20.0 and 17.0 
 
 ^ Registrar-General's Report, 1888, p. xxviii. 
 
 - Jbid., table 10, p. xli. ^ Jbid., table i, fi. xxxii.
 
 122 THE ANABOLIC AND [part ii. 
 
 respectively. The same disparity is observed in each county; 
 thus in Surrey (extra metropolitan) it was 15.7 for the 
 males, 13.2 for the females; in Bedfordshire, 18.5 for the 
 males, 1 6. i for the females, and in no single county was 
 there a departure from the rule.^ We have not, therefore, 
 to deal here with a mere coincidence, but with a fixed law. 
 How, then, are we to explain the greater mortality of the 
 males ? Are we to suppose it is because the male sex is 
 exposed to a more unfavourable environment than the 
 female, or that this sex is less tenacious of life ? 
 
 The former explanation will doubtless occur to many. 
 That it is not the whole explanation will soon be shown, but 
 how far is it an explanation at all ? Although I attach the 
 greatest importance to the influence of the environment on 
 an organism, I am convinced that the part played by an un- 
 favourable environment in causing the proportionately 
 greater mortality of the male sex has been much exaggerated. 
 Are we, in the first place, quite sure that the environment 
 of the male sex is, on the whole, more unfavourable than 
 that of the female sex ? More men than women die from 
 accidents, it is true, but this excess does not aft'ect the 
 comparative mortality in any notable degree. Intemper- 
 ance, also, no doubt plays a far larger part in provoking 
 disease among men than among women, and the same is 
 perhaps true of syphilis ; but having said this, we have 
 indicated the chief circumstances tending to increase the un- 
 favourableness of the male environment. And against the 
 evil efi'ects on the male of intemperance, syphilis, and the 
 conditions leading to accident, w^e have to set the injurious 
 effects on the woman of prolonged confinement. The 
 contrast in this respect is not so marked in towns as in the 
 country, town men being much confined (yet even then not so 
 much as town women). In the country the men spend most of 
 their time out of doors, the women being occupied nearly all 
 day at home. This constant confinement, together with the 
 exhausting efi'ects of child-bearing, nursing, and the continual 
 irritation of household worries, tells profoundly on the 
 1 Registrar-General's Eeport, table 10, p. xli.
 
 PART II.] KATABOLIC HABIT. 123 
 
 woman's health ; so that after a few years of married life the 
 blooming girl is but too often changed into a haggard, 
 bloodless woman. If we put these ill effects in the balance 
 against those peculiar to the man's environment, it may fitly 
 be asked whether the country man is really much worse off 
 as regards environment than the country woman. We can 
 hardly think he is. Nevertheless, we find here in the 
 country the male death-rate as much in excess of the female 
 as in the towns, and this at least suggests a greater tenacity 
 of life on the part of women. 
 
 But now we come on firmer ground than mere specu- 
 lation as to the merits and demerits of the respective 
 environments, about which it is impossible to do more than 
 surmise : we have actual proof that the female sex is more 
 tenacious of life than the male. It can be shown that the 
 mortality of the male sex is higher than that of the female, 
 quite independently of environmental peculiarities. The male 
 death-rate in England during the first five years of life is 
 69.5 per thousand, while the female is only 59.7. Now 
 during these five years the environment is very much the 
 same for both sexes, and notably for the first two or three 
 years. After this it tends to differ, becoming wider and 
 more varied for the boy than for the less active girl, a cir- 
 cumstance which will probably operate chiefly by exposing 
 him to injury, and injury is very apt to provoke disease, 
 such as tubercule, in which way we may perhaps explain the 
 greater tendency to meningitis — whether ' simple ' or tuber- 
 culous — among boys than among girls. For the first two 
 years, however, we may, as I have said, regard the environ- 
 ment of the two sexes as practically the same, and what do 
 we find ? During these years the male mortality exceeds 
 the female more than at any other period. Thus, to instance 
 a few diseases, I gather from the Registrar-General's Eepori 
 for 1888 that the total mortality from diarrhoea at all ages 
 is considerably greater for males than females and that this 
 is true for the first year of life (p. xxv.) ; also that the 
 death-rate from measles at all ages is greater for males than 
 females, and it is expressly stated that this excess is entirely
 
 124 
 
 THE AJs^ABOLIC AND 
 
 [part II. 
 
 due to their higher mortality in the first two years ; " at 
 each later year in the first quinquennium and in each later 
 age-period the female mortality is the higher " (p. xxiii.) 
 
 The accompanying table gives the mortality from a 
 number of diseases at all ages for either sex per standard 
 million.^ 
 
 Small-pox 
 
 1854-87 
 
 M. 183 
 
 F. 148 
 
 Measles 
 
 1848-87 
 
 M. 426 
 
 F. 408 
 
 Scarlet Fever 
 
 1859-85 
 
 M. 763 
 
 F. 73S 
 
 Diphtheria . 
 
 1859-87 
 
 M. 157 
 
 V. 176 
 
 Croup .... 
 
 184S-S7 
 
 M. 221 
 
 F. 192 
 
 Whooping-cough . 
 
 1848-87 
 
 M. 451 
 
 F. 554 
 
 Diarrhoea ) 
 Dysentery J" 
 
 Enteric Fever 
 
 1848-87 
 
 M. 932 
 
 F. 835 
 
 1869-87 
 
 M. 288 
 
 F. 277 
 
 It will be observed thar, with the exception of diphtheria 
 and whooping-cough, the mortality is distinctly higher in the 
 males.^ The total mortality from all these diseases we find 
 to be 3421 per million for the males and 3328 for the 
 
 1 Registrar- General's Report, 1888, table F., p. xxi. 
 
 - Possibly the larger larynx and greater muscular strength of the boy 
 may account in some measure for the smaller mortality among males from 
 diphtheria.
 
 PART II.] 
 
 KATABOLIC HABIT. 
 
 12: 
 
 females, but if it be taken for tlie first few years of life, the 
 disparity is much greater. We have, therefore, definite 
 proof that during the first five years of life at all events, 
 the female is more tenacious of life than the male in respect 
 of these diseases. 
 
 The following table,^ giving the average annual death-rate 
 for the two sexes in England during the last fifty years 
 (1838-88) at different periods of life, ['age-periods,'] is 
 highly instructive: — 
 
 A&ES. 
 
 i 
 
 All 
 ages. 
 
 0- 
 
 5- 
 
 10- 
 
 15- 
 
 i 
 20- 1 25 - 
 
 1 
 
 35- 45- 55- 
 
 63- 
 
 75- 
 
 85 and 
 upwards. 
 
 Deaths to a Thousand Living. 
 
 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 
 
 
 22.7 
 
 69-5 
 
 7-3 
 
 4.4 
 
 6 I 8.2 
 
 9.4 13-0 
 
 1S.9 
 
 32. s 
 
 67.7 
 
 147.6 
 
 313-1 
 
 Females. 
 
 20 "6 
 
 59-7 
 
 7-5 
 
 4-5 
 
 6.6 
 
 7.8 
 
 9.4 
 
 12.0 
 
 15.6 28.0 
 
 59-9 
 
 134.2 
 
 287.7 
 
 From this it will be seen that up to five years the 
 mortality of the male is decidedly greater than that of the 
 female, being 69.5 for the one and 59.7 for the other. 
 From 5—15 the male death-rate is only slightly in excess of 
 the female. From 10-20, however, the female mortality is 
 greater than the male. From 20-35 the male mortality is 
 again slightly the higher, remaining so up to extreme old 
 age ; and so marked is this increase in male mortality 
 after the period of middle life, that it seems doubtful 
 whether it is entirely due to innate differences in the sexes. 
 While I think that an innate tenacity of life on the part 
 of the female continues even after middle age to be the 
 chief cause of the female death-rate being lower than the 
 male, yet it must be acknowledged that these statistics 
 afford some OTOund for the belief that the environment of 
 the male is, on the whole, more injurious than that of the 
 female, and that the increasing disparity in tlie death-rates 
 
 ^ Abridged from table 13, p. xliv. of Registrar-General's Report, 1888.
 
 126 THE ANABOLIC AND [part ii. 
 
 after the middle period of life is in part due to the fact that 
 the accumulated evil effects of that environment then begin 
 to tell upon the man. 
 
 There are two periods which are peculiarly critical to the 
 female. Of these the more important is the period of 
 puberty. The mortality at this age seems to be especially 
 due to diseases of the respiratory organs which at all other 
 periods of life are more fatal to the male sex. The follow- 
 ing passage in the Eegistrar-General's Eeport may be quoted 
 in this connection : — 
 
 It is " sufficiently clear that before any satisfactory answer can 
 be returned to the question, whether any given disease is more 
 fatal in the one than in the other sex, it is absolutely necessary to 
 take age into account. There are, it is true, some diseases among 
 those to which both sexes are liable, that are at every age-period 
 more destructive to one sex than the other. Such, for instance, 
 are gout, carbuncle, alcoholism, diabetes, fistula, pleurisy, 
 aneurism, calculus, cystitis, and generally diseases of the urinary 
 organs, which at each age-period carry off more males than 
 females ; such also are cancer, chorea, and gallstones, which are 
 practically at all ages more destructive to women. But in the 
 majority of cases, one and the same disease is more fatal at some 
 ages in one sex, and at other ages in the other. As instances 
 may be cited phthisis, apoplexy, syphilis, erysipelas, and hernia ; to 
 which may further be added several others, which, though at most 
 age-periods they carry off annually more males than females, yet 
 in the exceptional period of puberty reverse the order of 
 fatality, and are more destructive to the female sex ; such are 
 pneumonia, bronchitis, and generally the diseases of the re- 
 spiratory organs, and such also are pericarditis and rheumatic 
 fever." — B. P. Henniker, Reg.-Gen. An. Report, 1888, p. xxviii. 
 
 Small-pox also appears to be peculiarly fatal to the 
 female at this period. Thus, while the average male death- 
 rate from this disorder for all ages is i 8 3 per million for the 
 males, and 148 for the females, at the time of puberty it is 
 greater for the latter.^ 
 
 The second and third years appear to mark a similar 
 
 ^ Eegistrar-General's Report, 1888, p. xx.
 
 PART II.] KATABOLIC HABIT. 127 
 
 critical period in the female, the mortality from many 
 diseases which before this time are more fatal for the male 
 sex now bein^ his;her for the female. Such diseases are 
 diarrhoea, measles, diphtheria, typhoid, and small-pox.^ 
 Henniker gives the following explanation : — 
 
 " The general explanation appears to be that the first year of 
 life, and in a smaller degree also the second, is pre-eminently 
 dangerous to male children, who from a pathological point of view 
 are weaker than girls of corresponding age, and, if not more liable 
 to be attacked by most illnesses, are at any rate more liable to 
 succumb to them. These first years of life over, the two sexes for 
 the rest of early childhood stand more on an equality ; and, more 
 of the weakly males having already succumbed, there may perhaps 
 now be even some slight inferiority on the side of the girls."' 
 
 The fact that it is necessary, in considering the comparative 
 mortality of the sexes, to take age into account is of interest, 
 and notably so in regard to the zymotic fevers, for it shows 
 us, not only that each sex varies at different age-periods in 
 respect of certain subtle nutritional peculiarities, but that 
 these variations do not run parallel for either sex. Instance 
 the case of small-pox cited above. Typhus affords a similar 
 example. Murchison^ points out that while the mortality 
 from this disorder is greater amone males than females, being 
 19.6 and 18.2 per cent, respectively, yet it is at one parti- 
 cular period, namely, between the ages of five and fifteen, 
 tivice as great among the females as amooig males ! It is also 
 noteworthy that the mortality from a particular fever does 
 not vary as the tendency to contract it. Thus, while the 
 male death-rate from typhoid is greater than the female, the 
 latter is considerably liigher from the third to the twentieth 
 year, although the liahility to contract the disorder during 
 these years is considerably less in the case of the female. 
 Similarly, scarlatina, though attacking males less frequently* 
 than females, is more likely to terminate fatally with 
 them. 
 
 ' Registrar-General's Report, 1S88, p. xxii. " Ih'uL, p. xxiii. 
 
 ^ '' The Continued Fevers of Great Britain," 2nd edit., 1884, pp. 238-9. 
 ■* Registrar-General's Report, 1888, p. xxvi.
 
 128 THE ANABOLIC AND [part ii. 
 
 In no diseases is the recuperative power of the female sex 
 better shown than in those of the nervous system. The 
 prognosis of nervous disorders is on the whole more favour- 
 able in women than in men. This conclusion is, I think, 
 borne out by observation of isolated cases. Such experiences 
 are, however, often misleading ; questions of this kind can 
 only be fairly decided by an appeal to statistics, and on this 
 particular question statistics of but one class of nervous 
 diseases are available — those of the mind. I shall deal with 
 these in a separate chapter ; it is enough here to observe 
 that two important conclusions are easily deducible from 
 them : — (i) That recoveries are more common among insane 
 women than among insane men ; (2) That the mortality is 
 less among the former than the latter. These results are, 
 no doubt, partly due to the fact that the male sex is more 
 liable to gross organic lesions of the nervous system than 
 the female, but we may fairly, I think, in part explain 
 them by assuming a greater innate recuperative power in 
 the female sex. 
 
 Men being more katabolic than women, and their ner- 
 vous centres, therefore, more explosive, one would expect 
 them to show the greater tendency to those disorders which 
 are attended by an excessive expenditure of energy. For 
 instance, w^e should look for a greater frequency of the severer 
 forms of neuralgia among them than among the anabolic 
 women. We know that real angina pectoris is far more 
 common in men than women, and I am inclined to think 
 that the like is true of the other severe forms of neuralgia. 
 The most terrible facial neuralgia I ever witnessed occurred 
 in a man. 
 
 For the same reason one would rather expect mania to 
 be more frequent among men than women, but if, according 
 to the view ably supported by Bevan Lewis, mania is 
 essentially due to profound dissolution, we cannot well 
 connect the tendency to it with the katabolic tendency — 
 with the tendency to the expenditure of energy. Whether 
 an individual has mania or melancholia depends — so this
 
 PART II.] KATABOLIC HABIT. 129 
 
 author contends — not upon any intrinsic explosive 
 tendency of nerve centres but upon the depth to which 
 nervous dissohition has proceeded. He writes : — " Funda- 
 mentally distinct as these mental states would appear to 
 be, we have little doubt that the process of reduction 
 is the same for both ; but in maniacal states the dis- 
 solution is to a (jreater depth — the difference is one of 
 degree."' 
 
 It is somewhat doubtful whether mania is more com- 
 mon in men than in women. The generally received 
 opinion is, I believe, that it is, but according to E. Boyd's 
 tables " females are more frequently attacked than males. 
 These tables show the females in considerable excess as 
 subjects of mania under the age of twenty-five, the propor- 
 tion being as 55 to 30, while melancholia, on the other 
 hand, is shown to be more common in males, the proportion 
 for all ages being as 188 to 132 ; and it may be remarked 
 by the way that melancholia is most common in the males 
 between the ages of 60 and 65 ; whereas in females it is 
 most common between 20 and 35, and between 40 and 45. 
 Writing on pubescent insanity, Bevan Lewis affirms that 
 maniacal states predominate over states of depression both 
 in the male and female, but not to the same extent in the 
 former as in the latter, so that melancholia is more 
 pronounced in the pubescent insanity of the male than of 
 the female.'^ 
 
 In a subsequent chapter ( Woman an Undeveloped Man) 
 reasons will be given why women should be more liable 
 to intense nervous explosions than men, in spite of their 
 anabolic habit. 
 
 The katabolic tendency of the male sex as compared with 
 the female is well shown by comparing the crimes of which 
 the two sexes are respectively convicted. The following 
 table indicates some of the more important crimes com- 
 
 ^ A Text-hook of Mental Diseases, W. Bevan Lewis, London, 1889, 
 p. 163. 
 
 - Journ. Ment. Science, vol. x. pp. 496-7. 
 ■' Ihiil. p. 339. 
 
 1
 
 ijo 
 
 THE ANABOLIC AND 
 
 \^PART II. 
 
 mitted by patients received into the Broadmoor Asylum 
 from 1863 to 1882':— 
 
 Crimes. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. I 
 
 Murder 
 
 237 
 
 152 
 
 Manslaughter .... 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 Attempt to murder, maim . 
 
 
 
 209 
 
 36 
 
 Assault, common 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 Treasonable and seditious offences 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 Burglary and housebreaking 
 
 
 
 109 
 
 7 
 
 Eobbery on the highway . 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 Larceny and petty thefts . 
 
 
 
 241 
 
 106 
 
 Arson and malicious burning 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 7 
 
 Felony (not otherwise described) 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 9 
 
 Threatening by letter 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 Attempted self-murder 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 The various crimes enumerated in this table are, of 
 course, predisposed to by peculiar mental constitution, in- 
 dependently of katabolic or anabolic habit. They are 
 further predisposed to by circumstance, and the circum- 
 stances of the man are more in favour of them than those 
 of the woman. We may, however, fairly connect the 
 katabolic habit of the male, his predominant activity, with 
 a tendency to commit them. An anabolic habit, a tendency 
 to passivity, on the other hand, acts as a hindrance to crime. 
 
 It will be observed that attempts at suicide are more 
 common among men than women. In Europe suicides are 
 three times as numerous among men as among women — a 
 fact we may associate with their respective katabolic and 
 anabolic habits.' 
 
 ^ Abridged from the table compiled by W. Orange, and referred to in 
 his Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting of the Med.-Psych. Ass., 
 July 27, 1883. See Journal of Mental Science, vol. xxix. p. 336. 
 
 - For some interesting remarks on the comparative tendency of the sexes 
 to crime see " Das Weib in der Natur- und Volkerkunde," H. Ploss, 
 Leipzig, 1884, vol. i. s. 26. In civilised communities the women have a 
 greater tendency to crime than among more primitive peoples. This pro- 
 portion is greater in towns than in the country, and greater in the North 
 of Europe than in the South. Otto Hausner (" Vergleichende Statistik 
 von Europa," Lemberg, 1865, vol. i. s. 135) has compared the relative 
 tendency to crime of the sexes in many countries. Taking the whole of 
 Europe, crimes committed by men are five times as frequent as those com-
 
 PART II.] KATABOLIC HABIT. 131 
 
 Does the pregnant woman show a greater resistance 
 to disease than the non-pregnant ? It has often been con- 
 tended that she does — that when a phthisical woman, to 
 instance a particular disorder, becomes pregnant, the disease 
 temporarily subsides, to burst out afresh after parturition. 
 Now, there is certainly an analogy between the elaboration 
 of complex molecules for storage in the mother's own 
 body as so much potential energy, and the elaboration of 
 such molecules for the nourishment of the foetus ; and since 
 a strong anabolic tendency, however induced, is inimical to 
 tuberculosis (in which disorder katabolic tissue-disintegration 
 is intense, and co -extensive with the entire body) it might 
 fairly be argued that the excessive anabolism of the woman 
 during pregnancy is inimical to the progress of the disease. 
 This is, however, mere speculation, and perhaps entirely 
 misleading in natvire ; for in the first place it is not 
 absolutely certain that the disease is arrested during 
 pregnancy, and in the second, it must be remembered that 
 the anabolism of the mother is similarly increased during 
 lactation, yet, so far as I know, no corresponding immunity 
 from disease — tubercular or other — has ever been remarked 
 during this period. Eather is the contrary view — that 
 nursing predisposes to disease — the more likely. 
 
 mitted by women. According to Dr. D. Nicolson the average daily popula- 
 tion of the convict prisons of England in 1871, was 8218 men, 1217 women 
 {Journal of Mental Science, vol. xxiii. p. 181) ; and the numbers of criminal 
 lunatics under detention in asylums and other licensed houses on 
 September 29, 1875, were, respectively, 520 males, 158 females [Ibkl. 
 p. 185).
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE COMPARATIVE LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN TO 
 GROSS LESIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 It has been remarked in passing that the male sex is 
 decidedly more liable than the female to gross lesions of the 
 nervous system. In this chapter I propose to give evidence 
 in proof of this statement. 
 
 The disparity is observed from the earliest age, and 
 hence cannot be wholly due to differences in the environ- 
 ment of the two sexes. Thus male idiots preponderate over 
 female in every country in Europe, Mitchell estimating, 
 from an examination of 1345 idiots, that the proportion is 
 as 100 to 79.^ It was found in the census of the insane 
 in Prussia (1880) that 9809 males and7827 females were 
 born idiots, and Koch has some interesting observations 
 to the same effect.^ 
 
 No doubt the greater size of the cranium in the male 
 predisposes to idiocy by rendering the brain liable to injury 
 during labour, but it certainly does not entirely account 
 for its excess among males. Not only malformations 
 of the nervous system, but practically all kinds of con- 
 genital malformations are more common in the male sex,^ 
 
 1 Edin. Med. Journal, vol. xi. p. 639. 
 
 2 Journ. 3Iental Science, vol. xxvi. p. 435. 
 
 * I was led to this opinion by a consideration of the generalisation set 
 forth in the text, namelj', that the male sex is more liable to vary than the 
 female ; and I found my anticipation correct by a reference to the 
 Registrar- General's Reports. The following table is constructed from the
 
 PART II.] VARIABILITY OF THE MALE SEX. 133 
 
 a fact which may be explained by an important biological 
 law pointed out by Darwin, viz., that the male sex is more 
 variable than the female throughout the entire animal 
 kingdom, man being no exception. He varies between 
 wider extremes than woman ; and thus we find idiots and 
 
 Beports for the years 1884- 1888. In it the deaths from congenital defects 
 per million of the persons living in England are given for either sex. 
 
 Diseases. 
 
 1 
 
 1884. 1885. 1 1886. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. M. 
 
 F. M. 
 
 F. 
 
 Spina Bifida 
 
 21 
 
 25 20 
 
 26 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 
 Imperforate Anus 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 9 i 5 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 Cleft Palate, Hare-lip . 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 Other congenital defects 
 
 10 
 
 9 12 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 Total .... 
 
 54 
 
 46 
 
 49 46 
 
 52 
 
 42 
 
 Diseases. 
 
 1887. 
 
 1888. 
 
 Average for 
 the 5 years. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 24 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 Spina Bifida 
 Imperforate Anus 
 
 22 
 
 24 
 
 18 
 
 20.6 
 
 24.2 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 10.2 
 
 4.6 
 
 Cleft Palate, Hare -lip . 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 5-8 
 
 Other congenital defects 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 II. 8 
 
 9.6 
 
 Total. 
 
 52 
 
 41 
 
 46 
 
 46 
 
 49.6 
 
 44.2 
 
 Taking the average of these five years, we find that the deaths from 
 congenital defects per million was 49.6 for the male sex, 44.2 for the 
 female. There is, contrary to my expectation, a decided excess of deaths 
 from spina bifida for the female, the average being 20.6 male, 24.2 
 female. This female excess cannot be chance, since it obtained in four of 
 the five years, in the remaining year (1886) the numbers being equal, viz., 
 22. In deaths from malformation of either end of the alimentary canal there 
 was a marked excess of male cases, the average deaths per million from 
 imperforate anus for the five years being 10.2 males, 4.6 females ; and for 
 cleft palate and hare-lip, 8 males to 5.8 females. I doubt not that a similar 
 excess would be found for other malformations of the alimentarv canal.
 
 134 LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN [part ii, 
 
 geniuses alike more common in the male than in the female 
 sex, just as are dwarfs and giants. 
 
 Other gross organic defects of the nervous system besides 
 idiocy, are more common in the male sex. I allude to 
 those which are due not to arrested development, not to 
 imperfect evolution, but to marked dissolution of nervous 
 tissue, to serious degenerative changes. This is strikingly 
 brought out in the subjoined list of structural nervous 
 lesions. It is by no means always easy to distinguish 
 between mere functional derangement and unmistakable 
 structural disorder, as for instance in the case of epilepsy, 
 paralysis agitans, and tetanus. Among the diseases 
 enumerated below I have classed ' genuine ' epilepsy as 
 functional, for although of course some peculiarity of 
 structure underlies this disorder (Bevan Lewis, indeed, 
 claims to have discovered a distinct microscopic change in 
 it), it cannot be said to be due to any gross lesion. Paralysis 
 agitans and tetanus, on the other hand, I have regarded 
 as organic diseases ; for while no lesion has yet been dis- 
 covered in the former, none can doubt that it is essentially 
 a structural disorder — tlie character of its symptoms clearly 
 pointing to serious degenerative change ; and tetanus has 
 to be similarly classed, seeing that it is due to a micro- 
 organism, and in this respect falls under the same head as 
 tubercle. Tetany, on the contrary, like such disorders as 
 laryngismus stridulus and infantile convulsions, may be safely 
 classed as functional. 
 
 For the following extracts I am indebted almost entirely 
 to W. E. Gowers' " Diseases of the Nervous System." We 
 may fairly accept them as conveying the most recent in- 
 formation on the subject of which they treat. 
 
 Acute Meningitis of the Cord. — " The disease is more 
 common in males than in females " (" Diseases of the Ner- 
 vous System," vol. i. p. i 89). 
 
 Chronic Internal Meningitis of the Cord. — " Affects men 
 more frequently than women " (p, 196). 
 
 Spincd Meningeal Hcemorrhage. — " More common in men 
 than in women " (p. 204).
 
 PART II.] TO GROSS NERVOUS LESIONS. 135 
 
 Acute Myelitis. — " Males suffer more frequently than 
 females " (p. 2 1 3). 
 
 Chronic Myelitis. — " The disease is most common in the 
 male sex " (p. 238). 
 
 Acute Anterioi' Poliomyelitis. — " Boys are somewhat more 
 prone to suffer than girls, in the proportion of four to three, 
 but (to judge by a series of iifty consecutive cases which 1 
 have tabulated in my note-books) it is only under two years 
 that a greater liability in boys can be traced "' (p. 253). 
 
 Acute Ascending Paralysis. — " The disease affects males 
 more frequently than females " (p. 275 ). 
 
 Locomotor Ataxy. — " Males suffer far more frequently than 
 females, the proportion being about ten to one. When 
 every allowance is made for the different incidence of causal 
 influences, the fact seems to indicate a proclivity inherent 
 in the male sex. The same preponderance of males obtains 
 in a disease that has some alliance with tabes — general 
 paralysis of the insane" (p. 288). 
 
 Primary Spastic Paraplegia. — " The disease affects both 
 sexes in almost equal frequency, presenting in this a contrast 
 to posterior sclerosis" (p. 330). 
 
 Ataxic Paraplegia. — " Males suffer much more fre- 
 quently than females" (p. 341). 
 
 Hereditary Ataxy (Friedreich's Disease). — " Males slightly 
 preponderate (thirty-five males to thirty females) "' (p. 350). 
 
 Progressive Muscidar Atrophy. — " The disease is more 
 frequent in males than in females, the proportion being about 
 three to one " (p. 357). 
 
 Pseudo- Hypertrophic Muscidar Paralysis. — " Males furnish 
 the majority of the cases, but the actual degree of preponder- 
 ance is not yet certain. Published cases show a proportion 
 of seven to one, but of forty-three cases that have come, 
 directly or indirectly, under my notice, thirty-three were 
 males and ten females. This discrepancy is perhaps due to 
 the fact that the slighter liability of the females influences 
 the character of the disease as well as its occurrence. In 
 them it is slighter in degree, later in development, and less 
 frequently causes death. Hence the disease is more likely
 
 136 LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN [part ii. 
 
 to escape notice in females It is probable that a 
 
 proportion of four males to one female is near the truth " 
 
 (p. 387)- 
 
 Hematoma of the Dura Mater. — " This condition is met 
 
 with chieflj in males, less than one-fourth of the cases 
 
 having been in females Tlie tendency to the disease 
 
 is enormously increased by the tissue- changes incidental to 
 
 age The affection is commonly secondary ; some cases 
 
 have followed an injury to the head, but the diseases to which 
 it is most frequently consecutive are some forms of chronic in- 
 sanity (especially general paralysis of the insane) and chronic 
 alcoholism" (vol. ii. p. 294). The greater frequency of the 
 disorder in males than in females cannot, therefore, be entirely 
 ascribed to the greater exposure of this sex to injuries." 
 
 Acute Cerehral Meningitis. — " Taking all forms together, 
 the disease is more frequent in males than females, but the 
 several varieties exhibit some difference in this respect " 
 (p. 296). 
 
 Hyclroc&plialus. — " The Eegistrar-General's returns for the 
 twenty-five years ending 1872 give the deaths from hydro- 
 cephalus in males under five as 91,681, and females as 
 
 66,708 " (p. 299 71.). 
 
 Epidemic Cerebrospinal Meningitis. — " Males are said to 
 be attacked more frequently than females. Of 255 fatal 
 cases in Stockholm, 149 were boys, 106 girls" (p. 327). 
 
 Cerehral Hmmorrliage. — " Males suffer more frequently 
 than females, although the difference is less than is com- 
 monly asserted" (p. 353). 
 
 Infantile Meningeal Haemorrhage. — " The condition seems 
 to be as frequent in one sex as in the other " (p. 381 ). 
 
 Cerehral Emholism. — " Occurs with equal frequency in 
 both sexes" (p. 389). 
 
 Infantile Hemiplegia (acute cerebral infantile palsy). — 
 " Rather more common in females than in males. Of eighty 
 cases of which I have notes, thirty-five were in boys, and 
 forty-fiva in girls" (p. 422). 
 
 Cerehral Ahscess. — " Is far more common in males than 
 in females. Of 232 cases, 174 occurred in males, 58 ii;
 
 PART II.] TO GROSS NERYOUS LESIONS. 137 
 
 females, the ratio being as three to one. The various causes 
 do not, however, influence the two sexes in the same propor- 
 tion. From ear disease the ratio of the males to females 
 is 2 to I . From injury, 5 to i ; from suppuration elsewhere, 
 4 to I. The greater liability of the males to traumatic 
 abscess is readily explained by their more frequent exposure 
 to injury ; their greater liability to abscess from other causes 
 is less easy to understand" (p. 436). 
 
 Intra-cranial Tttmours. — " The liability of males to suffer 
 is twice as great as that of females. Of 650 cases of 
 various forms of intra-cranial tumour, 440 occurred in 
 males, 210 in females. The greater liability of males is 
 not due, as might be imagined, to the influence of 
 syphilis, for it is true (as will be seen) of all forms of 
 tumour, with the apparent exception of sarcoma. The 
 difference has been ascribed to the influence of traumatic 
 causes, but it is not probable that this influence accounts 
 for more than a small part of the excess, since it is 
 rarely to be traced, and the difference in the sexual lia- 
 bility is as marked in the case of children as in that of 
 
 adults Age has little influence in relation to sex. 
 
 The relative affection of males and females is nearly the 
 same in each period of life, but there is a marked tendency, 
 as in so many diseases, for the sexual difference of the 
 early and adulc periods to disappear in the decline of life; 
 over flfty the two sexes suffer equally" (pp. 454-5). After 
 this age the cases rapidly become less numerous. 
 
 Intra-cranial Ancu'rism. — " Males suffer more frequently 
 than females, in the proportion of 3 to i " (p. 494). 
 
 Disseminated or Insular Sclerosis. — " Occurs in both sexes 
 with nearly the same frequency" (p. 507). 
 
 Chronic Bulbar Paralysis. — " Males are rather more 
 liable than females" (p. 524). 
 
 Paralysis Agitans. — " Tlie disease is more frequent in men 
 than in women, the proportion being as 5 to 3. Of 80 cases 
 of which I have notes, 50 were men and 30 women" (p, 5 89). 
 
 Tetanus. — "The ordinary forms of the disease are far 
 more common in males than in females. In traumatic
 
 138 LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN [part ii. 
 
 cases the proportion between the sexes is nearly as 6 to i. 
 The idiopathic form also occurs in males more frequently 
 than in females, although the disproportion is not quite so 
 great as in the traumatic form. Of 46 idiopathic cases 
 which I have collected, 37 were males and 9 females, a 
 proportion of 4 to i. Doubtless the chief cause of the 
 different liability of the sexes is to be found in the increased 
 exposure to the immediate causes that is involved in the 
 
 occupations of men The few cases in childhood (five 
 
 to ten years) occur in each sex with almost equal frequency " 
 (pp. 623-4). 
 
 MenUrcs Disease (Aural Vertigo). — " It is more common 
 in men than in women ; of 93 consecutive cases, 62 were 
 male, and the proportion was about the same in private as 
 in hospital patients" (pp. 726-7). 
 
 Diabetes Mellitis. — " Occurs more frequently among men 
 than women in the proportion of about 3 to i."^ 
 
 Addison s Disease. — " By far the larger number of cases 
 have occurred in men before the middle period of life."" 
 
 Chlorosis, which is probably a nervous disease, is practi- 
 cally confined to the female sex. 
 
 It will be seen that in the great majority of the above 
 diseases males are more frequently affected than females, 
 the exceptions being only five, and (from their rarity) com- 
 paratively unimportant, viz. : infantile meningeal hemor- 
 rhage, cerebral embolism, infantile hemiplegia, disseminated 
 sclerosis, and primary lateral sclerosis f and in only one of 
 these is the female sex more frequently affected than the 
 male, viz., infantile hemiplegia — a rare disorder, and one, 
 moreover, probably due primarily rather to some fault in 
 the vascular than in the nervous system. The other four 
 disorders affect the two sexes equally. One of these, 
 embolism, is essentially due to disease in the vascular 
 system; the remaining three — disseminated sclerosis, primary 
 lateral sclerosis, and infantile meningeal hemorrhage — are 
 
 ' T. Lauder Brunton : Russell Reynolds's " System of Medicine," vol. v. 
 p. 384. - Samuel Wilks : ihid. p. 361. 
 
 ^ I iiave not included clilorosis.
 
 PART II.] TO GROSS NERVOUS LESIONS. 139 
 
 decidedly rare ; some, indeed, have doubted the existence 
 of the last named. 
 
 Wherefore it is manifest that the male sex is far more 
 liable to suffer from gross organic nervous lesions than the 
 female. The question now meets us : How far is this 
 proneness innate, and how far due to peculiarities of 
 environment ? There is no doubt that the environment of 
 the male sex is, on the whole, more calculated than that of 
 the female to induce organic nervous disease ; but after 
 making all due allowance for environmental differences, we 
 are compelled, as we shall see, to fall back upon some innate 
 peculiarity of the nervous system of the male to account for 
 the pathological disparity. 
 
 To begin with, the disparity is observed in early child- 
 hood, when there are practically no differences in the 
 environment of the two sexes. Tlius, boys are more fre- 
 quently affected than girls with the following disorders : — 
 
 Acute anterior poliomyelitis. 
 Pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis. 
 Cerebral meningitis. 
 Epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. 
 Cerebral tumour. 
 
 Further, when during adult life difierences in the environ- 
 ment of the two sexes obtain, they are quite incompetent to 
 account for the great disproportion between the respective 
 liability of each sex to certain disorders. Thus, males are 
 ten times more frequently affected with locomotor ataxy, 
 and many times more frequently with general paralysis of 
 the insane, than females. Males, morever, suffer three times 
 more than females from progressive muscular atrophy ; four 
 times as often from hcematoma of the dura mater ; three 
 times as often from cerebral abscess and tetanus, and twice 
 as often from cerebral tumour. There is nothino; in the 
 respective environments to warrant us in attributing to 
 these alone such a great inequality. 
 
 Gowers points out tliat the preponderance of syphilis in 
 the male sex does not wholly explain the wide disparity
 
 I40 LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN, ETC. [pakt ii. 
 
 between the sexes as regards their liability to be affected by 
 locomotor ataxy ; and further that the greater exposure of 
 the male sex to injury does not of itself account for the pre- 
 ponderance of cerebral abscess in that sex. 
 
 In regard to tumour of the brain — males are more liable 
 than females to all forms, " with the apparent exception of 
 sarcoma." This is significant, for sarcoma is almost cer- 
 tainly parasitic, and it should not therefore surprise us that 
 sarcoma of the brain does not follow the others above- 
 mentioned in being twice as frequent in the male sex as 
 in the female, seeing that the tendency to this particular 
 tumour must be due, not to an inherent tendency to tumour- 
 formation in nervous tissue, but to an inability to resist the 
 effects of a particular micro-organism. In this connection 
 it must, however, be noted that males are more liable than 
 females to tubercle, tetanus, cerebro-spinal meningitis, and 
 carcinoma, the three former of which are certainly, and the 
 latter very probably, due to parasitic action. Primary car- 
 cinoma of the brain must, however, be very rare. 
 
 The inherent proueness of the nervous system of the male 
 to undergo organic change being then indisputable, can we 
 in any way account for it ? We have seen that throughout 
 almost the entire organic kingdom the males are more apt 
 to vary than the females — i.e., the more prone to acquire 
 new characters ; it is, however, doubtful whether this prin- 
 ciple helps us to explain their peculiar innate tendency 
 to undergo nervous dissolution or degenerative change, and if 
 we excei'jt certain of the benign neoplasmata, all the above 
 organic lesions are essentially degenerative; they are examples 
 of dissolution. The principle may perhaps explain the 
 greater tendency manifested by the male sex to benign 
 tumour of the brain, seeing that this may be due to excess 
 of formative power, such as we might look for in the highly 
 variable male ; but with our present inadequate knowledge 
 it is of course evident that we cannot on it explain also 
 the tendency of the male nervous system to be affected 
 with parasitic diseases.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF THE MORE IMPORTANT 
 FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS DISORDERS IN THE TWO SEXES. 
 
 Having considered the relative frequency with which the 
 two sexes are affected by the various organic diseases of the 
 nervous system, we may now very briefly compare the 
 frequency with which they are affected by some of the 
 more important functional nervous disorders. 
 
 Chorea " affects girls nearly but not quite three times 
 as frequently as boys. A combination of recorded statistics 
 yields 365 boys to 1000 girls. The preponderance of girls 
 is least in childhood, and increases after pulierty. The 
 disease is rare in lads over sixteen. Between twenty and 
 thirty it is practically confined to the females " (Gowers, 
 vol. ii. p. 548). 
 
 Saltatoric Spasm. — " Occurs in both sexes, and seems to be 
 rather more frequent in males than in females" (p. 584). 
 
 Hahit-Spasm. — "Is said to be more common in females than 
 in males, but it is very often seen in boys" (p. 586). 
 
 Spasmodic Torticollis. — " Is more common in women than 
 in men " (p. 611). 
 
 Tetany. — " Is rather more frequent in males than in 
 females, the proportion being as seven to six, but this relation 
 
 does not obtain at all ages Of 150 cases that I 
 
 have collected from various sources (including 8 observed 
 by myself) 142 are available for comparison in these 
 points : —
 
 142 LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN [part ii. 
 
 Ages . 1-4 5-9 
 
 Males . 26 5 
 Females . 8 3 
 
 34 8 
 
 1-9 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-61 
 
 31 23 9 4 5 4 = 76 
 II 13 15 19 8 o = 66 
 
 42 36 24 23 13 4 
 
 In early childhood the disease is far more frequent 
 in males than in females, but between the ages of twenty 
 and fifty, the liability of the sexes is reversed, and females 
 suffer twice as frequently as males" (pp. 646, 7). 
 
 Writei's Cram]). — " The affection is very much more com- 
 mon in males than in females, especially in its motor form, 
 doubtless because comparatively few women are engaged 
 in occupations that involve a large amount of writing. 
 If all forms are included, males constitute two-thirds of 
 the sufferers, but a still larger proportion, at least five- 
 sixths, of those who present the motor form " (p. 658). 
 
 Epilepsy. — " Females suffer from epilepsy rather more 
 frequently than males — in the proportion of about six to 
 five" (p. 6"/"/). This conclusion is based on 1450 cases. 
 E. Eeynolds thinks the two sexes are practically affected 
 equally with epilepsy (" System of Medicine," vol. i. 295). 
 There are, he contends, more females in out-patient depart- 
 ments, because more women can attend. 
 
 Neuralgia. — " Women are more prone to neuralgia than 
 men, but the degree of theii' liability has often been over- 
 estimated, and the excess of females among the sufferers 
 disappears in the second half of life" (p. 735). 
 
 Migraine. — " Females suffer from migraine more fre- 
 quently than males, but their preponderance is not great " 
 
 (p. 77^)- 
 
 Exophthalmic Goitre. — " Women are far more prone to suffer 
 than men, the ratio being about five to one" (p. 807). 
 
 Laryngismus Stridulus. — The male sex is the more 
 liable ; of forty-eight cases, thirty-four were males and four- 
 teen females Vogel also writes that boys are more commonly 
 affected than girls, " a fact almost all authors admit." 
 Mackenzie observes, " The greater liability of the male sex 
 which occurs in other laryngeal diseases holds good here " 
 (" Nervo-muscular Affections of the Larynx ").
 
 PART II.] TO FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS DISORDERS. 143 
 
 Hysteria is much more common in the female than in the 
 male. 
 
 Hypochondria is much more common in the male than in 
 the female. 
 
 Angina Pectoris is more common in the male than in the 
 female. 
 
 Infantile Convulsions are, like most other children's dis- 
 eases, more fatal in the male than in the female sex. Thus 
 the following table, constructed from the Eegistrar- General's 
 Eeports, gives the deaths from convulsions in either sex per 
 million of living persons in England during the years 1884- 
 1887 inclusive : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 1884 
 1885 
 1886 
 1887 
 
 985 
 931 
 951 
 885 
 
 721 
 
 675 
 698 
 654 
 
 The Reports do not expressly state that the convulsions 
 alluded to were infantile, but in all probability they were 
 almost entirely so. Nor can we from them conclude with 
 absolute certainty that, because convulsions were more fatal 
 in the male than in the female, therefore they were more 
 numerous in the male sex ; though this may be argued with 
 a fair degree of certainty. 
 
 Let us now arrange the above disorders according as they 
 afifect the one or the other sex more frequently : 
 
 Affecting Males more frequently than 
 Females. 
 
 Tetany. 
 
 Laryngismus stridulus. 
 Writer's cramp. 
 Angina pectoris. 
 Infantile convulsions. 
 Hypochondria. 
 
 Affecting Females more frequently 
 than Males. 
 
 Habit spasms. 
 
 Spasmodic torticollis. 
 
 Epilepsy. 
 
 Neuralgia. 
 
 Migraine. 
 
 Exophthalmic goitre. 
 
 Chorea. 
 
 Hysteria. 
 
 It may be mentioned that whooping-cough is more 
 common, and also more fatal, among girls than boys, but 
 how far nervous peculiarity plays a part in predisposing the
 
 144 LIABILITY OF MAN AND WOMAN [part ii. 
 
 female sex to this disorder it is difficult to say. It might 
 be argued that the specific catarrh is equally common in 
 either sex, while the whoop, by which alone the disorder 
 can be certainly diagnosed, is more common in the female, 
 the assumption being that the nervous organisation of the 
 latter is more explosive than that of the male. Such an 
 argument must, however, at once be discarded, seeing that, 
 even in the child, the nervous centres are more explosive in 
 the male than in the female, and especially is this the case with 
 the laryngeal centres — laryngismus stridulus, e.g.^ is decidedly 
 more common in the male than in the female sex. On the 
 whole, therefore, we must conclude that the female is more 
 susceptible than the male to the microbe of whooping- 
 
 €0Ugh. 
 
 We may now briefly inquire how far it is possible to 
 explain why one sex should be more prone to suffer from 
 certain of the above disorders, and the other sex from 
 certain others of them : — 
 
 Tetany, Laryngismus Stridulus, Convulsions. — The greater 
 mortality of boys over girls has already been remarked 
 upon. This is the case in nearly all diseases (diphtheria 
 and whooping-cough being almost the sole exceptions) ; 
 and the fact may possibly be explained by the boy being 
 more katabolic than the girl. Thus, to take rickets, we 
 should naturally expect the katabolic boy to be more 
 seriously affected with this complaint than the anabolic 
 girl, and therefore to suffer more seriously from its nervous 
 manifestations — to wit, tetany, laryngismus stridulus, and 
 convidsions. In rickets, the nerve-centres are, of all tissues 
 of the body, the most seriously affected. On the other 
 hand, the true explanation of the excessive proneness of the 
 boy to suffer from these three disorders may lie in a greater 
 innate tendency to explosion on the part of the nerve- 
 centres involved in them in the one sex than in the other. 
 
 Writers Cramp. — The more frequent occurrence of this 
 disorder in the male sex is perhaps due entirely to the fact 
 that men are more frequently engaged in continuous writing 
 than women.
 
 PART II.] TO FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS DISORDERS. 145 
 
 Neuralgia, Migraiiu. — The greater liability to neuralgia 
 and migraine manifested by the female sex is largely due 
 to peculiarities in the female environment. The indoor 
 life of women is especially productive of a host of minor 
 nervous disturbances, amongst which neuralgias are to be 
 reckoned. I'urthermore, women are particularly prone to 
 suffer from the various forms of antemia, be it from that 
 peculiar disorder, chlorosis (of the origin of which we are 
 still entirely ignorant), or from the ana3mia connected with 
 pregnancy, parturition, lactation, confinement indoors, and 
 improper feeding. 
 
 Other Minor Functional Trouhlcs of women, such as palpi- 
 tation, giddiness, headache, backache, numbness, Hushing, 
 dyspepsia, fainting, may be largely referred to the same 
 causes as the above ; many of them, however, may be 
 directly connected with their peculiar sexual organisation. 
 Into this subject it is unnecessary to enter further here. 
 
 Angina Pectoris. — Anginoid attacks are more frequent in 
 women than men, but the reverse is the case with true 
 angina. As the latter is generally associated with calcareous 
 coronary arteries, or with degeneration of the aortic valves, 
 both of which are more common in men than women, this 
 may help to explain the greater frequency with which men 
 are afflicted with it, though it is probably not the entire 
 explanation. 
 
 Hypochondria and Hysteria. — I do not stop here to 
 discuss why hypochondria is so characteristic of the male, 
 and hysteria of the female sex, since the subject is considered 
 in various parts of this work.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE mFLUENCE OF SEX ON PROGNOSIS IN INSANITY. 
 
 The influence of sex on the prognosis in insanity is a 
 subject of some importance. Tliere is probably no class 
 of diseases, and certainly no class of nervous diseases, for 
 which such elaborate statistical tables have been constructed 
 as for those of the mind. In our endeavour, therefore, to 
 discover how far sex influences the prognosis in nervous 
 diseases generally, we naturally turn to these, and we shall 
 probably not be far wrong in assuming that the conclusions 
 we arrive at in respect of them are to some extent true of 
 nervous disease in general. 
 
 Three facts stand out prominently in reference to this 
 question : — 
 
 1 . That the mortality is higher among insane men than 
 among insane women. 
 
 2. That the chances of recovery are distinctly better 
 among insane women than insane men. 
 
 3. That gross organic lesions of the brain are more 
 common among insane men than insane women. 
 
 I have collected a number of statistics bearing upon these 
 questions, but there will be no need to quote from more 
 than a few of them. As to the relative mortality and recover- 
 alility of the sexes, Thurman,^ Hood,^ Boyd,^ and Stewarf* 
 
 1 " Observations and Essaj-s on the Statistics of Insanity," p. 65. 
 
 - " Statistics of Insanity," p. 26. ^ Jour. Ment. Science, Jan. 1865. 
 
 * Ihid. July 1865.
 
 PART II.] 
 
 PROGNOSIS IN INSANITY. 
 
 147 
 
 all agree that the recoverability is greater in the female 
 sex and also that the mortality is less in it, with the excep- 
 tion of Stewart, who concludes that the latter is equal for 
 the two sexes. 
 
 The mortality in Scotch and English asylums in the five 
 years 1 862-1 866 on the average numbers resident was as 
 follows : ^ — 
 
 Years. 
 
 1862 
 1863 
 1864 
 1865 
 1866 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 England. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 8.84 
 7-53 
 7-54 
 6.90 
 
 7.98 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 10.54 
 
 8.79 
 8.74 
 7.56 
 8.72 
 
 11.67 
 12.09 
 12.77 
 12.85 
 13.09 
 
 8.14 
 
 7.83 
 9.42 
 
 8.49 
 8.58 
 
 Average 
 
 8.84 
 
 7.69 
 
 12.51 
 
 8.50 
 
 It will be observed that in each of these years the 
 mortality both in England and Scotland was distinctly 
 greater for the males ; notably was this the case in English 
 institutions. 
 
 Chapman found the proportion per cent, of recoveries on 
 admissions into the Eetreat between 1796 and 1844 to be 
 43.46 for the men, and 50.26 for the women.- 
 
 The same writer gives the mortality per cent, on the 
 average number resident in institutions for the insane as 
 12.76 for the males, 8.65 for the females.^ 
 
 During the year 1859 there recovered in English insti- 
 tutions for the insane 1476 males, 1757 females."* 
 
 In 1867 the recoveries and deaths in the same were as 
 follows :^ — 
 
 Recoveries. 
 Males. Females. 
 
 1. 510 ... 2.062 
 
 Deaths, 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 1.S76 ... 1.489 
 
 ^ Jour. 3lent. Sdence, Jan. 1869, vol. xiv. p. 549. 
 - Ibid. vol. xxiii. p. 188. 
 
 ^ Ihid. vol. xxiii. p. 55. The above results are based on 70 A.^^ylam- 
 years, 1865-1869 inclusive. 
 ■* Fourteenth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy. 
 ^ The Lunacy Blue-Books for 1867.
 
 148 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SEX 
 
 [part II. 
 
 The percentage of recoveries on admissions to the Eoyal 
 and District Asylums in Scotland from 1858 to 1867 was as 
 follows :^ — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 1858 
 
 33-6 
 
 40.3 
 
 1859 
 
 32.1 
 
 40.8 
 
 i860 
 
 37.7 
 
 40.1 
 
 1861 
 
 39.8 
 
 41. 1 
 
 1862 
 
 34.9 
 
 42.4 
 
 1863 
 
 32.8 
 
 40.8 
 
 1864 
 
 30.5 
 
 31-9 
 
 1865 
 
 36.6 
 
 36.6 
 
 1 866 
 
 29.1 
 
 34-1 
 
 1867 
 
 33-0 
 
 39-6 
 
 Thus, in each year, except 1865, the percentage of recoveries 
 was greater among the females. 
 
 The mortality per cent, among the inmates of the lunatic 
 wards of the poor-houses in Scotland during the same 
 years was :^ — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 1858 
 
 9-9 
 
 8.2 
 
 1859 
 
 14.7 
 
 5-7 
 
 i860 
 
 6.5 
 
 7-9 
 
 1861 
 
 16.2 
 
 II. 2 
 
 1S62 
 
 8.6 
 
 10.9 
 
 1S63 
 
 8.2 
 
 9-1 
 
 1864 
 
 7-9 
 
 7.6 
 
 1865 
 
 5-9 
 
 4.0 
 
 1866 
 
 7.8 
 
 5-2 
 
 1867 
 
 10.9 
 
 6.9 
 
 A curious fact is brought out in the thirteenth Annual 
 Eeport of the Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland. The 
 number of deaths for both sexes, according to this report, is 
 greatest in winter ; but the " tendency to death is in summer 
 greater among females than males. We have not the means 
 of ascertaining whether the difference as shown to exist be- 
 tween the male and female mortality in asylums in summer 
 and in winter, extends to the general population."^ 
 
 ^ Jour. Ment, Science, vol. xiv. p. 552. 
 3 Ibid. vol. xvii. p. 397. 
 
 Ihld. p. 553.
 
 PART II.] 0^ PEOGNOSIS IN INSANITY. 
 
 149 
 
 The percentage of recoveries upon admissions into English 
 asylums during 1882 was:^ — 
 
 Males. 
 34-85 
 
 Females. 
 44.46 
 
 The subjoined table, abridged from one contained in the 
 Thirty-seventh Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, gives 
 the percentage of recoveries and deaths in several classes of 
 institutions ; and it will be observed that in only one case is 
 the general rule departed from, viz., in that of single private 
 patients : — 
 
 
 Proportion per cent. 
 
 of Recoveries to 
 
 Admissions. 
 
 Proportion per eent. of 
 
 Deaths to the Average 
 
 Numbers resident. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 County and Borough) 
 Asylums . . j 
 
 Registered Hospitals 
 
 Metropolitan Licensed 
 Houses 
 
 Provincial Licensed 
 Houses 
 
 Single Private Patients . 
 
 36.18 
 41.36 
 25.11 
 
 27.94 
 19.44 
 
 44-53 
 46.85 
 
 37-17 
 
 36-56 
 15-71 
 
 11-75 
 
 7.37 
 
 13-74 
 
 11.24 
 2.87 
 
 7.64 
 3-85 
 6-99 
 
 8-55 
 5-90 
 
 Inasmuch as women more frequently recover from insanity 
 than men, we should expect to find that among the insane 
 of asylums more women have had previous attacks of 
 insanity than men, and such is the case in all the asylums 
 of wliich I have examined the reports. 
 
 Now, how are we to explain this condition of things ? 
 The greater recoverability and smaller mortality among the 
 female insane is perhaps in ]3art due to their greater 
 innate recuperative power, but it must be also largely due 
 to the fact that the nervous system of the male sex is, 
 on the whole, more liable to serious organic lesions than 
 tliat of the female. The female sex is more frequently 
 atl'ected with a purely functional form of insanity tlian 
 the male sex. Thus, Davison, after remarking upon the 
 excessive mortality of the males over the females in the 
 
 1 Thirty-sixth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1SS2.
 
 I50 THE INFLUENCE OF SEX [part ii. 
 
 Chester Asylum, observes : " The number of deaths which 
 occurred in the course of the year was thirty-two males and 
 eleven females. The difference in the mortality of the 
 sexes is very marked, and may be accounted for by the 
 fact that the mental derangement among the men is more 
 frequently complicated with grave bodily disease — the woman 
 enjoying a comparative immunity from the ravages of general 
 paralysis of the insane."' It is interesting to observe here 
 that moral causes are more effective in provoking insanity 
 in women than in men. P. M. Deas' figures point " to the 
 great excess of hopeless forms of insanity among the men, 
 as compared with the women," ^ and he believes that the 
 disparity may be partly explained by the fact that general 
 paralysis of the insane is more common among men. 
 
 Before leaving this subject of the relative recoverability 
 and mortality of male and female insane patients, it may be 
 mentioned that, accordiug to Boyd, age has a peculiar influence 
 in this connection. 
 
 The Greater Frequency of Gross Lesions of the Encephalon 
 in Insane Men than in Insane Women has been incidentally 
 brought out in the preceding remarks, and it is no doubt 
 part of the general truth that they are more subject to 
 organic disease of every part of the nervous system. 
 
 Of 2 5 5 men admitted into Dr. Deas' asylum during the 
 five years 1872— 1876 inclusive, 93 had died by the end 
 of 1877, while out of 220 women admitted, only 47 had 
 died.^ The causes of death in these cases are instructive. 
 They were as follows : — 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females 
 
 Cerebral affections . 
 
 . 66 
 
 20 
 
 Respiratory diseases 
 
 • S 
 
 3 
 
 Cardiac ,, 
 
 • 4 
 
 3 
 
 Plitliisis pul. . 
 
 . 8 
 
 8 
 
 Other diseases 
 
 . 10 
 
 13 
 
 93 ••• 47 
 
 Excess of Male over Female Patients in Private Asylums. 
 — Taking all institutions together, female patients are in 
 
 ^ Jour. Ment. Science, vol. xxi. p. 297. - Ib'ul. vol. xxv. p. 11. ^ Ihid.-p. 14.
 
 PART II.] ON PROGNOSIS IN INSANITY. 151 
 
 excess of male. There seems, however, good reason to believe 
 that the number of people who become insane is nearly 
 the same for each sex ; in which case the excess of female 
 patients may probably be explained by the greater mortality 
 among the male. But while the foregoing statement holds 
 good for pauper asylums, it is somewhat remarkable that 
 matters are reversed in private asylums, as will be seen from 
 the following figures : — 
 
 The number of patients in English institutions for the 
 insane on January i, 1859, was :^ — 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 Pauper . . 7913 ... 9507 Excess of females = 1594 
 Private . . 2416 ... 2177 Excess of males = 239 
 
 In Scotland at the same time the numbers were :"■ — 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 Pauper . . 2285 ... 2695 Excess of females = 410 
 Private . . 1544 ... 1354 Excess of males = 190 
 
 and again in 1862 :^ — 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 Pauper . . 2394 ... 2863 Excess of females = 469 
 Private . . 1520 ... 1359 Excess of males = 161 
 
 On January i, 1863, the private and pauper patients 
 in England and Wales were distributed as follows :* — 
 
 Males. Females. 
 
 Pauper . . 9909 ... 12089 Excess of females = 2180 
 Private . . 3042 ... 2299 Excess of females = 743 
 
 In Scotland in the same year the distribution of the 
 
 patients was :^ — 
 
 Males. Females, 
 
 Pauper . . 2393 ... 2S96 Excess of females = 503 
 
 Private . . 519 ... 533 Excess of females = 14 
 
 On January i, 1886," there were in the public asylums 
 
 ^ Thirteenth Keport of the Commissioners in Lunacy. 
 
 - Jour. 3Jent. Science, vol. vi.p. 466. 
 
 3 Fourth Annual Report of the General Board of Commissioners in 
 Lunacy for Scotland, 1862, p. 417. 
 
 ■* Seventeenth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1S63, p. 176. 
 
 ^ Fifth Annual Report of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy 
 for Scotland, 1863, p. 226. 
 
 '' Twentieth Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 1866.
 
 152 PROGNOSIS IN INSANITY. [part it. 
 
 of England and Wales 2397 more females than males, while 
 in the private asylums there were 788 more males than 
 females. In 1867, however/ while among the pauper 
 patients the females were largely in excess of the males, 
 they were, contrary to the rule, in excess (by 308) in the 
 private asylums also. 
 
 The general rule therefore seems to be, that the males 
 exceed the females in private asylums, while the reverse is the 
 case in public asylums ; but owing to the far larger numbers 
 of both sexes in the latter institutions, this distribution does 
 not affect the previous statement that, taking the whole popu- 
 lation, female patients are in excess of male. Are we, then, 
 to conclude that, among the upper classes, the male sex 
 is proportionately more frequently affected than among the 
 poorer classes ? This is very possible, for among the former 
 bread-winning involves neater wear and tear of brain than 
 among the latter. Probably also among the upper classes 
 men are sent to asylums for a degree of disease which does 
 not prevent women from staying at home. 
 
 1 Jour. Ment. Science, vol. xv. p. 589.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WOMAN ANJ undeveloped; MAN— NERVOUS DIFFERENCES 
 BETWEEN THE BOY 'AND THE GIRL — MENTAL CHAR- 
 ACTERISTICS OF THE CHILD — MENTAL RESEMBLANCES 
 BETWEEN THE CHILD AND THE SAVAGE. 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 C 
 
 From the earliest times there have been those who have 
 regarded woman as an undeveloped man. This view is in 
 harmony with the fact pointed out by Darwin, that in 
 almost all unisexual animals the adult female is more like 
 the young of either sex than the adult 
 male. There can be little doubt that 
 this law applies to the human species, 
 and that the woman is more like the 
 child than is the man. Up to the 
 time of puberty the development of 
 the boy to some extent runs parallel 
 with that of the girl, but even before 
 this period each is marked by distinct 
 characteristics ; there is from a very 
 early age a foreshadowing of the 
 essentially masculine and feminine 
 traits, and a radical difference in the nervous organisation 
 of each. At puberty the unlikeness of the two sexes sud- 
 denly increases, each developing in opposite directions, but 
 the male diverges more than the female, who thus retains 
 more of the ante- pubertal state. These facts may be diagram- 
 matically represented as at Fig. 7, in which the line a h c 
 represents the development of the female, the line a' h' c' 
 
 CL 
 
 I-HMALE. 
 
 a 
 
 MALE.
 
 154 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 that of the male, h and h' marking the period of puberty. 
 Up to that point the two sexes develop on more or less 
 parallel lines ; heyond it each diverges from the other, as 
 shown by the lines h c, h' c'; but the latter diverges more 
 than the former. 
 
 Differences hetween the Boy and the Girl in Nervous Organi- 
 sation. — Although the development of the boy and the 
 girl is to some extent similar up to puberty, yet each 
 displays distinct peculiarities of nervous organisation. This 
 is shown not only in health, but in disease also. In the 
 case of certain nervous diseases the comparative frequency 
 with which boys and girls are affected may be stated 
 with some accuracy. Thus boys are, with one exception 
 (that of infantile hemiplegia), more frequently affected 
 than girls by the following six varieties of organic nervous 
 disorders : — 
 
 Idiocy. — The proportion of male to female idiots is about 
 as five to four. 
 
 Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis affects four boys to every 
 three girls ; but it is only in boys under two years of age 
 that Gowers has been able to trace this greater liability. 
 
 Pseudo-hyjiertrophic Paralysis is considerably more common 
 in boys than girls. 
 
 Meningitis attacks boys more frequently than girls. 
 
 Epidemic Ccrelro-sjnncd Ileningitis is more common in boys 
 than girls. 
 
 Infantile HemipJdegia is rather more common in girls than 
 boys. 
 
 Of three functional nervous disorders girls are more fre- 
 quently affected by two, boys by one ; thus : — 
 
 Habit SiMsm is more common in girls than boys. 
 
 Chorea is three times more common in girls than boys. 
 
 Tetany affects boys under ten three times more frequently 
 than girls of the same age. 
 
 It may here be mentioned also that suicide is much more 
 common in boys than girls. I see from a table recently quoted 
 in the Pall Mall Gazette that during six years (i 883-1 888)
 
 PART II.] WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 155 
 
 163 boys committed suicide in the elementaiy schools of 
 Germany, against 46 girls. 
 
 We have, therefore, abundant proof from the field of 
 pathology that the nervous system of the boy differs in some 
 important respects from that of the girl. 
 
 Herbert Spencer regards woman as to some extent an 
 undeveloped man, believing that her general development 
 has been arrested by the special activity of her sexual system, 
 in her the procreative functions playing a more important 
 part than in the man. 
 
 If the proposition that the woman resembles the child 
 more than does the man is correct (and it is borne out by 
 actual observation), we should expect it to hold good of the 
 nervous system as of all others, and we have, therefore, now 
 to inquire how far the woman and the child are alike in 
 nervous organisation. 
 
 In order to arrive at any exact conclusions on this head, 
 it will first be advisable to consider the nervous charac- 
 teristics of the child, and I shall limit my observations to 
 mental characteristics. 
 
 Mental Characteristics of the Child. — The peculiarities of 
 the child-mind are of course such as belono; to an inferior 
 grade of mental evolution. Many of them may be appre- 
 hended by keeping in view the fact that the nervous 
 substratum of mind is built up on the retlex type. The 
 subject will be dealt with in some detail at the end of this 
 work, but 1 may point out here that all inento-motor actions 
 (i.e., peripheral changes wrought through mind) are either 
 actually retlex or derived from the reflex type. In the 
 simplest form of such actions the individual acts upon the 
 impulse of the moment ; an impression at the periphery 
 starts a series of nerve-currents, which, travelling up to the 
 highest centres and setting up therein certain changes which 
 are attended by consciousness, are immediately reflected 
 towards the periphery, causing definite change there also. 
 In the more complex forms of mento-motor actions, however,
 
 156 
 
 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 the central changes — material and mental — thus initiated 
 are of a more complex nature ; in place of immediate 
 action there is delay, the nervous currents lingering for 
 some time in the highest level before the efferent periphery 
 is energised : there is on the mental side deliberative 
 reflection. Now, in proportion to the complexity of those 
 material (and corresponding mental) changes in the highest 
 nervous level which intervene between the afferent and 
 efferent impulses, in that proportion has mental evolution 
 proceeded — in that proportion is the individual removed 
 from a mere instinctive organism and capable of the 
 higher forms of thought. 
 
 These distinctions between a primitive and a highly 
 evolved mind may, so far as the material side is concerned, 
 be represented as follows : — 
 
 HIGHEST LEVEL 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 y~^ 
 
 Wl 
 
 /\ 
 
 MIDDLE LEVEL 
 
 V 
 
 Fig. 9 
 
 highest level q 
 
 LOWEST LEVEL 
 
 MIDDLE LEVEL 
 
 LOWEST LEVEL 
 
 '\ 
 
 Diagram sliowiug- the parts involved in a 
 simple reflex mental act. The nerve- 
 current started at the afferent peri- 
 phery, rt, is, when it reaches the hiijhest 
 sensori-motor level (.s' J/), at once re- 
 flected towards tlie efferent periphery, 
 b, the material (and corresponding- 
 psychic) change taking place in S M 
 being comparatively simple. 
 
 
 
 $ 
 
 Diagram showinp- the parts involved in 
 a highly complex reflex mental act. 
 The nerve-current started at the 
 afferent periphery, n, when it reaches 
 the highest sensori-motor level (5^1/), 
 sets up therein a complex series of 
 mental (and corresponding psychic) 
 changes before the affei'cnt periphery 
 is energised. 
 
 The above considerations enable us to appreciate several of 
 the differences between the adult and the child mind. Thus —
 
 PART II.] WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 157 
 
 (i) Children lack will-power, acting, as they do, in only 
 a minor degree upon ideal impulses. Their conscious 
 actions are essentially of the simple reflex mental type. 
 In short, they show little tendency to reflect before acting, 
 and rarely pursue a line of purposive conduct for any length 
 of time, being attracted hither and thither by every passing 
 impression. 
 
 (2) The child is essentially imitative, displaying originative 
 faculty in only a small degree. This imitativeness is closely 
 related to the lack of will-power and of reflection, for it 
 shows, as Herbert Spencer observes, a mental action largely 
 dependent upon the outer incidents of the moment. 
 
 (3) Children are highly emotional, and, moreover, they 
 pass rapidly from one emotion to another ; one moment 
 they are in tears, another in lauo;hter. Here again we see the 
 tendency to live in the present, the inability to be affected 
 by ideal states. Hence, also, the child is very impulsive ; 
 he acts without reflection, and his passions, being unopposed 
 by ideal impulses, are allowed full play ; he flies into a passion 
 when his motlier will not give him what lie wants, because 
 he is unable, in the absence of reflection, to see that she refuses 
 for his own good. Very big children — quite grown-up, in 
 fact — are often in a similar predicament ; they fancy their 
 elders are unkind or even cruel, because this is denied 
 them and that insisted upon ; they, like the little ones, 
 are dominated by an overpowering impulse, and are unable 
 to realise all the bearings of the case. 
 
 Anstie was, I believe, the first to suggest that a violent 
 outbreak of passion was due rather '"' to the removal of the 
 check ordinarily imposed by reason and will"* than to a 
 primary stimulation of the nervous arrangements engaged in 
 the outburst. Bevan Lewis has some interesting observa- 
 tions on this head. " Certain features," he writes, " which 
 characterise the mental type of the child spring into obvious 
 prominence in the adult subject of mental disease. The 
 infantile mind is, above all things, characterised by lack of 
 control — its instincts, passions, desires, actions, all alike 
 ^ " Stimulants and Narcotics," p. 78, 1S64.
 
 158 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [paut ii. 
 
 exhibit in a high degree a want of inhibitory restriction, 
 and the further development through childhood and youth 
 to adolescence and adult age is a record of the slow 
 
 progressive superposition of controlling centres 
 
 Normal mental development is specially characterised by 
 this uniform and progressive establishment of self-control 
 (so to speak) upon higher and still higher levels.'" 
 
 (4) Another characteristic of the child-mind is feebleness 
 of the faculty of attention. Tlie attention is apt to 
 wander from one subject to another, and if by an effort it 
 is kept fixed, or unusually prolonged, mental fatigue results. 
 
 (5) It need scarcely be said that the capacity for 
 abstract thought is also feebly developed in the child. 
 
 (6) Children are very observant, and have quick per- 
 ceptions. 
 
 (7) They show a strong craving for sympathy, especially 
 when hurt or ill, when they will cry for nurse or mother, 
 and manifest the liveliest pleasure in being petted and 
 sympathised with. So strong is the craving, that a child 
 will often seek sympathy for its own sake. Having, for 
 instance, cut its finger or bruised its leg, it will sometimes 
 affect to feel pain long after it has subsided, as is shown by 
 its forgetting, in a most amusing manner, which is the in- 
 jured member. Similarly, children feign illness for the sake 
 of procuring sympathy, though this, it must be acknowledged, 
 is more often done from other motives, such as to obtain some 
 coveted indulgence. 
 
 (8) The sense of dependence is strongly developed in 
 the child. It does not rely upon its own powers, but 
 willingly places itself under the sheltering wing of another 
 — above all, of its mother. It has a stronsj instinct of 
 veneration, and is easily filled with vague, superstitious 
 awe. 
 
 (9) The child lacks courage, and is easily frightened ; 
 especially in the dark, which its imagination peoples with 
 terrible beings. 
 
 (10) Children, and particularly boys, show a remarkable 
 
 ^ " A Text -book of Mental Diseases." W. Bevan Lewis. London, 18S9.
 
 ( 
 
 PART II.] WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 159 
 
 fondness for animals. They love to keep dogs, rabbits, 
 guinea-pigs, &c. 
 
 ( 1 1 ) A further characteristic of children, not to be over- 
 looked, is the activity of their imagination, and their tendency 
 to mistake the creatures of their fancy (" the false creations 
 of the mind ") for concrete realities. This lively imagina. 
 tion often expresses itself in the most beautiful poetic 
 creations, but it tends to atrophy as the child's knowledge 
 of the world widens. The unknown and wonderful be- 
 comes, first, the familiar, and then the commonplace, and if 
 something of the poetic instinct survive the nursery and the 
 schoolroom, the all-absorbing race for wealth which engrosses 
 civilised mankind soon stifles it in all but the chosen few. 
 
 The lively imagination of the child, while on the one 
 hand it may lead to poetic creation, on the other hand may 
 tend to the falsification of facts in a dami^erous decree. 
 Children are apt to tell of all sorts of strange things that 
 have befallen them. A family of four children used to 
 vie with one another every morning at breakfast in re- 
 counting the wonderful dreams they had had over-night, 
 and it soon became evident that their experiences of dream- 
 land were pure fabrications. To such a length did this 
 habit grow upon them that the mother soon found it 
 necessary to let it be understood that the first little boy or 
 girl who had another such strange dream would be given a 
 dose of castor-oil, and from that day forth the dreams 
 miraculously ceased ! 
 
 Another instance of the child's tendency to live in a 
 world of imagination is afforded by its games. Children 
 love to play at ' pretending ' — shopkeeping, engine-driving, 
 ' church,' ' house,' and so forth — anything, in fact, that 
 they have seen their elders do (wherein, again, comes the 
 element of imitativeness). 
 
 Mental Likeness hctioeen the Savage and the Child. — Now, 
 it is well worthy of remark that all these mental traits of 
 the child characterise also primitive man, and so much is 
 this the case, that the savage has very appositely been called
 
 i6o WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 " the baby of the race." Sir John Lubbock has drawn par- 
 ticular attention to the analogy in the following passage : ' 
 " Tlius the mind of the savage, like that of the child, is 
 easily fatigued .... a short conversation wearies him.'' 
 He cannot be depended upon as the bearer of a message, 
 for he is easily " distracted on the way by counter-attrac- 
 tions." Further, his emotions, like those of the child, are 
 readily aroused, and are equally transient. " The language 
 of both, too, is very defective in words expressing abstract 
 ideas ; their thoughts, and therefore their speech, are occu- 
 pied chiefly with the concrete."^ 
 
 Again, the cruelty of the savage, his love of lighting and 
 of the chase, his strong tribal instincts, his tendency to single 
 out individuals for some personal peculiarity (as shown in 
 such names as Forkbeard, Harefoot, Bluetooth, Longshanks), 
 these all have their counterparts among the boys of civilised 
 peoples, in their free use of their fists, their occasional bully- 
 ing, their sham chases, their games of rivalry, and their 
 uncomplimentary nicknames for one another. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to enter further into the mental 
 characteristics of the savage, though we may note, as we 
 quit the subject, that his love of pets is, as Galton has 
 shown, very strongly developed, and with this I am in- 
 clined to connect the love of children for animals. For 
 just as savages are like children, so likewise are children 
 like savages, and indeed the latter is the more correct 
 way of putting the truth ; what is but a temporary stage 
 of mental development in the child being the permanent 
 mental condition of the adult savage. 
 
 ^ " The Origin of Civilisation," p. 522. 
 
 2 The English language bears out this point in a very marked way. Most 
 words relating to " religion, law, government, and war, to the less obvious 
 processes of the mind, and to matters connected with art, science, and 
 philosophy (general and abstract terms), are commonly of classical, and 
 mostly of Latin origin." For culture came to the English chiefly, though 
 not always directly, from Rome, and the influx of ready-made classical 
 words in an early stage of the language stopped the formation of native 
 words to express the new ideas to which contact with Roman civilisation 
 gave rise. Had the Norman Conquest, e.g., been delayed until the English 
 had acquired a civilisation of their own, general and abstract ideas would 
 have found expression in Teutonic forms of speech.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN (continued)— MENTAL 
 EESEMBLANCES BETWEEN THE WOMAN AND THE CHILD. 
 
 We have now to inquire how far the mind of the woman 
 resembles that of the child. Schopenhauer has perhaps more 
 than any other writer insisted upon their mental kinship. 
 His opinion I here give at some length, if only to show to 
 what extremes a great philosopher may pursue an idea if it 
 but chime in with his tone of thouoht :^ — 
 
 " For the care and education of our earliest years women 
 are peculiarly adapted, inasmucli as they are themselves 
 childish, silly {Idjjpish), and unreflecting (kurzsichtig) — in a 
 
 word, childrenall their lives Look at a girl as she 
 
 plays, dances, and sings with children the whole day long, 
 and ask yourself how a man M'ith the best intentions would 
 
 acquit himself in her position The nobler and 
 
 more perfect a thing is, the slower and later is it in reach- 
 ing maturity. The man scarcely attains his full mental 
 power before his twenty-eighth year, the woman is mature 
 at her eighteenth, liut tliere is a reason for this; it is 
 because there is little to mature in lier. "Wherefore women 
 remain throughout life children, seeing only the nearest, 
 cleaving to the present, mistaking the appearances of things 
 for the things themselves, and placing trifles before the 
 most weighty concerns Only the man blinded by 
 
 ^ Arthur Schopenhauer, " Parerga unci Paralipomena." 2 Au9 herausg. 
 V. I'rauenstiidt. II. Bd. Berlin, 1882, p. 647. 
 
 L 
 
 K
 
 i62 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 sexual passion could call the stunted, narrow-shouldered, 
 
 wide-hipped, short-legged sex the beautiful one 
 
 Neither for music, nor for poetry, nor for the constructive 
 arts, have they really and truly either sense or susceptibility ; 
 when they affect them, it is mere mimicry, and simply and 
 solely for the purpose of coquetry." 
 
 It is c^uite clear that the views of the brilliant pes- 
 simist on this subject are not the result of calm and 
 passionless observation ; yet no one can doubt that 
 women have, as a rule, more of the child in them than 
 men. The difference is to a large extent innate, yet it is 
 greatly accentuated by the differences in the environments 
 of the two sexes, the circumstances of the man tending to 
 differentiate him more and more from the child, while those 
 of the woman tend to maintain the resemblance. Her 
 career is for the most part circumscribed, and calculated to 
 foster the weaker points of her character rather than, as his 
 is, to strengthen it. 
 
 To turn now to the analogies between the feminine and 
 the child-mind. Women, as a class, are inclined to be weak- 
 willed, acting upon the impulse of the moment ; without, that 
 is to say, due reflection ( = ideal impulses). They are, more- 
 over, markedly imitative, and consequently only to a limited 
 extent original. They are very emotional, and pass rapidly 
 from one phase of feeling to another — from tears to laughter, 
 from frowns to smiles. Like children, too, but in a less 
 degree, they are observant and have quick perceptions. They 
 also crave sympathy, but, unlike children, they are very ready 
 to bestow it. Further, they are imbued with a deep sense 
 of dependence ; they have the instinct of veneration strongly 
 developed, and they are much prone to superstition.^ 
 
 That the religious bias is stronger in women than in men is 
 easily proved by comparing the relative numbers of each sex 
 attending places of worship. The disproportion is remark- 
 
 1 " Women all over the world, be they as different as they may, yet 
 agree in this : they all incline in greater or less degree to superstition." — 
 "Bosnien, Land und Leute,"' Adolph Strausz, Wien, 1882. Quoted by 
 Ploss, op. cit., Band I. s. 242.
 
 PART 11.] WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 163 
 
 able in many European countries, but especially in France. 
 I also find, by an examination of statistics, that religious 
 excitement is more frequently given as a cause of insanity 
 in women than in men. Thus in a table setting forth the 
 causes of insanity, H. Gr. Stewart gives it as operating four 
 times in men to nineteen times in women.^ We must, 
 however, be careful not to confound causes with symptoms, 
 and it is perhaps more often a symptom of insanity than a 
 cause. But, be this as it may, its greater frequency among 
 insane women than insane men is undoubtedly due to the 
 stronger religious temperament of the former. 
 
 How far women surpass men in their likeness to chil- 
 dren with respect to the imagination it is difhcult to say. 
 That men are not free from the tendency to draw upon their 
 imagination is certain — the habitual " yarner " is familiar 
 to all. I once knew an educated, middle-aged man in 
 whom the habit of misstating facts was so strong that it 
 was practically impossible to believe one word he said ; and 
 yet his friends only smiled at the weakness, well know- 
 ing him to be perfectly honourable, and not taking his 
 romancing seriously. I afterwards discovered that this 
 peculiarity had characterised him from early childhood. I 
 am disposed to think, however, that the tendency to romance 
 is, as a rule, stronger in women than in men — notably in 
 young women, so frequently have I observed it in those 
 of the uneducated orders. This fact is worth remembering 
 in connection with certain mental tendencies in the hysteric. 
 I hnd in the natural tendency of the immature mind to 
 romance one factor at least in the evolution of mytho- 
 logy, and in this, if I mistake not, I am at one with 
 Carlyle.' 
 
 The fondness of women for animals is not greater than 
 that of men, probably not so great. I am inclined, however, 
 to think that this is only because their affection for what is 
 helpless, trustful, and dependent usually finds its satisfac- 
 tion in the care of children. Where this outlet is absent, 
 
 1 Jour. Ment. Science, vol. sd. p. 157. 
 
 - See Odin in his Lectures on "Heroes and Hero-worship."
 
 1 64 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 the woman generally multiplies her pets, and certainly her 
 solicitude for them is greater than the man's. 
 
 Women, like children, are timid and easily frightened. 
 The lack of courage in either case has its origin primarily 
 in a sense of weakness ; but a lively imagination and an 
 uninformed intellioence are also factors in it. In conse- 
 quence of this timidity, fright is a much more potent cause 
 of functional disturbance in women than in men. This 
 has been well shown by Gowers in the case of epilepsy : — 
 " As might be anticipated, in childhood it (fright) is equally 
 effective in each sex ; at puberty it is most effective in 
 females, and after twenty it is seldom traceable in men, but 
 it is still a relatively frequent cause in women." ^ 
 
 Of the several characteristics of children pointed out 
 above, there only remain two to be considered, viz., feeble- 
 ness of attention and incapacity for abstract thought. As 
 both of these are due, in grown-up people, to the absence 
 of intellectual training rather than to radical mental con- 
 ditions, it follows that the average woman, whose mental 
 development has hitherto been left very much to chance, 
 is in these respects more on a par with the child than is 
 the average man ; but as the education of the two sexes more 
 and more approximates, less difference between them will be 
 observable. I have not found the capacity for abstract 
 thoudit less in educated women than in educated men. 
 
 ^ " Diseases of the Nervous System," vol. ii.p. 67S.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN {continued)— FATROLOGICAL 
 APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 From the pathological point of view it will be found 
 convenient to divide women into two classes : those who 
 retain the child-mind in a large degree, and those who do 
 not. A childlike simplicity in woman has a captivatingness 
 about it up to a certain age, but Eomanes is no doubt right 
 in maintaining that a time comes when it ought to be " put 
 away with other childish things, and in whatever measure 
 it is allowed to continue after childhood is over, the indi- 
 vidual has failed to grasp the full privilege of human life."' 
 Tennyson, however, seems to express the truth better : — 
 
 " Yet in the long years liker must they grow ; 
 He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 
 
 She mental hreadtli, nor fail in cldld-icard care. 
 Nor lose the child-like in the larger mind; 
 Till at the last she set herself to man, 
 Like perfect music unto noble words." 
 
 But, in fact, the whole matter turns, like many another 
 controversy, upon the meaning of terms, and here of the 
 term ' childlike.' If by 'childlike' we mean sincere, trustful, 
 truthful, without egoism or conceit, transparent, honest, 
 simple (in its real sense of ' without folds,' without duplicityj, 
 then we have it on authority not to be gainsaid that for 
 
 1 The Nineteenth Century, May 1887.
 
 1 66 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 woman (and for man too) the child-mind is the highest, not, 
 whatever the sacrifice, to be lost in the ' larger mind.' But 
 if by ' childlike ' we mean (what it is better, for distinc- 
 tion's sake, to call ' childish ') petulant, wayward, unre- 
 flecting, impulsive, without self-control, ignorant, then 
 childishness has to go, with all else pertaining to the im- 
 perfect state of immaturity, if a beautiful maturity is to be 
 attained. 
 
 Those women who retain in a marked degree the child- 
 mind in so far as regards absence of self-control and reflec- 
 tion, afford the most apt soil for hysteria. In fact, the 
 hysteric state is very often a melee of childish peculiarities. 
 
 Thus, weakness of will is a well-known characteristic of 
 hysteria. It is essentially upon the weak-willed woman, 
 who lacks tenacity of purpose and responds to every passing 
 passion, that hysteria fastens, and there is no more potent 
 charm against it than a strong will. 
 
 Emotionality is another prominent factor in this disorder. 
 The element of feeling even in the cultured woman is much 
 stronger than in the man, and thus her thoughts and acts 
 are more swayed by it than his ; for which reason tears in 
 woman have generally less significance — at all events in 
 ovir own race — than in man. This emotional disposition is 
 particularly marked in the childish woman, the outbursts of 
 emotion to which she is liable imperceptibly shading ofl' into 
 genuine hysterical attacks. 
 
 We have seen that the adult differs markedly from the 
 child in the power or selt-control, and that it is to lack of 
 this, rather than to a primary overaction of the nervous 
 arrangements involved, that emotional outbursts are due. 
 It is owing to this lack that woman, in spite of her anabolic 
 habit, is more liable to them than man. This is strikingly 
 shown by the fact that female prisoners are far more apt 
 than male to fits of insubordination, and so infectious is this 
 tendency that a prison matron confessed to her successor^ 
 that, when she heard the sound of crashing glass and the 
 
 ^ The authoress of a very interesting work, "Female Life in Prison," 
 1862, to which I am indebted for the above facts.
 
 PART II.] WOMAN AX UNDEVELOPED MAN. 167 
 
 general turmoil of an outbreak among the inmates, she had 
 the greatest difficulty in restraining herself from joining in 
 the melee. It must, however, be remembered that these out- 
 breaks are largely predisposed to by the excessive monotony 
 of prison life, and this, no doubt, was telling upon her, and 
 inducing the inclination. The same authority points out a 
 curious and interesting fact, which may be mentioned, in 
 passing, as an exception to the general rule that the male 
 sex varies between wider extremes than the female — viz., 
 that the female prisoners are much more troublesome than 
 male, just as the female inmates of lunatic asylums are the 
 more obstreperous. The writer ends by giving her adhesion 
 to the view : 
 
 " For men, at most, differ as Heaven and earth, 
 But women, worst and best, as Heaven and Hell." 
 
 The childlike craving for sympathy is another peculiarity 
 of the hysteric temperament. This craving is frequently 
 the clue to the whole malady. It must be borne in mind, 
 however, that women have greater reason to covet sympathy 
 than children, sympathy being the keynote of woman's 
 nature. She is by liabit more altruistic than man, having 
 constantly to sacrifice herself for her children. Not only, 
 therefore, has she the childlike yearning for sympathy, but 
 she is endowed with that larger sympatliy which is born of 
 the maternal instinct. What wonder, then, that this 
 instinct, so deeply pervading the woman's nature, should 
 run riot, so to speak, in the hysteric ? 
 
 The imitativeness of women, which is one of the chief 
 means of their remarkable adaptability, should also be 
 noticed in connection with hysteria and allied nervous 
 states, though how far a predominant imitativeness may 
 take part in hysteric phenomena I do not know ; the various 
 forms of neuro-mimesis are probably almost always un- 
 conscious imitations of other diseases. Women are certainly 
 more liable to be ' infected ' with (i.e., to imitate) neuroses 
 than men, and the various infective neuroses of the Middle 
 Ages were probably commonest among them.
 
 1 68 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 It may be regarded as certain tliat iinitativeness plays a 
 part in the production of insanity. A person inclined to 
 insanity is far more apt to develop it if much with one 
 already insane than if surrounded by the sane. Brunet 
 goes so far as to say that " there is in man such a tendency 
 to imitation that no one can live continually with a madman 
 without losing his own reason."^ Most will doubtless regard 
 this as rather too severe an indictmeut against our asylum 
 superintendents, for though, beyond all doubt, people thrown 
 much in the society of lunatics tend to get ' peculiar,' there 
 must be a strong innate tendency to insanity when such 
 unhappy results follow. Given the tendency, however, 
 imitativeness no doubt helps to develop latent insanity ; and 
 women, being more imitative than men, are probably more 
 injuriously afi'ected by consorting with the insane than they. 
 
 There is another possible consequence of this greater 
 imitativeness of the woman which may be mentioned by 
 the way. Probably one of the reasons why husband and 
 wife tend, as is so often observed, to grow like one another 
 in facial expression is that each unconsciously imitates the 
 other, and one would expect the wife to be more influenced 
 by the husband than him by her, seeing that the woman is 
 the more apt imitator of the two. A further cause, I 
 believe, lies in the fact that each gets into the same way of 
 thinking and feeling, and this sameness in mental condition 
 finds its reflex in the countenance. 
 
 In one point — viz., general bodily activity — men are more 
 like children than women, since, as we have seen, women 
 strongly tend towards passivity. And yet there is a form 
 of bodily activity in the liking for which the civilised 
 woman more resembles the child than the civilised man, 
 and that is dancing. I have been told that women are no 
 more fond of dancing than men, that their love for con- 
 ventional ' dances ' owns other causes than mere delight in 
 rhythmic movement, causes, viz., such as the music, the 
 homage they receive from the men, and the general air of 
 
 1 Jour. JJf-nt. /Science, vol. xxiii. p. 129.
 
 PART II.] WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 169 
 
 festivity and life. But, making due allowance for these 
 influences, I think there can he no doubt that women care 
 more for the amusement. Let any one observe the dancers 
 around a street organ ; a man or boy is seldom seen among 
 them. The child and the savage are both very fond of 
 dancing, a fact which I reserved while considering the mental 
 characteristics of the two, inasmuch as love of dancing can- 
 not be regarded as a purely mental characteristic, although 
 no doubt dancing is to a large extent an emotional exercise, 
 and constitutes a form of excitement in harmony with 
 woman's emotional temperament. The dancing epidemics of 
 the Middle Ages are obviously related to the war and other 
 ceremonial dances of the savage. The movements of such 
 dances tend to excite strong emotion and to arouse en- 
 thusiasm ; for just as the various emotions tend to call 
 forth particular movements, so, contrariwise, do the move- 
 ments expressive of an emotion tend to call forth that 
 emotion. Thus the movements of these wild dances im- 
 perceptibly shade off into the co-ordinate movements of the 
 hysterical fit — into ' hysteroid ' movements, to use a term 
 originated, I believe, by Sir W. Eoberts, and adopted by 
 Gowers. Hence it is possible that the love of dancing, so 
 peculiarly strong among women, is the outcome of a 
 nervous organisation affording a suitable soil for hysteria. 
 The dancing affords an outlet for pent-up energy. 
 
 The resemblance between the motor activities of the 
 woman and the child is even better brought out by the 
 tendency which each displays to chorea. Octavius Sturges, 
 in his able writings on chorea,^ has contended that this 
 disorder is simply an exaggeration of certain restless, fidgety 
 movements which are normal to the child. These, he main- 
 tains, imperceptibly shade off into the actual disorder ; a 
 proposition no one will, I presume, deny, although few will 
 agree with him that rheumatism takes no part in causing 
 this abnormal exaggeration. 
 
 The peculiar tendency, in the nervous system of children, 
 to spontaneous discharges, which render them liable to 
 ^ " Chorea and Whooping-Cough," London, 1S77.
 
 lyo WOMAN AN UNDEYELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 chorea, is of great interest. It gradually diminishes, as 
 Sturges shows, as the body comes under the control of the 
 will ; thus, as he observes, the child habitually expresses 
 itself " all over," and the growing girl displays the same 
 choreic tendency, though in a less degree, in the ungainly 
 movements of the hobbledehoy age. Gradually, however, 
 with normal development, these spontaneous movements 
 become less pronounced, the muscular expression of the 
 emotions being confined to more and more limited groups of 
 muscles. Nevertheless, the nervous system of the woman 
 preserves more of the choreic tendency than that of the man, 
 as shown by the far greater frequency with which chorea 
 attacks the former than the latter. And this explosiveness 
 of motor centres in woman is worthy of note in connection 
 with the motor manifestations of hysteria. 
 
 The following passage from Gowers may be quoted in 
 this connection : " Just as an emotion is naturally expressed 
 by muscular actions, in the ' jumping for joy ' of a happy 
 child, the stamping of rage, or the wrung hands of distress, 
 so the violent emotional discharge of hysteria may be 
 associated, in more severe cases, with violent movements of 
 the limbs, purposive in aspect, but purposeless in aim." ^ 
 
 Lastly, we need not be surprised to find in hysterical 
 women a strong tendency to romance, to falsify facts ; for in 
 hysterical states the nature of the woman, always in some 
 degree childish, becomes, as we should expect, yet more 
 so, seeing that disease is essentially a process of dissolution, 
 i.e., a reversion to a more primitive type. This romancing 
 tendency is related to the hysterical cunning. 
 
 1 "A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System," by W. K. Gowers, vol. 
 
 ii. p. 222.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN— [cojif mwefZ)— INTELLECTUAL 
 CAPACITY OF MAN AND WOMAN COMPARED -RATE OF 
 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN THE TWO SEXES— MENTAL CON- 
 DITION OF THE WOMAN AFTER THE CLIMACTERIC. 
 
 We liave now seen good reasons for concluding that the 
 woman more than the man maintains throughout life the 
 mental characteristics of the child, and this leads me to 
 touch brietiy upon the question, so frequently discussed nowa- 
 days, whether the man is mentally superior to the w^oman. 
 The general drift of my remarks hitherto has obviously 
 been in favour of the view that the man is the more intel- 
 lectual of the two, and such is, in fact, the view I should 
 incline to — with a qualification, to be presently mentioned. 
 This being so, it may be pertinently asked — How are we to 
 account for the fact that women acquit themselves as bril- 
 liantly as, or more brilliantly than, men in examinations 
 open to both sexes ? In reply I would point out that the 
 mere capacity for storing away facts — and examinations are 
 very largely a test of this capacity — does not necessarily, as 
 I shall show in a future chapter, go along with the highest 
 order of mind.^ It is further probable that women think 
 more quickly than men, and this also helps them in examina- 
 tions, though here again the cajDacity for rapid thought is 
 not a necessary mark of a high order of intellect. Another 
 
 1 According to Romanes, men have more retentive memories than 
 women, taking the whole period of their lives. In early life, however, he 
 thinks the memorv of woman mav be as good as that of man.
 
 172 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 point to be remembered is that originality of thought is 
 of little help in most examinations, "which rather require 
 the assimilation of facts and of other men's opinions. 
 Finally — and I venture to lay particular stress upon this — 
 mental evolution is much more rapid in woman than in 
 man, and. the difference is observable at a very early age. 
 Thus, to take a particular instance, a little girl two and a 
 half years old is intellectually ahead of her brother, who is 
 lif Leen months older, and the observation is made constantly 
 that girls are more precocious than boys. It is therefore 
 unfair to pit a girl of sixteen or seventeen against a boy of 
 the same age, who probably does not arrive at her stage of 
 mental evolution until he is twenty-one or twenty-two years 
 old. 
 
 Here it may be remarked that not only do the two sexes, 
 but different individuals, irrespective of sex, differ consider- 
 ably in the rapidity of their mental evolution. It has, for 
 instance, been found that, when black and white children are 
 educated together, the former up to a certain age keep pace 
 with, indeed generally surpass, the latter ; but that after this 
 time the black children make little progress, their mental 
 evolution seeming to come to a stand-still, while that of the 
 white children continues. We have here an example of the 
 well-known fact that backward children frequently achieve 
 greater ultimate success, intellectually, than the precocious 
 — "Age seldom performs the promise of youth." The law, 
 as Schopenhauer insists, seems to be this : the slower the 
 mental evolution the better the ultimate result. Now, in- 
 asmuch as mental evolution is slower in the male than in 
 the female sex, the conclusion would appear to follow that 
 the mind of woman does not continue to evolve as far on in 
 life as the man's, and such, I am inclined to think, is the 
 case ; nevertheless, on investigating the work done by a 
 number of eminent women, I have not been able to find 
 actual proof that their mental evolution ceases till after 
 fifty ,^ beyond which age it is doubtful if the man makes 
 much intellectual advance either. 
 
 ^ See " Causation of Disease," Part II.
 
 PART II.] WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 173 
 
 But whether the rate of mental evolution is in inverse 
 proportion to its extent or not, it is certain that individuals 
 differ greatly in regard to the age at which that evolution 
 ceases. Many, like the black children just spoken of, 
 suddenly come to a dead stop ; while others, comparatively 
 dull in early life, surprise all by their bi-illiant intellectual 
 triumphs later. Such are popularly believed to have suc- 
 ceeded through sheer hard work, and they are probably held 
 up as examples of what industry may achieve ; whereas it 
 would be more correct to attribute their ultimate success to 
 the gradual and natural unfolding of powers which were 
 before only nascent. 
 
 The four reasons above enumerated appear to show that 
 the fact of women standing as well as, or higher than, men 
 in examination lists is not inconsistent with their intel- 
 lectual inferiority. I have said that I maintain their 
 inferiority, but with a qualification. It is this. I 
 believe that, taking one individual with another, there is 
 greater intellectual equality between the sexes than is 
 generally supposed ; that is to say, that the thoroughly 
 stupid members of either sex are proportionately about 
 equal in number, and also the rank and file, and even 
 the talented members. The balance may be somewhat 
 in favour of the men, but not, I think, very much ; it 
 is only ivhcn vje pass into the region of genius that we 
 see the intellectual disparity of the two sexes unmistalx- 
 ahly revealed. Genius of the highest order is practically 
 limited to the male sex. Nor can this be explained on 
 the ground that women have not been allowed the same 
 opportunity as men. Opportunity undoubtedly accounts 
 for much, but not for all, for, as has been well said, " Genius 
 does what it must, talent what it can ; " and we cannot 
 doubt that, had a woman Shakespeare or Beethoven 
 potentially existed, the world would have heard of her 
 in spite of unfavouring external circumstances. 
 
 I do not, however, consider that this all but absolute 
 limitation of genius to the male sex necessarily implies a 
 much higher average intellectual range in it, and I believe
 
 174 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 tliat the limitation is itself simply a result of the universally 
 applicable law already enunciated — that natural variations 
 are more common and pronounced in the male than in the 
 female sex. A genius is an extreme natural variation — 
 in a sense, an abnormality. Frederick Treves observes : ^ 
 " Such minds as are imaginative or poetic in a marked 
 degree must be regarded as abnormal " (' freaks of nature ' 
 some would call them). This view has frequently occurred 
 to me, and, if such be the case, the greater frequency of genius 
 among men than women is in conformity with the law. 
 Confirmatory of this view also is the fact that the opposite 
 mental type — the idiot — is much more frequently met with 
 among boys than girls. We cannot, I think, wholly explain 
 this by the greater size and the consequent greater liability 
 to injury during birth of the male child. Most idiots, like 
 most, or all, geniuses, are, I take it, destined to be the one 
 or the other at an early stage of their embryonic career : 
 their future is predetermined in the germ.^ 
 
 Professor Jastrow, of Wisconsin University, has recently 
 made some experiments which further tend to show that the 
 view just advanced is the correct one. He caused a class 
 of fifty students — male and female in equal proportions — 
 to write one hundred different words as fast as possible. 
 " The lists given by the women were more alike than those 
 of the men. The former show only 1 1 2 3 different words, 
 whereas the latter show 1376. The women have only 
 written 520 words that occur once in the lists, while the 
 men have written 746. So far as it goes, this tends to 
 show a greater originality of thought and breadth of mind 
 in men than in women. Women, it seems, are more apt to 
 repeat themselves than men."^ We are not told how 
 great was the difference between the best and worst man, 
 
 ^ See his very able and gracefully written paper on "The Physiology 
 of some Phases of the Poetic Mind.'' — Jour. 3Ient. Science," vol. xxiv. 
 p. 64. 
 
 - Of course I do not exclude environmental influence as helping to 
 shape the destiny of the germ. The environment would be adequate to 
 make of an embryo Shakespeare a cretin. 
 
 ^ Globe, February 13, 1891.
 
 PART II.] AVOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. 175 
 
 or between the best and worst woman, but I venture to say 
 that if the lists had been examined as to this point it would 
 have been found greater between the former than the 
 latter. /3,«^A-.^^ A1 /Lf^o. a^J^ c /f-el;^^ 
 
 The greater size of the male brain (= 10 : 9.3) has 
 been put forward in favour of the view that man is superior 
 in intelligence to woman. This argument is nullified by 
 the fact that the size of the brain increases with the size 
 of the body, without any necessary increase in mental 
 capacity. Thus, the brain of the whale is greater than that 
 of man, while, on the other hand, the dog, which is far more 
 intelligent than the whale, has a very much smaller 
 brain. 
 
 According to Tiedemann,^ the female human brain is, in 
 comparison with the size of the body, even larger than the 
 male brain — a fact all the more sio-nificant, seeing that 
 women have more adipose tissue than men. 
 
 Other investigators have calculated the ratio of brain- 
 weight to the height of the body in either sex. Thus, 
 Thurnam finds that " whilst the brain- weight is nearly 
 10 per cent, less in the female, the stature is only 
 8 per cent, less ; " while Broca states that the relative 
 size of the brain of the female depends at the same time 
 on her y)hysical and intellectual inferiority."" This con- 
 clusion is, however, scarcely sound. The weight of the body, 
 and not the height (which depends chiefly on the length 
 of the legs), should be taken into comparison.^ 
 
 After the climacteric we should expect the woman to 
 approach the man in her nervous proclivities, for it is well 
 known that disease, atrophy, or removal of the ovaries 
 causes the female to assume many of the characteristics of 
 
 ^ Phil. Trans., 1S36, vol. cxxvi. p. 503. 
 
 '■' " On the Weight of the Brain," &c. J, Thurnam, Jour. Jleiit. Science, 
 vol. xii. p. 8 et seq. 
 
 ^ The reader may consult on this subject Meynert, " Vierteljahrschrif t 
 f fir Psycliiatrie," 1867. Parts I. and II. Also Parchappe, " Recherches 
 sur TEncephale," Prem. JItmoire, 1836, p. 76. 
 
 A
 
 176 
 
 WOMAN AN UNDEVELOPED MAN. [part ii. 
 
 
 ^ C-t/Vw^*»-v^ i^v^ 
 
 ^^-^ 
 
 
 the male. And such is the case. Not only does the 
 
 woman approximate the masculine type in certain physical 
 
 characters, but in her nervous constitution also. She 
 
 becomes more active, less a creature of feeling, more 
 
 intellectual. Nevertheless, she happily retains many of 
 
 her feminine characteristics. The events of her procreative 
 
 •life, the bearing and rearing of children, years of sympathy 
 
 and affection for them, leave an impress vi^hich persists to 
 
 the end. In only rare cases is all womanhood thrown off, 
 
 as by one famous character, who acknowledged the fact in 
 
 the words : 
 
 " Autrefois, quand j'etais femme." 
 
 This retention of her feminine nature after the climacteric 
 is shown by a study of the functional nervous disorders 
 which affect the woman then. For many years she con- 
 tinues liable to the same class of nervous disorders as 
 affect her during procreative life, and particularly at the 
 climacteric ; bursts of nervousness recurring during the 
 next ten, twenty, or thirty years, or for a period even longer 
 than this. I speak from observation.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EGOISM OF THE MAN AND ITS PATHOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 
 
 The "reater selfishness and egoism of the man and the 
 more sympathetic nature of the woman are facts of some 
 pathological importance. One needs very little experience 
 of the world to discover how much more egoistic men are 
 than women. Talk with a man, it is /, /, /, with him all 
 the time ; a woman obtrudes her own personality far less ; 
 she readily realises that tliere are others to be thought of 
 besides herself, and her quick sympathy puts her en rapport 
 with them. Not but what all human beings, independently 
 of sex, are by nature egoistic. An instance of the well- 
 developed egoism of the gentler sex came under my notice 
 recently. A lady staying in a large boarding-house grew quite 
 popular with the other ladies simply by patiently listening 
 to their confidences. She became, as it were, the official 
 confidante of the establishment ; but though one after the 
 other would unburden her heart to her, not one showed the 
 slightest desire for a reciprocity of confidence ; what was 
 wanted was a sympathetic listener, to whom each might 
 descant freely about lierself and her affairs. This, however, 
 does not negative my main conclusion, that man is, taking 
 him altogether, more egoistic than woman ; and it is a 
 matter of frequent comment that there is nothing a man 
 likes so much to talk about as himself. 
 
 The greater egoism of the male sex shows itself before 
 puberty, when it is especially manifested in the disposition 
 
 M
 
 178 EGOISM OF THE MAN. [part ii. 
 
 to brag — rare, I believe, among girls. Probably most of us 
 can recall boys at school who held decidedly inflated 
 notions of their powers, especially their physical powers, 
 on which, rather than on tlieir intellectual acquirements, 
 boys chiefly pride themselves. "\Ye should expect this, 
 seeing that they correspond, in their mental evolution, to 
 the primitive type of man, in whom muscular strength and 
 prowess in the field constitute the essential tests of fitness 
 to survive. A boy is generally very proud to recount his 
 various pugilistic experiences, in which, it is needless to say, 
 he is invariably the victoi", and until he learns the truth in 
 personal encounter, he is quite ready to believe himself the 
 equal, if not the superior, of all his companions. "When 
 manhood arrives the tendency to brag is usually put away 
 with other childish things, yet it sometimes continues through 
 life. The braggart, though a well-known character amono- 
 men, is rare among women. 
 
 G-irls, it is noteworthy, display no such pride in their 
 physical powers as boys, and it is no doubt the greater 
 physical strength of boys as compared with that of girls 
 which gives rise to the feeling of independence in the one 
 and of dependence and corresponding timidity in the 
 other — a distinction well typified in those skilfully-drawn 
 characters Tom Tulliver and his sister Maggie. 
 
 The already well-developed egoism of the male increases 
 at puberty ; in regard to the mental contrast of the two 
 sexes at which period Bevan Lewis writes : — 
 
 " His newly-awakened faculties, like all nascent mental products, 
 are wondrously fresh, active, and potent ; hence, naturally tend- 
 ing to falsify relationships from want of a due contrasting power, 
 his powei'S and abilities are vastly exaggerated, and beget an 
 unfortunate egoismus. His pilots and schemes savour of the 
 wildest vanity ; whilst the self-complacent all-sufficiency with 
 which he reveals these plans betokens the overpowering of normal 
 contrasting experiences by the new-begot factors. Every faculty 
 whereby he becomes a unit of power in the domestic or social 
 circle is represented in false quantities, and a disprojDortionally 
 intensified and overweening self-esteem is the natural outcome.
 
 PART II.] EGOISM OF THE MAN. 179 
 
 The sexvial divergence at this immature age certainly tells in 
 favour of the gentler sex. The male adolescent has had his 
 characters faithfully rendered by the amiable satire of Thackeray 
 in the person of Pendennis, whilst his frailties have received less 
 consideration at the hands of Carlyle " — 
 
 whom the author proceeds to quote : — 
 
 " I have heard it affirmed (surely in jest) by not unphilau- 
 thropic persons, that it were a real increase to human happiness, 
 could all yoving men from the age of nineteen be covered under 
 barrels, or rendered otherwise invisible, and there left to follow 
 their lawful studies and callings, till they emerged sadder and 
 wiser at the age of twenty-five. With which suggestion as a 
 practical scheme I nowise coincide. Nevertheless, it is plausibly 
 urged, that as young ladies are to mankind precisely the most 
 delightful in those years, so young gentlemen do then attain their 
 maximum of detestability. Such gaAvks are they, and foolish 
 peacocks, and yet such vulturous hunger for self-indulgence, so 
 obstinate, obstreperous, and vainglorious ; in all senses so froward 
 and so forward."— *Sartor Ilesartus, ' Getting under way.' 
 
 Egoism being intense in the pubescent boy, it is not 
 surprising to find it characteristic of male pubescent in- 
 sanity. Thus Skae and Clouston, describing such a case, 
 observe that the subject " had a great deal of that self- 
 confident, would-be-manly air, which boys are so apt to 
 assume at the age of puberty, and although not naturally of 
 a combative tendency, nor possessed of any great pugilistic 
 acquirements, he professed himself ready to fight with any 
 
 man. 
 
 The same intense egoism is displayed in male adolescent 
 insanity. Levan Lewis writes : ^ — 
 
 " The subject usually comes before us excited, highly elated, 
 his attitude, demeanour, and expression indicative of intense 
 
 self-complacency and assurance In tlie more coherent 
 
 states the subject, unprompted, reveals his exalted notions ; talks 
 of his acquirements as a scholar ; expatiates on his skill as a 
 
 1 " A Text-book of ;Mental Diseases,'' p. 353. 
 
 - " The Morisonian Lectures on Insanity," by Doctors Skae and Clouston, 
 Jour. Ment. Science, vol. xix. p. 497. 
 
 - " A Text-book of Mental Diseases," pp. 354-5.
 
 i8o EGOISM OF THE MA^. [part ii. 
 
 workman ; revels in the supposed possession of rare and much- 
 esteemed faculties, of persuasive eloquence, of poetic talent, of 
 wondrous vocal powers, of the gift of tongues, of artistic abili- 
 ties, or histrionic powers of a high order ; or his thoughts 
 course in the direction of his muscular energies; he assumes 
 his strength to be almost superhuman, and regards himself 
 
 as a champion walker, runner, wrestler, or the like 
 
 Egoistic sentiments prevail, and are the fount from which issue 
 
 extravagant schemes of action Towards their own sex this 
 
 self-assumed superiority calls forth often an aggressive conduct, 
 an overbearing manner amounting to arrogance, which involves 
 them in frequent disputes and quarrels. To the gentler sex their 
 conduct is often gallant and condescending." 
 
 The egoism of the male continues through life. This 
 might be illustrated in many ways. Thus, when Dickens 
 described the famous Bumble, he was depicting a member 
 of a very extensive class, for the egoism of the man very 
 often reveals itself in official pomposity, or ' Bumbleism.' 
 Especially is this the case with the ignorant when in authority. 
 Such tend to become autocratic, and sometimes ojffensively, but 
 perhaps even more frequently amusingly, egoistic. There is 
 a subordinate official connected with a certain ancient college 
 in whom authority, unchecked during many years of faithful 
 service, has allowed natural egoism to develop in a very 
 striking degree. Any one not acquainted with the facts 
 would imagine this pompous old man to be the chief person- 
 age of the institution — an opinion, I am inclined to believe, 
 he holds himself. He reminds one of that famous bellows- 
 blower who imagined that it was he who made all the music, 
 the performer on the keys being quite a secondary person. 
 
 Those — whether men or women — who are placed in 
 positions of irresponsible authority have to be very careful 
 to guard against an autocratic and unduly egoistic ten- 
 dency — schoolmasters, and hospital and workhouse matrons, 
 for instance. I am acquainted with a member of the 
 former class, who, although he joined the Volunteer Force 
 at its foundation, has, with the express object of combating 
 this tendency, remained a private to this day. At school,
 
 PART II.] EGOISM OF THE MAN. i8i 
 
 as he says, he has it all his own way, and he finds that 
 placing himself under the authority of others — some of 
 whom were perhaps not born when he joined the force — 
 exercises a most healthful disciplinary influence on him. 
 
 Now it is a very remarkable fact that this predominant 
 egoism, manifested in the pubescent and adolescent insanity of 
 the male, is absent in the corresponding forms of insanity of 
 the female, and that the same difference is observable in 
 general paralysis of the insane, a disorder, as is well known, 
 much more common in men than women, but, so far as the 
 morbid anatomy is concerned, essentially the same in both. 
 In the male general paralytic the excessive egoism displays 
 itself in the characteristic large delusions of the disease ; 
 in the female it is far less obtrusive, expressing itself 
 merely in personal vanity. The following morbid symptoms 
 are exaggerations of characters normal to the two sexes re- 
 spectively : — 
 
 " Fantastic decoration is much indulged in, especially by the 
 female paralytic; scraps of coloured stuffs, ribbons, and colouied 
 paper are stitched on to their clothing as insignia of distinction, 
 or as an addition to the attractiveness of the subject. The sexual 
 characteristics are prominently developed, the female especially 
 betraying much personal vanity or much self-consciousness in the 
 presence of the opposite sex ; she is often engaged on matrimonial 
 alliance; connubial subjects occupy the chief theme of her 
 delusions ; and, occasionally, a well-marked erotic state prevails. 
 On the other hand, the male paralytic raves upon wealth, pi-operty, 
 social position, professional attainments, manual dexterity, artistic 
 ability, muscular power, and endurance."^ 
 
 Erom this extract it is seen that when general paralysis 
 occurs in \vomaii she is apt to show much " vanity and 
 self-consciousness in presence of the opposite sex." We 
 do not find her, like the man, vaunting her extraordinary 
 powers ; it is her personal attractions which chiefly occupy 
 her thoughts. The great importance wdiich most women 
 attach to personal appearance may be seen by reference to 
 ladies' jourji.'ds, especially to the inferior ones, in which whole 
 ^ Bevan Lewis, loc. cit., p. 257.
 
 1 82 EGOISM OF THE MAN. [part ii. 
 
 columns are taken up in asking and answering questions 
 relating to the means of obtaining and preserving beauty. 
 
 A further pathological bearing of this form of feminine 
 egoism has been pointed out by Savage. 
 
 "To my thinking," writes he, "the worry produced in a 
 woman by any disfigvu-ement is hardly sufficiently recognised. I 
 have seen women with hairy moles whose lives were burdens to 
 them ; and in Bethlem we had one ' pig-faced ' woman whose in- 
 sanity was associated with her appearance. In another case, a very 
 broad-rooted nose, which gave the woman a very bull-faced aspect, 
 
 was, to my mind, the chief cause of the mental disorder 
 
 Of the peculiarities, none are so potent as those which, in a woman, 
 make her believe that she is no longer lovable. A woman who 
 thinks that because of her aspect she is repulsive to husband and 
 
 to children, is already far down the road to melancholia 
 
 A more common group of cases is that occurring about 40 and 
 later. Single women have come to the conclusion that they are 
 not attractive, and magnify some defect; and married women, 
 fearing the loss of their husband's love with the change in their 
 ow^n feelings, may become morbidly self-conscious or jealous. If 
 at this period any bodily peculiarity appears, the morbid mental 
 state may rapidly develop." ^ 
 
 So deeply rooted is personal vanity in woman that it may 
 persist, as Mandsley remarks, " amidst the decay of all that 
 is good in female nature."^ It is a well-developed charac- 
 teristic among the female inmates of prisons, as shown by 
 the following extract : — 
 
 " Women whose hearts have not quailed, perhaps, at the 
 murder of their mfants, or the poisoning of their husbands, clasp 
 their hands in horror at the sacrifice of their natural adornment 
 (the hair) ; weep, beg, pray, occasionally assume a defiant attitude, 
 
 and resist to the last, and are finally only overcome by force 
 
 I can remember one person delirious for a day and a night after 
 
 the operation [of having her hair cut] She was a young, 
 
 fair Scotch girl, and her ' Dinna cut my hair — oh ! dinna cut 
 my hair ! ' rang along the deserted corridors with a plaintive 
 earnestness." ^ 
 
 1 Jour, jilent. Science, vol. xxxii. pp. 221, 222. - Ihid., vol. ix. p. 77. 
 3 "Female Life in Prison," by A Prison Matron, 3rcl edit., 1S62.
 
 PART II.] EGOISM OF THE MAN. 183 
 
 o 
 
 The writer from whom this is quoted relates other in- 
 stances of the same kind — how one woman tried to secure 
 some tallow to use as a pomade, and how another concocted 
 from the red cotton of the shirts she had to wash a cosmetic 
 with which she beautified her cheeks, thereby exciting the 
 envy and curiosity of her fellow-inmates, to whom (as to 
 those in charge) the source of the rouge remained for a long 
 time a mystery. 
 
 In a number of French writings on the climacteric 
 (dating from the end of last century) I find constant 
 mention of the effect which the loss of physical charm 
 at that critical period produces on the woman's mind. It 
 is assumed in almost all these writings that the woman then 
 suddenly passes from a state of great loveliness into utter 
 unloveliness — is transformed from a Venus into a perfect 
 hag — surely an exaggerated view.^ 
 
 We have seen that the man has generally more confidence 
 in his own powers than the woman in hers, and that this 
 is largely due to his greater physical strength. Owing 
 
 ^ Thus C. P. Gardanne writes : " She has lost her charms beyond hope 
 of recovery" (" Dissertation sur les Avis aiix Femmes," &c., Paris, 1812). 
 
 A. Assegond : "Women now become more like men, and with their 
 charms lose a part of their character" (" De la Femme consideree a I'Age 
 critique," Paris, 1821). 
 
 P. Maurice : " There are women who bemoan unceasingly the ruins of 
 Lheir beauty, and who employ all the arts of a ridiculous coquetry to 
 attract the attention and homage of men, and who embellish themselves 
 artificially with the roses and lilies of youth. 
 
 'Pour reparer des ans I'irreparable outrage.' — Racine." 
 
 (" De la Menopause," Paris, 1832.) 
 
 C. Bardout speaks of the " Law of nature which has fixed this period for 
 the loss of feminine beauty" (" Considerations generales sur la cessation du 
 Flux menstruel," &c. , Paris, 1S16). 
 
 Most of these writers describe in detail the loss of physical charms. 
 Thus the skin is said to lose its supx^leness and lustre, the cellular tissue to 
 diminish, the voice to become rough, and so forth. After enumerating 
 these losses, P. Armand, contrary to other authors, continues : " It is not, 
 however, rare for women, far from experiencing changes aussi facheux, 
 to acquire a degree of beauty they never had before " (" Considerations sur 
 I'Age critique des Femmes," Paris, 1820).
 
 i84 EGOISM OF THE MAN. [part n. 
 
 to this he has dominated the woman, in whom there has 
 thus evolved a sense of dependence. Instinctively feeling 
 herself the weaker, she craves for a strong arm on which she 
 may lean, and by which she may be protected.^ The greater 
 courage and pugnacity of the man have probably also aided 
 in causing this difference, but, be the explanation what it 
 may, no one can doubt that the man is more confident in 
 himself, and feels himself more able to stand alone than 
 does the woman, although it must be acknowledged we 
 occasionally meet with men having very little self-reliance. 
 These considerations have an interesting application ; from 
 them one would a iwiori conclude that the timid and 
 dependent woman would more readily become the victim of 
 delusions of persecution than the self-confident and egoistic 
 man, who is apt to labour under large delusions as to his 
 own importance ; and such is actually the case.^ 
 
 1 It cannot be too frequently repeated that, given a certain environment, 
 continuing through a series of generations, a species must either become 
 adapted to it or die out. This will happen whether acquired characters 
 ar^ inheritable or not. On the assumption that they are, the continued 
 repression of women by men has necessarily caused them to be innately 
 more dependent than men ; on the assumption that they are not, the same 
 result has been induced by indirect means alone— by natural selection, by 
 the annihilation of women who have oif ered resistance to the wills of their 
 husbands. 
 
 2 My authority for the statement that women suffer more frequently 
 from delusions of persecution than men is a French one, but I have 
 unfortunately lost the reference. It was contained in an article treating 
 of the relative frequency of these delusions in the two sexes, and it 
 impressed itself upon my mind, because it bore out a posteriori my a 
 priori conclusion.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FURTHER PATHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF THE EGOISM OF 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 The intensified esjoisni of the man leads him to make 
 more of illness than the woman. If a woman magnifies 
 her sufferings, it is in order to procure sympathy ; being 
 ever ready to give it, she craves it for herself, and in the 
 case of the typically hysteric patient the craving no doubt 
 becomes morbid, and manifests itself in extreme selfishness. 
 With the man it is otherwise ; he makes much of his 
 sufierings because they are his ; they inconvenience him, 
 disturb the serenity of the little world of which kc is the 
 centre ; speaking generally, it is not that he wants sympathy ; 
 on the contrary, he often prefers to be let alone. 
 
 This contrast between the sexes is further brought out by 
 the relative degree of anxiety respecting health and tlie fear 
 of death which each manifests. Nervous women are not, 
 as a rule, anxious about their health ; even if they believe 
 themselves the victims of some serious disorder, they are not 
 so much disturbed by the dread of a disastrous termination 
 of it as by the actual trouble and discomfort they feel. 
 The hysteric seldom, if ever, experiences the slightest sensa- 
 tion of fear ; indeed, the more seriously ill she believes 
 herself, the better is she pleased, and the physician who 
 takes the "loomiest view of her case stands hiohest in her 
 esteem.' lUit with the nervous man the case is very 
 
 ' In the above remarks I exclude from consideration those cases of
 
 1 86 EGOISM OF THE MAN. [part ii. 
 
 different. He consults doctor after doctor, so full is he of 
 fears ; first he fears he has got this, then that : self-absorp- 
 tion leads to constant dread. 
 
 Now all this is somewhat remarkable, since the man is, 
 as regards external danger, so much more courageous than 
 the woman. It should be observed that it is not, except in 
 rare instances, till adult life is approached, or actually 
 reached, that this pathological egoism develops itself in the 
 male. As a rule a boy is not alarmed by any illness he 
 may have, any more than a girl ; hence, in this respect the 
 condition of the woman corresponds with that of the young 
 of either sex, and this accords with the biological fact 
 established by Darwin, that when the adult male differs 
 markedly from the adult female, the latter is of the two the 
 more like the young of either sex. 
 
 It is chiefly in the case of the slighter and commoner 
 forms of disease that men make more of their ailments 
 than women, it being a very wonderful and a very happy 
 fact that when any one — man or woman — is stricken with 
 a really grave disorder, there is a calm — almost, it would 
 seem, providential — resignation. A patient who is danger- 
 ously ill, seldom troubles much about himself, and is rarely 
 haunted by the fear of death ;^ and so true is this that when 
 any one complains much of his suffering, it may generally 
 with tolerable safety be concluded that no serious organic 
 mischief is present. No doubt, natural selection has pre- 
 vented the evolution of a fear of death in those cases where 
 it would interfere with the chance of recovery. The most 
 hopeful man stands, other things being equal, the best 
 chance of recovery in any given case of disease, and there 
 
 nerve-storms (notably such as affect the cardiac nervous sj'stem) which are 
 attended by dread of impending death. In such cases the fear is a 
 symptom, like the pain or other abnormal sensation, and disappears after 
 the attack. 
 
 1 "Of the great number," writes Sir Henry Holford, "to whom it has 
 been my painful professional duty to have administered in the last hours 
 of their lives, I have sometimes felt surprised that so few have felt reluctant 
 to go to the ' undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveller 
 returns.'" — Essays and Orations.
 
 PART II.] EGOISM OF THE MAN". 187 
 
 has thus been a selection of the most hopeful, the least 
 fearful. 
 
 " It is a circumstance somewhat remarkable, that those 
 persons should be in general found to dread most their 
 departure from this state of being, to whom it has proved 
 least productive of enjoyment The unhappy hypo- 
 chondriac is unwilling to lay down the burden which 
 oppresses him. The rack of life upon which he is stretched, 
 he prefers to the repose of the grave. He is loth to 
 relinquish that breath which is spent in little else than sighs 
 and lamentations."^ 
 
 Possibly one reason why men are inclined to exaggerate 
 their minor ailments is because of their comparative im- 
 munity from sufiering, in consequence of which all abnormal 
 feelings, when they do occur, acquire undue importance from 
 the mere fact of their infrequency ; nevertheless, the hypo- 
 chondriac thinks no more lightly of his abnormal sensations 
 because he is habituated to them ; their long continuance, in 
 fact, tends to heighten his fears. 
 
 ' But ' — it will perhaps be argued — ' we hear more frequent, 
 if less loud, complaints from women than from men." This is 
 possibly true, but it does not prove that women are more given 
 to exaggerate their ills. They suffer from minor ailments 
 and abnormal sensations far more than men do ; they suffer, 
 in fact, from that class of disorders in which complainings 
 are more frequent, and their complainings are probably in 
 direct proportion to their suffering of mind and body. In 
 the serious disorders just now alluded to there is, perhaps, 
 all things considered, actually less suffering than in these 
 slighter ones ; one of the reasons probably being that in tlie 
 former the sufferer is recognised and treated as such, and 
 remedial or alleviating measures taken ; whereas the latter do 
 not necessitate a departure from the ordinary daily routine, 
 which hence is gone through under much discomfort, if not 
 ill actual pain. 
 
 The physician, who has perhaps had but little personal 
 
 1 " Essays on Hypochondriasis," Sec, Essay III. John Tieid. London, 
 1821.
 
 i88 EGOISM OF THE MAN. [part ii. 
 
 experience of physical suffering, is naturally inclined to 
 think that his patient must be magnifying, or imagining, her 
 sufferings, if he can detect no organic mischief to confirm 
 her statements. This, I believe, is a mistake to guard 
 against ; for my own part, I make a point of listening 
 attentively to the complainings of every patient who comes 
 before me, and even a slight knowledge of the different 
 forms of nervousness in women is sufficient in almost every 
 case to prevent any possibility of deception. To take a 
 single example : Flushings are very common in nervous 
 women ; in fact, more frequently present than not. Now, 
 these flushings are most troublesome to the patient ; they 
 have a characteristic mode of development and decline, and 
 are, moreover, attended with a definite series of symptoms. 
 When, then, I ask a patient if she has flushes and she 
 answers in the affirmative, and when, without putting leading 
 questions, I get from her a history which accords with my 
 knowledge of this symptom, I know that I am dealing with 
 a woman who is in a genuinely nervous condition, and who, 
 if the flushes are pronounced, is a real sufferer. 
 
 If we compare the symptoms of which nervous women 
 complain, we shall be struck with the marked similarity in 
 different cases. I do not mean that there is a complete 
 likeness between any two cases in their entirety, but a 
 likeness as regards certain groups of symptoms {e.g., the 
 symptoms that constitute a ' flush 'or a ' headache '), and 
 when one woman after another is found complaining of very 
 similar groups of symptoms, the actual existence of those 
 symptoms is placed beyond doubt. 
 
 Some skill is needed in eliciting a proper history of these 
 cases. When it is a question of detecting actual organic 
 change, most observers will fairly well agree in their con- 
 clusions ; but when the symptoms are almost entirely sub- 
 jective, no two persons will obtain the same history unless 
 they have each an intimate knowledge of the symptoms to 
 be sought for, and some experience of the proper method of 
 examination. I have over and over again observed the 
 complete inability of students to get at a full and accurate
 
 PART II.] EGOISM OF THE MAN. 189 
 
 history of cases of nervousness, a circumstance largely 
 arisino- from their ignorance of what to look for ; and even 
 when furnished with a definite method of inquiry they are 
 often singularly unfortunate in their results, obtaining a 
 record of symptoms which only very remotely corresponds 
 with the patient's actual condition. In order to obtain a 
 reliable history of a case, extreme care and patience are 
 needful ; there must be long and thorough examination ; the 
 questions put must be simple and to the point, and they 
 should be repeated several times, and in different ways and 
 sequences, if there is any doubt as to the accuracy of the 
 answers. After thus placing ourselves in the position of 
 cross-examining counsel, we have little difficulty in sifting 
 the evidence, separating the important from the unimportant, 
 the relevant from the irrelevant. I need scarcely add that 
 the obvious error of framing our questions in such a way 
 as to elicit the answers we expect must be guarded against. 
 
 Now I say deliberately, after having carefully studied 
 the minor forms of nervousness in women, that women do 
 actually suffer far more than most physicians give them 
 credit for ; and if in the out-patients' room the wail of com- 
 plaining comes rather from them than from the men, it is 
 because to their lot falls a larger share of those disorders 
 which provoke such manifestation. It must be conceded, 
 however, that the desire for sympathy often provokes the 
 complaints, for women find relief in the sympathy which 
 these elicit. 
 
 No one that will look around him can suppose that 
 women, as a class, complain for complaining's sake. How 
 often does a woman come to hospital not for herself, but for 
 her child, when it is she who has far the greater need of 
 relief ; and if, noting her ill look, we inquire after her 
 health, the answer comes — often half-apologetic — that she 
 has " not been feeling quite herself lately," when in plain 
 English she has been for some time past full of aches and 
 pains. It is said that extremes meet : certainly the pathetic 
 and the ridiculous are often closely allied. One of 
 the most miserable specimens of womanhood, physically
 
 I go EGOISM OF THE MAN. [part ii. 
 
 regarded, that I have ever seen, was in the habit of bringing 
 for my inspection a really fine, healthy-looking boy. He 
 was suffering from some very trivial ailment ; yet his 
 mother would grow eloquent about his distressing con- 
 dition, and never once did she speak of herself till I 
 broached the subject. To see this frail, sickly woman 
 discuss, with troubled face and gesture, the health of her 
 rosy, vigorous urchin, was a sight to call forth very mingled 
 emotions. 
 
 One more point remains to be noticed here. Women 
 lack the external interests which divert a man's attention 
 from himself. The usual monotony of the woman's en- 
 vironment to some extent forces her mind back ui^on itself ; 
 she dwells upon her troubles, mental or physical, simply 
 because she has little else to think of ;. whereas the man's 
 pursuits tend rather to lift him out of himself. In fact, 
 the woman's life, in spite of her egoism being less developed 
 than the man's, favours self- attention, that most potent 
 intensifier of suffering. " Attention," says Sully, " involves 
 an intensification of consciousness, a concentration or nar- 
 rowing of it on some definite and restricted portion of the 
 mental scene ; or, to express it otherwise, it implies a 
 turning of the mental eye in a particular direction so as 
 to see the objects lying in that quarter as distinctly as 
 possible."^ Hence, when the 'mental eye' is directed to 
 some bodily pain, that pain is felt with the utmost acute- 
 ness. We have here, then, another way in which a woman's 
 sufferings are made proportional to her complainings. 
 
 ^ " Teacher's Psychology," p. 8i.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 THE FACULTY OF PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN 
 COMPARED.— OTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 Women have, according to Eomanes, " a greater refine- 
 ment of the senses, or higher evolution of the sense organs," 
 than men. He further maintains, and about this there can 
 be little doubt, that they have the more rapid perception, a 
 fact which he thinks is partly due to their greater sense- 
 refinement. " Houdin, who paid special attention to the 
 acquirement of rapidity in acts of complex perception, says 
 he has known ladies who, while seeing another lady ' pass at 
 full speed in a carriage, could analyse her toilette, from 
 her bonnet to her shoes, and be able to describe not only 
 the fashion and quality of the stuffs, but also to say if the 
 lace were real or only machine made.' " 
 
 Another example of the rapid perception of women, 
 cited by Eomanes, though, as he observes, not an instance 
 of perception pure and simple, may very well be quoted 
 here : — 
 
 " I liave tried a series of experiments, wherein reading was 
 chosen as a test of the rapidity of perception in difierent persons. 
 Having seated a number of well-educated individuals round a 
 table, I presented to them successively the same paragraph of a 
 book, which they were each to read as rapidly as they could, ten 
 seconds being allowed for twenty lines. As soon as the time was 
 up I removed the paragraph, immediately after which the reader 
 wrote down all that he or she could i-emember of it. Now, in
 
 192 PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN, [part ii. 
 
 these experiments, where every one read the same paragraph as 
 rapidly as possible, I found that the palm was usually carried oif 
 by the ladies. Moreover, besides being able to read quicker, they 
 were better able to remember what they had just read — that is, 
 to give a better account of the paragraph as a whole. One lady, 
 for instance, could read exactly four times as fast as her husband, 
 and could then give a better account even of that portion of the 
 paragraph which alone he had had time to get through. For the 
 consolation of such husbands, however, I may add that rapidity of 
 perception as thus tested is no evidence of what may be termed 
 the deeper qualities of the mind — some of my slowest readers 
 being highly distinguished men."-"^ 
 
 About the truth of this last observation there can be no 
 doubt. Acuteness and rapidity of perception are pro- 
 verbial in the savage, who can see, smell, and hear what 
 would make little or no impression upon the sense-organs 
 of a civilised man.^ Similarly, chiklren are very quick in 
 their perceptions. Like savages, they are essentially objective : 
 their attention is absorbed by outer things. But as age or 
 culture advances, the individual becomes more reflective, 
 and since during reflection the mind does not respond, or 
 responds in only a slight degree, to external impressions, it 
 follows that with this widening out of the domain of re- 
 flection, there tends to take place a parallel decrease in the 
 range of perception. The reverse is also true. Just as 
 the habit of reflection tends to blunt the acuteness of per- 
 ception, so anything which narrows the range of perception 
 tends to develop the faculty of reflection. How is it that 
 we generally associate spectacles with wisdom or learning ? 
 Is it not in some measure because, sight-perceptions being 
 in him who wears them weak, and the attention thus less 
 distracted by outer events than in the individual with keen 
 eyesight, he is thrust in upon himself, and tends to become 
 
 1 The Nineteenth Century, May 1887. 
 
 " " There are many testimonies to the acute senses and quick perceptions 
 of the uncivilised, and also to their acute and minute observation. Along 
 with which there naturally goes great skill in those actions depending 
 upon the immediate guidance of perception." — Principles of Sociology, 
 § 40 (Collins' " Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy ").
 
 PART II.] PEECEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN. 193 
 
 reflective ? Until recently glasses were worn chiefly by the 
 old, in whom we naturally look for wisdom, or they were 
 worn by the short-sighted, whose condition tends to beget a 
 reflective habit. Imagine a higldy myopic boy. Such an 
 one can see nothing clearly beyond the range of a few feet 
 until furnished with glasses : the domain of his perceptivity 
 is restricted, and thus while a lad with keen sight has his 
 attention absorbed by the outer world, and from the first 
 awakening of his intelligence takes the liveliest interest in 
 its wonders as they gradually unfold to him, the short- 
 sighted boy is thrown in upon himself, and necessarily 
 becomes more thouglitful, takes more readily to books, and 
 is more apt to blossom into a scholar. Herein lies one of 
 the reasons why we associate spectacles with learning. 
 It must not be supposed that myopic l)oys are naturally 
 endowed with a greater capacity for learning than others ; 
 their greater intellectual development is simply due to greater 
 exercise of the reflective faculty. 
 
 There is, perhaps, a second reason why inyoj^ia tends to 
 induce a reflective habit. It is well known that the myope 
 inclines to sedentary occupations, and this inclination is 
 generally attributed to his restricted vision, li. D. Batten, 
 however, raises the question, and with much force, \vhether 
 the myope does not differ from the emmetrope in other 
 important respects than in his vision, whether, namely, there 
 may not be profound cardiac, vascular, and other differences 
 between the two ; but whatever be the explanation of tliis 
 sedentary inclination, it tends, as will readily be allowed, to 
 beget a habit of reflection. 
 
 From these considerations it follows that rapidity and 
 keenness of perception — I am using the term here in its 
 strict psychological sense — far from necessarily going hand 
 in hand with a high intellectual development, show a 
 tendency to stand in inverse ratio thereto. 
 
 I do not mean to imply that keen powers of perception 
 are a mark of inferior intellectual capacity, and contrari- 
 wise ; but rather, that where we find the perceptive powers 
 exceptionally keen, the intellect has not, as a rule, been 
 
 N
 
 194 PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN. [part ii. 
 
 greatly exercised, and vice versa : the very practical man, 
 though he may have great intellectual capacity, has cer- 
 tainly not developed his intellect to the full, for had he 
 done sOj it must have been at the expense of his prac- 
 ticalness. Of course the best type of scientific man — the 
 Darwin, the Newton — combines keenness of perception with 
 great reflective capacity ; but it is not among such that 
 we find practical men as ordinarily understood. A further 
 qualification must also be made. While savages, children, 
 and women are more perceptive than the average civilised 
 man, it is only as regards certain particulars. The savage 
 has a keen perception of certain sights and sounds, and, 
 similarly, children are very observant of much which their 
 elders fail to notice; but, on the other hand, the men of 
 civilised communities are quick in perceiving many things 
 — especially things concerning their own interest — which 
 would quite escape the notice, perhaps I should say the 
 insight, of the savage or the child ; but here the term 
 ' perception ' involves something more than mere sense- 
 perception, and it will, I think, be acknowledged that in 
 the simple perceptions — in other words, in the refinement 
 of their sense-organs — the savage, the child, and the civilised 
 woman are superior to the civilised man. 
 
 And here a question of very great interest arises, 
 which, though it leads us somewhat beyond the scope 
 of our present inquiries, may be briefly considered. Are 
 the sense-organs in the savage innately more sensitive 
 than in the civilised man, or is their greater keenness due 
 to greater exercise by the individual ? The opinion has 
 until recently been universally held that the sense of smell, 
 to instance one in particular, is innately much stronger in 
 the former than in the latter simply because in the one 
 case it has been kept in active use, while in the other it 
 has for many generations served but little purpose in the 
 struggle for existence, and has consequently fallen into 
 disuse. But if the effects of use and disuse in the parents 
 are not inherited by the offspring, the question arises 
 whether the sense of smell is innately less sensitive among
 
 PART 11.] PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN. 195 
 
 the civilised than among savage people. It is true that 
 disuse is known to exercise a racial effect, animals inhabit- 
 ing dark caves for many generations, for example, becoming 
 blind ; but, as we have already had occasion to notice, 
 Weismann forcibly argues that this may be explained 
 without assuming that the effects of disuse are inherited, 
 and if he is right, a useless character will take a much 
 longer time to disappear than if such effects are transmitted ; 
 for which reason, and for others which space will not allow 
 me to set forth, we should expect the sense of smell to be 
 potentially as strong, or nearly as strong, in the civilised 
 man as in the savage ; and this conclusion Wallace has 
 recently urged, citing, in proof of it, the case of the Xorth 
 American Indian, who, if brought up in a civilised com- 
 munity, appears to have a sense of smell no more acute 
 than that of the average civilised individual. Two im- 
 portant corollaries follow from this conclusion : — ( i ) That 
 we inherit from our remote ancestors many characters of 
 which, since they remain in abeyance, we know nothing, 
 or next to nothing ; (2) — and this is generally acknowledged, 
 though not perhaps sufficiently realised — that we may, by 
 exercise, bring out many hitherto latent capacities. 
 
 As regards the first of these two propositions. If the 
 effects of disuse are not inherited, there must lie dormant 
 within us a thousand characters that belong to the savage, 
 and are only kept under by the nature of our environment ; 
 even in our ashes, the ashes of our far-off ancestral nature, 
 the wonted fires must be still burning. I am not contending 
 that the civilised man does not differ innately from the 
 savage (undoubtedly mental evolution has proceeded much 
 farther in his case), but that this evolution has only partially 
 eradicated the savarfe nature. A^ain are we confronted 
 with the (question constantly cropping up, and which must 
 for some time remain the greatest psychological question 
 of the day : How does mental evolution j)i'oc;eed ? Are 
 we to believe, with Wallace, that it takes place on lines 
 peculiar to itself, — that we cannot apply the principles of 
 physical evolution to the ' unseen universe of spirit ; ' or
 
 196 PERCEPTION IN" MAN AND WOMAN. [part ii. 
 
 does natural selection suffice to account for it ? Until quite 
 recently, the answer came glibly enough. Following the 
 lead of our greatest living thinker, evolutionists replied that 
 the summation throughout successive generations of accjuired 
 mental characters — in short, of the effects of use — was 
 sufficient, of itself and Ijy itself, to account for the mind 
 of man as at present evolved. Xor can the opinion of 
 Herbert Spencer be assailed in any but a reverential spirit, 
 or relinquished, considering the brilliant prospects it holds 
 out for the future of the race, without regret. Yet the 
 more the hypothesis is considered, the stronger the light 
 thrown upon it by further research, the narrower seem the 
 grounds for maintaining it, and, in my belief, we shall 
 eventually have to accept, instead, the view that it is 
 essentially by natural selection, and by natural selection 
 alone, that mental evolution has proceeded. The extent to 
 which this process has operated in weeding out the intel- 
 lectually and morally unfit from among the civilised is not yet 
 properly apprehended : if it were, less difficulty would be 
 felt in accepting this conclusion. Wallace contends that 
 selection cannot account for the evolution of the mathe- 
 matical, musical, and artistic faculties. Space fails for a 
 consideration of each of these, but to take one only — the 
 mathematical — I feel convinced that his position is untenable. 
 " How," he argues in effect, " can this faculty, scarcely 
 present at all in the savage, whose arithmetical calculations 
 are limited by the number of his fingers and toes, have 
 evolved by natural selection to the degree in which it is 
 present in a senior wrangler ? " I would, however, suggest 
 that it is highly improbable that the average child of civilised 
 parents, brought up among such savages, would count any 
 further than they : we are apt to forget the prolonged edu- 
 cation, unconscious as well as conscious, which civilised 
 children receive. Again, he urges that the success of 
 modern civilised peoples " at home and abroad, as colonists 
 or as conquerors, as individuals or as nations, can in no 
 way be traced to this faculty" (" Darwinism," p. 467); 
 whence he concludes " that its present gigantic develop-
 
 PART 11.] PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN. 197 
 
 ment " is wholly unexplained by the theory of natural 
 selection, and must be due to some altogether distinct 
 cause. Apparently he regards the mathematical ' faculty ' 
 as quite distinct from other mental ' faculties ; ' yet surely 
 the fact is that mathematics is a purely intellectual exercise ? 
 Mathematics is only another term for reasoning from exact 
 and complete data, and, in its simplest forms, it is the easiest 
 of all reasoning : a far higher order of intellect is required 
 where the data reasoned upon are inexact and incomplete, 
 and where, in consequence, their respective values have to be 
 weighed — where the element of judgment comes in. (Hence 
 we frequently find great mathematicians most disappointing 
 in their influence on the world's work.) Xow, the mathe- 
 matical faculty being only a special instance of the reason- 
 ing faculty, which beyond all doubt has, since the first dawn 
 of civilisation, been increasing by the action of natural selec- 
 tion, and will continue so to increase, it follows of necessity 
 that in its development natnral selection has been the chief 
 factor : other things being equal, the man with the best 
 intellect has the best chance of being represented in 
 posterity, for he stands the best chance of securing a healthy 
 environment for his children, amongst whom the mortalitv 
 will consequently be less than among the children of the 
 unreflecting, the unreasoning. But Wallace has yet a 
 further argument against the mathematical faculty being 
 the outcome of natural selection : he urges the infrequency 
 with which it is markedly developed. " Probably," he 
 writes, " fewer than one in a hundred really possess it," 
 whereas characters acquired by natural selection attain a 
 certain level, the amount of variation from this mean level 
 being only about one-fifth or one-sixth ; " that is, if the value 
 were taken at 100, the variations would reach from 80 to 
 120." The mathematical faculty, varying between much 
 wider extremes, cannot therefore have arisen by natural 
 selection. PUit to argue thus is to overlook the fact that 
 among civilised and domesticated races of men and the 
 lower animals natural variations are far more marked than 
 among the savage and undomesticated ; and further, I
 
 198 PERCEPTION IN MAN AND WOMAN, [part ii, 
 
 venture to assert that there is quite as much difference in 
 physical as in intellectual powers among civilised peoples — 
 as much difference, for example, l^etween the hest and the 
 worst cricketer, lawn-tennis player, or billiard player in 
 this country as between the best and the worst mathemati- 
 cian ; and if this be so, Wallace's position derives no support 
 from this argument. 
 
 The second conclusion we arrived at from a consideration 
 of the respective development of the sense-perceptions of 
 the savage and the civilised man was that the latter 
 possesses many dormant faculties which are nevei", or at 
 all events never completely, roused into life. That the 
 acuteness of smell in the Ked Indian is chiefly, if not 
 entirely, the result of exercise is strongly suggested by 
 what we know regarding the sense of touch : this in a 
 civilised blind man is far keener than in the savage. We 
 do not sufficiently realise what can be done by educating 
 a faculty. Compare the mechanical proficiency of the 
 accomplished pianist, or of the expert acrobat, with the 
 clumsiness of the tyro in each of these forms of muscular 
 activity ; and although there are of course individual 
 differences, yet, by dint of exercise, practically everybody 
 can attain to very considerable proficiency in either the one 
 or the other — a proficiency which to the individual who has 
 never made the attempt seems impossible. (It will not be 
 supposed that I am now speaking of anything but the mere 
 muscular expertness of the musician.)
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 8EXUAL INSTINCT IN MAN AND WOMAN COMPARED. 
 
 We have seen that, with one or two exceptions, the sexual 
 passion is throughout the whole animal kingdom more 
 strongly developed in the male than in the female — that, 
 just as the special sexual function of the female is to provide 
 a fit environment for the young being, so the special sexual 
 function of the male is to seek out and impregnate the 
 female, and that to this end he is endowed with the stronger 
 sexual passion. 
 
 This being true of (practically) all animals below man, 
 one would expect it to be true of him also. Such a priori 
 conclusion requires, however, to be put to the test, and this 
 I have done, so far as the nature of the investiuation 
 would allow. 
 
 On inquiry among a large number of medical men as to 
 the relative strength of the sexual instinct in man and 
 woman, I have been surprised to find the most divergent 
 views prevailing. Nor is greater unanimity to be found 
 among medical writings. Moreau, for instance, considers 
 that men are more sexually inclined than women, while 
 another author answers the question, " Estne femina viro 
 salacior ? " in the aftirraative ; indeed, one American writer 
 comes to the conclusion — the terrible conclusion — that the 
 liuman female is from an early age tortured with a sexual 
 passion of such intensity that she must needs gratify it by 
 unnatural means I
 
 200 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part it. 
 
 It is most important for the physician to be correctly 
 informed on this question, because at many points it touches 
 the pathology of the nervous system, but the difficulties in 
 getting at the truth are many. Manifestly married women 
 alone are available in the inquiry, and they only indirectly, 
 for the physician is but rarely aftbrded the opportunity 
 of himself broaching the question to them, and must for 
 the most part content himself with the evidence gained 
 through the husband. The conclusions set forth in this 
 ■chapter rest almost entirely upon the evidence of married 
 men attending as hospital out-patients. They apply, there- 
 fore—so far as they are correct, and I have taken great 
 pains to make them so — to the poorer classes. How far 
 they are true of those more luxuriously situated I cannot 
 say. 
 
 The Sexual Instinct in Unmarried Women. — We may take 
 it for granted that in practically all men desire comes with 
 puberty, and continues in a greater or less degree so long as 
 the testes remain active. In many cases it would seem to 
 appear before puberty, but when this happens there is 
 probably almost always some local irritation to account 
 for it, such as a long prepuce, thread-worms, a stone in 
 the bladder. Wherefore we may regard puberty as the 
 normal period in the man for the first appearance of the 
 sexual instinct. Is the like true of the human female ? 
 It is very difficult, though very desirous, to get at the truth 
 in this matter, inasmuch as unappeased sexual craving, con- 
 scious or unconscious, is so frequently invoked by the 
 physician to account for disordered nervous function in the 
 unmarried woman. Of fifty-two married women from whom 
 information was obtained as to the condition of the sexual 
 instinct before marriage, it was said to be present in twelve 
 and absent in forty. This probably does not represent the 
 correct proportion, for in the latter number are included 
 thirteen special cases in which the sexual instinct never 
 appeared ; nevertheless, there is not the slightest doubt 
 that a large proportion of women do not experience the
 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 201 
 
 slia;htest desire before marriage. One is familiar, both in 
 fiction and real life, with the girl who, happy in the ad- 
 miration of many suitors, is content to live in the present, 
 pushing off. the question of actual marriage to the future ; and 
 it may confidently be asserted that sensuality in its grosser 
 aspect enters not at all into the mind of a very large 
 number of women when contemplating matrimony. 
 
 One must be careful not to misjudge conduct. The 
 highly attractive woman finding herself in possession of 
 charms which exercise a powerful influence over the other 
 sex is ])rone to give free scope to their employment — to 
 become coquettish. Xow some make the very great mis- 
 take of supposing this to be the outcome and expression of 
 a burning sexuality, but far from such being the case, it 
 would probably be more correct to say that it goes along 
 with sexual indifference — with unawakened sexual instincts. 
 Where desire is, there coquetry — in the proper sense — cannot 
 be ; for if a woman naturally sensual is modest, she is apt 
 to be on her guard lest her actions be misinterpreted, and 
 this sexual consciousness robs her of that easy spontaneity 
 which constitutes the chief charm of girlish coquetry ; and if 
 immodest, her conduct is pervaded with sensuality, when it is 
 no longer entitled to be regarded as coquetry, whose essential 
 feature is sexual unconsciousness. She that is sexually con- 
 scious is apt to read sexual meanings into w^ords and acts 
 the most innocent, and to this class belongs the woman who 
 averts the face, is ever ready to blush, who through her 
 sexual consciousness is as it were ultra modest, but who one 
 day astonishes every one by taking to the streets. 
 
 Of the twelve cases in which desire was present before 
 marriage it was said to have appeared in most with puberty. 
 In two cases it was alleged not to have developed until a few 
 years after puberty, while in three it was stated to have 
 appeared before this epoch. In one of these it manifested 
 itself some years before puberty, rising almost to nympho- 
 mania on the day preceding the first menstruation ; the 
 abnormal desire was here probably due to some local irrita- 
 tion, as the patient suffered from intense pruritus. The
 
 20 2 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 second of these three patients first noticed desire at the 
 age of fourteen, but did not menstruate until two years 
 afterwards. The third began to menstruate when fifteen 
 years old, but had distinct desire one year before this. 
 
 The Sexual Instinct in the Married Woman. — In almost all 
 the cases inquired into the desire was less in the woman than 
 in the man. In only a few was it as strong, or stronger, 
 and in most of them the husband was exceptionally in- 
 different. 
 
 Of the thirteen cases of married women in which there 
 was complete absence of sexual feeling, five had been mar- 
 ried for a period under two years, and, inasmuch as desire 
 in woman may first appear some years after marriage, it 
 would be wrong to conclude that it would never develop in 
 these cases. Some of the other women, however, had been 
 married several years without ever having experienced the 
 slightest sexual feeling. Thus : — 
 
 ^t. 49. — Her husband and she went to school together. Has 
 never had the slightest sexual instinct. 
 
 jEt. 39. — Has been sexually indifterent all her life. 
 
 What, it may be asked, are the motives to marry in such 
 or indeed in most women ? Affection, social custom, and 
 the desire to be independent, rather than sexual gratification, 
 are probably the chief. One of the thirteen women under 
 consideration married for ' social purposes,' another ' because 
 she was out of service.' 
 
 The sexual indifference of a large number of women until 
 after the consummation of the marriage is well shown in 
 those cases in which the husband is from the beginning of 
 marriage impotent, and in which, consequently, connection 
 never takes place. Quite recently a man aged forty-five 
 came to the hospital for bronchitis, and his aspect suggesting 
 that his sexual system was undeveloped, I examined his 
 testicles and found them rudimentary. This man, if indeed 
 he could be called such, had been married several years, but 
 had never been able to consummate his marriage. Never-
 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 203 
 
 theless, his wife and he lived together in perfect happiness, 
 and they had adopted two children, to whom they were as 
 father and mother. Cases of this kind are not so rare as one 
 imagines. Occasionally, doubtless, the wife of the impotent 
 man invokes the aid of the law to procure a divorce, but 
 probably only a small proportion of women thus situated do 
 this. Here be it noted that the impotent man differs from 
 the woman devoid of sexual instinct, in that the one is 
 incapable, while the other is capable (unless there be gross 
 malformation) of the sexual act. There is, therefore, suppos- 
 ing the sexual instinct in the two sexes to be equal, far 
 greater provocation in the case of a woman marrying an 
 inii^otent man than in tliat of a man marrying a woman 
 devoid of sexuality ; but in spite of this we find the man in 
 the latter case more apt to resent his lot than is the woman 
 in the former case to resent hers. 
 
 There appears to be no constant relation between the 
 intensity of the sexual instinct in woman and the capacity 
 to bear children. How many, if any, of the women in whom 
 there was complete sexual indifference were barren my 
 notes do not say. Three of them, at all events, had 
 children ; and it must be known to most physicians that 
 sexual desire is often very small in women who have large 
 families. Barren women, on the other hand, may have 
 strong sexual instinct — an observation as old as the days of 
 Solomon. 
 
 Among tliose women in whom sexual desire was not 
 aroused until after marriage, it remained dormant for periods 
 ranging between days and years. In two or three cases 
 congress was not allowed by the woman until some time 
 after marriage ; and in the case of one married couple of 
 eight years' standing it had, owing to a dense annular hymen, 
 never once been effected. 
 
 I now proceed to consider the influence of menstruation, 
 pregnancy, lactation, and the climacteric upon the sexual 
 instinct. 
 
 Menstruation. — The influence of menstruation upon desire
 
 204 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 has been alluded to by several writers. Thus, Halier writes, 
 " Hinc vulgo nota eo tempore ad venerem proclivitas, etiam 
 anatomico experimento confirmata, cum Eiedlinus turgentem 
 in menstruata clitoridem videret."' Emet" went so far as 
 to attribute the monthly loss of blood in the human female 
 to the social restrictions put upon the free indulgence of the 
 sexual appetite, which he supposed to be normally increased 
 every month. This monthly increase of desire was, according 
 to him, accompanied by a turgid and erectile state of the 
 generative organs, after the manner of the corpora cavernosa 
 in the male. The erection, if not relieved by sexual inter- 
 course, became, it was further supposed, so intense as to 
 cause rupture of the distended vessels and hemorrhage. 
 
 The French writers are foremost in attributing to men- 
 struation a predominant influence in exciting desire. Thus, 
 according to Tardieu,"^ nymphomania occurs chiefly during 
 widowhood, and at the approach of the n:ienstrual epochs. 
 Stolz, Brierre de Boismont, A. Meyer, Guibout write in the 
 same strain."* This last author maintains that a large num- 
 ber of widows and unmarried women are rendered miserable 
 by their efforts to control their feelings at this time: The 
 observations of Negrier^ are interesting in this connection : — 
 a considerable number of the women in his maternity wards 
 at the Hotel-Dieu d' Angers are pregnant by a single inter- 
 course on the occasion of some public fete ; and he declares 
 that in practically all these cases he is able to fix the date 
 of the single connection at a time close to a menstrual 
 epoch. Tcard" would appear to hold that there is always 
 an increase in sexual desire at the menstrual epochs, and 
 he cites a number of cases from various authors in which 
 
 1 A note by A. Halier in his edition of Boerhaave's " Prffilectiones 
 AcademifB," Amstelaedami, 1744, vol. v. part ii. p. 58. 
 
 2 See " La Femme pendant la Periode menstruelle," p. 189. Par S. Icard. 
 Paris, 1890. 
 
 s "Traite de Medecine legale des Maladies mentales," Paris, 1822. 
 * Loc. cit., p. 191. 
 
 5 "Reciieils des Faits pour servir a I'Histoire des Ovaires," Paris, 1888, 
 p. 83. 
 
 « O2}. cit., p. 188.
 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 205 
 
 this supposed natural increase has passed its physiological 
 limit. 
 
 Carpenter, in his " Human Physiology," writes : " There is 
 good reason to believe that in the human being sexual feeling 
 becomes stronger at the period of menstruation." Simi- 
 larly Galabin : " There is an increase of sexual feeling in 
 connection with the menstrual period. This is generally 
 most marked after the flow, but may exist also during 
 the flow, or just before its onset." ^ This author, like 
 many others, believes that menstruation is analogous 
 to the astus or rut of animals, and that it is delicacy 
 alone which prevents intercourse taking place at the 
 time, " for there can be no doubt that an increase of 
 sexual feeling does normally take place at the menstrual 
 period as at that of the oestus."^ Tait, on the other hand, 
 denies that women have stronger desire at these epochs 
 than at others, declaring that, on the contrary, they then 
 experience a feeling of repugnance to the act.^ 
 
 Such are the views of a few among many authors who 
 have written on this subject. My own investigation tends 
 to show that the influence of the menstrual epochs on desire 
 has been somewhat exaggerated. In about one-third of my 
 cases menstruation had no influence on sexual feeling ; in 
 the remaining two-thirds sexual feeling was influenced by 
 menstruation, but by no means always in the same manner. 
 These cases show that there may be an increase of sexual 
 feeling before menstruation only, or after menstruation 
 only ; that there may be an increase both before and after 
 the epoch ; or both before, during, and after the epoch ; 
 finally, that there may be an increase during the flux with- 
 out any alteration before or after it. 
 
 According to most authors, the commonest effect of 
 menstruation on desire is to cause an increase of it before 
 the flux. My notes bear out this view ; the proportion 
 of cases in whicli sexual feeling was increased before the 
 
 1 "A Manual of Midwifery." by A. L. Galabin. 1SS6. \\ 37. 
 
 '^ " Diseases of Women," 4lh edit. p. 44. 
 
 3 Medical Times and Gazette, 1S84, vol. i. pp. 619-624.
 
 2o6 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 flux to those in which it was increased after the flux being 
 as 3 to 2. 
 
 When the sexual exaltation occurs before the periods, it 
 may begin as long as one week before, or only just before ; 
 when after the epoch, however, it does not, as a rule, last 
 for more than a day or two. In one case the increase was 
 generally most marked on the second day after the flux. 
 
 Thus the influence of menstruation on sexual desire is 
 very variable, and cannot be expressed in terms of a fixed 
 and undeviating law, as many writers, notably the French 
 would appear to assume. 
 
 While acknowledging the influence of menstruation on 
 sexual feeling we must be careful not to exaggerate it. 
 Nymphomania occurring at the epochs must be exceedingly 
 rare. I have never seen a case. Icard has collected a 
 number of such cases, and one is apt, after reading them, to 
 assume that they are quite common ; but it is unwise to pay 
 undue attention to exceptional cases, when our object is to 
 discover general laws. 
 
 Pregnancy. — The influence of pregnancy on sexual feeling 
 has been variously stated by different authors, the general 
 opinion being that it diminishes, or actually annuls, the 
 instinct. My figures show that pregnancy, like menstrua- 
 tion, has a very variable influence in this respect. It is 
 important in studying this subject to inquire into the con- 
 dition of the sexual instinct at difierent periods of pregnancy ; 
 it is not sufficient to state in general terms that pregnancy 
 increases or diminishes, or has no eflect upon, sexual feeling, 
 seeing that, as a matter of fact, it may have all these three 
 effects in the same individual at different periods of the 
 term. 
 
 The condition of the sexual instinct during pregnancy 
 was ascertained with more or less accuracy in twenty-one 
 cases. One of these is so remarkable, that I proceed to 
 quote it at once ; in this case sexual feeling is only expe- 
 rienced during pregnancy : 
 
 .Et. 31. — Has four children. Desire is, to all intents and 
 purposes, absent, excei)t during her pregnancies, when it is con-
 
 / 
 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 207 
 
 .siderable. It begins directly she conceives, being a sure sign to 
 her of pregnancy, and lasts till labour, after -which it disappears. 
 
 In eight other cases desire was said to be augmented by 
 pregnancy. In most of these the increase lasted during 
 the first few months only ; in one case, for instance, it was 
 said to last till quickening occurred. In some, however, it 
 lasted longer than this, and continued in a few throughout 
 the whole term. The increase in all these cases was decided ; 
 in one it was very considerable. 
 
 Such augmentation of sexuality is remarkable seeing that 
 in all mammalia other than man, the female resents the 
 approach of the male during pregnancy. How far we are 
 to regard it as morbid I cannot say. Pruritus vulvie is 
 common among pregnant woman, resulting, it would seem, 
 from the mechanical congestion caused by the enlarged 
 womb ; whether a similar congestion occurs in the lower 
 animals during pregnancy I do not know ; but one would 
 rather expect the upright position of woman to render her 
 especially liable to it when pregnant, and pruritus, being fre- 
 Cjuently associated with increase of sexual feeling, it is 
 possible that the tendency to sexual exaltation in preg- 
 nant women may be related to the upright position. 
 
 In five of the twenty-one cases, pregnancy was said to 
 make no appreciable difference in desire ; in three there 
 was a diminution during pregnancy, and in four a complete 
 disappearance. It may here be mentioned that Hippo- 
 crates regarded pregnancy as a cure for nymphomania. 
 
 Lactation. — In most of the cases inquired into, lactation 
 caused a diminution or absence of desire ; in no case an in- 
 crease of it. It is somewhat strange that while pregnancy 
 sometimes causes an augmentation of the sexual feeling, 
 lactation sliould never do so, seeing that the nursing woman 
 may conceive, while the pregnant woman — if we except 
 those rare cases of superfcetation — never can. It must, 
 however, be remembered that lactation is a far greater drain 
 upon the body than pregnancy, since during it the mother 
 has to nourish a much larger being than during pregnancy. 
 Among the ill-nourished and over-worked poor, nursing is 
 
 )
 
 2o8 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 apt to be very exhausting ; its eft'ect on them being some- 
 what like that of prolonged suppuration. In such cases 
 the infant, instead of feeding upon the surplus nourishment 
 poured out from an unwontedly rich blood, plays the part of 
 a parasite, taking that which should go to the building-up 
 of maternal tissues, and the aiitemic low condition thus 
 engendered in the mother provokes leucorrhoea, which still 
 further reduces her energies. Therefore, it is not surprising 
 that in the poorer classes, among whom my inquiries M^ere 
 made, lactation should diminish or abolish desire ; probably, 
 however, it has a very similar effect upon those who are 
 more favourably circumstanced. 
 
 The Climacteric. — Of the cases in which the influence o'f 
 the climacteric on desire was ascertained there was a diminu- 
 tion in two-thirds. This diminution was in most cases 
 gradual ; in a few it was sudden. Among the remaining 
 one-third either no alteration in desire was noticed, or there 
 was an exaltation of it. This climacteric exaltation has 
 been alluded to by many authors, and has been likened 
 to the final flicker of a dying flame, and to the chant of the 
 dying swan. In two or three cases observed by me the 
 desire at the climacteric was said to be greater than it had 
 ever been before. I am inclined to think that the exal- 
 tation is, for the most part, temporary, lasting for a few 
 months only, or coming on in spasmodic bursts. Be this 
 as it may, it is a matter of common observation that, at this 
 time of life, women sometimes act very unfortunately.^ 
 It is not uncommon for desire to continue some years 
 
 1 Eaciboi>ki ("Traits de la Menstruation," p. 271) has some interesting- 
 remarks on this head. Also Gardanne, thus: " Cette passion souveraine 
 — I'amour, et pour ainsi dire unique du sexe, semble reprendre une nouvelle 
 force a I'epoque de la menopause pour s'eteindre bientot. C'est alors 
 surtout que la femme devra chercher a moderer cette passion qui peut 
 decider un derangement dans le s3-steme uerveux " (" Dissertation sur les 
 Avis a donner aux Femmes," C. P. Gardanne, Paris, 1812). Mathieu and 
 Rouband, as qnoted by Tilt (" Change of Life," London, 1857, p. 142) 
 believe in the frequent occurrence of abnormal sexual excitement at the 
 climacteric, thus justifying an old French saying which runs thus : " Le 
 di'^ble de 40 ans, si habile a tourmenter les femmes."
 
 PAKT Ti.] MAN AND WOMAN. 209 
 
 after sixty in woman, but when it becomes intense in old y 
 
 age the condition is always due to local disease, or to some f\/tM^ fj M 
 
 morbid state of the nervous system, or to both. Erotic 
 
 outbursts are occasionally seen in aged insane women, 
 
 and I am told that these outbursts are much more common 
 
 in old men than in old women. Thus, " in the case of a 
 
 man erotic manifestations were very marked at eighty-two 
 
 years. In the case of the female no case of such an age 
 
 had occurred." I find, however, that instances of erotomania 
 
 in women have l^een recorded as late as eighty-four years 
 
 of age.^ 
 
 One fact which strikes one forcibly in the preceding 
 observations is the tendency for the sexual instinct in the 
 woman to change from time to time : not only may it 
 be temporarily altered, with menstruation, pregnancy, and 
 lactation, but it may, I have now to add, disappear for 
 months, or even years, to reappear again suddenly. Some- 
 times the disappearance dates from the birth of a child, as 
 happened in no less than six of my cases. 
 
 Another fact may be re-emphasised here, namely, our 
 inability to frame fixed undeviating laws regarding the 
 sexual instinct in woman. Thus, it may first awaken A 
 many years before puberty, B at puberty, C shortly after 
 puberty, I) at marriage, JS some time after marriage ; or it 
 may never awaken, and this in fertile women. Then, as 
 regards the influence of menstruation : A, there may be no 
 alteration of desire in connection with menstruation ; B, it 
 may be increased before the period only ; C, after the period 
 only ; I), both before and after the period ; B, it may be 
 exalted during the period in any of those cases just con- 
 sidered ; F, finally it may be increased during the period 
 only, not before or after. Again, pregnancy, lactation, and 
 the climacteric show a similar fickleness as regards their 
 influence on desire. Verily, there is truth in the adage, 
 " Variuin et mutabile semper feinina." 
 
 The most important conclusion, however, which our inquiry 
 
 ' Icard, vp. cit, p. 203. 
 

 
 2IO SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 establishes is that the sexual instinct is very much less 
 intense in woman than in man/ 
 
 We have seen how it has come about that the female of 
 almost all animals is less eager than the male. Probably 
 in no other animal is this disparity so marked as in man, 
 for while men, on the whole, have very strong desire, many 
 women display marked sexual coolness, and some are quite 
 devoid of sexual feeling. The question, therefore, arises 
 whether there are any special causes at work tending to 
 diminish the sexuality in the human female. I believe 
 there are. 
 
 In the case of the lower animals, as already observed, 
 
 ^ An eminent physician has kindly furnished me with his views on the 
 subject of this chapter. They are, I am pleased to find, in harmony with 
 the conclusions I have reached. " My experience," writes he, "which is 
 only one among thousands, distinctly leads me to the conclusion that 
 sexual unconsciousness is the normal and usual state of young unmarried 
 women, unless where the mind has been operated upon by vicious com- 
 panions of their own sex, and by a larger knowledge of the relations 
 existing between married people, obtained through loose conversation with 
 married sisters, and sometimes by coarse talk in the family circle. In 
 the lower classes where the bar between the sexes is almost absent, owing 
 to blunted feelings, absence of bedroom and other accommodation, the 
 full knowledge of the sexual function must exist, but even amongst these 
 actual desire is, I am sure, more frequently absent than present. 
 
 " Many women marry without for a moment realising what is likely to 
 occur afterwards, and some I have known have resented as a gross 
 indignity any approach to a marital embrace. In one case the woman — a 
 young Jewess — the morning after her marriage telegraphed to her mother 
 to bring her home at once as her husband had most grossly insulted her, 
 and she was one of four sisters. In another case the bride offered the 
 most vehement resistance for many days to her husband's approaches. 
 In both these cases the women were most tenderly attached to their 
 husbands before marriage. I could give you many instances more from 
 my own professional experience, and no doubt other physicians, similarly 
 placed, could do the same. 
 
 " I believe many married women only tolerate the embrace because of 
 their strong affection for the husband. I have known several cases where 
 a jealous wife has accused her husband of incontinence, because he had 
 relaxed his attentions to her ; and this not from desire, but from jealousy. 
 
 " To sum up. I consider sexual unconsciousness to be the natural con- 
 dition of the female, and that, while the evolution of her sexual system
 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 211 
 
 some sort of sexual instinct in the female is absolutely 
 necessary to the continuation of the species, for in their case 
 no sexual congress is possible unless the female lends herself 
 to the act, and this she almost certainly would not do unless 
 prompted by sexual instinct. If, therefore, the female has 
 not the necessary instinct to co-operate with the male in 
 effecting sexual union, she will be unable to propagate her 
 kind, and will leave no progeny to inherit the dehciency. 
 Thus, in the case of the lower animals the instinct in the 
 female is kept at a certain level. With the human species, 
 however, the case is different. A woman having no desire 
 whatever may yet be impregnated and conceive. Among 
 barbarous peoples women have for ages been dealt with as 
 cattle, and have had to yield to their masters. The possession 
 of beauty by them rather than of sexual desire has led to 
 their selection, and thus many women with defective sexual 
 desire have borne children who in their turn have dis- 
 played the like deficiency. In other words, that active 
 process of elimination, which Weismann terms panmixia, 
 and which, according to him, is absolutely necessary to the 
 
 tends to make her seek and take more pleasure in the society of the male 
 than the female, this behaviour is not influenced by desire. Of course, 
 to this as to all general rules there are exceptions, but these exceptions 
 are mainly the result of vicious environments and local bodily causes, 
 both of which again are the outcome of our highly artificial state of 
 society." 
 
 Ploss in his work on the natural history of woman comes to the same 
 conclusion. According to him, " Das Weib ist im sexuellen Verkehr mit 
 dem Manne mehr passive." (Ploss, " Das Weib in der Natur- und Yolker- 
 kunde,"' B. i. p. 240). And he goes on to observe, that, as one would natu- 
 rally expect among primitive people, the love of the mother is stronger 
 than that of the wife. The former is manifestly more necessary for the 
 propagation of the race. The same author on a previous page (221) quotes 
 authorities in support of tlie view that all over the world women are 
 sexually more indifferent than men. Appun (" Unter den Tropeu " Band ii. 
 s. 425, 428), who was temporarily married, after the custom of the country, 
 to a native Indian of Guyana, alludes to the sexual indifference of the 
 Indian woman. 
 
 Acton's remarks on the comparative sexuality of man and woman, are 
 almost in complete accord with my conclusions as above set forth ; also 
 Tait's.
 
 212 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 maintenance of a certain character at its proper standard, is 
 interfered with. 
 
 Tlie same is true of civilised peoples. "While scarcely 
 any men marry without pronounced sexual desire, many 
 women become wives, as we have seen, having little or none 
 at all, and moreover, while absence of desire on the part of 
 the man almost always goes along with impotency, a similar 
 defect on the part of the woman but rarely implies 
 sterility. It is even possible that an elimination of women 
 having strong sexual instinct is taking place. This would 
 follow if it could be proved («) that the sexuality of prosti- 
 tutes is on an average naturally greater than that of women 
 who are not prostitutes, and (b) that, for equal numbers, the 
 former class have fewer children than the latter. It is 
 probable that these propositions are both correct, in which 
 case we must conclude that one of the effects of prostitution 
 on women as a class is to diminish their sexuality. 
 
 A few words may here be said on the physiological aspect 
 of monogamy. I have already argued that man is essentially 
 a polygamist. His present structure and conduct, his past 
 history alike proclaim this. Are we, then, to conclude that 
 monogamy is an evil institution, and that civilised man 
 should revert to polygamy ? Only those with a very 
 perverted intelligence can doubt the answer. The barest 
 acquaintance with the science of Sociology — to appeal to 
 nothing higher — makes it manifest that monogamy is the 
 only form of sexual tie compatible with social progress : the 
 L-Z/f^-^-'^ / instincts of the man must bow down before the needs of the 
 
 • • Will this incongruity of polygamist instinct and mo- 
 {a^a^ /^rc-'*-^ nogamist necessity always exist ? Assuredly not. At the 
 Z;^ i^^^ru-cn-'^^^- present time man is not, so far as his sexual instincts are 
 ^-xjs^Js^^ Jl£^ ' concerned, in perfect equilibrium with his circumstances. 
 Social evolution continually requires of the social unit modes 
 of conduct at variance with instinctive promptings. Nor is 
 there anything peculiar in this. Organic evolution essen- 
 tially consists in a continual adaptation of the individual to 

 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 213 
 
 an ever-changing (in the direction of greater complexity) 
 environment. Sometimes the environmental change is 
 sudden, sometimes graduol ; in proportion as the change 
 is sudden, in that proportion is there a clashing, as it were, 
 of the individual and his environment, this clashing — tliis 
 want of equilibrium between the two — either leading to 
 actual extinction or to a gradual restoration of the equili- 
 brium. Thus, civilised man, the descendant of a long line 
 of polygamous ancestors, finds himself with the polygamous 
 instinct strong upon him, surrounded by powertul forces 
 which make for monogamy, and there is doubtless in conse- 
 quence gradually evolving in him a monogamous instinct. 
 Those monogamously inclined evidently tend to leave a more 
 numerous progeny to inherit a like inclination than the 
 ^jolygamously disposed, inasmuch as the latter are, on the 
 whole, less likely to marry. It must be acknowledged, 
 however, that many liighly polygamous individuals do marry, 
 and live in a state of polygamous monogamy. 
 
 That the equilibrium is tending to be established in this 
 indirect way, there can be no doubt. Whether it is also 
 being effected by direct means we cannot, of course, say, 
 until the vexed question of the inheritability of acquired 
 characters is settled; if such characters are inheritable, 
 then we cannot doubc that the influence of a properly spent 
 monogamous life tends to be inherited by the offspring. 
 
 The fact tliat the man is polygamous in nature harmonises 
 with the fact that his sexual instinct is far stronger than 
 the woman's. It follows from these facts that the amount 
 of sexual intercourse which is physiological for the average 
 man is, in a sense, excessive for the average woman ; 
 physiologically speaking, all congress after impregnation is 
 redundant on her part, but not on the part of the man, 
 because in his case each intercourse is potentially an im- 
 pregnation. But although all intercourse after conception is 
 redundant for the woman, yet, by a sort of accident, this 
 redundant congress is not, on the whole, injurious to her, 
 since the part which the woman plays in the sexual act is 
 largely a passive one. If this were not the case — if sexual
 
 2 14 SEXUAL INSTINCT IN [part ii. 
 
 desire iu the woman were absolutely essential to congress, 
 and if each intercourse made physiological demands upon 
 her as great as those made upon the man — then mono- 
 gamy would assuredly be fatal to woman's health ; she 
 would needs suffer from sexual excess. On the other 
 hand, if the woman were incapable of sexual connection 
 beyond the limits originally imposed — i.e., after concep- 
 iJ.I^CKjrs^zo'^ , tion — then probably the institution of monogamy had never 
 been. 
 
 All the remarks in this chapter have been made for the 
 purpose of leading up to the question. How far the non- 
 appeasement of sexual craving leads to disease ? Judging from 
 medical writings, this question refers chiefly to the female sex. 
 A large number of women never marry ; some from choice, 
 many from necessity. How far, it may be asked, is spinster- 
 hood inimical to health ? The exercise of a complex 
 generative system, which would otherwise remain quiescent, 
 must obviously affect the entire woman, and probably, on 
 the whole, in a beneficial way ; furthermore, the awaken- 
 ing of the maternal instinct, and tlie numerous duties con- 
 nected with the care of children, give the woman a purpose in 
 life which is otherwise often lacking. To this extent the un- 
 married woman probably suffers ; but does her health suffer 
 from unsatisfied sexual craving ? An opinion widely prevails 
 ^ among medical writings that the unmarried woman does 
 
 Cb^XX*"*-^ thus suffer. Thus, Sauvages ^ remarks, " Salacitas major, 
 major ad hysteriam proclivitas ; " similarly, P. Jj^gineta, that 
 it is frequently observed " in juvenculis salicibus ; " "^ and 
 Lay cock maintains that this "fact is so universally acknow- 
 ledged, and so constantly corroborated by daily observation, 
 that anything in the shape of proof is unnecessary." ^ Gowers 
 is somewhat more guarded. " Continence," he writes, " has 
 been supposed to be a cause of hysteria ; but probably it is 
 so only when it suddenly succeeds habitual indulgence, and 
 
 ^ " Nosologia Methodica," torn. ii. 4to. Amstelodami, 1768, i. p. 587. 
 
 - " De i-e Medica," lib. iii. cap, Ixxi. 
 
 3 "Nervous Diseases of Women," 1840, p. 9. 

 
 PART II.] MAN AND WOMAN. 215 
 
 its influence is chiefly confined to the female sex."^ Again, 
 Pliny remarks, " Multa morborum genera primo coitii sol- 
 vuntur." ^ 
 
 The conclusions arrived at in this chapter prepare us for , UjUfi^ 
 
 the belief that the influence which unappeased sexual 0*'^^^ 
 appetite in the woman plays in disease has been very much t^*^ 1 rpz-'Z-^.'T^ , 
 exaggerated. Some of the most eminent physicians of our S^^P^^^'^'^'^^^^ 
 time have expressed the opinion that no man is the worse for 1 ,^ir ff-°-^Uj^ , 
 chaste celibacy, so far at least as it entails continence ; and ^^^ ^jiaJT- 
 
 if this is true of men, it is, one would think, a fortiori, true of 
 women. 
 
 ^ Gowers, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 906. 
 
 - Plinii Sccundi, "Hist. Nat.," lib. xxviii. cap. x. Londini, 1826. 
 
 The following passage is worthy of quotation in this connection : " Ego 
 nnper vocatus sum, noct-e media, ad curationem mulieris, quae ab 
 hysterica suffocatione laborabat, et conciderat quasi mortua : eam inveni 
 frigidiorem marmore ; pulsus erat parvus, maritus aderat, de uxoris salute 
 valde soUicitus. Bene est, dixi : Jussi ut rem cum uxore sua haberet ; rem 
 habuit, indeque statim convaluit. HoUerii, "Omnia Opera Practica," 
 Genev£e, 1635, de Morb. intern, lib. i. p. 511. 
 
 e ' 
 
 ^9-*^ Ck^ t^ /M^.uZ€ Uuy^^^c^ Um^-^^ ^^Vi/TL^<.^ 
 
 cr^ vJ:)9, Offjr-, TOO 000 ^ ^ i^i'^^U^ jA2^
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE— STATISTICS, CAUSES, 
 
 MEANS. 
 
 Suicide, as the result of certain conditions of the nervous 
 system, demands a brief notice. 
 
 Eace has a decided effect upon the suicide-rate, quite 
 independently of external conditions, such as climate> educa- 
 tion, religion. This is proved by the fact that in countries 
 populated by mixed races, the rate is found to vary for 
 each race, and at the same time to correspond with the rate 
 in the country to which it is native. Of i6i cases of 
 suicide in New York during the year 1883, as many as 
 seventy were Germans, for whom the rate is equally high 
 in their own country. The suicide-rate among negroes, on 
 the other hand, is low, both in their native lands and in 
 other parts of the world. 
 
 The more developed the institutions of a country {e.g., 
 the more perfect the railway and telegraphic systems), and 
 the higher the pressure under which men live, the greater is 
 the suicide-rate ; it is also distinctly increased by educa- 
 tion ; the rate for large towns is greater than for rural 
 districts ; for soldiers and sailors it is higher than for 
 civilians ; and among soldiers, it is higher for cavalry than 
 for foot regiments.^ 
 
 Throughout Europe, about three times as many males as 
 
 ^ For the above and ruany of the following facts I am indebted to 
 W. Wynn Westcott's work on " Suicide." London, 1SS5.
 
 PART II.] INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE. 217 
 
 females destroy themselves, as is shown by the following 
 table/ giving the niuiiber of suicides in each sex per 
 hundred : — 
 
 Male -suicides. Female suicides. 
 
 France . 
 
 79 
 
 21 
 
 Italy 
 
 So 
 
 20 
 
 Pnissia . 
 
 82 
 
 18 
 
 Spain 
 
 71 
 
 29 
 
 Saxony . 
 
 77 
 
 23 
 
 Eussia . 
 
 80 
 
 20 
 
 Holland 
 
 . 78 
 
 22 
 
 Ireland . 
 
 . 78 
 
 22 
 
 Scotland 
 
 72 
 
 28 
 
 U. S. A. 
 
 79 
 
 20 
 
 Westcott explains this disproportion by the facts that 
 upon the men falls chiefly the brunt of the struggle for exist- 
 ence, that the women can better adapt themselves to change 
 of circumstance, and that they are more self-sacrificing.^ 
 
 There can be no doubt that it is largely due to differ- 
 ences in the occupation of the two sexes, for those occupa- 
 tions " which by habit, physical and mental, bring women 
 near to men," often increase very considerably the suicide- 
 rate among women. ^ A writer in the Journal of Mental 
 Science * believes that if the number of men and women 
 who contemplate self-destruction could be ascertained, the 
 disproportion would not be so great. " Many more women 
 than men desire, or think they desire, but have not the 
 courage to cause, their own death." My own opinion is 
 similar, but not identical. I think it probable that the idea 
 of suicide more frequently presents itself to the woman than 
 to the man, because women so much more frequently suffer 
 from the minor forms of melancholia, but I do not believe 
 that the lack of courage acts as a deterrent with them. 
 As a matter of fact men, being more egoistic, cling to life 
 more tenaciously than women, as is shown by the far greater 
 frequency with which they suffer from fear of death ; and if 
 women less often obey the promptings to self-destruction, it 
 
 ^ Journal of Mental Science, vol. xxxi. p. 567. " Hid. p. 107. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 95. * Ibid. p. 218.
 
 2i8 INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE, [part it. 
 
 is rather because they are less impatient under trial, more 
 resigned to their lot, more impressed with the awfulness of 
 the crime, and with the sense of duty to those about them. 
 I do not think that the element of courage or cowardice 
 at any time plays a notable part in determining the conduct 
 of the would-be suicide, suicide very rarely being a deli- 
 berate act. Rarely, if ever, does the self-murderer calmly, 
 with Hamlet, consider both halves of the question, " To be, 
 or not to be." So dominated is he with the idea of de- 
 stroying himself, that it is quite impossible for him to weigh 
 carefully the arguments for and against the act. He may, 
 and often does, deliberate as to the means to be used, laying 
 his plans so skilfully as to elude the most careful watch, 
 but on the wisdom or unwisdom of the act he does not 
 ponder ; if he did, the strong probability is he would not 
 commit it. And when, as the result of calm deliberation, he 
 concludes that self-destraction is the only course open to 
 him, and proceeds straightway to compass it, it is doubtful 
 whether we should most pity him for his misfortune or 
 admire him for his courage. The lunatic is manifestly 
 incapable of weighing all the circumstances of his case, but 
 the same is also true — and this we are apt to forget — of 
 the individual whose mind is temporarily unhinged by some 
 great shock. To the man overwhelmed by grief, for 
 instance, it is quite impossible to see things in their right 
 proportion, and consequently impossible to deliberate, in the 
 proper sense of the word — that is to say, to weigh the 
 arguments for and against the act that is suggested to him ; 
 for what weight can turn the scale against an overwhelming 
 sorrow ? It is for this reason that I believe the common 
 verdict, " Suicide while in an unsound state of mind," is not 
 merely humane, but eminently true. 
 
 I have said that the disproportion in the rate of suicide 
 for the two sexes largely depends upon external circum- 
 stances. This is further shown by the fact that in some 
 countries more women commit suicide than men. This, for 
 instance, is the case in India, and is thus accounted for by
 
 PART 11.] INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE. 
 
 219 
 
 Surgeon-Major Kenneth M'Leod:' "The survival of the 
 Sati feeling in the country, the lower social position of the 
 women, their ignorance and want of education, render them 
 more ^^rone to commit suicide than men." 
 
 The influence of age on the suicide-rate in either sex is 
 well shown in the following tables r — 
 
 Ages. 
 
 Persons 
 
 All ages . . 
 
 I2.I 
 
 15 
 
 10.3 
 
 20 
 
 9.1 
 
 25 
 
 21.0 
 
 35 
 
 23.6 
 
 45 
 
 8.2 
 
 55 
 
 9-3 
 
 65 - 
 
 17. 1 
 
 75 
 
 25.5 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females 
 
 14. 1 
 
 8.3 
 
 7-1 
 
 9-7 
 
 6.8 
 
 9.7 
 
 16. 1 
 
 22.9 
 
 25.0 
 
 — 
 
 9-1 
 
 17.0 
 
 9-3 
 
 0.0 
 
 23.1 
 
 16.T 
 
 41.4 
 
 0.1 
 
 From this it would appear that in England, at all events, the 
 rate of suicide between the ages of i 5 and 2 5 is greater for 
 women than for men. It will be observed that it is greater 
 among women at the climacteric than at the corresponding 
 age in men. This is as we should expect, for melancholia 
 is common at the climacteric, as all writers agree. I 
 would lay special stress on the great frequency with which 
 women are at this time of life afflicted with a mental state 
 on the borderland of genuine insanity. These cases, which 
 one may see every day in a hospital out-patient department, 
 afford most valuable material for the study of the slighter 
 degrees of mental dissolution. 
 
 During the six years from 1883 to 1888 inclusive, 289 
 boys and girls committed suicide in Germany ; and it will 
 be seen from the following table, taken from the Pall Mall 
 Gazette, that even in children suicide is much more common 
 in the male than in the female, thus proving what we have 
 
 ^ " Statistics and Causes of Suicide in India :" Journal of 3Iental Science, 
 vol. XXV. p. 64. 
 
 ^ Prepared by Mr. J. H. Shoveller, Somerset House : Journal of Mental 
 Science, vol. xxxi. p. 218.
 
 220 INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE, [part ii. 
 
 already had occasion to remark — that the nervous systems 
 of the two sexes differ before puberty. 
 
 Motive of Suicide. 
 
 Nervousness before examinations and after 
 
 unsuccessful examinations 
 Reasons connected with attendance at 
 
 school 
 On account of quarrels with parents and 
 
 teachers . 
 Fear of punishment 
 After ill-treatment at home 
 After thwarted ambitions 
 Anger, obstinacy, &c. 
 Mental derangement 
 Physical defects . 
 Religious mania . 
 Unhappy love affairs 
 Moral depravity . 
 Hyijochondria 
 While playing 
 Other motives 
 Motives iinknown 
 
 Total 
 
 High 
 Scliools. 
 
 Elementarj' 
 Schools. 
 
 Boys. 
 15 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 - — 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 8 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 45 
 9 
 7 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 — 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 .3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 59 
 
 12 
 
 163 
 
 46 
 
 The method of suicide depends largely upon opportunity. 
 In poppy-growing districts poisoning by opium is common ; 
 in Eussia, where the people spend much of their time in- 
 doors, and where the use of firearms is prohibited, hanging 
 is the usual means ; in the warm climate of Italy, where 
 they live mostly out of doors and where firearms are per- 
 mitted, shooting is the common method. 
 
 But although the presence of the means has a great in- 
 fluence upon the means adopted for self-murder, each sex 
 has its preferences. Thus, drowning is the favourite method 
 with women, while cutting the throat is comparatively rare 
 among them. Throughout Europe hanging seems to be the 
 method most employed by men. 
 
 It may be mentioned that Sunday is frequently chosen 
 by women for committing suicide ; men, on the other hand, 
 avoid this day. 
 
 In regard to the causes of suicide in the two sexes, it
 
 PART II.] INFLUENCE OF SEX ON SUICIDE. 221 
 
 is very ditticult, from the published tables on the subject, to 
 derive any general conclusions. Overwork, and the high 
 tension resulting from the struggle for existence, naturally 
 operate more potently with men. Domestic worries, above 
 all, the death of children, influence women chiefly ; as also 
 remorse and shame. Pregnancy, the puerperal state, and 
 lactation are also recognised causes in women.
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 THE COMPARATIVE NERVOUS PLASTICITY OF THE SEXES. 
 
 Mental Adaptahility. — The adaptability of woman has been 
 frequently remarked upon, but so far as I know, it has 
 never been asserted that women are j^^iysicalli/ more adaptable 
 than men ; it is essentially an adaptability to the varying 
 mental environment that is alluded to. When, e.g., circum- 
 stances lift the woman into a higher social scale, she is said 
 to adapt herself much more readily to the altered conditions of 
 life than would a man under similar circumstances ; and it is 
 notorious how readily maid-servants pick up the ways of 
 their mistresses, how they come to speak in the same tone 
 of voice and to use the same language/ 
 
 I have said in a former chapter that we must distinguish 
 between two kinds of mental adaptability. There is, first, 
 the adaptability to new surroundings of a more or less per- 
 manent nature, as on moving to a new neighbourhood or 
 
 1 In this connection one recalls Tennyson's charming little poem 
 (founded on fact) in which a peasant girl, when translated to the home 
 of the great Lord of Burleigh, droops and dies, because her power of 
 adaptation is not equal to the strain upon it. 
 
 " And her gentle mind was such 
 
 That she grew a noble lady, 
 And the people loved her much. 
 
 But a trouble weighed upon her, 
 And perplexed her, night and morn, 
 
 With the burthen of an honour 
 Unto which she was not born."
 
 PART II.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY. 223 
 
 entering upon an entirely different mode of life. The supe- 
 riority of women over men in this respect may perhaps in some 
 cases be explained by their greater resignation, but whatever 
 its explanation, it is of some importance to the physician, for 
 upon it depends in a measure the fact that women are, on the 
 whole, better patients than men ; they more readily fall in 
 with, or adapt themselves to, the conditions prescribed for 
 them, such, for instance, as prolonged rest, demanding, as it 
 may, a revolution in the whole manner of living. This, 
 however, is not the only cause of the peculiar amenability of 
 the woman to treatment involving rest ; it is chiefly the 
 result of her anabolic habit. When I say that women are 
 better patients than men, I am, of course, speaking gene- 
 rally. Self-indulgent, luxurious women are often bad enough 
 patients.^ 
 
 The second form of mental adaptability is ordinarily known 
 as tact. It is the capacity to modify conduct in response 
 to rapid changes in the social environment. Now it is 
 proverbial that women are more tactful than men, a circum- 
 stance depending apparently upon two characteristics espe- 
 cially feminine : — 
 
 {a) A quick perception, which enables its possessor to 
 grasp a situation readily. 
 
 (&) A non-egoistic tendency. The man being more self- 
 absorbed than the woman is often less alive than she to what 
 
 ^ H. R. Storer, in giving the mortality of women in asylums as nine per 
 cent, less than that of men, quotes the following explanation : "]\Iay it not 
 be that the woman, whose occupations are essentially sedentary, and whose 
 habits more quiet, can accommodate herself better than man to the 
 uniform system and routine of an asylum ? " (" The Causation, Course, and 
 Treatment of Reflex Insanity in Women," H. R. Storer, M.D., Boston, 
 187 1.) The writer refers to that passivity, that anabolic tendency, which 
 belongs to woman in common with almost all female animals. His 
 explanation may in part account for the undoubted facts that more men 
 die in asylums than women, and that more women recover than men. But 
 it is only a partial explanation, for, in the first place, in the best-regulated 
 asylums the men are allowed considerable liberty of action, and secondly, 
 the forms of insanity which affect men are on the whole of a more fatal and 
 incurable kind than those affecting women, men suffering more than 
 women from gross organic lesions of the nervous system.
 
 2 24 NERVOUS PLASTICITY. [part ii. 
 
 is going on around. The tact of an individual is, other 
 things being equal, in inverse proportion to his egoism. 
 The very egoistic are apt to be singularly devoid of tact, and 
 to be perpetually saying and doing the most ridiculous or 
 offensive things. How can any one absorbed in self make 
 that nice study of his surroundings necessary for lit conduct ? 
 How can he be, at one and the same time, chiefly subjective 
 and chiefly objective ? When one is performing a surgical 
 operation or contemplating a difticult move on the chess- 
 board, it certainly would not do to indulge in an egoistic 
 train of thought, and yet many social moves (if one may so 
 put it) require quite as accurate a study of complex conditions 
 as either of these cases. 
 
 The subject of tact is not of merely theoretical interest, 
 as will be granted when it is remembered how necessary 
 this quality is to the physician and the nurse. Perhaps no 
 one is more severely scrutinised than the doctor, especially 
 when called in as a comparative stranger to give his opinion 
 on a difficult case : if he fail to grasp the situation, he may 
 destroy all his chances of usefulness. So much indeed does 
 professional success depend upon tact, that we sometimes 
 see an able man completely outstripped by one of inferior 
 skill and, it may be, less scrupulous character, because the 
 one has, while the other has not, this valuable quality. 
 
 Woman's tact is one of her prime qualifications for nursing, 
 and it need scarcely be said how valuable a quality this is in 
 a nurse who has charge of a nervous case. 
 
 Artfulness, GimniTig. — The natural tact of woman may 
 degenerate into artfulness and cunning. " Of all animals," 
 observes the philosophical Laycock, " woman has the most 
 acute faculties." What courage is to the man, such, in his 
 view, is astuteness to the woman ; and he compares the 
 cunning of the hysterical and insane woman with the artful- 
 ness displayed by animals in choosing a nest for the deposit 
 of their eggs and young, and in protecting their offspring. 
 It is well known that theft, murder, and arson, may be com- 
 mitted by young women with such consummate adroitness 
 as to defy detection. The impulse to thieve, kleptomania
 
 PART II.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY. 225 
 
 as it is called, seems to develop with peculiar frequency in 
 pregnant women, and I suggest that it may perhaps be 
 connected with the necessity of providing adequate food for 
 the young. It is more difficult to account for the destructive 
 tendency manifested by certain hysterical or insane women — 
 e.g., the impulse to murder or to burn — unless we suppose it 
 also to be a reversion — in this case to the primordial instinct 
 to get rid of everything hurtful to the offspring. 
 
 Nervous Plasticity and Rigidity. — The superiority of 
 woman over man in the first of the two kinds of adapt- 
 ability just alluded to, that, namely, to more or less lasting 
 changes in the social environment, though in some degree 
 accounted for by her more resigned and passive nature, yet 
 suggests that she is mentally the more plastic of the two. 
 It may, for instance, be argued that the peculiar readiness 
 with which the woman casts off old, and takes on new, liabits 
 when moved from a lower into a higher social sphere, implies 
 that she is nervously more plastic than the man. I now 
 purpose to treat briefly of this question of the comparative 
 nervous plasticity of the sexes, though I fear my remarks 
 will, from the nature of the case, be of a highly speculative 
 nature. 
 
 In attempting to decide how far a nervous system is plastic 
 or rigid, it is needful to discover how far it displays its 
 activities by instinctive and automatic acts, and how far by 
 the higher operations of reason. For in proportion as it 
 inclines in the former direction, in that proportion is it 
 rigid, and (speaking of the human race only) in that pro- 
 portion do we find a tendency to drift into habits, to be 
 ultra-methodical, conventional, bigoted, imitative (as distin- 
 guished from original), and finally, perhaps, to display fixity 
 and limitation in the character of the diseases by which it 
 is attacked ; while in proportion as it is plastic, in that 
 proportion will it be free from the above proclivities, and, 
 probably, in that proportion too, will it display fickleness 
 and variability in the nature of its disorders. 
 
 As regards the tendency to form habits, it will be shown 
 
 p
 
 226 NERVOUS PLASTICITY. [part ii. 
 
 in Part III. that the more an individual is the creature of 
 habit, the more does he approach the instinct-led organism. 
 The latter is tied down to a narrow, stereotyped plan of 
 action ; the environment is comparatively simple and stable 
 from one generation to another, and the nervous organisa- 
 tion is hereditarily capable (by means of simple instinct) of 
 adjusting the individual to it independently of any marked 
 acquisition, little or no nervous plasticity, enabling the 
 organism to profit by experience, being required.' The 
 centres are — to use Hughlings Jackson's term — rigidly 
 ' organised,' and capable in only a limited degree of being 
 moulded. 
 
 As the scale is ascended, however, the environment 
 becomes more complex and unstable, and a simple, stereo- 
 typed, rigidly ' organised ' nervous system is no longer 
 adequate for the purposes of adjustment ; a higher degree 
 of nervous plasticity becomes necessary, allowing the nerve- 
 centres to adjust the organism to a complex and ever-vary- 
 ing environment. Viewing the matter from the psychical 
 side, we say the adjustment is effected by means of reason, 
 or, rather, by intellect. Experiences are stored up and 
 reasoned upon, and the more the individual is able to store 
 up experiences, the better he is able to use them as guides 
 for his conduct, the higher is the order of his intellect. 
 Now, it is the highest-level nerve-centres which constitute 
 the ' physical substratum of mind ' (H. Jackson), and these 
 centres are the most plastic, the most unorganised, while the 
 centres in the lower levels become progressively more 
 organised, stereotyped, rigid, unmouldable. It therefore 
 follows that in proportion as an individual adjusts himself to 
 his environment by intellectual means, in that degree is he 
 nervously plastic, while in proportion as the adjustment is 
 effected through the lower centres, to that extent is he 
 nervously rigid. 
 
 All sane human beings have to use their intellect in 
 adjusting themselves to their environment ; but some use it 
 
 ^ I am now speaking of the lowest forms of instinct-led brutes — of 
 such as are little guided by reason.
 
 PART II.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY. 227 
 
 in a far greater degree than others, and among the least 
 intellectual we find a strong tendency for acts which were 
 in the first instance intelligent to become to all intents and 
 purposes instinctive, or simply reflex ; we note, in short, a 
 tendency in the nervous system to become rigid — for the 
 2olastic material to set. So long as the act which has ceased 
 to be distinctly voluntary is performed with any degree of 
 consciousness, it may be likened to one of the higher instincts, 
 but when all consciousness has departed from it, it becomes 
 purely reflex or automatic ; and an act which becomes 
 automatic, as distinguished from one which is innately 
 automatic, is termed a habit. The acquisition of such 
 reflex actions (or habits) implies of course an ability of the 
 lower centres to become organised, a plasticity on their part ; 
 but an excessive tendency to such organisation implies also 
 rigidity, for when they have become definitely moulded or 
 set, they resist attempts at remoulding. Although, there- 
 fore, the nervous system of man is not capable — like that of 
 the instinct-led brutes^ — of automatically adjusting him to 
 his environment by powers inherited and in no sense 
 acquired (except in the case of such vital acts as respira- 
 tion) ; yet to a large extent it becomes so Inj acquisition 
 — it is capable, i.e., of being so moulded that it shall 
 prompt acts which differ from instinctive acts only in so far 
 as they are not innate. 
 
 From the above it follows that the more readilv an indi- 
 vidual acquires habits, the more rigid is his nervous system 
 and the more does its condition approach to that of the 
 purely instinct-led organism. The ultra-methodical man is 
 generally under the domination of habit ; he is obviously to 
 a large degree instinctive, and we should consequently not 
 expect to find such an one highly intellectual, the disposi- 
 tion to slip back into the ancestral instinctive state 
 assuredly indicating a close relation to that state. This a 
 
 ^ I use the term " [lurely instinct-led organism " for convenience. As a 
 matter of fact, there are very few animal organisms wholly incapable 
 of acquiring new nervous powers, and an organism which can acquire 
 these cannot be rightly described as purely instinctive.
 
 2 28 NERVOUS PLASTICITY. [part ii. 
 
 priori conclusion is borne out by my experience, and I find 
 I am not alone in the opinion. Darwin observes that some 
 relation seems to exist " between a low degree of intelligence 
 and a strong tendency to the formation of fixed, though not 
 inherited, habits ; for, as a sagacious physician remarked to 
 me, persons who are slightly imbecile tend to act in every- 
 thing by routine or habit, and they are rendered much 
 happier if this is encouraged."^ 
 
 So far I have spoken only of habits of the body, but 
 there are of course habits of mind as well, and the tendency 
 to become automatic manifests itself as much in this direc- 
 tion as in the other. In fact, he who readily acquires 
 bodily habits also readily acquires mental habits — displays a 
 rigidity of thought as of well as action — the nerve-currents 
 keeping, to use a common metaphor, in certain well-worn 
 channels. The most perfect intellects remain plastic to the 
 end ; the inferior show^ an early disposition towards rigidity ; 
 and we shall generally find that those who retain till advanced 
 age the bodily nimbleness and pliancy of youth retain also 
 its mental pliancy ; while those who become prematurely senile 
 in body, and display in their movements, in their arteries, 
 and in other textures of the body, the peculiar rigidity of age, 
 show a corresponding rigidity of thought. Just, in fact, as 
 some jellies and cements ' set ' more readily than others, so 
 likewise do some nervous systems ; and it is an interesting 
 and instructive task to note the variability of different 
 individuals in this respect. Sometimes the condition comes 
 on with startling rapidity — the individual is said to be 
 ' formed ' in his habits. Quite recently I heard the merits 
 of the professorial staff of a certain college discussed, and 
 accidentally elicited a fact of interest in this connection. It 
 appears that a young professor attracted, when first appointed, 
 a large and enthusiastic class by his liberal and suggestive 
 teaching ; gradually, however, the attendance diminished, 
 and after a few years became very sparse. Asking the 
 cause, I found he had become ' faddy.' Two or three 
 ' fads ' had, as it were, enthralled his thoughts, and these 
 
 1 " Descent of Man," p. 68.
 
 PART 11.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY. 229 
 
 he aired on every occasion. No longer able to take a broad 
 and impartial survey of things, he had already ' set,' and 
 so ended all hopes of greatness for him. 
 
 The innate tendency to form mental habits, to lapse 
 towards the instinctive condition, or, what conies to the same 
 thing, to become nervously rigid, expresses itself in the 
 following mental peculiarities. Broadly, there is mental 
 inferiority, a want of mental width and grasp. Coming to 
 details, we find this inferiority expressing itself in a lack of 
 originality, and a corresponding disposition to imitativeness 
 and conventionality. The individual falls quite naturally 
 and unquestioningly into the manners and customs of his 
 community, no matter how absurd these may be, and so far 
 as his social habits are concerned, he becomes little more 
 than a reflex automaton. He likewise shows a marked ten- 
 dency to higotry^ — in itself a strong indication of intellectual 
 inferiority. The bigot is held bound by certain beliefs ; 
 to any other possibility than that which these allow he is 
 absolutely blind, and his blindness argues a feeble power of 
 conceiving any contingencies but those habitually present to 
 his mind — in short, a deficiency of reasoning faculty. 
 
 I do not say that there is any fixed relation between 
 bigotry and intellectual capacity — that the two stand ex- 
 actly in inverse ratio to one another. A higlily intellectual 
 individual may be very bigoted, while one of ordinary ability 
 may keep his mind free and open on all doubtful questions. 
 This paradox probably depends chiefly upon the fact that 
 the one has, while the other has not, strong feeling. What- 
 ever be the true psychological nature of belief, there can be 
 no doubt that the element of feeling enters largely into it. 
 When a man holds obstinately by a false belief, we may be 
 quite sure that that belief is strongly backed up by feeling. 
 
 ' 1 am aware that the term ' bigot ' is of doubtful derivation, and rather 
 apt to be narrowed down in its application to persons blindly and 
 obstinately attached to a relujious creed or party — " obstinate devotees to 
 a creed " is Skeat's definition ; but as I am here using it in a broader 
 sense I may perhaps be allowed to give its meaning as defined by 
 Wedgwood — viz. : " a person unreasonably attached to j^articular opinions, 
 and not having his mind open to any argument in opposition.''
 
 230 NERVOUS PLASTICITY. [part ii. 
 
 Feelings, we know, command thoughts — i.e., tend to call 
 up thoughts in harmony with them — and therefore when a 
 man of strong feeling holds a false belief, he is intel- 
 lectually at a disadvantage ; chained down by his feeling to 
 the one standpoint his belief allows him, his mental horizon 
 is restricted, and he can look at everything from the one 
 point of view only. In order that a man may be able to 
 preserve an open mind on doubtful questions it is absolutely 
 necessary that his education should be carried out in a broad 
 and scientific spirit — a truth on which no one has so forcibly 
 insisted as Herbert Spencer. So great is the influence of 
 real education — i.e., the drawing out of all the faculties — in 
 removing bigotry, that we may see men of great natural 
 talent, but of deficient training, holding firmly by beliefs the 
 absurdity of which is clearly perceived by others who are 
 far less gifted, but have had superior educational advan- 
 tages ; and inasmuch as the test of efficiency is by results, 
 there are many who would accord to the latter a higher intel- 
 lectual rank than the former. 
 
 That bigotry tends to go with mental inferiority is shown 
 in many different ways. It will suffice if we notice two 
 only. The fixed belief of the bigot is closely related to, if 
 not identical with, the delusion of the insane ; he holds it 
 with such tenacity that, no matter how irrefutable the 
 arguments advanced against it, they are powerless to 
 convince him that he is wrong. Now I fail to recognise 
 any radical difference between such a belief and a delusion. 
 He wdio can see things as they are is said to have a clear 
 vision — the ' clear-seeing eye,' as Carlyle would say — whether 
 they be the things of the concrete world, or those belonging 
 to the complex workings of human society ; but if by reason 
 of imperfect vision (due to a defective lens, to a prejudice 
 inborn or acquired, or to other unfavourable media), they 
 are blurred or distorted, their proportions misrepresented, 
 their relations falsified, then is the man deluded ; he has not 
 clear sight and insight, he mistakes the false for the true, 
 the semblance for the reality : he cannot rightly interpret 
 phenomena ; and whereas the candid, open-minded man may
 
 PART II.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY. 231 
 
 be convinced of his error, may have his vision corrected (in 
 which case the false belief does not constitute a delusion in 
 the ordinary sense of the word), such a man is actually 
 unable to see the falseness of his conclusions, though that 
 falseness be demonstrated to him ; he is deluded, as we 
 tacitly acknowledge in such common expressions as ' poor 
 deluded mortal.' 
 
 A second argument in support of the assertion that 
 bigotry is a mark of intellectual inferiority is equally 
 conclusive. The test of a belief, as Bain insists, is its 
 influence as a motive to action : if an individual declares he 
 holds a certain belief, but does not act up to it, we know 
 very well that it cannot be strong.^ If, therefore, a man 
 obstinately holds a number of false beliefs — and the bigot 
 does — he will often be led astray ; for his inability to be 
 reasoned out of them places him at a disadvantage in adjust- 
 ing himself to outer conditions — curtails, in fact, the degree 
 of correspondence between him and his environment. His 
 intellect not being allowed its proper range, his acts tend to 
 become instinctive, and this, as we said before, denotes low 
 intellectuality. 
 
 I may illustrate these remarks by reference to two 
 business men, both of whom are in the habit of speculating. 
 The one is comparatively uncultured, but as a speculator he 
 is exceptionally successful, and his success, so far as I am 
 able to judge, is in a large measure due to the fact that he 
 is ever ready to modify his beliefs when good reasons for 
 doing so present themselves ; when he finds he has com- 
 mitted an error of judgment, he acknowledges it at once, 
 and acts upon the new light he has received. The other 
 has a carefully cultivated intellect, but, unfortunately for 
 himself, he is very bigoted — in vulgar language, ' pig- 
 headed.' Having formed an opinion on a certain stock, and 
 acted on that opinion, he sticks to it through thick and thin, 
 no matter how glaring the evidence against it. He is there- 
 fore highly unsuccessful in business. As showing how a 
 
 ^ Unless, as in the case of the drunkard, he act in spite of his belief, as 
 when leading an intemperate life.
 
 232 NERVOUS PLASTICITY. [part ii. 
 
 man's acts are influenced by his temperament, I may add 
 that he is of a melancholy turn, and that he always speculates 
 for a loss! Through his jaundiced eyes everything seems to 
 be going to the bad. 
 
 Of these two the former has the better balanced, and in 
 one sense the higher order of mind, seeing that ' the degree 
 of life varies with the correspondence,' and that he is the 
 better able to place himself in correspondence with his 
 environment, of seeing things as they are, and of adjusting 
 his acts accordingly. 
 
 Let us now briefly inquire how far the two sexes differ 
 as regards their tendency to be ultra-methodical, conven- 
 tional, imitative, and bigoted. 
 
 Woman, as on the whole the intellectual inferior, we 
 should expect to display a greater tendency towards all 
 these characteristics than the man, and I think there is little 
 doubt that experience justifies the expectation, though how 
 far this is due to nurture and how far to nature it is not 
 easy to determine. She is unquestionably more conventional, 
 more a creature of social routine, than the man, partly no 
 doubt because the limitations of her life give a significance to 
 trifles, but partly also because she puts more of the element 
 of feeling into all she does, and holds by social convention- 
 alities as articles of faith. For the same reasons she is 
 more disposed to bigotry, her excess of feeling making her 
 very tenacious of her beliefs, which nevertheless are uncor- 
 rected by any severe intellectual discipline, or by a wide view 
 of life. In imitativeness and lack of originality, again, she 
 stands conspicuously first ; indeed, it is essentially in this 
 particular that the masculine intellect shows its superiority 
 over the feminine. As to the tendency to fall into habits 
 and to be ultra-methodical, probably nurture, not nature, is 
 the chief determining influence, and usually the woman's 
 surroundings are more calculated to foster it than the man's ; 
 but the man shows an equal disposition to fixity of habit 
 when circumstances favour its development, as is well 
 exemplified by the ' rigidity ' of the confirmed old bachelor.
 
 PART II.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY, 233 
 
 The poor woman (of large towns at least) can scarcely be 
 charged with excess of method. Of method, indeed, in the 
 proper sense of the word, she visually has none ; we find, 
 however, its absence notwithstanding, that her activities are 
 to a large extent habitual. 
 
 A few words may here be said on the conservative 
 tendency in matters political and social that goes along with 
 the characteristics under consideration. An individual who 
 displays any one of them (and he who displays one generally 
 displays all) resents any alteration in the standing order of 
 things. He, more readily than a person of opposite proclivi- 
 ties, falls in with existing conditions, and he lacks, moreover, 
 the originality which would suggest a departure from them. 
 Now, inasmuch as these several characteristics are on the 
 whole more marked in women then in men, we are not 
 surprised to find them incline to conservatism in politics : 
 the enfranchisement of women would almost certainly in- 
 crease the strength, of the Conservative party.^ And a furtlier 
 reason for expecting the woman to be more conservative 
 than the man is that throughout, practically, the entire 
 animal kincjdom the female is more conservative than the 
 male, the latter far more readily than the female taking on 
 new characters. Thus, as Brooks observes, the male takes 
 the lead in orfranic evolution. 
 
 'o" 
 
 The general conclusion, then, we have reached as to the 
 relative nervous plasticity of the two sexes is that, though 
 possibly women are mentally more adaptable than men, 
 
 ^ This remark is not written, and must not be taken, in a partisan spirit. 
 Of the truth of the above statement there can be no doubt. It does not, 
 however, by any means follow that therefore conservatism is a thing to be 
 abjured. No reasonable person can doubt the advisability — nay, necessity 
 — of a strong- conservative element in every system of government, at 
 any rate of popular government. The same necessity is displayed through- 
 out the entire organic world. It is embodied in the great principle of 
 heredity, which is essentially conservative, reproducing the parent, or 
 parents, in the offspring. Organic evolution would be impossible without 
 such conservatism, and the like is true of social and political evolution.
 
 2 34 NERVOUS PLASTICITY. [part ii. 
 
 more tactful, and more readily reconciled to and at home 
 amid new surroundings, the nervous system of man is more 
 plastic than that of woman, in the latter the nerve-centres 
 showing a greater tendency to become 'organised,' stereotyped, 
 rigid. 
 
 We have now to ask how far these remarks on nervous 
 plasticity and rigidity apply to diseases of the nervous 
 system — no easy question. Nevertheless, we may be quite 
 sure that the attempt to find an answer is a worthy 
 one, and not chimerical. "Who can doubt that the ultra- 
 methodical, imitative bigot will show a proclivity to a 
 class of nervous disorders different from that to which the 
 plastic and original genius is liable ? The degree to which 
 an individual is free from the above attributes marks his 
 level of mental evolution, and upon this depends, in a very 
 large measure, the class of nervous disorders to which he is 
 liable. The cultivated- man does not suffer from the same 
 disorders as the uncultivated, and it is, of course, in the 
 diseases of the mind that the differences will be most 
 observed. But were I to attempt to treat of this sub- 
 ject adequately, I should travel beyond the proper limits 
 of my task. I shall therefore only touch upon it very 
 brieiiy. 
 
 It is to be expected that an individual displaying a ten- 
 dency to contract bodily habits will be more liable to become 
 the victim of functional nervous diseases, and less able to 
 shake them off, than the nervously plastic individual, seeing 
 that such disorders are in fact pathological habits. 
 
 A tendency to imitativeness probably renders the in- 
 dividual manifesting it more liable than others to the 
 ' infective neuroses.' I have alluded to this subject on a 
 former page. 
 
 The individual of bigoted diposition is prone to contract 
 fixed ideas, and to become the victim of delusions. 
 
 The above tendencies are all in the direction of rigidity ; 
 the opposite condition of plasticity probably predisposes
 
 PART II.] NERVOUS PLASTICITY. 235 
 
 the individual to variability in morbid nervous manifesta- 
 tions. We should therefore look for a wider variability 
 in the nature of the nervous disorders of men than of 
 women, and this conclusion derives further support from the 
 fact that throughout the animal kingdom the male is more 
 variable than the female ; whence also we may conclude 
 that not only in his nervous, but in all other disorders, the 
 man is the more variable of the two.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RELATIVE CLANNISHNESS OF MEN AND WOMEN. 
 
 I HAVE pointed out in Part I. that while clannishness is a 
 well-marked characteristic of the male sex, it is but little 
 developed in the female. This survival, as I take it to be, 
 of the primeval tribal instinct, shows itself very early in 
 life. Any one who has observed boys knows how, by a 
 natural impulse, they unite in bands ; their very games — 
 e.g., cricket and football — are based on the principle of 
 taking sides, that is, forming rival associations. Only the 
 other day I was struck with the manner in which a number 
 of small boys ran across a field at some distance below 
 where I was standing, apparently without aim, simply drawn 
 together by an inherent cohesive force. You may call it 
 gregarious instinct, or what you will ; and, indeed, it seems 
 to have something in common with the instinct that will 
 make a whole flock of sheep follow the leader, even to the 
 length of jumping over an obstacle held in the way when 
 there is no necessity in each individual case. But it is re- 
 markable that this instinct is not so strongly developed in 
 girls ; they seldom, if ever, combine for any common object 
 of work or amusement. This difference in the two sexes 
 is well illustrated by the behaviour of each at school. A 
 boys' school is not unlike a primitive tribe of men ; and 
 just as among primitive communities the various tribes 
 regard one another in the light of natural enemies, so do 
 neighbouring boys' schools regard one another ; and so keen
 
 PART II.] CLANNISHNESS. 237 
 
 becomes their rivalry, that in charapionin,£^ their own school 
 all little personal animosities and jealousies among the boys 
 are quickly forgotten, and outwardly they present a united 
 front. I could relate many amusing anecdotes in support 
 of this statement, but most people can recollect such for 
 themselves. In girls' schools, on the other hand, the 
 clannish spirit is, I am told, much feebler, and the attitude 
 towards neighbouring schools is usually one of complete 
 indifference. 
 
 Now, I would point out that this instinct in the boy is 
 something more than mere gregariousness. Gregariousness 
 would never give that strong feeling of pride in his own 
 school, or ' set,' which is so marked in a boy — that esprit de 
 corps, as we term it, which makes him subordinate private 
 interests to the good of the organisation of which he is a 
 member, that loyalty which in the man Burke calls " the 
 unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations ;" and I 
 believe that the reason why it is so strongly developed in 
 him, and so slightly in the girl, is because it is a survival 
 from earlier times, when the males constantly combined in 
 expeditions, aggressive or defensive, as the case might be, 
 and where therefore fidelity to each other and to the in- 
 terests of the tribe of which each formed a part was essential 
 to safety and to success. For it is noticeable that while 
 gregariousness is an attribute common to humanity, esprit 
 de corps is not a characteristic that is usually highly 
 developed in women ; a woman's loyalty and devotion 
 where her affections are involved cannot be called in ques- 
 tion, but the indictment against her, that she is " deficient 
 in loyalty to impersonal ties," in " care for the honour of 
 the body " of which she is a member — be it family, school, 
 or country — is, I observe, not altogether repudiated by even 
 sucli a warm supporter of the cause of women as Mrs. 
 William Grey, the well-known educationalist. Nor can we 
 wonder at this deficiency wlien we reflect that women have, 
 not only in the far past but up to the present time, been cut 
 off from membership of any corporate body, social or political, 
 and there has therefore been nothing to foster in them the
 
 238 CLAl^NISHNESS. [part ii. 
 
 virtues pertaining thereto. Clannishness, in the narrower 
 sense of loyalty to the family of which the individual is a 
 member, is by no means wanting among women, as George 
 Eliot, in portraying the Dobsons and the Tullivers did not 
 fail to recognise ; but as among boys and girls, so among 
 men and women, the feeling, in the wider sense in which I 
 am speaking of it, is strongest among the former. Wlio 
 ever heard of women's clubs, women's craft-guilds, women's 
 trades-unions until quite recently ? ^ 
 
 I know that it is objected by some that women show 
 themselves unlit for organisation and co-operation by their 
 failure to live together even in small numbers without con- 
 siderable friction ; but I venture to doubt whether it has 
 been proved that in this respect they compare so very un- 
 favourably with men. Before we can judge fairly in the 
 matter we must subject each to the same environment ; we 
 must not drav/ a parallel between the case of women, re- 
 stricted to the narrow sphere of domestic life, with its trivial 
 interests and its consequently petty rivalries and jealousies — 
 a sphere where the selfishness inherent in the individual 
 cannot fail to be often aroused into antagonism, and 
 yet where close intercovirse prevents that antagonism being 
 forgotten or ignored — and the case of men, whose daily 
 lives are spent in a wider world, in which, though there is 
 keen competition, there is not that intimate association 
 of man with man which leads each to feel uncomfortably 
 the angularities in his neighbour's character Experience, I 
 think, goes to show that where men are subjected to condi- 
 tions similar to those of women, their conduct is much the 
 same ; at any rate, if we may believe the accounts of the 
 state of things in the monasteries of the Middle Ages, or, to 
 come down to our own times, of the relations subsisting 
 between the old men in almshouses, or in workhouse wards, 
 the male sex does not gain much by the comparison. i\ny 
 
 1 I make a reservation here, for, owing to the rapid progress of women 
 to the front within the last quarter of a century, such organisations are 
 no longer unknown ; but they were until the present day, which is all my 
 argument requires.
 
 PART II.] CLANNISHNESS. 239 
 
 difference which may, in this respect, exist between the 
 sexes is, I believe, fully accounted for by the difference in 
 their environments, and if so, my previous argument on this 
 head is strengthened, rather than the inherent capacity of 
 women for co-operation disproved. The modern movement 
 in the direction of women's organisations establishes this 
 conclusion as a fact. 
 
 The way in which men and women differ in respect of 
 clannishness is shown again by the behaviour of villagers. 
 During the intervals of work the men will bo seen in groups, 
 loitering about corners, or gathering together at some re- 
 cognised meeting-place. The women, on the other hand, 
 rarely collect in any number ; nor do I think that this is 
 merely because their domestic duties tie them to the house, 
 or because they are less associated in their work, although 
 these no doubt are factors in the case. 
 
 Again, among the married well-to-do, we find that, as a 
 rule, the men get on better together than their wives. 
 Occasionally the rivalries entailed by the struggle for exist- 
 ence interfere with a healthy intimacy among the men ; but 
 usually when estrangement occurs, it is found that the 
 women are the cause. I have it on the authority of the 
 captain of an Atlantic liner that the women on board are 
 the chief disturbers of social harmony among the passengers. 
 All start, for the most part, good friends, but the women 
 soon break up into cliques, and through their influence on 
 the men the latter are set by the ears. 
 
 The foregoing considerations raise some questions of 
 pathological interest. No one can doubt that there should 
 be a commingling of the sexes, for each supplements and 
 at the same time modifies the other, each is the complement 
 of the other ; and as the woman's past has debarred her 
 from attaining to much that man has already acquired, 
 the commingling is probably more necessary to her than to 
 him : faults and deficiencies induced by an unfavourable 
 environment of enormous duration need to be removed. 
 We all know that the only son of a weak, indulgent mother 
 is often a ' milksop,' but are we equally ready to recognise
 
 240 OLANNISHNESS. [part ii. 
 
 how much a girl suffers, physically and mentally, from want 
 of the wholesome, invigorating companionship of boys ? A 
 girl who has many brothers may be a ' tomboy ' in the in- 
 termediate stage between childhood and womanhood, but 
 though she may therefore lack certain feminine graces, 
 she will undoubtedly gain in nervous strength, and since 
 good physical health is the only firm basis of all her sub- 
 sequent attainments, the temporary loss is more than counter- 
 balanced by the subsequent gain. 
 
 And as with the vounw, so with adults. The man de- 
 prived of the softening, refining companionship of the woman 
 is apt to become brutalised, or at best coarse, and wanting 
 in the tenderness which alone ennobles his superior 
 strength; the woman, deprived of contact with the invigo- 
 rating, manly element, tends to have lier weaknesses ex- 
 aggerated, and hence to deteriorate both in body and in 
 mind.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 
 
 During one period of her life the female of the human 
 species passes through a monthly rhythm, and it is by no 
 means certain that the male is exempt from a similar cyclic 
 change. 
 
 This monthly rhythm is spoken of as menstruation. The 
 term menstruation, however, as ordinarily understood, does 
 not convey a correct notion of the process. It is taken as 
 signifying a series of phenomena of a more or less local 
 character, extending over several days, and reappearing with 
 greater or less regularity every twenty-eight days. This, 
 implying, as it does, that the rhythm is in abeyance during 
 the intervals of the flux, is an altoo-ether too restricted con- 
 ception of the menstruation process, and it should at once be 
 discarded. It rests, in fact, upon a quite erroneous notion of 
 what a rhythm really is. A cycle or rhythm is not an in- 
 terrupted, but a continuous process, a rise to a climax and a 
 fall, ever repeating themselves, like the ebb and flow of the 
 tidal w^ave, and it should therefore be diagrammatically re- 
 presented, not by a broken, but by a continuous undulating 
 line. Thus : Fig. lo illustrates the view of menstruation 
 generally held : 
 
 Fig. io. 
 
 Fig. 1 1 , the process as it actually occurs : 
 
 Fig. II. 
 
 Q
 
 242 THE MONTHLY liHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 A little consideration will show that the conception of 
 menstruation as a continuous process must be the correct 
 one. There must be an unbroken line of causation : to 
 assume otherwise would be to assume that changes may 
 occur independently of any cause. My meaning may be 
 illustrated by a reference to the rhythms of the heavenly 
 bodies. Instance the motion of the moon round the earth. 
 The nature of this movement depends upon the distance of 
 the two bodies from each other and from the sun, their 
 relative masses, the position of their orbits, and the rate of 
 movement primarily impressed upon each. These may be 
 said to constitute the ' material conditions.^ Now, if we 
 fix upon any one point of the lunar cycle, say, the period of 
 ' full moon,' we may regard the material conditions then 
 obtaining as constituting the cause of the material con- 
 ditions immediately succeeding ; these new conditions as the 
 cause of the next ; these, again, of the following ; and so on 
 until the point is reached at which we started, the clue to 
 the true nature of a rhythm being — so it appears to me — 
 that the last change in it shall be capable of setting up 
 the first again. 
 
 It is obvious that which shall be called the first and which 
 the last phase is settled entirely arbitrarily, that we cannot 
 take any point in the cyclical series, and say, this and no other 
 is the beginning of the cycle. In considering rhythms, how- 
 ever, it is convenient to fix upon some one point as the first 
 in the series of changes, and we generally choose one which 
 stands out prominently from the others. Thus, in studying 
 the rhythms of the heavenly bodies, we fix upon such 
 periods as those of new moon, meteoric storms, and the 
 appearance of comets, because at these periods the rhythms 
 strikingly manifest themselves to us ; nor do we in such 
 cases fail to recognise that there is an unbroken chain of 
 causation. 
 
 Thus also should it be with the rhythm of menstruation. 
 But while we fix upon that period of the rliythm at which 
 blood flows from the uterus as the date of reckoning, we 
 forget that a rhythm is a continuous process, and are apt to
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 243 
 
 assume that there is a cessation of the cyclical changes 
 between each period of flux. I do not wish to imply that 
 a rhythm is a perfectly equable and uniform process. Such 
 is far from being the case : a certain section of each cycle 
 may be occupied by changes more striking than occur at 
 other parts of the cycle, as the beat of the heart and men- 
 struation itself, as well as many of the astronomical cycles 
 show. 
 
 These considerations as to the true nature of the menstrual 
 rhythm are borne out by observation.^ It often happens 
 that a woman some days before the menstrual flux — it may 
 be a week or even longer — experiences a series of symptoms 
 indicative of its approach. In the same, or in other cases, 
 peculiar symptoms may be experienced for as long a time 
 after. Now, supposing the ' period ' to last one week, and 
 symptoms to be experienced one week before and one week 
 after it, we have distinct proof of the continuity of the 
 rhythm during three out of the four weeks. The following 
 facts are of interest in this connection. Galabin points out " 
 that for some days before the flow the breasts are apt to 
 become firm, or even painfully hard, or to be seized with 
 violent neuralgic pains ; that a disposition to constipation 
 frequently occurs ; that the ovaries have been found tender 
 and swollen in cases of hernia of these organs ; and that 
 soft uterine fibroids, which vary considerably in size through- 
 out the entire menstrual cycle, are then greatest. 
 
 The observations of Jacobi and Stephenson, on the 
 temperature, pulse, and excretion of urea, point in the same 
 direction. Tims Mary Putman Jacobi writes :^ " We find 
 
 ^ The views expressed in this chapter have been held by me for some 
 years. Since the outline of it was sketched I have found that 
 Goodman ("The Cyclical Theory of Menstruation," The American Journal 
 of Obstetrics, 1878, p. 673), Jacobi ("On the Question of Rest for Women 
 during Menstruation"), and Stephenson [American Journal of Obstetrics, 
 p. 287, 1882), have expressed similar opinions, and I have incorporated 
 their observations into it, with a reference to the author in each case in 
 which this is done. 
 
 ■- See "Diseases of Women," 4th edit., pp. 45, 46; also, "A Manual of 
 Midwifery," pp. 38, 39. ^ Loc.cit., p. 162, quoted by Stephenson.
 
 244 
 
 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 
 
 [part II. 
 
 that in the majority of cases the excretion of urea is increased 
 during the few days preceding menstruation over that of the 
 intermenstrual periods ; that it decreases during the menstrual 
 flow, and is at its minimum just afterwards ; that the pulse 
 shows no uniform variation, but that the temperature rises 
 just before the menstruation, to fall during the flow, but at 
 this time rarely reaching the point of the intermenstrual 
 period. Finally, that the sphygmographic trace shows a 
 constantly increasing rise of arterial tension from a minimum 
 point reached just after menstruation to a maximum point 
 just before, but rapidly lessened during the menstrual flow." 
 The observations of Stephenson do not entirely accord 
 with those of Jacobi. They point, however, to the con- 
 clusion that, not only is there a monthly cycle as regards 
 
 the excretion of urea, the tem- 
 * '^' ^^' perature, and the arterial ten- 
 
 sion, but as regards the pulse 
 also.^ 
 
 Cullen maintained that the 
 pulse increases in rate at the 
 approach of the periods, and 
 that women are then more 
 sensitive to cold.^ 
 
 We may therefore conclude 
 that the menstrual rhythm in- 
 timately involves the entire 
 body. 
 
 Laycock taught that the menstrual cycle was made up of 
 four minor cycles, each of a week's duration ; that the 
 woman started upon a cycle at the beginning of every seven 
 days, menstruation (so called) beginning with every fourth 
 minor cycle. This view is diagrammatically represented 
 in figs. 1 2 and 1 3. 
 
 I have met with the records of a considerable number of 
 neuroses recurring regularly every week, and have seen a 
 
 1 I have discussed the purport of the monthly changes in arterial tension 
 in another work. See " Flushing and Blushing," pp. 106-109. 
 
 - Quoted by Brierre deBoisraont, '' De la Menstruation," Paris, 1842-
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 245 
 
 few, hut I have not yet been able to satisfy myself of the 
 correctness of Laycock's contention. 
 
 The fact that menstruation is not an interrupted, but a 
 continuous process, that the woman during her reproductive 
 life is always menstruating, just as the moon is always 
 changing, is of some practical importance. One of the 
 peculiarities of nervousness is the tendency which the 
 subject of it displays to vary in health from time to time 
 without obvious cause. 
 How are we to explani 
 these fluctuations ? Bouts 
 of nervousness are no 
 doubt frequently deter- 
 mined by obscure environmental conditions {c.(/., atmo- 
 spheric and telluric), but they often, I believe, depend upon 
 the peculiar bodily conditions obtaining at some period, 
 or periods, of the menstrual cycle. These conditions are 
 most common about the date of the flux, recurring com- 
 monly just before, during, and after it ; but they may occur 
 at any point of the cycle, seeing that the menstrual rhythm 
 is continuous. Thus we can account for those cases of 
 monthly neuroses recurring during the intervals of the flux, 
 and I cannot but think that many aberrations of nervous 
 health, even though they be not rhythmical, may yet be con- 
 nected with the menstrual cycle. 
 
 We have now to consider the cause of the rhythm. 
 There can be little doubt that ultimately it depends upon 
 the nervous system, which, far and wide, is implicated in it. 
 It is not difUcult to conceive of a rhythmically pulsating 
 menstrual centre, similar to that which causes the heart- 
 beat, the wave-length being in the one case represented by 
 twenty-eight days, and in the other by about one second. 
 The difference in the two wave-lengths must not blind us to 
 the possibility of the nervous processes underlying each 
 being of fundamentally the same nature. It is not so great 
 — nothing like so great — as the difference between the 
 wave-lengths of a deep musical note and of the violet ray of
 
 246 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 the spectrum. In the latter case the ether vibrates at the 
 rate of over 700 million million times a second, while in the 
 former the atmospheric pulsations may be only fifty times 
 a second.^ 
 
 It may be that there is no menstrual centre, in the sense 
 of a limited patch of tissue so constituted as to pass 
 spontaneously through a monthly rhythm ; quite con- 
 ceivably the entire nervous system may spontaneously pass 
 through such a cycle of change. Supposing, however, the 
 rhythm to be initiated in a comparatively limited portion of 
 the nervous system, it is yet manifest that the whole 
 system is implicated secondarily ; for, as we have seen, the 
 monthly rhythm involves changes in the pulse-rate, blood- 
 pressure, temperature, and urea-excretions, and it is prac- 
 tically impossible to get a modification in any one of these 
 without some secondary modification, however slight, of the 
 entire body. This result must follow from the physiological 
 interdependence of the various parts of the body. The 
 changes in temperature, pulse-rate, blood-pressure, and urea- 
 excretion do not, in short, constitute the entire range of 
 cyclical changes. Modifications in any one of these readily 
 lend themselves to observation, but there must be innumer- 
 able other cyclical changes of a less discoverable nature, 
 and hence there can be little doubt that the entire nervous 
 system passes through a monthly rhythm. 
 
 But without attempting here to decide how far the men- 
 strual centre is localised, and how far the rhythm is a 
 primary function of a large part of the nervous system, let 
 us briefiy inquire into the causes of the local phenomena 
 which occur during the so-called ' menstrual period.' 
 
 And, first, what are these local phenomena ? All we 
 can say certainly is, that they consist of a discharge of 
 blood, mucus, and epithelial debris from the mucous mem- 
 brane of the fundus uteri, and sometimes, at least, of the 
 rupture of a Graafian vesicle and the passage of an ovum 
 
 ^ The ratio between the cardiac and the menstrnal rhytlim is as i to 2^ 
 million (about) ; that of a low sound vibration to the vibration of the 
 violet ray of the spectrum as i to 84 million million (about).
 
 . PART II.] THE MONTHLY KHYTHM. 247 
 
 from the genital canal. So many careful observers have of 
 late denied that ovulation is a necessary concomitant of the 
 menstrual flux, that we must, for the present at least, reject 
 the till recently almost universal opinion. In regard to the 
 exact changes which take place in the uterine mucous 
 membrane in connection with the flux, opinion is also still 
 ,much divided. The view that the entire membrane is 
 shed is in the very highest degree improbable. It is as un- 
 likely that so complex a tissue as a mucous membrane, with 
 its glands, blood-vessels, nerves, and lymphatics, should be 
 capable of completely regenerating itself after exfoliation 
 as that the skin should after being torn off. I am aware 
 that J. Williams, one of the chief supporters of this 
 view, regards the superticial muscular libres of the inner 
 uterine wall as constituting the muscularis mucoscc, in which 
 case the so-called uterine mucous membrane would consist 
 of a mucosa only ; but this assumption scarcely renders the 
 hypothesis more tenable, and I venture to give in my 
 adhesion to the opinion that very little organic change takes 
 place in the uterine mucous membrane during the period of 
 the flux, such change being limited to capillary rupture, and, 
 perhaps, to slight shedding of the superficial cells. 
 
 How, we have now to ask, are these local changes brought 
 about ? The uterine flux can only be effected in one of two 
 ways, or by these combined : — (a) Bj a modification in 
 the capillary blood-pressure, causing rupture of the capillary 
 wall ; or (h), by primary degeneration, causing similar rup- 
 ture ; or (('), linally, by both of these. 1 am inclined to 
 think that modifications of capillary Ijlood-pressure play the 
 most important part in inducing the uterine flux. This 
 pressure may be most effectually increased by — (i) Con- 
 traction of all the systemic arteries save those supplying 
 the uterine mucous membrane ; by (2) a dilatation of these 
 latter; by (3) a contraction of the venules into which the 
 blood- capillaries of the uterine mucous membrane pass. 
 In consequence of contraction of the systemic arteries, 
 the pressure in them rises ; hence the pressure in the 
 uterine arteries goes up, and these vessels being dilated, and
 
 248 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 affording a minimum resistance to the onflowing blood, 
 there is a further rise of pressure in the uterine capillaries ; 
 finally, the venules of the latter being contracted, and the 
 blood unable to escape freely from the capillaries into them, 
 all the conditions necessary for a high capillary blood- 
 pressure obtain, and there can be little doubt that if this is 
 sufficiently high it may induce rupture of the capillary wall. 
 Whether the venules are contracted or not is purely a 
 matter of theory ; but that the systemic arteries are con- 
 tracted, and the uterine arteries dilated, in connection with 
 the menstrual flux, can hardly be questioned. The former 
 is attested by the rise of systemic blood-pressure which 
 heralds the flow ; the latter, by the swelling of the ovaries 
 and uterus at the same time.^ Wherefore we may regard 
 it as proven that the capillary blood-pressure in the uterine 
 mucous membrane is increased some days before the flux, 
 and we may assume that this high pressure, persisting for 
 several days, eventually leads to capillary rupture and to 
 the escape of blood. It is probable that the arterioles 
 supplying the uterine mucous membrane are more dilated 
 than those supplying the muscular portion, otherwise rup- 
 ture would occur in the latter also. Rupture having once 
 occurred, blood tends to escape for some time, and there 
 being no longer need for a high systemic arterial pressure, 
 the arteries necessarily relax, the pressure again falling.^ 
 
 The second method in which the capillary rupture which 
 leads to the uterine flux is brought about may be by a 
 primary degenerative change wrought through nerve-agency ; 
 
 1 No one would for a moment suggest that this swelling is due to 
 passive congestion. 
 
 " I must here point out that in the work previously alluded to, and 
 in which I set forward a similar theory (p. io6), I have assumed that 
 the systemic blood-pressure is heightened during the flux instead of 
 before It, for it used to be taught that the radial pulse increases in tension 
 during the flow. Such, however, as we now know, not being the case, I 
 have had to modify my theory to suit the facts. The student familiar 
 with the physiology of blood-pressure— a subject, by the way, on which 
 much misapprehension exists— will be able to fill in for himself the above 
 outline.
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 249 
 
 possibly such change acts in conjunction with the method 
 just described, but in either case it is to nervous agency 
 that we must attribute the periodic flux. 
 
 Those changes which, on the vaso-motor hypothesis just 
 sketched, cause the menstrual flux, are obviously brought 
 about through the medium of vaso-motor centres, these 
 passing through a monthly rhythm; but it is a matter of 
 pure speculation whether they spontaneously pass through 
 this rhythm (in the same sense, i.e., as the respiratory 
 centres pulsate spontaneously), or are secondarily affected by 
 a menstrual centre. 
 
 Assuming that a primary trophic change in the capillaries 
 of the uterine mucous membrane is a factor in the produc- 
 tion of the flux, it is obvious that the nervous mechanism 
 affecting such change must act in co-ordination with the 
 vaso-motor centres involved in the rhythm. There must 
 also be some nervous mechanism regulating the discharge of 
 ova, acting in conjunction with other menstrual nervous 
 mechanisms, for whether ovulation is a necessary accompa- 
 niment of the menstrual flux or not^ it seems certain that it 
 occurs more frequently during the ' periods ' than during the 
 intervals. It therefore follows that we may assume the exist- 
 ence of three such nervous menstrual mechanisms — one 
 leading to a local increase of capillary blood-pressure, another 
 to capillary degeneration, and a third to ovulation. These 
 mechanisms are, I suggest, situated outside the ovaries and 
 uterus. From them fibres pass to these organs, those to the 
 uterus passing chiefly along the Fallopian tubes, but some 
 few going to it directly. This hypothesis enables us to 
 explain the following facts : — i , That the periodic flow 
 continues in the great majority of cases after the removal of 
 the ovaries ; 2, that it generally ceases after the tubes have 
 been removed ; 3, that, in rare cases, it continues after 
 removal of both ovaries and tubes. 
 
 Tliis supposition may be diagrammatically represented 
 thus : —
 
 250 
 
 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 a 
 
 [part II. 
 
 a. Menstnially pulsating centre. 
 
 1. Fibres passing from it to the uterus along the Fallopian tubes. 
 
 2. Fibres passing from it to the uterus directly. 
 
 3. Fibres passing from it to the ovariea.i 
 
 ^ A view that in the past has been widely accepted is that the stimulus 
 exciting the menstrual flux comes from the ovaries, but the fact that the 
 flux continues in the vast majority of cases after the ovaries have been 
 removed shows that this cannot be the case, and that the stimulus initiating 
 ovulation (which generally accompanies the flux), alike with that which 
 starts the flux, must come from some co-ordinated mechanisms situated ont- 
 .side the ovaries and uterus alike. But although the old view is untenable, the 
 presence of ovaries is necessary to tlie development of the capacity to 
 menstruate, using the term in its usual sense, for if these are removed in 
 early life, the individual never menstruates. The presence of the ovaries, 
 like the presence of testicles, leads to the development of certain characters, 
 and checks the development of others.
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 THP] MONTHLY RHYTHM (continued)— VUBERTY— THE 
 CLIMACTERIC— PREGNANCY— LACTATION. 
 
 Fuherty and the Climacteric. — The two great epochs of the 
 woman's life are those of puberty and the climacteric, the 
 former marking the beginning, the latter the end of repro- 
 ductive life. They are both of some considerable duration. 
 Puberty begins some time before the appearance of the 
 first menstrual flux, and lasts for some time after its regular 
 and orderly establishment ; the climacteric begins some 
 time before the customary climacteric irregularities in the 
 flux, and lasts an appreciable time after its permanent 
 cessation. 
 
 It is most important to bear in mind that puberty and 
 the climacteric are not cotemporaneous witli the periods of 
 pubertal and climacteric irregularities in the menstrual flux. 
 A wave of nervous irritability starts at about ten and coii- 
 tinues till about sixteen, and a similar wave starts at about 
 thirty-six and continues till about fifty. Of course, I spealc 
 of averages. The waves may be of much shorter duration 
 than this, and they may occur earlier or later than the 
 times mentioned ; for instance, the climacteric wave may 
 not begin till forty, and may continue till past sixty. ^ 
 
 Preynancy and Lactation. — It is well known that during 
 
 1 I do not purpose to give the evidence on which the above statements 
 are made, nor do I here attempt to indicate the cliaracter of the neuroses 
 which are apt to occur at the two epochs.
 
 252 THE MONTHLY EHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 pregnancy and lactation the menstrual flux, for the most part, 
 ceases. It must not, however, be thought from this that 
 the menstrual rhythm is then suspended. If the condition 
 of the pregnant or nursing woman be carefully studied at the 
 times at which the flux would have occurred but for the 
 pregnancy or nursing, evidences of the rhythm may be 
 detected. Distinct contractions, for instance, may be ob- 
 served at these times during pregnancy, such contractions 
 being the analogues of those which attend the ordinary 
 menstrual periods (and which have then for their object 
 the expulsion of the effused blood), and being indeed some- 
 times so violent as to constitute a veritable uterine colic, or 
 spasmodic dysmenorrhoea. The uterine contractions accom- 
 panying the pregnancy-periods (as we may call them) cul- 
 minate at the tenth period (i.e., at the tenth lunar month) in 
 the pains of labour ; from which it is manifest that an ordinary 
 menstrual epoch may be likened to a miniature labour. 
 
 During lactation, as during pregnancy, careful inquiry will 
 disclose similar suppressed periods. 
 
 Wherefore, clearly, during pregnancy and lactation, the 
 menstrual rhythm continues, but it changes in its manifesta- 
 tions, and the most obtrusive change is the cessation of the 
 uterine flux, though there are also other modifications. 
 
 The exact nature of these has not yet been worked out 
 — how far, for instance, the rhythm in the pulse or urea- 
 excretion is affected. This much, however, may be said 
 certainly : the nervous irritability which attends a suppressed 
 pregnancy- or lactation- period is much less marked than 
 during an ordinary menstrual period. Thus a woman who 
 has been wont to suffer from headache, drowsiness, gloom, 
 and so forth, at her ordinary periods, rarely suff'ers from 
 these in the same degree at the pregnancy- and lactation- 
 periods. The like is true of such serious neuroses as megrim, 
 epilepsy, or asthma, which, when they follow a menstrual 
 periodicity, may be temporarily checked altogether during 
 pregnancy, and, I believe, also, lactation. The menstrual 
 rhythm during pregnancy and lactation is therefore markedly 
 fainter than the ordinary rhythm. Regarding the rhythm
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 253 
 
 as a wave, this may be graphically expressed by saying 
 that the height of the wave during pregnancy and lactation 
 is diminished ; as in the accompanying diagram : 
 
 Fig. 15. 
 
 N\I^j\m\N .\j\fW\ 
 
 Ordinary Period of Labour. Period of Ordinary 
 
 menstrual presjnancy. lactation. nienstru.al 
 
 rhythms. rhythms. 
 
 But though the menstrual wave is then lower than during 
 other periods of reproductive life, let us not overlook its 
 presence, or we shall often be puzzled by phenomena perfectly 
 capable of interpretation. 1 have frequently been able to 
 trace neurotic outbursts to the nervous erethism obtainino- at 
 such suppressed periods. As an instance I may quote the 
 following case, and as opportunity for a very careful study 
 of all the particulars was afforded, 1 can guarantee the 
 strictest accuracy : 
 
 A woman, cet. 27, married, nur.sing a child three months 
 old, the supply of milk beginning to fail, was one day while 
 in perfect health seized with a severe attack of painful dysj^epsia, 
 Oould assign no cause for the seizvire ; had scarcely ever suffered 
 from dyspepsia before ; had made no departure from the routine 
 carefully mapped out for her duiing her period of nursing ; but 
 had eaten well, slept well, taken her usual cold bath and exercise, 
 and was, until the time of the seizure, a very type of healthy 
 womanhood. There had been no decided alteration in the 
 atmospheric and telluric conditions. What, then, had deter- 
 mined this attack ? Here was a case worthy of careful investiga- 
 tion, and I felt convinced that there was some very decided cause 
 at work. Knowing the influence of the suppressed lactation- 
 periods on the nervous system, I inquired after the exact age of 
 the infant, and discovered that it was three lunar months and one 
 day old. I accordingly diagnosed the case as menstrual dyspepsia ; 
 and determined to make a careful study of the patient's condi- 
 tion at the subsequent lactation-periods. Exactly twenty-eight 
 days after this dyspej)tic attack (which, by the way, only lasted
 
 254 THE MONTHLY PvHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 a day or two), the patieoit menstruated in the ordinary way, and 
 continued to do so subsequently. The diagnosis was thus con- 
 firmed, and indeed amplified. The premature failure of the milk 
 supply was pi'obably attended by a condition of body obtaining at 
 the end of an ordinary term of lactation, at which time the 
 conditioiis for the re-induction of the ordinary menstrual flvix 
 prevail. There was probably in this particular case a strong 
 tendency for the reappearance of the flux at the third month — 
 i.e., at the date of the dyspeptic attack — and there was, as it were, 
 an attempt at this, but in place of it there occurred, for some 
 reason or othei-, an eri-atic evolution of energy in connection with 
 the nervous system ruling over the digestive organs. 
 
 We may now consider the influence, on nervous health, of 
 pregnancy and lactation, independently of the menstrual 
 rhythm. And first as to pregnancy. Every tissue of the 
 body is modified by it, so that the pregnant woman must 
 be regarded as an entirely altered being. The nervous 
 system, notably, is affected, becoming highly irritable, and 
 thus a nervously disposed woman is doubly nervous when 
 pregnant — headache, palpitation, nervous dyspepsia, fainting, 
 alterations in the spirits and temper, and other such 
 symptoms being then, as every one knows, particularly apt 
 to show themselves. On the' other hand, pregnancy some- 
 times brings with it a general improvement in nervous 
 health. Thus Montgomery, after liaving remarked upon the 
 tendency to irritability of temper during pregnancy, writes : ^ — 
 
 " I have known the effect produced to be the reverse of 
 this, and a decided amelioration to take place in the temper, 
 as we sometimes also see happen in the exercise of the bodily 
 functions during pregnancy. A gentleman once informed 
 me that, being inflicted with a stepmother naturally more dis- 
 posed to practise the fortiter in re than to adopt the suaviter in 
 modo, he and all the household had learned, from experience, 
 to hail with joyful anticipations the lady's pregnancy as a 
 period when clouds and storms were immediately exchanged 
 for sunshine and quietness." 
 
 I do not purpose to enter into a detailed description of 
 
 1 " An Exposition of tlie Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy," p. 33.
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 255 
 
 the condition of the nervous system during pregnancy/ but 
 a brief mention may be made of certain modifications in 
 instinct whicli are then apt to occur. Although instinct 
 plays a very restricted part in the conduct of the human 
 race, in matters pertaining to reproduction one would rather 
 expect a survival. Yet even the most elementary sexual 
 instincts, as now developed, are imperfect, as Sir James 
 Paget has observed. Moreover, as every doctor is only too 
 l^ainfuUy aware, instinct is practically no guide to the 
 mother in the matter of bringing up her children, and this 
 the young mother acknowledges by abandoning herself to the 
 advice of others. Among the poor this is chiefly tendered by 
 old women, who are supposed to act from experience, but 
 who really follow tradition, and tradition — in this, as in many 
 another case, rooted in ignorance — is found sadly wanting. 
 The position of woman, all but totally abandoned by instinct 
 as a guide in the proper rearing of her offspring, is a most 
 curious one, and not less remarkable is the survival of so 
 many children, considering the wretched treatment they 
 receive." 
 
 Occasionally primitive instincts connected with repro- 
 duction may be observed during pregnancy. As an example 
 we may take the longing which the pregnant woman is apt 
 to experience for peculiar foods — a suggestion we owe to 
 Laycock. Some of these longings are essentially morbid ; 
 others, however, point to physiological needs. Thus, a woman 
 during one pregnancy devoured a very large quantity of 
 chalk in the shape of a tooth-powder ; she could scarcely 
 ever go to her bedroom without taking some. A similar 
 instance of erratic instinct, according to Laycock, is the 
 peculiar cunning of some hysterically disposed women, 
 which he believes to be related to that displayed by many 
 
 1 Montgomery's work, already quoted, may be consulted with advantage 
 on this subject. 
 
 - Unfortunately, many surnve with health permanently crippled. I have 
 stated elsewhere, and I repeat it here, for I do not think it can be too often 
 insisted upon, that practically all children's diseases are due to neglect ; 
 in other words, if children were brought up properly, they would scarcely 
 ever be ill.
 
 256 THE MONTHLY EHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 of the lower animals in their choice of nests, or hiding-places, 
 and in the protection of their young. 
 
 Secondly, as regards lactation. This period is fruitful of 
 nervousness in many women, owing, no doubt, to the serious 
 drain the body then suffers. Poor women feel this especially, 
 readily becoming thin and antemic ; but women, rich or poor, 
 vary much in the extent to which nursing tells upon them. 
 Some, presumably unduly katabolic, are unable to bear the 
 strain for any length of time, no matter how carefully they 
 are fed, nor what pains are taken to secure for them 
 healthy surroundings. Others, however, actually grow stout 
 while nursing, and are never so well as then. 
 
 There are. not, so far as I know, any forms of nervous- 
 ness peculiar to this period. The symptoms — e.g., neuralgia, 
 the infra-mammary pain, depression of spirits (passing, it 
 may be, into actual melancholia), giddiness, palpitation, lassi- 
 tude, flushing, indigestion, and so forth — are such as tend to 
 show themselves whenever the nutrition of the body is 
 impaired.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE ANTE-PUBERTAL AND POST-CLIjVIACTERIC MENSTRUAL 
 
 RHYTHMS. 
 
 We have now to consider whether the menstrual rhythm is 
 confined to the period of reproductive life. Is there 
 evidence of such a rhythm Ijefore puberty or after the 
 climacteric ? 
 
 Ante-Pubcrtal Ehythni. — It is (juite possible that tlie 
 menstrual rhythm manifests itself before puberty. The 
 larger conception of menstruation put forward in this work — 
 the conception of the process, not as of a mere local change 
 lasting a few days, but as of a cycle continuing through the 
 whole month, and involving the entire body — naturally 
 suggests that the rhythm may exist before puberty, and 
 indeed leads one to ask whether it may not begin with the 
 first moments of life ; whether, in fact, the female organism 
 does not from the very beginning of life throb menstrually. 
 All my attempts at investigating this question have hitherto 
 failed, and I can merely indicate the method followed, in the 
 hope that others may take it up with better success. A 
 number of mothers were asked to keep a diary of the 
 health of their daughters before puberty. It was thought 
 that if any monthly rliythm occurred during this period it 
 would in this way be rendered evident. Unfortunately, in 
 no single case was I able to get my plan followed out ; 
 notes would be taken for a few days and then neglected for 
 a day, or even several days, and most of the mothers got
 
 258 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 tired of making observations after a few weeks. Hence 
 the investigation fell throuo-h. 
 
 The Post- GliTnactcric Menstrual Rhythm. — The opinion is 
 somewhat widely held that the menstrual cycle ends with 
 the climacteric' Careful inquiry, however, shows that in, 
 at all events, a large proportion of cases it continues during 
 post-climacteric life. Thus, in one hundred women (the 
 first hundred in my list) past the climacteric, and for the 
 most part under sixty years of age, I obtained fair evidence 
 of a monthly manifestation in forty-two, doubtful evidence in 
 ten, no evidence in forty -eight. 
 
 This important subject has not received the attention it 
 deserves. Among the writers I have consulted, Canabis 
 is the first to touch upon it. " I have seen," he writes, 
 " women who, ten or twelve years after the cessation of the 
 period, continue to experience local congestion and pressure 
 in the uterus, with divers other symptoms accompanying 
 menstruation. In such cases, it seems to me that the 
 general changes which are wont to follow upon the per- 
 manent cessation of the flux are less evident than in others, 
 the woman unhappily remnining in all respects woman 
 even into old age."^ 
 
 Bdclard, in his essay on the Climacteric,^ cites the 
 case of a post-climacteric manifestation ; and Gravis, writing 
 on the same subject,^ observes that women frequently 
 experience every month, for six or twelve months after 
 the cessation, the symptoms which attended actual men- 
 struation. 
 
 Brierre de Boismont'^ detected a post-climacteric periodi- 
 city in II out of 180 women. In two of his cases pains 
 
 ^ In this chapter I shall, for convenience, regard the climacteric as ending 
 with the permanent cessation of the menstrual flux, so that the term "post- 
 climacteric " will refer to the period of life after this cessation. 
 
 - Quoted by L. H. Doce ("Dissertation sur la Cessation des Menstrues," 
 Paris, 1831). This same passage is subsequently quoted by Brierre de 
 Boismont (" De la Menstruation,"' Paris, 1842). 
 
 3 Paris, 1862. * Paris, 181 3. 
 
 5 " De la Menstruation."
 
 PART II,] 
 
 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 
 
 259 
 
 in the stomach occurred every month for two years. In 
 another case, colic and weight in the uterus occurred 
 monthly for years. He does not specify in the other eight 
 cases the nature of the monthly manifestation. 
 
 Tilt ^ gives a Table of 5 3 " monthly occurrences after 
 cessation," observed by him among 500 women (i.e., 10 per 
 cent.), a much larger proportion than that given by Brierre 
 de Boismont. Thus : 
 
 N'aturo of Oci'urrenoe. 
 
 
 
 Xo. of Women 
 
 Lumbo-abdominal pains 15 
 
 Leucorrhoea 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 Headache and pseudo-narcotisiu 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Diarrhoea ..... 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Entorrhagia 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Bleeding piles .... 
 Hysterical symptoms 
 Hysterical oppression or asthma 
 Great depression of strength . 
 Sweats 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 I 
 2 
 
 Dyspepsia 
 
 Stomatitis 
 
 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 Swelled gums 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Swelled legs for three days 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 53 
 
 This Table leads to the belief that each of the above 
 symptoms, occurring as a monthly manifestation, occurs by 
 itself and to the exclusion of the others. Such, however, is 
 not the case. (A similar defect is observable in others of 
 Tilt's Tables.) 
 
 I do not wish to lay undue stress on the figures I have 
 given as the results of my own investigations, for it is very 
 dilhcult to get a reliable account of symptoms from women 
 of the poorer classes, untrained to note things accurately, 
 and it was solely among these that my observations were 
 made. Far, however, from believing that the proportion I 
 have given is too high, T think it falls short of the mark ; 
 I incline, indeed, to the belief that the menstrual rhythm 
 
 ' "The Change of Life," p. 55. London, 1857.
 
 26o THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 continues in all women after the permanent cessation of the 
 flux. 
 
 "Why then," it may be asked, "do we fail to get a history of 
 monthly rhythm in every woman after the climacteric ? " In 
 answering this question, let us remember that a periodic 
 symptom, unless of a distinctly obtrusive character, is very 
 likely to be overlooked. Women who have been wont to 
 experience, with the menstrual flux, such marked symptoms 
 as backache and visceral pain, will scarcely fail to recognise 
 their true nature, if these continue to recur every month 
 after the climacteric. Upon inquiry, such women will say : 
 " I feel every month as if I were going to be unwell." 
 Similarly, if a woman in post-climacteric life suffers from 
 a monthly recurrence of megrim, swelling of varicose veins, 
 or other pronounced symptoms which she has learnt to 
 associate with the menstrual epochs, the obvious connec- 
 tion will not be lost upon her. Wlien, however, the post- 
 climacteric menstrual symptoms are unobtrusive, they are 
 very apt to be unrecognised. In a fair proportion of cases 
 the symptoms which attend the menstrual flux itself are slight 
 — nay, not infrequently they are practically absent ; what 
 wonder, then, that in such cases they should pass unobserved 
 when the loss of blood — to the woman the one evidence of 
 menstruation — no longer takes place ? We have seen that 
 the entire body is involved in the menstrual rhythm — that 
 the vaso-motor system, the pulse, the body temperature, 
 the secretions, are all implicated, and it is only by careful 
 inquiry into these and other particulars that the truth can 
 be got at ; but until some one by laborious investigation 
 into a large number of cases — -say a thousand — fails to 
 obtain proofs of a post-climacteric menstrual cycle in a 
 tolerably large proportion, we may fairly assume, on the 
 strength of such evidence as we have already, that it occurs 
 in all. 
 
 In those cases in which I failed to obtain definite evidence 
 of a post-climacteric rhythm, several of the patients told me 
 that they felt much worse " at times," but they could not say 
 whether these times corresponded with menstrual periods ;
 
 PART II.] 
 
 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 
 
 261 
 
 others fancied that tliey were worse every month ; others, 
 again, declared they had definite symptoms " about every 
 month." None of these doubtful cases are included in my 
 list of .post-climacteric manifestations. I may remark that 
 among those who experienced monthly manifestations after 
 the climacteric, two or three asserted that the manifesta- 
 tions occurred on the same day, or days, of every mouth. 
 Such cases, if they actually exist, can only be explained on 
 the theory of expectant attention. 
 
 Assuming that the menstrual rhythm continues after the 
 cessation of the local flux, we have now to ask : How long 
 does it continue ? ])oes it persist till death, or does it 
 gradually wear out ? 
 
 There can be no doubt that the rhythm becomes less and 
 less pronounced as time goes on. This is proved by the 
 fact that the cases in which one is able to get evidence of it 
 become fewer and fewer with each decade. Thus, of 121 
 cases observed by me of post- climacteric monthly manifes- 
 tations in which the date of the last menstrual period was 
 noticed, in 
 
 68 the length of time since the last flux was 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 2 
 I 
 
 121 
 
 The decline in the number of cases with advancing years 
 is not, it will be observed, uniform for each quinquennium, 
 This is doubtless due to the limited number of cases analysed, 
 and to the difficulty of obtaining accurate answers from the 
 patients. The irregularity in the decline is better brought 
 out by the following table : — 
 
 
 53 
 
 ears 
 
 5- 
 
 ID 
 
 It 
 
 10-15 
 
 f» 
 
 15- 
 
 -20 
 
 jt 
 
 20-25 
 
 j» 
 
 25- 
 
 -30 
 
 i»
 
 26: 
 
 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 
 
 [par' 
 
 r II. 
 
 Time since Cassation. 
 
 No. of cases 
 presentiiifr Post- 
 climacteric 
 Manifestations. 
 
 Time since Cessation. 
 
 No. of cases 
 presenting Post- 
 climacteric 
 Manifestations. 
 
 I yeai- and under. 
 
 2 years 
 
 3 » 
 
 4 ,, 
 
 5 " 
 
 131 
 14 
 i8 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 i 
 -68 
 
 i6 years. 
 
 17 „ 
 i8 „ 
 
 19 „ 
 
 20 „ 
 
 I 
 I 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 -9 
 
 6 „ 
 
 7 „ 
 
 8 „ 
 
 9 .. 
 
 lO 
 
 lO 
 
 7 
 3 
 6 
 
 5^ 
 
 ^31 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 21 ,, 
 
 22 „ 
 
 23 ., 
 
 24 M 
 
 25 .' 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 o[-2 
 
 0/ 
 
 II 
 
 12 „ 
 
 13 » 
 
 14 ,, 
 
 15 n 
 
 2-1 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 I 
 o 
 
 >-IO 
 
 26 „ 
 
 27 .. 
 
 28 „ 
 
 29 „ 
 
 30 „ 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 Out of 117 cases of post-climacteric niaiiifestatioiis in 
 which I noted the ages of the patients, in 
 
 12 the patients were between 40 and 45 years of age 
 
 27 
 
 28 „ ,, 
 
 23 11 I) 
 
 16 
 8 „ ,, 
 
 3 " j» 
 
 45 n 
 
 50 
 
 50 „ 
 
 55 
 
 55 „ 
 
 60 
 
 60 „ 
 
 65 
 
 65 „ 
 
 70 
 
 70 „ 
 
 75 
 
 117 
 
 The comparatively small number of cases between 40 
 and 45 is partly due to the fact that a large number of 
 women do not pass the climacteric until after 45, and 
 partly to the fact that I for the most part neglected to 
 inquire after the rhythm in women under this age. Most 
 of the cases inquired into were those of women over 50. 
 Hence also, I think, the greater number of manifesta- 
 tions between 50 and 55 than between 45 and 50. In 
 spite, however, of these apparent anomalies, resulting from 
 imperfection in my data, the figures in the main clearly 
 show that the rhythm becomes less and less pronounced 
 with increasing years ; otherwise the cases presenting monthly
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 263 
 
 manifestations would not decline so rapidly as they do after 
 5 5 , and this even when due allowance is made for the 
 diminution in the number of persons living in each succes- 
 sive quinquennium. 
 
 We may therefore conclude that, so far as the monthly 
 manifestation of the post-climacteric menstrual rhythm is 
 concerned, it diminishes with advancing years, but whethei 
 the rhythm itself completely ceases in course of time, or 
 always persists until death, it is at present impossible to 
 say. 
 
 The post-climacteric monthly manifestations in any given 
 individual are for the most part like those which have been 
 wont to attend the actual tiux in that individual. As a 
 rule they are less pronounced, but sometimes they are 
 actually more marked and more distressing, as the following 
 cases show : — 
 
 jEt. 49. Three years .since tlie last flux. Suffers every month 
 from headache, flushes, backache, depression of spirits, and loss of 
 m^inoiy. Is quite sure that she is fai- more troubled at these 
 times than she used to be during her ' periods.' " Had an easy 
 change." 
 
 ^Et. 66. No flux for nineteen years. Used to suffer during her 
 ' periods ' from itching of the head, distension of varicose veins, 
 and swelling of the legs. She still experiences these symptoms 
 every month. The legs, however, now nob only swell, but be- 
 come red (as if attacked with erysipelas) and itch. The itching 
 is relieved by the application of vinegar and water. 
 
 The most distressing feature in the monthly manifestations 
 occurring after the climacteric is extreme nervousness. 
 This, a legacy from the climacteric period, obtains notably 
 in the first years after it, and very often the attacks of nerv- 
 ousness are determined by the monthly epoclis. (^f the 
 many and varied plienomena which go to make up climac- 
 teric nervousness, it will be enough here to refer to headache, 
 flushing, tremor, giddiness, palpitation, depression of spirits, 
 and the tendency to start on tlie slightest provocation. 
 Happy the woman who passes the climacteric without
 
 264 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 suffering from any of these ! These symptoms, notably 
 headache and flushing, are very apt to accompany the 
 monthly epochs of late reproductive life, and it is not there- 
 fore surprising that they should continue as part of the 
 post-climacteric monthly manifestations. As a matter of 
 fact, they may then be so distressing as to render these later 
 epochs more trying than the ordinary ' periods.' 
 
 In explanation of the discomfort so frequently experienced 
 at the post-climacteric epochs, it must be borne in mind 
 that the whole body has then to accommodate itself to new 
 conditions ; blood being no longer periodically lost, the vaso- 
 motor action is apt to be erratic, and the entire organism 
 to suffer through it. 
 
 ^o 
 
 I now proceed to analyse my cases of post-climacteric 
 monthly manifestations, 125 in all. The figures I shall 
 give must not be taken to indicate the relative frequency 
 with which the various symptoms recorded actually occur, 
 but merely the number of times I have noted them down 
 — a very different matter. The frequency with which a 
 particular symptom is noted depends very largely upon 
 whether or not the investigator has been on the look-out for 
 that symptom ; and this, again, is determined by a previous 
 knowledge of the symptoms which are apt to occur, and 
 knowledge in the present instance is, unfortunately, limited, 
 owing to the scanty literature on the subject. It is, moreover, 
 at the best, very difticult to obtain accurate information from 
 the class of people (chiefly hospital patients) upon whom I 
 have had to depend for my data, and with so many con- 
 siderations tending to vitiate the evidence I have gathered, 
 I should not here analyse the cases were it not that I may 
 thereby help others who may wish to work on the same 
 subject. 
 
 A vicarious menstrual floiv was noted in three cases. 
 LeucorrJicea was also mentioned in three. 
 
 Pain other than headache or hackache was noted in thirty 
 cases. The most common pains were those peculiar to 
 ordinary menstruation. Such were described as ' forcing '
 
 PART n.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 265 
 
 or ' bearing down,' or as ' sharp, cutting' pains in the 
 stomach. 
 
 In five or six cases they were undoubtedly dyspeptic ; in 
 two or three, doubtfully so, as when the pain occurred in the 
 right hypochondrium. In one case the patient complained of 
 ' pains all over.' 
 
 In seven cases the pains involved the legs, as so fre- 
 quently happens in connection with the menstrual flux. 
 In two of these there was well-marked cramp. Thus : 
 
 yEt. 50. Five yeai-s since cessation of the flux. Every month 
 has internal pains like labour pains. Also pains in the calves, 
 accompanied by a ' doubling up ' of the toes. Sometimes the 
 fingers are similarly doubled up. The former, but not the latter, 
 symptom used to occur with ordinary menstruation. Thei-e is 
 also vertical headache — as if some one were beating her head with 
 a hammer — and soreness of the scalp. 
 
 jEt. 52. No flux for i\ year. At the monthly times still feels 
 pain in the calves of the legs and back of the thighs (as was her 
 wont dui-ing the menstrual flux), and " the back of the foot is bent 
 on to the leg" (1) She used, during menstruation, to suffer from 
 coldness in the calves, but not, as now, from contraction. 
 
 The following cases may also he quoted here : 
 
 .Et. 45. Nothing for three years. Every month has pain in the 
 right leg, which is permanently swollen. Has for years been able 
 tofoi-etell the approach of the epoch by this symptom. Also suffei's 
 every month from flushing, tightness of the chest, and general 
 weakness. 
 
 J'Jt. 48. Nothing for three months. Every month has head- 
 ache, pigmentation roiuid the eyes, and drowsiness ; also pain in 
 the stomach, which seems cold ; she feels as if she " had been 
 beaten with a stick " i-ound the lower abdomen and front of the 
 thighs. 
 
 In the other cases in which pain was referred to the lower 
 extremities, it was felt in the thighs only, either in front or 
 behind, and in one case in the right thigh alone. 
 
 Backache was complained of in 26 cases. It frecpiently 
 occurred in connection with some of the above pains,
 
 266 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 and in many instances was like that which was wont to 
 herald or accompany ordinary menstruation. 
 
 Headaclie is probably a much more frequent attendant on 
 the post-climacteric epochs tlian on ordinary menstruation, 
 since I noted it in 31 out of the i 2 5 cases — i.e., in one- 
 fourth of the total number. It is probably of the same 
 nature in either case, and after the climacteric is, like 
 the flushes to be presently alluded to, a legacy from that 
 period. The typical climacteric headache is vertical, and 
 accompanied by a feeling of weight and soreness. Some of 
 the post-climacteric menstrual headaches were described as 
 ' violent ' and ' terrible ; ' in some instances the pain was of 
 the nature of megrim ; in a few it was distinctly neuralgic, 
 being sharp and localised. The following case is inter- 
 
 esting 
 
 ^£'i. 54. Nothing for six years. Has a headache every month. 
 Sufiered similarly during her menstrual epochs, the headache 
 being then attended by an "eruption of small blisters, as in chicken- 
 pox." No such eruption accompanies the headache now. 
 
 St'iipvr — Sleepiness. — Periodic post-climacteric headache is 
 apt to be accompanied by other disagreeable feelings in the 
 head, and these may occur monthly without the distinct 
 headache. Thus, one patient suffered every month from 
 ' lightness in the head ; ' another felt ' stupid and be- 
 wildered ; ' two or three simply complained of ' feeling 
 stupid.' This should not surprise us, seeing that a 
 stupefied condition is frequent during ordinary menstruation. 
 Distinct sleepiness was noted in three cases, two of which are 
 appended : — 
 
 jEt. (?) Post-climacteric. Every month feels heavy, dull, and 
 sleepy. Flushes and has pains at the bottom of the back. 
 
 ^t. 52. Nothing for 2,j years. Every month has pains in the 
 back and thighs, and is very nervous. Suffers then also from 
 sleepiness, as was her wont during her ordinary menstrual epochs. 
 
 Emotional Manifestations were noticed in i 3 cases. The 
 emotional alteration expressed itself, in most instances, as
 
 PART 11.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 267 
 
 lowness of spirits, at all times one of the commonest mani- 
 festations of nervousness in women. This mental depression 
 is generally most pronounced in the morning, and is usually 
 associated with irritability of temper and a tendency to start 
 at the slightest noise. In a woman, 5 8 years old, in whom 
 the menstrual flux had ceased for eighteen years, a suicidal 
 tendency manifested itself every month for the first ten years 
 after cessation, disappearing then suddenly. 
 
 Nervousness was mentioned in four cases, but no doubt 
 it occurred much more frequently. By ' nervousness ' 
 the patient generally means a tendency to start on the least 
 occasion and to tremble. One woman " could not bear any- 
 thing to move" ; another "jumped at the slightest noise." 
 Tremor was noted in four cases, but this number must fall 
 far short of the actual number of times it occurred as a 
 monthly manifestation. 
 
 Giddiness. — Special mention of ' giddiness ' or ' dizzi- 
 ness ' was made in 23 cases. It is a common climacteric 
 symptom, and, like all such, is apt to occur as a post- 
 climacteric menstrual manifestation. It may occur as part of 
 some general nerve-storm, such as flushing, or independently. 
 
 Flushes were noted in 42 cases, or in one-third the 
 total number. They sometimes accompany the ordinary 
 menstrual epochs, but certainly not in this large proportion. 
 We may therefore conclude that the post-climacteric men- 
 strual flushes are handed down from the climacteric. I 
 have treated of flushes at length elsewhere, and there is there- 
 fore no need to say anything more about them here. 
 
 Indigestion was mentioned in i 8 cases, the most frequent 
 symptoms noted being nausea (in ten cases) and flatulence 
 (in three cases). One case of monthly diarrhoea was noted. 
 I feel convinced that many of the bouts of nervous dyspepsia 
 which women complain of after the climacteric are deter- 
 mined by the post-climacteric epochs. In the two following 
 cases dyspeptic pain was pronounced : — 
 
 ^Et. 59. Flux disappeared ten years ago. Can generally detect 
 the time of the periods l)y a pain between the shoulders, " as
 
 2 68 THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 if the joints were being parted." Has pain also in the right side 
 of the chest, and abdominal distension. 
 
 jEt. 46. Nothing for one year. Has violent gastralgia every 
 month. Suffers also at these times from tremor and mental 
 depression. 
 
 Pigmentation. — During ordinary menstruation pigment is 
 often deposited round the eyes. A disposition to this was 
 noticed in four of my cases of post- climacteric manifesta- 
 tions. 
 
 Asthenopia. — There was evidence of monthly asthenopia 
 in at least two cases. This symptom is known to be com- 
 mon at the climacteric, occurring in the majority of women 
 of the poorer classes. It must be carefully distinguished 
 from presbyopia. The latter is permanent, and continues 
 to increase from year to year. The former is temporary 
 only. 
 
 Pruritus. — Irritation of the skin was mentioned in three 
 cases ; some doubt, however, attaches to two of tliem. 
 This symptom, like so many of those above mentioned, is 
 also not uncommon at the climacteric. It is generally, I 
 think, urticarial. 
 
 The following cases cannot well be classified under special 
 heads. They are of interest, showing as they do^ — what has 
 already been frequently insisted upon — that menstruation 
 involves all the bodily processes. 
 
 uEt. 43. Nothing four years. Has lupus on the face. This 
 breaks out every month, healing in the intervals. She has noticed 
 this chiefly since the change. 
 
 J^t. 56. Nothing twelve years. Purpuric spots come out every 
 month, though in a less degree than formerly. 
 
 J^t. 59. Nothing seven years. Has a chronic open abscess- 
 This gets worse every month. 
 
 jEt. 54. Nothing three years. Suffei-s fi-om rheumatism. The 
 pains in the joints are worse every month. 
 
 Mt. 49. Nothing 4^ years. Has pains in the joints every 
 month. 
 
 ^t. 49. Nothing three years. Suffers from incontinence of 
 urine every month.
 
 PART ii.J THE MONTHLY KHYTHM. 269 
 
 jEt. 61. Nothing fifteen years. Every month, for four or five 
 years after the cessation of the flux, the varicose veins in the 
 left leg used to swell. 
 
 jEt. 57. Nothing nine years. Every month cough comes on, 
 causing her to feel as if she were going to be choked, 
 
 ^t. 50. Nothing twelve years. Every month has rawness on 
 the chest, with cough. 
 
 yEt. 48. Nothing nine years. Suffers every month from cough 
 and profuse expectoration. 
 
 We are now in a position to take a wider view of men- 
 struation than that usually accepted. We have seen that 
 it is continuous throughout the whole of reproductive life ; 
 that it does not cease with the climacteric, but continues, 
 certainly in some women, and possibly in all, till the end 
 of life ; and that it may begin with the beginning of life 
 and continue throughout ante-pubertal life. Hence we 
 may, provisionally at least, regard the human female as a 
 monthly-pulsating organism, the pulsation beginning with 
 life and continuing till death. 
 
 This view of menstruation may be diagrammatically re- 
 presented as follows : 
 
 Fig. 16. 
 
 pubi-.rty. keproductive lil-e. climacteric. 
 
 /-vvJ'vvv'^y\AVwUAAA/slAAAAAAAAA/\ /V\AAAAAAl/\AAjL/\/lAAAAAA|v\/N^'^^^r^.^_ 
 
 In the next chapter I shall proceed to enlarge our con- 
 ception of menstruation still further.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 IS THE MENSTRUAL RHYTHM PECULIAR TO THE 
 FEMALE SEX? 
 
 Whether or not the male sex passes through a menstrual 
 rhythm, similar to that of the female, it is not yet possible 
 to say. The question, though well worthy of investigation, 
 has, so far as I know, never received it. Each sex, as 
 Darwin was so careful to insist, contains many of the 
 potentialities of the opposite sex, which potentialities become 
 actualities upon the removal of the ovaries or testicles ; 
 clearly, therefore, these organs are the means of keeping 
 under certain sexual peculiarities, just as they are, on the 
 other hand, the means of causing certain others to develop. 
 Thus, in the case of the man, the testicles not only cause the 
 development of certain masculine characters, but prevent 
 certain feminine characters from developing. Now the fact 
 that each sex is to a large extent potentially the opposite 
 sex, raises the question whether the male sex may not, like 
 the female, pass through a menstrual rhythm, not so marked 
 indeed as that characteristic of the woman, but though of a 
 subdued, yet of a similar kind. 
 
 To this suggestion it will no doubt be replied that men- 
 struation is ultimately dependent upon the presence of 
 ovaries — seeing that, although the monthly flux generally 
 continues after the removal of the ovaries in reproductive 
 life, it never appears if they are removed in early life, 
 thus showing that these organs are necessary to its develop-
 
 PART II. J THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 271 
 
 ineut. But these remarks, be it noted, apply only to 
 menstruation, as ordinarily understood, and not to that 
 wider conception of the process as a continuous monthly 
 cycle, whereof ovulation and luemorrhagic flux are but in- 
 cidents. 
 
 I now proceed to cite a few passages [ have met with in 
 favour of the view that the man, like the woman, passes 
 through a monthly cycle. 
 
 The first case is (.quoted from Brierre de Boismont. I 
 give it for what it is worth. 
 
 " A young man, says Hoin, had an ulcer on his index-finger 
 which broke out anew eveiy month. The origin was this. The 
 finger had been slightly wounded, and while it was in this 
 condition, the young man made a vaginal examination during a 
 menstrual period. As a result there appeared on the finger a 
 vesicle, and then a pustule, which subsequently healed. The same 
 phenomenon occurred every month. Lordat argues from this case 
 that the tendency to pass through periodical changes may be 
 transmitted by contact "(!) (Brierre de Boismont, " De la Men- 
 struation," p, 136). 
 
 (lall saw a certain resemblance between the haenio- 
 rrhoidal and the menstrual flux. The following case is 
 interesting- in this connection ; 
 
 " (4. C. cei. 45, entered the Hotel Dieu under Dupuyti-en for an 
 infirmity common in his family. His gi-andfather and his brother 
 had had hfemorihoids ; and his son had commenced to suffer from 
 them at the age of 19. The flux, which at first occurred at very 
 irregular intervals, became periodical. C. became subject to a 
 veritable menstruation, which occurred regularly every month. It 
 lasted two or three days, and was heralded by many symptoms, 
 such as general malaise and painful swelling of the haemorrhoids." 
 
 I am acquainted with a case very similar to the al»ove. 
 The patient had for more than twenty years experienced a 
 monthly hemorrhoidal flux, preceded by distinct symptoms ; 
 and, what is most remarkable, at the age of 60 he ex- 
 perienced several of the symptoms characteristic of the
 
 2 72 THE MONTHLY EHYTHM. [part ii. 
 
 climacteric in women, the tlux becoming irregular for some 
 months. This case is more fully described elsewhere.' 
 
 Chopart cites the curious case of a soldier, cet. 1 9, who 
 had a monthly discharge of bloody urine, accompanied by 
 all the symptoms characteristic of the menstrual flux. 
 Eayer mentions two similar cases, one of a butcher at Sedan, 
 " whose infirmity becoming known, inspired such just 
 disgust that no one would purchase meat from him." * 
 
 With the view of ascertaining the experience of other 
 members of the profession on this subject, I wrote the fol- 
 lowing letter to the Lancet : 
 
 Sirs, — The possibility of men undergoing a monthly rhythm 
 similai- to that which women undergo is worth considering. I 
 suggest the following as a provisional hypothesis : Both sexes of 
 the human species pass through a monthly rhythm, which begins 
 in the embryo, and continues till death. There is no need to 
 state here the grounds on which I have framed this hypothesis. 
 That a monthly rhythm occurs in woman independently of so- 
 called menstruation is manifest ; for such a rhythm is easily 
 detected during pregnancy and lactation, and after the climacteric. 
 But does any similar rhythm occur in the male sex, or in girls 
 before puberty ? 
 
 I am anxious to obtain information bearing upon this question, 
 and venture to ask if any of your readers will give me the 
 advantage of their experience. I may remark that a careful 
 study of the periodicities of disease, notably of periodical neviroses 
 and haemorrhages, seems to me most likely to throw hght on the 
 (juestion. 
 
 In reply, Mr. Duke, of St. Thomas's Hospital, and Mr. M. 
 E. Paul, of the London Hospital, both sufferers from mi- 
 graine, kindly gave me their personal experience in the matter. 
 One of these gentlemen was of opinion that his attacks oc- 
 curred every month if he was under considerable mental 
 strain, but he was sure that " the rhythm was upset by any 
 such disturbing cause as a slight attack of typhoid." 
 
 1 "Flushing and Morbid Blushing," p. no. 
 
 - Russell Reynolds, " System of Medicine," article by William Roberts, 
 vol. V. p. 457.
 
 PART II.] THE MONTHLY RHYTHM. 273 
 
 IJnring a subsequent six montlis he kept a record of his 
 megrim phenomena ; they were then, however, very irregu- 
 lar, both in character and in time. 
 
 The other wrote : — " I am very subject to migraine, 
 which is a family neurosis. Some time ago, when 
 I was working unusually hard, the attacks became more 
 severe and more frequent than usual, and I thought it 
 would be worth while to chronicle the dates, in order to 
 see whether they, as I suspected, corresponded to the 
 menstrual periods." The following are the dates of the 
 attacks as clu'onicled by him : — 
 
 moderate 
 moderate 
 moderate 
 extremely severe 
 moderate 
 severe 
 moderate 
 moderate 
 very mild 
 very severe 
 very severe 
 mild 
 
 mild, lasted six days 
 
 very mild 
 severe 
 
 T do not think there is evidence of regular periodicity in 
 this case. T have met with two or three migrainous 
 patients who have thought they have detected a monthly 
 periodicity in their attacks, but mere impressions are of 
 no scientific value. 
 
 Dr. Koster made a study, extending over many years, of 
 the periodicities manifested by the insane. He observed 
 the periodicities in mania, melancholia, epilepsy, and 
 other forms of recurrent insanity, and claims to have 
 detected regular intervals even in chronic insanity. He 
 affirms that the length of the intervals, as measured by 
 days, is generally divisible by seven, and that this is true of 
 
 s 
 
 iitervals. 
 
 
 — 
 
 August 27, iSSS 
 
 21 
 
 September 17, 1888 
 
 29 
 
 October 16, 1888 
 
 43 
 
 November 28, 1888 
 
 17 
 
 December 15, 18S8 
 
 25 
 
 January 9, 1889 
 
 27 
 
 February 5, 1889 • 
 
 26 
 
 March 3, 1889 
 
 24 
 
 March 27, 1889 
 
 15 
 
 April II, 1889 
 
 27 
 
 Mays, 1889 
 
 19 
 
 May 27, 1889 
 
 26 
 
 (June 16, 1889 ) 
 
 
 \June 22, 1889 / 
 
 18 
 
 July 10, 1889 
 
 25 
 
 August 4, 1889
 
 274 THE MONTHLY KHYTHM. [paht ii. 
 
 male as well as female patients. Kosters observations 
 bear out Laycock's view that the monthly cycle is made 
 up of four minor cycles, and they at least suggest that the 
 man may pass through a monthly cycle similar to that of 
 the woman.' In this connection, I may mention the case 
 of a gentleman (one of the migrainous cases quoted) who 
 had an attack of urticaria on three successive Tuesdays, 
 and may further refer the reader to a study of periodical 
 psychoses by E. Mendel. 
 
 The possibility of the man's experiencing a monthly 
 rhythm naturally raises tlie question whether he, like the 
 woman, passes through a climacteric. On tliis I can say 
 nothing. Sir Henry Halford has described a condition 
 which he terms the climacteric disease, occurring in men 
 between fifty and seventy-five years of age,^ but he draws 
 no analogy between this and the climacteric of women. 
 
 If the view be accepted, that the man, like the woman, 
 passes through a monthly cycle, we may still further 
 enlarge our conception of menstruation. We may regard the 
 liuman being — both male and female — -as the subject of a 
 monthly pulsation which begins with the beginning of life, 
 and continues till death ; and menstruation, as ordinarily 
 understood, i.e., the monthly flux (and monthly ovulation?) 
 — as a reproductive function which has, in the case of the 
 human female, become engrafted accidentally, so to speak, 
 upon this primordial rhythm. 
 
 ' "Ueber die Gesetze der Periodischen Irreseins uml Verwandter, 
 Nervenzustilnde,'' von D. Koster, Bonn, 1882. 
 
 - AUgemeinr, Zeitschriftf. Fsychiatrie, Bd. xliv. Heft 6, S. 617, 664. 
 " •' Essays and Orations," London, 1831.
 
 PART III. 
 
 PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL,
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE FEELINGS— THE INTELLECT. 
 
 " ScAKCELY can we name a morbid afi'ection in which some 
 feeling or function of the mind is not concurrently engaged. 
 Xo physician can rightly fulfil his duties without an ade- 
 i^uate knowledge of, and constant regard to, these important 
 relations." Thus writes Sir Henry Holland,' and his re- 
 marks apply with particular force to disorders of the nervous 
 system, for in it take place those physical changes which 
 underlie the phenomena of mind, and in tlie functional 
 disorders of the nervous system the mind is accordingly 
 very apt to become involved. A knowledge of certain 
 psycho-physiological facts is, then, essential to the physician, 
 but it is above all necessary to him in tlie study of tlie 
 differences in nervous organisation of man and woman. 1 
 therefore devote a considerable portion of this work to the 
 subject. 
 
 T"^' 
 
 Mind is divided by modern philosophers into the Feelings 
 the Intellect, and the Will. In tliis chapter "s\e shall chiefly 
 consider the Feelings, touching oidy very briefly on the 
 subject of the Intellect. The Will can be more conveniently 
 treated of in a separate cha})ter. 
 
 The Feelings consist of the simple sensations, as sight, 
 
 ' " Medical Notes and ttetlcctions." ])_v Hciiry Holhui'l, F.K.8. London, 
 1852.
 
 2 78 ATTRIBUTES OF INTELLECT. [pabt hi. 
 
 touch, taste, the sense of repletion ; and of those more com- 
 plex sensations called emotions. The Intellect, or the 
 thinking part of mind, embraces the relations of feelings to 
 one another. It is, be it noted, something quite distinct 
 from mere feeling ; theoretically, an individual may be 
 <japable of a vast number of different sensations and yet 
 quite incapable of thought. In order to think, the mind must 
 be able (i) to reproduce sensations, and (2) to detect, (a) like- 
 ness, (b) unlikeness, between them. Consciousness of re- 
 semblance between sensations ; consciousness of their differ- 
 ences ; retentiveness of them ; these are the three 
 attributes of intellect. We can conceive of an individual 
 capable of experiencing an infinite number of sensations, and 
 yet quite powerless to recall them, or to recognise their 
 resemblances and differences. Such an one would be the 
 creature of the moment; for him there would be no past 
 and no future. And in truth he could be ranked as an 
 ' individual ' only in the corporeal sense — as possessing, that 
 is, an individual body ; mental individuality there would be 
 none, no ' ego ' capable of recognising a series of mental 
 states as belonging to itself. We may liken such an 
 individual to a colony of unicellular organisms each of 
 which, we will suppose, is capable of sensation, but lives for 
 a moment only. Viewed as a whole, the colony would 
 experience a number of sensations, but they would be 
 disconnected, there would be no mental individuality of the 
 whole colony, no power capable of unifying the various 
 sensations under one ego — no intellect. 
 
 In order that the successive mental states which run 
 parallel with certain physical changes in the cortex shall 
 thus be unified, the mind must manifestly be capable of 
 memory. This, it must be observed, includes two of the 
 three intellectual attributes — to wit, the power of calling up 
 past mental states (= retentiveness), and the further power 
 of recognising them when called up, of detecting, that is to 
 say, likeness between the present and the past ( = conscious- 
 ness of resemblance). Let us not confound these two. 
 The planetary systems in the course of their revolutions
 
 PART III.] ATTRIBUTES OF INTELLECT. 279 
 
 are continually reproducing past physical states ; moreover, 
 the seed or egg grows into the likeness of the parent forms. 
 Now granting, as all the most enlightened psychologists now 
 do, that the same mental state is always accompanied by a 
 corresponding physical state of the cortex, we have no 
 difficulty in explaining the mere reproduction of a past 
 mental state or series of mental states. If a planetary 
 system is capable of reproducing past physical states, why 
 not the molecules of the brain ? And if the physical state of 
 the brain is reproduced, so too must be the mental state 
 corresponding to it. I have little doubt that the reproduc- 
 tion in each case falls under the same laws. But the mere 
 reproduction of a ]iast physical state and corresponding 
 mental state is not memory,^ for memory includes the power 
 of recognising that the mental state (or states) thus re- 
 induced has (or have) been before experienced by the 
 individual ; there must be a consciousness of similarity 
 between the present and tlie past. The insane individual 
 often fails to assimilate the two ; he sees a face he 
 lias often seen before, Itut does not recognise it; he has 
 no consciousness of agreement between the present 
 and the past. Similarly, in tlie incoherent thought of the 
 maniac, we may be quite sure that past mental states are 
 being continually re-induced, though only partially recog- 
 nised, and therefore imperfectly remembered. 
 
 Wherefore it is e\'ident that without retentiveness and 
 without consciousness of resemblance thought is impossible. 
 
 ' Sir James Paget speaks of the memory of the body as distinguished 
 from that of the mind. The tissue constituting a scar has, according to 
 him, a rneuiory, for the healthy tissue which has been converted into scar 
 tissue preserves its altered state till the end of life, and the like is true of 
 the blood which has been modified by a specific fever. But neither of these 
 examples is an instance of memory in the proper sense. True memdry implies 
 there-induction of a past state, and in the instances given there is no sucli 
 re-induction, but simply a permanent alteration. Of course a permanent 
 alteration of ganglionic structure underlies true memory — only in this 
 wav can the re-induction of a past state become possible, but there is 
 an essential difTercnce between the permanent alteration in virtue of 
 which re-induction becomes possible, and the re-induction itself.
 
 28o THE GENESIS OF SENSATIONS. [part hi. 
 
 A moment's reflection will make it also evident that con- 
 sciousness of unlikeness among sensations is further neces- 
 sary to thought, for without it all sensations would appear 
 the same. 
 
 We see therefore that, setting aside the consideration 
 of the Will for the present (and Will, as we shall find, 
 introduces no new elements), mind consists of simple sensa- 
 tions and of a power capable of bringing these otherwise 
 disconnected sensations under the cognition of one ego, 
 this power — the intellect, as it is termed — resolving 
 itself into three separate functions. Although perhaps not 
 strictly allowable, we shall find it conduce to clearness of 
 conception if we regard the intellect as an independent 
 entity, capable of cognising, of arranging, and of re-arranging 
 the various sensations, somewhat in the same way as a 
 builder does his bricks, mortar, and other building materials. 
 We may in this sense speak of the sensations as the materials 
 of thought. 
 
 Seeing, then, what an important part sensations play 
 in the phenomena of mind, it is necessary for us at the 
 outset to inquire into the physical conditions which underlie 
 til em. 
 
 The entire body, if we except such semi-vitalised tissues 
 as cartilage, is furnished with sensory nerves. These 
 nerves pass upwards, to end in the sensory ganglia of 
 the cortex, the ganglia collectively constituting what we 
 may term, for convenience, the sensorium.^ They are divided 
 
 ' In his "Physiology of Mind" {1876) Maudsley places the sensorium 
 commune — a term of his own coining — below the cerebral cortex. 
 Similarly, Carpenter, Spencer, and others, writing at a period when we 
 were almost totally ignorant of the functions of the different portions of 
 the brain, regarded certain masses of grey matter situated below the 
 hemispheres as sensory. In the light of more recent physiology, however, 
 there can be no doubt that the sensorium, or nervous material con- 
 stituting the physical substratum of sensation, is situated in the cortex. 
 On removal of the cerebral hemispheres, all vertebrates but the very 
 highest remain capable of many and complex co-ordinate movements. Not 
 only can they walk, Hy, swim, as the case may be, but they even avoid 
 obstacles in their path ; a fish will turn aside from an object in front of it,
 
 PART III.] THE GENESIS OF SENSATIONS. 281 
 
 by Herbert Spencer into the qnpcriijJieral — those which 
 originate in the skin, the special sense-organs, and the 
 vohmtary muscles ; and the entopcripheral — those which have 
 their origin in the various internal organs. 
 
 These two systems of sensory nerves are so fashioned at 
 their peripheries as to respond readily to appropriate stimuli. 
 
 a frog will jump over an obstruction in its way. (In these instances the 
 .sight reflex sy.stem responds to reflected ether-waves.) Hence such 
 animals when decapitated have been thought to possess a conscious in- 
 telligence, the existence of consciousness in them being also suggested by 
 the fact that they manifest, when further injured, all the outward signs 
 of pain. There can be little question, however, that these muscular 
 actions are essentially reflex, and independent of consciousness. It is open 
 of course to any one to assert that the grey matter at the base of the brain, 
 or indeed the tissues of the body generally, are endowed with conscious- 
 ness, but a little reflection will show that such consciousness (if it can be 
 so termed correctly) is very different from the consciousness belonging to 
 the ego. In order to continuous consciousness, intellect is, as we have 
 seen, necessary : without it sensations must be disconnected. Now the 
 unifying of such isolated sensations — the bringing them together under 
 one ego — takes place almost certainly in the cortex cerebri (and cerebelli). 
 Therefore, whether other parts of the body do or do not possess the capacity 
 for consciousness, they cannot, being destitute of intellect, have any 
 continuous consciousness like that belonging to the ego. And we m.ay, I 
 think, be quite certain that in hemi-ansesthesia, resulting from a lesion of the 
 posterior third of the hind limb of the internal capsule, the side destitute 
 of sensation is not only destitute of it so far as the ego is concerned, but 
 is incapable of itself suffering pain when injured. These considerations 
 relieve us from the terrible conclusion which might otherwise force 
 itself upon us, that our bodies are capable of suffering, unknown to 
 ourselves ! 
 
 Because the cortex contains the structures which unify the several 
 sensations into the ego, it does not follow that those animals which are 
 destitute of a cerebral cortex possess no such unifying structure, and that 
 they are therefore destitute of an ego, unconscious, i.e., in the ordinary 
 sense of the word. It is probable that with every successive development 
 of higher nervous structures, occurring in the course of evolution, these 
 unifying structures are pushed higher and higher up, so that they always 
 occupy the supremo portion of the nervous system. 
 
 Among the writers wlio maintain that consciousness accompanies the 
 activities of other parts of the nervous system than the cortex cerebri, are 
 H. Lewes, Herzen, and Cleland. Thus Lewes taught that after division of 
 a nerve the part of the body supplied by the peripheral portion of that 
 nerve had an independent consciousness of its own. Similarly, Herzen
 
 2 82 THE GENESIS OF SENSATIONS, [part in. 
 
 Thus the optic nerves expand into the retince, structures 
 capable of being excited by certain of the ether- waves ; 
 the olfactory nerves, into the so-called Schneiderian mem- 
 brane, capable of responding to the stimuli of odoriferous 
 substances ; the cutaneous nerves, into certain end-organs 
 which are responsive to less subtle contact, as well as to the 
 delicate stimulus of heat rays ; while the sensory nerves of 
 the muscles and of the viscera terminate in ways fitting 
 them to respond to yet other forms of stimuli, such as 
 pressure and chemical irritation. 
 
 Hence the sensorium, with its sensory nerves and nerve- 
 endings, is made up of a number of separate and more or 
 less independent systems : the sight, touch, olfactory, heart, 
 lung, hepatic, gastric, generative, and other systems. 
 
 By the action of forces striking upon the exterior of the 
 body, and of others operating from within, molecular vibra- 
 tions, or ' nerve impulses,' are made to travel up the sensory 
 nerves, and to impinge upon the sensorial ganglia.^ These 
 are driven into a peculiar molecular perturbation, and there- 
 upon a sensation forces itself upon consciousness. All 
 sensations arise in this way. It should be noted, in passing, 
 
 maintained that consciousness belonged to the spinal cord, and Professor 
 Cleland, that the " seat " of consciousness may " extend along the nerves." 
 C. Mercier rightly protests against our speaking of the " seat " of conscious- 
 ness, and of consciousness being a "function" of nervous activity (see 
 Journal of Mental Science, vol. xxix. p. 501). 
 
 For myself I consider the views of Hughlings Jackson as to the physical 
 substratum of consciousness the most philosophical yet put forth. This 
 physician regards the nervous sj^stem as made up of various affero-efferent 
 centres arranged in different levels, each higher level having evolved out 
 of the one immediately below it, and the highest affero-efferent level con- 
 stituting the physical substratum of consciousness. Note that according to 
 this view the efferent or motor ganglia in the highest level, as well as the 
 afferent, or, as some would say, sensory ganglia., form the material substra- 
 tum of consciousuess. 
 
 ^ ' Sensorial ganglia.' This is a convenient term, but the reader must be 
 careful not to confound sensorial with sensori. The ganglia which con- 
 stitute the physical substratum of consciousness, or, as we may con- 
 veniently term them, the ' sensorial' ganglia, probably consist of the highest 
 sensori-motor ( = affero-efferent) ganglia.
 
 PART III] THE GENESIS OF SENSATIONS. 28 
 
 o 
 
 that of the several agents which by thus acting upon the 
 sensory nerve-endings induce consciousness, we can know 
 nothing directly, for they are outside consciousness. We 
 are apt to assume that all the sensations which are referred 
 to external objects have a corresponding objective (concrete) 
 reality — that so, independently of mind, they exist as they 
 appear to us : that light, for instance, exists outside ourselves 
 as a certain brightness, iiut brightness is a sensation, and no 
 more exists independently of us than does the taste of salt. 
 Ether-waves striking against the retinte give rise to the 
 sensation of light ; salt applied to the palate gives rise to 
 the sensation of taste. This truth, which the slightest 
 reflection will render manifest, is further brought home to 
 us by the fact that there is no undeviating correspondence 
 between the external a^ent and the resulting consciousness. 
 It is probable that no two individuals are affected in exactly 
 the same way by the same agent. A mass of matter 
 which seems heavy to a child, to a man appears light ; a 
 taste or smell pleasant to one individual is nauseous to 
 another. We shudder at the mire in which the swine 
 revels ; we pity the lieasts for their low instincts ; but who 
 shall say that those smells and tastes which delight us are 
 not loathsome to them, and that, had they the necessary 
 intelligence, they would not condemn what to them seem our 
 disgusting proclivities ? 
 
 The manner in which forces acting ujwn sensory nerve- 
 endings excite the different sensations may be rendered more 
 easy of conception by analogy. Each sensory system, con- 
 sisting of its central ganglia, nerves, and nerve-endings, may 
 be likened to some one class of instruments in an orchestra 
 — the sight sensory system, say, to the violins, the touch 
 sensory system to the flutes, and so forth, the forces acting 
 u]ion the nerve-endings being represented by the players. 
 During waking hours it is as though the full band were 
 playing, the sensorium being then vibrated from every 
 direction ; during dreamless sleep the instruments have become 
 dumb, for tliough the players are still at work — though, that 
 is, the impulses still stream in from many directions — the
 
 284 THE GENESIS OF SENSATIONS. [part iii. 
 
 conditions necessary to consciousness do not obtain, no sensa- 
 tion is produced. 
 
 Let us suppose a healthy individual, who has been 
 thoroughly refreshed by food and rest, to be strolling in the 
 country on a sunny summer's morning. The orchestra — to 
 continue our analogy — will be playing a full harmony ; the 
 retina? will be stimulated by the diffused light and by the 
 light reflected from the objects around ; the Schneiderian 
 membrane, by odoriferous impalpable substances, wafted 
 from the trees and flowers ; the auditory nerves, by the 
 atmosphere set a-trembling by many different forms of 
 animal life, by the rustle of the trees, the grass, the corn ; 
 the nerves of the skin, by the heat vibrations emanating 
 from the sun, by the contact of the clothes, and by the 
 gentle breeze. Further, the healthy action of the muscles and 
 motor ganglia, with their stores of pent-up energy, of the heart 
 pumping the blood through the body, of the lungs stimulated 
 by the invigorating air, of the digestive organs busy 
 with their normal functions, will all add their quota to 
 the sum of the sensations yielded by the sensorium — all 
 will help to swell the harmonious chords. The individual 
 in question may not be able to resolve the harmony into 
 its several constituents, any more than one who is unskilled 
 in the art may be able to analyse a chord of music. 
 The analysis can only be effected by observing each factor 
 separately, by successively directing the mental eye, that is, 
 to different points of the mental horizon ; otherwise there 
 is but a dim consciousness of separate and indppendent 
 sensations. 
 
 The vague, undefined sensations derived from the viscera 
 (heart, lungs, and so forth), from the muscles, and from the 
 general surface of the skin, constitute the feeling of well- 
 being, or the reverse. It is said that an individual ought 
 not to be conscious that he has a body ; by which it is 
 meant that the bodily functions should be carried on so 
 easily and harmoniously that the attendant sensations shall 
 not obtrude themselves upon the mental eye. When the 
 heart is felt to beat, or there is obtrusive consciousness of
 
 PART HI.] THE GENESIS OF SENSATIONS. 285 
 
 sensation in the abdomen, there is abnormal action. This 
 same truth is implied in the vulgarism, " I have a head on me " 
 (when intended to indicate a headache); the implication 
 being, of course, that the individual should not be con- 
 tinually and })oignantly conscious of the fact. 
 
 But although the healthy individual does not at every 
 moment precisely realise his many bodily feelings, it would 
 be a mistake to suppose that during his conscious life he is 
 ever entiriely without them. Were it possible suddenly to 
 paralyse some of the bodily sensations — the visceral, for 
 instance — there would at once be a great void in his con- 
 sciousness : it would be as though the subdued and 
 voluminous accompaniment to which the melody ( = thought) 
 is set were struck out of the band. The ego, in fact, at any 
 one moment is made up of thoughts, of emotions (which, 
 as we shall presently see, are the feelings attendant upon 
 thought), and of bodily feelings, the two latter consti- 
 tuting the background of the former. Thus, a narrow 
 stream of clear ideas flows in the midst of an ocean of con- 
 sciousness, which, as it expands outwards, becomes vaguer 
 and vaguer, until it is gradually lost in the realm of un- 
 
 consciousness
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE PRIMORDIAL UNIT OF CONSCIOUSNESS— THE COMPOUND- 
 INa OF THIS INTO SENSATIONS— AND OF SENSATIONS 
 INTO PERCEPTIONS AND CONCEPTIONS— THE COMPARATIVE 
 INTELLECTUALITY OF THE VARIOUS SENSATIONS. 
 
 Having inquired into the genesis of sensation, we must now 
 consider how the several sensations belonging to the mind 
 can be termed the materials of thought. 
 
 All our ideas are built up of sensations. What the atom 
 is to the material universe, what the letter is to the lan- 
 guage, what a single vibration of the atmosphere is in music 
 — such is sensation in the domain of mind. We may arrange 
 the various sensory systems in a scale according to the in- 
 tellectuality of the sensations belonging to them — according 
 to the part which eacli plays in the processes of thought — 
 the intellectual value in every case being readily determined 
 by the extent to which the sensation possesses tlie three 
 several attributes of the intellect : how far, namely, it is 
 capable of being reproduced, and of being contrasted with, 
 or likened to, others. Applying these tests, we may arrange 
 the scale as in Fig. 17 :^ — 
 
 ^ The muscular sensations are divided into the purely organic, such as pain, 
 and the intellectual, those, viz., which are generally referred to under the 
 muscular sense. By these we gauge the extent of a voluntary contraction. 
 The organic muscular sensations are certainly peripherally excited, l)ut 
 whether the more intellectual muscular sense is also, or whether it is 
 centrally initiated, is not yet determined.
 
 PAKT III.] INTELLECTUALITY OF SENSATIONS. 287 
 
 The epiperipheral sensations are far more intellectual 
 than the entoperipheral or organic. Taking the most in- 
 tellectual system of sensation, that of sight, and comparing 
 
 Fig. 17. 
 
 t/1 
 
 ct. 
 
 < 
 
 5! to LU 
 
 I 
 
 o o 
 2 u5 
 
 q: 
 
 c^- 
 
 0^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 %^^%%% 
 
 SENSORIAL GANGLIA 
 
 NERVES 
 
 NERVE ENDINGS 
 
 ENTOPERI- 
 PHERAL 
 
 EPIPERIPHERAL 
 
 it with any visceral system of sensation, that connected 
 with the alimentary canal, for instance, we find, in the 
 first place, that the former sensations are capable of being 
 readily and vividly recalled ; the latter, only with great 
 difficulty, if at all. We moreover find that the former are 
 mapped out into a vast number of separate sensations, 
 sharply limiting one another both in time and space, and 
 capable of being cognised as like or unlike, and of combin- 
 ing and recombiniuc: in an infinite number of different 
 ways ; whereas the latter are not only not thus sharply 
 limited in space and time, but they are also not mapped 
 out into definite and clear-cut sensations, and therefore 
 when modifications occur these are only vaguely cognised 
 as like and unlike. Herbert Spencer expresses this differ- 
 ence by saying that the " relational element " is great in the 
 one case, small in the otlier. With regard to sight sensa- 
 tions, lie writes:' "The nmltitudinous states of conscious- 
 ness yielded by vision are above all others sharp in their 
 mutual limitations Some of the feelint?s >iiw}ilta- 
 
 ' ■' l*rinri]il('s (if I'sychology," vol. i. pp. 169, 170.
 
 288 INTELLECTUALITY OF SENSATIONS. [Part iii. 
 
 neously limit one another/ and some with equal distinctness 
 successively limit one another." "' 
 
 These differences betweeu the intellectual and the non- 
 intellectual sensory systems may be diagrammatically repre- 
 presented as follows : — 
 
 Fig. i8. 
 .. » ° • • . 
 
 Fig. ig. 
 
 
 
 « • • • 
 
 . • • . 
 
 ••.V.:: •• 
 
 Relations in space of intel/ecttial 
 sensations — e.g., sight. Simiil- 
 faneoiis limitations of a number 
 of separate sensations ( = sharp 
 limitation in space). 
 
 Relations in space of organic sen- 
 sations — e.g., repletion. Diffused 
 feeling — i.e., no simultaneous 
 limitations of separate sensa- 
 tions (=no sharp limitation in 
 space). 
 
 Fig. 20. 
 
 -> 
 
 Relations in time of sight sensations. luterrupteil feeling — i.e., 
 successlee limitations of separate sensations, each sensation 
 beginning and ending sharply. 
 
 Fig. 21. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Relations in time of organic sensations. Continuous feeling — i.e., 
 no successive limitations of separate sensations. 
 
 Thus the oroanic sensations are slugoish and diffused — 
 we might almost say amorphous ; unlike the intellectual, 
 they cannot rapidly combine with other sensations (whether 
 of the same or of different sensory systems) so as to con- 
 stitute thought ; they merely form a blurred background of 
 sensation on which thought is, as it were, impressed. 
 
 ^ /.e., they have definite relations in space. When we look at a wide 
 panorama those limitations of individual sensations caused by the rays of 
 light reflected from different objects, and the focussing of the rays upon 
 the retina, are to be reckoned by the thousand. 
 
 - I.e., they have definite relations in time, that is to say, each sight 
 sensation is clearly mapped off from the following one. The relation in 
 time is, however, much more definite in the case of sound than of sight.
 
 PART III.] FEELINGS— MASS AND INTENSITY. 289 
 
 Now we shall find that in proportion as a sense is intel- 
 lectual, in that proportion is the element of feding in it 
 small. So small, indeed, is it in the most intellectual 
 sensations, that some philosophers have thought that these 
 consist of states of consciousness quite distinct from feeling. 
 There can be no doubt, however, that there is no essential 
 difference between the most and the least intellectual sensa- 
 tion in this respect ; it is merely a difference in degree, and 
 this difference in degree is, as we shall now see, only what 
 we might from the nature of the case expect. 
 
 The intensity of the stimulus being the same, the quantity 
 or mass of feeling is in direct proportion to the extent 
 of peripheral expansion stimulated. Thus the element of 
 feeling in sight-sensation is necessarily small, owing to 
 the limited area of the retinal expansions, and in this con- 
 nection it must be remembered that only a part of the 
 limited area of each retina is fitted to receive distinct 
 impressions — to wit, the yellow spot. The same remarks 
 apply to the other intellectual sensations — those of sound, 
 smell, taste, touch. (In regard to the latter, it is hardly 
 necessary to remind the reader that it is only limited 
 portions of the skin wliich subserve intellectual touch- 
 sensations — viz., the tips of the fingers.) 
 
 The non-intellectual sensations, on the other hand, result 
 from the stimulation of a large area of peripheral nerve- 
 expansion. Instance the feeling of warmth or of repletion; 
 in the one case a large surface of skin, in the other an 
 extensive area of mucous membrane, is stiuiulated. 
 
 The explanation of these facts is not far to seek. If 
 only a few nerve-fibres are vibrated, the quantity of feeling 
 induced is of necessity small, just as is the quantity of sound 
 when only a few violin strings are struck ; and as when the 
 number of the strings is multiplied the volume of sound 
 swells, so too when thousands and tens of thousands of 
 nerve-fibres are vibrated does the quantity of feeling corre- 
 spondingly increase. ]>ut of course there may be acute 
 feeling from agitation of a limited area ; an intense, as dis- 
 tinguished from a massive, feeling. When, for instance, a 
 
 T
 
 290 FEELING AND THOUGHT. [part hi. 
 
 small portion of any peripheral expanse is violently stimu- 
 lated, as the retina by the full blaze of a tropical sun, or 
 the gall-duct by the passage of a stone, there is intense 
 but not massive feeling, just as there is intense but not 
 massive sound produced by the violent scraping of a single 
 violin string. Wherefore the element of feeling may be 
 predominant in a limited area of sensory expanse if only 
 the stimulus be sufliciently violent. 
 
 That the degree of feeling in those intellectual sensa- 
 tions which constitute the materials of thought is neces- 
 sarily small, might be established on a priori grounds. In 
 the first place, the intellectual sensory systems are, as we 
 have just noticed, incapable of yielding a large mass of 
 feeling, owing to the small size of their peripheries ; and, in 
 the second place, were they at any one moment to yield all 
 the mass of feeling of which they are capable, thought would 
 be impossible. To make this more clear, let us again take 
 the most intellectual sensory system — sight. How is it possible 
 to get rapid compoundings and recompoundings of vibrations 
 (corresponding to the compoundings and recompoundings of 
 sensations entering into thought processes) when the entire 
 sight-sensorial area is vibrating ? Yet this will be necessary 
 in order to obtain anything approaching to a fulness of 
 sight-feeling. When an individual looks intently at the 
 unclouded sun, he experiences the largest possible C[uantity 
 of sight- feeling, and consequently he will not, as Herbert 
 Spencer observes, be able to call up any pictures of the 
 past ; for, since mental pictures are reproduced by a repeti- 
 tion, on a fainter scale, of those cortical processes which 
 occurred when the objects of the picture were actually beheld, 
 and since in this instance all the sight-centres are in a state 
 of active vibration, these latter can no more take on those 
 past states necessary to the recall of a picture, than can a 
 harp give music when all its strings are struck together. 
 It therefore follows that when the sensations yielded by 
 an intellectual sensory system api^roacli to any degree of 
 massiveness, they can no longer subserve an intellectual 
 process.
 
 PART III.] FEELING AND THOUGHT. 291 
 
 It is also clear that when intellectual sensations are 
 intense they are powerless as thought factors. We have 
 seen that an intense feeling is generally due to the violent 
 stimulation of a limited area. Xow all the peripheral ex- 
 pansions of the intellectual sensory systems are limited in 
 area, so that a violent stimulation of the entire peripheral 
 expanse of any one of them would lead to intensity of 
 feeling — e.g., a strong light, a powerful smell, a loud noise, 
 and as matter of fact, our knowledge of intense intellectual 
 sensations is practically confined to those induced by the 
 stimulation of each entire peripheral expanse. In these 
 cases the central vibrations are, owing to the intricate con- 
 nections of the central ganglia, not limited to the ganglia 
 belonging to any one system, but affect a large proportion, 
 and perhaps even all of them. Were, however, such a 
 central limitation possible, then, in all probability, the un- 
 affected ganglia would be capable of taking on those vibra- 
 tions necessary to thought. 
 
 The stimulation, on the other hand, of an extensive non- 
 intellectual sensory area, though causing a large quantity of 
 feeling, does not necessarily interfere with thought. If 
 gentle, it but produces a kind of background for thought ; 
 but if the perturbation be violent, the intellectual processes 
 may be decidedly affected, as in the acute feelings con- 
 nected with dyspepsia, or the more violent emotions. Further, 
 if only a small area of a non-intellectual centre be acutely 
 agitated, thought may go on unimpeded. Thus, during 
 intense organic pain — e.g., toothache — the thinking powers 
 may be exceedingly active ; but when the feeling is both 
 massive and acute, thought becomes difficult, probably 
 because the intellectual senses are sympathetically involved 
 in the perturbation.* 
 
 I have several times alluded to the compounding and 
 recompounding of sensations which take place in thought, 
 
 1 On the relation between feeling and thought, see Herbert Spencer, 
 op. cit., vol. i. §§ 209-211. The author here considers the relation from a 
 merely psychological standpoint.
 
 292 PERCEPTIONS. [part hi. 
 
 but there are good grounds for believing that, just as the 
 different chemical atoms are themselves compounded of a 
 primordial unit of matter, so likewise are the different 
 sensations compounded of a primordial unit of consciousness, 
 " and that all the unlikenesses amouo- our feelings result 
 from unlike modes of integration of this ultimate unit."' 
 The ultimate unit itself, Mr. Spencer believes to be " some- 
 thing of the same order as that which we call a nervous 
 shock."^ 
 
 By the compounding of sensations, perceptions and con- 
 ceptions are formed. The following table illustrates their 
 relation to one another : — 
 
 Simple nerve-shock, or ultimate unit of consciousness 
 
 I 
 Sensation 
 
 Perception Conception 
 
 Perception. — Whether we regard sensations as the ultimate 
 units of consciousness, or as themselves compounded of one 
 primordial unit, there can be no doubt that all our per- 
 ceptions are compounded of sensation — that sensation is the 
 unit of perception. When an individual experiences a sensa- 
 tion, but does not consciously refer it to some part of his 
 body, or to the external world, he is said to be in a purely 
 
 ' Herbert Spencer, op. cit., vol. i. § 60. 
 
 ^ There can be little doubt that the different sound sensations are all 
 compounded of a common unit of consciousness. If a body be struck at a 
 rate not exceeding sixteen times a second, a number of individual noises 
 or shocks are heard ; but if the rate of percussion exceed this number, the 
 separate shocks are merged into a continuous state of consciousness. 
 This continuous consciousness undergoes a gradual alteration as the rate 
 of percussion is increased, the sound altering in 'pitch,' as we say, 
 and it may still fiurther be modified by the induction of secondary fainter 
 nerve shocks, thus altering in 'timbre.' We have therefore, argues 
 Spencer, distinct evidence that the different simple sound sensations — 
 sensations apparently undecomposable — are in reality caused by the com- 
 pounding in various ways of this ultimate unit of consciousness. The 
 author then proceeds to argue with much force that all sensations are 
 analogously compounded.
 
 PART III.] 
 
 PERCEPTIONS. 
 
 293 
 
 Fig, 
 
 subjective state ; he is then, so far as that sensation is 
 concerned, unconscious of any external world ; but directly 
 the sensation becomes objective — i.e., is referred to the world 
 outside liimself — he is said to perceive it. A perception 
 may arise from a simple sensa- 
 tion, as when we hear the note 
 of a tuning-fork ; or it may be 
 compounded of several individual 
 sensations. Thus, when we per- 
 ceive an orange, our perception 
 is made up of certain sight sensa- 
 tions caused by the direct stimu- 
 lation of the sight centres 2^lus a 
 number of other sensations which, 
 by virtue of the retentive power 
 of the mind, cluster round these 
 primary ones — viz., taste, odour, 
 resistance — all of which we know 
 by past experience to belong to 
 the orange. Wherefore we may 
 
 say that a compound perception the perception of an orange. The 
 
 . „ ^ T c i.- notes struck are «, b, c. d, f; /, 
 
 consists or a chord or sensations represented broader than the others, 
 
 (see Fig. 22). But it is a chord ^^^X^,^ S^^^^IJ^^ 
 
 plaved as an aracr/f/it) ; the various by external agents but are se- 
 
 ■^ "^ _ , . coudarily vibi-ated from /; the 
 
 sensations do not blend into one ; fainter agitation being represented 
 
 ^ . -I , ^ by the lighter lines used ; a is both 
 
 each stands out more or less pro- actually and ideally excited.' 
 
 minently, and passes rapidly 
 
 across the mental held, just as do the several compound 
 notes of a musical chord when rapidly struck in succession. 
 What is true of an actual perception is also true of a 
 remembered perception or image. 
 
 1 The active contraction of the irides and ciliary muscles plays aconsider- 
 able part in enabling us to judge of the size and distance of the orange. 
 The sensations thus yielded belong to the muscular sense, and whether 
 they be of central or peripheral origin, it is clear that they will, in the case 
 in point, be actual, not ideal. Therefore I have drawn a somewhat 
 broader than h, c, and d. All those muscular sensations, however, from which 
 our knowledge of solidity is largely derived, will be ideal ( = remembered) . 
 Therefore, as stated above, a is both actually and ideally excited. 
 
 This figure shows the mode in 
 which the seusorium is agitated in
 
 294 CONCEPTIONS. [part hi. 
 
 Concejjtion. — Conceptions, in like manner, are compounded 
 of sensations. When we look at a particular house we have 
 a ' perception ' of it, and when we remember it we are said 
 to have an imase of it ; but when the mind takes cog;nisance, 
 not of one, but of all houses, then we form a ' conception.' 
 In this process we abstract from all houses their common, 
 properties, leaving out of view distinguishing characteristics 
 of individual houses, and it is therefore manifest that the 
 result arrived at — that is, the conception — consists, like the 
 compound perception, of a chord of sensations. The same 
 is true of the most abstract conceptions, as honour, justice. 
 We cannot conceive of these except in reference to the 
 concrete — i.e., to honourable action, fair dealing. All con- 
 ceptions being thus founded on perception, we see how 
 essential is accurate perception to clear conception. To be 
 a clear thinker is to be a careful observer.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE EMOTIONS. 
 
 Thus far we have dealt with sensations excited epiperi- 
 pherally and eiitoperipherally. We have now to consider 
 the ' centrally initiated ' feelings or emotions — those which 
 result, not from mere peripheral stimulation, but from 
 initiatory intellectual processes. Pride, anger, sorrow, come 
 essentially under this head.* The emotions thus centrally 
 initiated are, like perceptions and conceptions, compounded 
 of simple sensations. 
 
 Widely different views are held regarding the nature of 
 the feelings which constitute the emotions. Some authorities 
 maintain that there is nothing specific in them, that they are 
 simply the feelings of pleasure and of pain attendant on differ- 
 ent trains of thought ; that the emotion of benevolence, for 
 instance, is neither more nor less than a simple feeling of 
 pleasure attending the contemplation of a benevolent act,^ 
 and that neither has any further specific character. There 
 are others who go so far as to assert, on the other hand, 
 that emotions are as many and as various as ideas. 
 
 We have seen that all our conceptions and perceptions 
 (except the most simple) are chords of sensations, but that 
 such intellectual sensations, in consequence of their being 
 limited in mass, and lacking intensity, may not be recog- 
 
 1 Some of the emotions are highlj- complex ; instance the feeling of love. 
 Vide H. Spencer, "The rrinciples of rsychology," vol. i. p. 4S7. 
 - Maudsley, "Physiology of Mind," 1879, p. 360.
 
 296 THE EMOTIONS. [part hi. 
 
 uised as such. The element of feeling being apparently 
 absent from them, they are apt to be regarded as quite 
 distinct from and independent of intellect. This element 
 is in some intellectual processes more pronounced than in 
 others. We have little difficulty in recognising it in the 
 perception of a brilliant autumnal landscape : wherefore the 
 artist speaks of the " feeling for " — form and colour. It 
 is less easy to detect the element of feeling involved in the 
 actual working out of a knotty mathematical problem apart 
 from the secondary feelings, such as interest, excited by it. 
 Nevertheless, in no intellectual process is it entirely absent, 
 and we may follow Maudsley in regarding every idea as 
 accompanied by a greater or less amount of feeling. 
 
 The feelings which actually enter into and constitute the 
 materials of thought must, however, be distinguished from 
 those superadded feelings which are called the emotions. 
 The latter may be divided into two classes:^ ( i) those feelings 
 which are not distinctly referred to different parts of the 
 body ; (2) those which are. To the first class the expres- 
 sion ' feelings of the mind ' appropriately applies. In the 
 emotion of pride the ' mental ' feeling is the chief — 
 perhaps the sole — element; whereas in a violent outburst of 
 anger the bodily element is predominant, the whole body, 
 even to the tips of the fingers, being in some cases permeated 
 by feeling. In all the most intellectual emotions — e.g., those 
 connected with right doing, those, namely, which cannot 
 occur except in relation to a complex train of thought — the 
 element of bodily feeling is comparatively small ; but in the 
 less intellectual emotions, as gloom or joy, it is very 
 pronounced. In some cases w^e can detach, as it were, the 
 intellectual from the bodily element in the feeling. " A 
 
 1 There are many difficulties in the way of classifying the emotions. 
 The following is a psychological classification : — 
 
 1. The personal emotions: those that have sole reference to the in- 
 dividual who experiences them. 
 
 2. The sympathetic emotions : those evoked by the contemplation of 
 the sufferings and emotions of others. 
 
 3. The highly complex feelings termed sentiments, such as the love of 
 truth, beauty, virtue, liberty.
 
 PART III.] THE EMOTIONS. 297 
 
 painful emotion," says Bain/ " maybe deprived of its pain"^ 
 ( = feeling of the mind), " and yet leave us in a state of excite- 
 ment " (which is very largely a bodily feeling), " and still 
 oftener, a pleasurable emotion may cease as delight, but not 
 as feeling." Similarly, a person may, after suddenly waking 
 from a perturbing dream, find his whole body full, as it 
 were, of emotional excitement, while he is quite unable to 
 correctly interpret the feeling. The intellectual has been 
 severed from the mere bodily element. 
 
 When we say that a person is emotional, we do not 
 mean that he is capable of a large variety of emotions, but 
 rather that his emotions are more full of feeling — that the 
 feelings enteriuGf into them are either more massive or more 
 acute — than in an unemotional individual. In all such cases 
 it will be found that the feelings are very largely referred 
 to the body — to the skin, and above all to the viscera — and 
 therefore the emotions must take their origin in the sensory 
 centres pertaining to these parts. This indeed follows from 
 what has been said as to the nature of a massive feeling. 
 Massive feeling can only originate in the agitation of a 
 large sensorial area, and such an area is afforded by the 
 sensorial centres belonging to the general surface of the 
 body, and to the capacious viscera. 
 
 Although the emotionality of an individual depends 
 upon the mass, and still more upon the intensity, of the 
 feelings entering into the emotions, a highly intellectual 
 man may, as Bain observes, have strong emotions with- 
 out " being possessed of them to the same degree as 
 one of feeble intellect," his self-control being greaier. I 
 believe, however, that the quantity of the feeling is 
 probably, and the intensity certainly, not in these cases so 
 great as in the case of those possessing less control, for 
 when an emotion has been starved, or, by long self -discipline, 
 become obedient to the will, it tends to atrophy. A 
 beautiful landscape, or the reading of good poetry, could 
 in Darwin's latter days excite no glow of icsthetic emotion, 
 
 ^ " Mental and Moral Science," p. 217. London, 1881.
 
 298 THE EMOTIONS. [part iii. 
 
 although in youth he was distinctly susceptible to their 
 influence. 
 
 Inasmuch as the visceral feelings occupy such a large 
 place in the emotions, it is possible that the various viscera 
 exert, through their sensory nerves, specific influences upon 
 the emotional nature ; and in fact attempts have been made 
 to discover these several influences by observing the effects 
 produced upon the mind when one or another viscus is 
 diseased. Here, however, a manifest difficulty presents 
 itself, for we cannot easily determine how much of the 
 observed emotional state is due to the excitation of the 
 aff"erent visceral nerves, and how much to the effect, on the 
 sensorium, of blood altered by the visceral disorder. 
 
 This raises a question of some interest. If the visceral 
 feelings enter so largely into the emotions, is it not probable 
 that — other things being equal — the emotionality of the 
 individual will be in direct proportion to the extent of his 
 visceral feeling ? Now woman, being endowed with a more 
 complex and extensive generative system than man, neces- 
 sarily possesses a relatively larger visceral nerve expansion, 
 and hence the quantity of visceral feeling will be greater in 
 her than in man. It has been now definitely shown that 
 during pregnancy a growth of the peripheral sensory system 
 belonging to the generative organs takes place ; and it is 
 clear that such development must of itself tend to increase 
 the mere organic feeling, and thus, if the above view be 
 correct, to augment the emotionality at this period ; but such 
 peripheral growth can only play a minor part in causing 
 the emotional exaltation at this time. 
 
 I do not purpose here to locate the various bodily feelings 
 which enter into the emotions. It is, however, worth while 
 pointing out that the emotional feelings referable to the 
 thorax are said^ to be experienced more on the left than on 
 the right. The left side of the thorax is a most interesting 
 region to us. Many nerve-storms take their origin in the 
 sensorial region proper to this part, in that which we may 
 term the vagal sensorial region. Thus, the aura of the 
 ^ Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1852, p. 224.
 
 PART III.] THE EMOTIONS. 299 
 
 epileptic and hysterical fit often rises here, as well as 
 many minor nerve-storms, passing up to the left side of the 
 chest to the throat, and there stopping, or else continuing 
 its course to the head. When a tiush starts in the chest it 
 sometimes involves the left side only. In only one case, 
 and that exceptional in many particulars, have I known it 
 to involve the right side only. 
 
 We have seen that the emotions are intimately bound 
 up with the intellect, being provoked rather by thought than 
 by peripheral irritation, and that we may therefore, with 
 Spencer, regard them as being " centrally initiated." They 
 may, nevertheless, undoubtedly be excited by peripheral irri- 
 tation ; for since peripheral irritation may set up a definite 
 train of thought (as when impressions are made upon 
 the special sense-organs) any emotions following on the 
 thought thus raised are in a sense peripherally initiated, in 
 spite of the intervention of an intellectual process between 
 the peripheral irritation and the emotion. In some cases, 
 however, there is no such intervention. No doubt, very 
 highly evolved emotions — as, for instance, those called 
 forth by a stirring poem — are always secondary to thought ; 
 but it is not necessarily so with the more simple and 
 coarser emotions, and especially not with those which are 
 largely constituted of bodily feeling, such as brute anger 
 and fear. These may occur independently of any previous 
 intellectual process. Thus, bodily pain may excite an out- 
 burst of anger, and a joyful or a gloomy mood come over us 
 without our knowing the reason why. At puberty, moreover, 
 vague and obscure emotions come into being, which are 
 certainly antecedent to any intellectual processes, for the 
 individual may be quite ignorant of their meaning. They 
 are in some degree due to peripheral impressions ascending 
 from the organs of generation, but also (and we must not, as 
 Maudsley appears to do, neglect this fact) to a contempo- 
 raneous central development. The whole sensory genera- 
 tive system undergoes development at this period. To use 
 our former figure, not only is an extended keyboard (an 
 increased peripheral expanse) added to the system, but an
 
 300 THE EMOTIONS, [part hi. 
 
 additional series of strings (development of sensorial ganglia) 
 as well ; wherefore a fresh series of chords may now be 
 struck, and a fuller harmony obtained. 
 
 That despondency may arise primarily — i.e., without any 
 previous intellectual process— is well known to the physician. 
 The woman whose nervous system is weak is very apt to 
 suffer from low spirits, and she will then burst out into fits 
 of crying without any obvious cause ; when thus de- 
 bilitated she is also very irritable and prone to violent 
 outbreaks of anger. This same irritabihty — this proneness 
 to anger — is sometimes amusingly shown in gout, when the 
 patient will, as it were, be on the look-out for some object 
 on which to vent his wrath, much as a hungry man seeks 
 by eating to appease his appetite. Doubtless in many cases 
 the paroxysm of rage is excited by a thought, but cer- 
 tainly not invariably. 
 
 I do not purpose to treat in any detail of the influence 
 upon the emotions of the general visceral disorders : I shall 
 merely touch very briefly upon those exerted by the 
 generative organs and the digestive system. 
 
 Conditions of the generative organs are certainly most 
 potent in this respect, and of these none more so than 
 menstrual irregularity. Provided menstruation be regular, 
 a person may suffer from ovarian cyst, uterine fibroid, or 
 any of the graver disorders of the sexual system, without 
 any emotional disturbance whatever ; on the other hand, 
 the slightest menstrual disturbance is apt to be accompanied 
 by disordered emotion, and serious disturbance almost always 
 is. In these cases it is, however, difficult to determine 
 whether emotional alteration is solely due to irregularities 
 in the flux, or whether such irregularities, and the attendant 
 emotional state, are not both the results of an abnormal 
 state of the nervous system. That mere irregularity in the 
 flux itself plays some part in the production of the 
 emotional and other symptoms accompanying it, I have no 
 doubt, the effects being probably due to disordered vaso- 
 motor action. 
 
 As regards the influence of the digestive organs upon the
 
 PART III.] THE EMOTIONS. 301 
 
 emotions v/e may instance the various forms of dyspepsia. 
 The forms of dyspepsia, but especially those which are 
 attended by flatulence, or which involve the liver, have been 
 known from ancient times to be frequently accompanied by 
 mental depression. " Why is it," forcibly asks E. W. Burnet,' 
 '• that patients with flatulent distension of the colon are 
 utterly dejected, while one with lumbago is howling every 
 time he moves, and then laughing with himself for crying 
 out ? " The explanation probably lies in the fact that the 
 visceral sensations enter more largely into the emotion of 
 gloom than the sensations belonging to muscles and 
 ligaments ; it is, however, not unlikely that some of the 
 emotional effect in these cases is due to the circulation of 
 vitiated blood in the sensorium. 
 
 Disease is essentially a process of dissolution, and in 
 this dissolution" characters belonging to a past ancestral 
 age are frequently revealed, the individual in fact reverting. 
 The emotions which occur as symptoms of disease are 
 therefore, as we should expect, for the most part of a 
 primitive kind. Thus we frequently And emotions like 
 fear and anger, which we have in common with the brutes, 
 accompanying the slighter disorders of the nervous system. 
 In this connection one calls to mind the condition of a 
 hungry man jaded with a hard day's work ; until refreshed 
 by food and drink he is apt to be irritable, to break out 
 wrathfully, and this irritability is no doubt related to 
 the savageness of the hungry animal, a condition of mind 
 often necessary to the successful struggle for food. The 
 more complex emotions of vanity and love of power belong 
 to a higher phase of evolution ; but even they are com- 
 paratively rudimentary, neither being possessed in a high 
 degree by the flnest intellects ; albeit, the thirst for fame 
 has been described as " the last infirmity of noble minds," 
 Like all the cruder emotions, they are essentially egoistic, 
 they have no relation to the happiness or well-being of 
 
 ^ Lancet, vol. ii. 1880, p. 931. 
 
 2 " Causation of Disease," chap. xii. part i.
 
 302 THE EMOTIONS. [part hi. 
 
 others. Now, a predominance of egoism is a marked 
 characteristic of that era in evohition when the social 
 organism was primitive, when men but faintly recog- 
 nised their moral obligations, and when therefore selfish 
 emotions were all-powerful. The man of inferior intel- 
 lectual power is incapable of being modest, for modesty 
 assumes a capacity for abstraction of no mean order, 
 the capacity to adequately gauge one's own littleness ; 
 and thus we find the highest intellect going hand in hand 
 with the deepest humility. That love of power is a 
 very primitive emotion is shown by the fact that it is most 
 pronounced in savage man. Boys also have an instinc- 
 tive tendency to bully at school, the access of joy they 
 experience in overcoming one weaker than themselves 
 being the love of power in its rudimentary form ; it is 
 only as individual evolution proceeds that the tendency 
 distinctly atrophies. Since, then, vanity and the cruder 
 emotions arising out of the sense of power are clearly com- 
 paratively primitive emotions, we may expect to see them — 
 by a process of reversion — manifested in diseases of the 
 nervous system. The former is, as we know, ludicrously 
 developed in general paralysis of the insane, and is frequently 
 met with in other forms of insanity ; it is also probably a 
 common accompaniment of hysteria. 
 
 These considerations lead to the conclusion that all the 
 characteristic emotions of disease are essentially egoistic, and 
 the conclusion is borne out by fact. The egoism of the 
 hypochondriac is, as we have already noticed, proverbial ; 
 on his mental stage the patient himself plays the leading 
 part. In insanity the non- egoistic or altruistic emotions 
 may be observed to disappear in the inverse order of 
 their evolution, leaving the wretched victim absorbed in self, 
 a stranger to all those finer emotions which bind man to 
 man. 
 
 The mental dissolution observable in disorders of the 
 nervous system may not only manifest itself by the exaggera- 
 tion of some particular emotion or emotions, but also by a 
 general exaltation of the emotional being, for in primitive
 
 PART III.] THE EMOTIONS. 303 
 
 man, as in the child, the emotional side of mind is strong. 
 As evolution proceeds, the emotions come more under 
 control. In our own country a marked change in this 
 respect has taken place even within recent years ; the 
 literature of the last century, and of the early portion of the 
 present, represents men and women as giving way to 
 passionate feeling much more readily than they do now. 
 Similarly, the influence of rhetoric in exciting emotion is 
 less than formerly. It was remarked, when the Parnell 
 Commission was sitting, that the audience of Sir Charles 
 Kussell was far less impressionable than that of Burke and 
 Sheridan in an earlier great State trial. Self-control has 
 come to be regarded as a sine qicd non of good breeding. 
 
 The emotional capacity varies in different individuals ; 
 not only are women as a class more emotional than men, 
 but the various races of man differ widely in this respect, 
 and there are, moreover, individual differences irrespective of 
 either sex or race. Some there are ever ready to be stirred 
 into emotion, while others are habitually stolid and unimpres- 
 sionable. Further, the same individual differs from time 
 to time. Most people are liable to occasional irritability of 
 temper, and he is indeed fortunate who is always in good 
 spirits. This variability in emotionality is most marked in 
 the child ; his moods vary from moment to moment, tears 
 and laughter rapidly alternating ; in the adult they are 
 more stable, but in nervousness they tend to become un- 
 stable, the individual reverting to the condition obtaining not 
 only in his own childhood, but in the childhood of his race. 
 
 That the emotional side of our being depends primarily 
 upon inherited constitution there can be no doubt, but 
 much also depends upon education. The native Irishman 
 is far more emotional than the Irishman born and bred 
 in this country. The like is true of the French. A French 
 lady who had married an English officer became so reserved 
 in manner that whenever she travelled in France she was 
 taken for an Englishwoman.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE FEELINGS ON THE THOUGHTS- 
 PLEASURABLE AND PAINFUL FEELINGS. 
 
 It is here advisable to consider briefly the influence of 
 the feelings on the thoughts. Simple sensations do not 
 exert a marked effect on the current of thought ; if painful, 
 and especially if acutely painful, or of long duration, they 
 tend to interrupt a steady train of reasoning, but in a 
 healthy individual they have little influence in this respect. 
 "With the nervous, and notably with the hypochondriacal, 
 however, any simple sensation is wont to attract, and even 
 absorb, the attention. 
 
 The emotions influence thought much more powerfully. 
 Secondary to thought, for the most part, in origin, an 
 emotion, no matter what its source, has a tendency to 
 excite a chain of thought in harmony with itself ; in sorrow 
 the thoughts run in mournful grooves: in joy they turn 
 upon pleasant topics. It is, indeed, very diflicult, while 
 under strong emotion, to direct the thoughts from the object 
 exciting it, and, be it noted, an outburst of emotion differs 
 from a sensation in that it persists some time after the 
 exciting cause has been removed. The prick of a pin 
 causes only momentary pain, but the anger which that same 
 prick may provoke continues after the pain has subsided. 
 Not only have the emotions, therefore, a stronger influence 
 over the thoughts than the simple sensations, but their in- 
 fluence is of longer duration.
 
 PART III.] FEELINGS— PLEASURE AND PAIN. 305 
 
 Inasmuch as a train of thought calls forth its appro- 
 priate emotions, and an emotion excites its appropriate train 
 of thought, it follows that an emotion and the thought con- 
 sequent on it tend each to perpetuate the other — a fact of 
 some therapeutical importance. 
 
 Feelings, whetlier they consist of simple sensations or of 
 emotions, observe in their development a regular sequence of 
 rise, culmination, and decline. After an outburst of emotion 
 or a paroxysm of pain the nervous centres underlying these 
 feelings are for a time incapacitated from taking on the 
 physical state necessary to a repetition of the manifestation. 
 Such temporary incapacity is observed after all violent 
 nervous actions, after all the so-called nerve-storms. In 
 neuralgia it may last a few minutes only, in megrim several 
 weeks. " After a storm comes a calm " ; and just as the 
 lightning destroys the conditions that gave it birth, so like- 
 wise does the explosion of nerve-centres destroy the 
 conditions necessary to such explosion. There follows a 
 period of rest, during which the centres recoup themselves 
 for a subsequent explosion ; and inasmuch as the period 
 necessary to this tends in each case to be the same, the 
 explosion often recurs rhythmically. 
 
 Hitherto we have divided the feelings into the simple sen- 
 sations and the emotions. They may also be divided into the 
 pleasurable and the painful, for though some no doubt are 
 negative in character — i.e., neither the one nor the other ; 
 we may set these aside as unimportant. Pleasure and pain 
 are the two great springs of conscious action, the one 
 prompting to the performance, the other to the avoidance, 
 of those acts which produce it. Individuals vary greatly in 
 their capacities for either ; some are undoubtedly much 
 more susceptible to pain than others, and probably such 
 are also much more responsive to pleasurable excitement. 
 Certain primitive peoples, for instance, mutilate themselves 
 without apparent suffering, but in such cases the body is 
 no doubt rendered temporarily insentient by the inlluence 
 of the mind. This varying capacity for pleasure and pain 
 subserves, as we shall see in the next chapter, an important 
 
 u
 
 3o6 SUSCEPTIBILITY TO PAIN. [part hi. 
 
 physiological purpose. I have not been able to determine 
 whether men or women are the more susceptible to pain, 
 but probably the latter. And yet women would appear to 
 bear pain better than men, " We all know," writes Sir 
 Edward Sieveking, " the fortitude exhibited by those who, 
 though more fragile in form and constitution, appear, in 
 times demanding a moral effort, to bear pain better than the 
 sons of Adam ; and yet these sons, using their prerogative of 
 power, have made it a by- word to bear pain like a woman. 
 It would almost seem as if she were trained, by the many 
 minor aches she is subject to, to the endurance of great 
 suffering ; they certainly contribute not a little towards 
 rendering her the sympathising comforter, whose very look 
 is a healing balm in the dark day of weariness and pain." * 
 Here let me observe how important it is to distinguish 
 between susceptibility to pain and the power to bear it, and 
 that since we cannot in any given instance measure the 
 intensity of a pain, we can seldom, or never, rightly speak 
 of one person bearing pain better than another. An 
 operation which may cause very slight pain to one, may in 
 another give rise to excruciating agony ." 
 
 ^ Medical Times and Gazette, 1854, p. 157. 
 
 ^ "A wolf or a fox," writes Mr. Eomanes, "will sustain the severest 
 kinds of physical suffering without giving utterance to a sound, while a 
 dog will scream when any one accidentally treads upon its toes. This 
 contrast is strikingly analogous to that which obtains between savage and 
 civilised man ; the North American Indian, and even the Hindoo, will 
 endure without a moan an amount of physical pain — or, at least, bodily 
 injury — which would produce vehement expressions of suffering from a 
 European. And doubtless the explanation is in both cases the same — 
 namely, that refinement of life engenders refinement of nervous organisa- 
 tion, which renders nervous lesions more intolerable" ("Animal Intelli- 
 gence," p. 486). Mr. C. Lloyd Morgan, however, points out, in reference 
 to this passage, that the " American Indian and the Hindoo have a stoic 
 ideal, which does not influence the average European. On the other hand, 
 the dog, from his association with man, has learnt more and more to give 
 expression to his feelings in barks, whines, and yelpings. To howl at 
 every little pain would do a wolf no good, but rather advertise him to his 
 enemies " (" Animal Life and Intelligence," p. 402). None can doubt that 
 there is much force in these arguments. Nevertheless, it is equally certain 
 that individuals differ vastly in their sensitiveness to pain. I have heard a
 
 PART III.] INTERPRETATION OF PAIN. 307 
 
 Our chief duty as physicians is to interpret pain, in 
 whatsoever shape, whether it be mere discomfort, or acute 
 agony, of the body, or some painful feehng of the mind,^ 
 the latter usually far the more agonising of the two — 
 "sharper than a serpent's tooth." "Every pain," says 
 Hilton," " has its distinct and pregnant signification, if we 
 will but carefully search for it." Sometimes the search is 
 a most difficu.lt one, for a pain in one part may indicate 
 disease in quite another, and, moreover, very many pains 
 even to this day have not been correctly interpreted, e.g., 
 the infra-mammary pain. Space, however, will not permit 
 of an adequate consideration of it here, and I must therefore 
 refer the reader to other works, notably to Hilton's " Eest 
 and Pain," and to an excellent article by Dr. Eoss in the 
 tenth number of Brain. 
 
 Much of human unhappiness is due to a discordant 
 mental environment, and it is the moral rather than the 
 medical adviser who must deal with it ; still, the duty of 
 the pliysician often trenches upon that of the divine. The 
 goal of each is the production of happiness ; each there- 
 fore ultimately has to do with mind. To us falls pri- 
 marily the duty of keeping the body healthy, and the 
 feelings connected with it pleasurable, but we have also to 
 influence the mind of our patient in other ways ; besides 
 attacking it indirectly through the body, we must attack it 
 directly by communion of mind with mind, by moral suasion. 
 Although no examination is held in this branch of thera- 
 peutics and no gold medal conferred, it is nevertheless one 
 of the most important, and certainly one of the most 
 
 man declare that he enjoyed having his teeth stopped ; and most people 
 must know how much less sensitive to pain is the navvy than those 
 engaged in indoor occupations. In regard to the capacity of the Fakir 
 to endure violent pain, I venture to suggest that it would be more accurate 
 to speak of his capacity to render his body insentient. It is not that he 
 bears the pain with fortitude, but rather that by an effort of will he 
 annuls the sensibility of his centres. 
 
 1 " Human happiness," observes Bain, " must ever be the point of con- 
 vergence of all the sciences." 
 
 - "Rest and Pain."
 
 .^o8 SYMPATHY IN THERAPEUTICS. [part hi. 
 
 difficult, branches of curative medicine. And for this 
 reason in order to be a good physician it is above all neces- 
 sary to be in sympathy with the patient. Nothing will so 
 surely lead to a wise treatment as sympathy, and especially 
 is this needed in the various functional disorders of the 
 nervous system. The notion that the patient has nothing 
 the matter with him is fatal to all interest in the case, 
 and consequently to the proper understanding of it ; for 
 these insidious forms of disease demand that close and 
 sympathetic attention which only real interest will excite. 
 Let me not be misunderstood. I do not mean that the 
 physician should take upon himself all the burden of his 
 patient's miseries — such a course would defeat its own ends 
 — but simply that he should recognise in him a human 
 being like himself, and actually suffering ; not regard him as 
 a more or less troublesome ' case.' Nor do I wish to 
 advocate a maudlin sympathy : that will only make the 
 hysteric patient ten times worse, and it certainly will not 
 better the condition of the less depraved class of neurotics. 
 Among poor, hard-working married women, to many of 
 whom life is one long struggle, hysteria is, in my ex- 
 perience, a rare disorder, but most of them — practically 
 all of them — suffer at some time or another from serious 
 nervousness. At such times a kind word, even a kind tone 
 of voice, is sometimes sufficient to cause an outburst of 
 tears, a result obviously most undesirable, for besides the 
 physical exhaustion that may follow, there is also the 
 danger of injury to the self-respect of the patient whose 
 control has momentarily given way before a stranger ; and 
 thus the physician, while letting his real interest in the 
 case be felt, has to exercise a wise discretion in his ex- 
 pression of it.
 
 CHArTEK V. 
 
 THE FEELINGS CONSIDERED AS ACTIVE FORCES— THE 
 PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 In the last chapters we dealt with the genesis of the feel- 
 ings. These we divided into simple sensations, and into 
 sensations compounded into emotions. We saw, moreover, 
 that sensations enter largely into intellectual processes, even 
 the most abstract conceptions being really compounded of 
 them, though the quantity of feeling contained in these is 
 so small as to escape attention. 
 
 In this and the following chapters we shall consider the 
 feelings as active forces ; in their capacity, namely, to effect 
 change in different parts of the body — in the muscles, glands, 
 and other structures. The primary and essential purpose of 
 every mental operation is some action upon the body ; or, 
 as Goethe has it, " the end of all thought is action,^' mind 
 having evolved for the purpose of placing the animal 
 organism in harmony with its environment, of enabling it to 
 shape its external course in accordance with ever- changing 
 and increasingly complex surroundings. 
 
 In considering the different modes in which mind affects 
 body, it is necessary to have clear notions as to what 
 constitutes the physical basis, or ' anatomical substratum ' 
 of mind. We have to ask, In what part of the body do 
 those changes occur which are the physical accompaniments 
 of mind ? Evidence from many sides converges to the 
 conclusion that, with every series of mental states, there
 
 310 PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF MIND, [part hi. 
 
 rims a parallel physical series. Now tlie question has 
 naturally been asked, Is either series the cause of the other ? 
 Does the mental series cause the physical series, as spiritual- 
 ism assumes, or the physical the mental, as the materialist 
 asserts ? To which the reply is — neither. Our only safe 
 course is to regard the two series as two different sides of 
 the same thing (the monistic hypothesis), and therefore, 
 it will be obviously incorrect to speak of the influence of the 
 mind upon the body, for this would imply that the non- 
 material acts upon the material. We must rather speak of 
 the influence of the physical correlations of mind upon the 
 body.^ Accommodating our nomenclature, then, to this view, 
 where do these physical correlatives occur, and how are 
 they able to affect the body ? It is quite clear that ' the 
 anatomical substratum of mind ' is placed in very direct 
 and definite connections with various parts of the body, 
 since many regions are affected, and in manifold definite 
 ways, during different mental states. Thus the muscles are 
 
 ^ The monistic hypothesis, as above stated, assumes that the physical 
 correlation of consciousness (the neuroses of Huxley) and the conscious 
 manifestations themselves (psychoses) are different aspects of the same 
 thing, like the convex and concave sides of a curved surface. If such is the 
 case, it would appear to follow that inanimate matter is endowed with con- 
 sciousness, a supposition that is derided by the opponents of the monistic 
 theory, and indeed the notion that the food we eat is conscious and supplies 
 the psychical ingredients of each ego is sufficiently startling. But, as 
 pointed out by C. Lloyd Morgan in his masterly chapter on mental evolution 
 (" Animal Life and Intelligence," p. 464), the monistic theory does not 
 imply the existence of consciousness — as we understand the word — in con- 
 nection with inanimate nature. This lucid thinker assumes a noumenon — 
 i.e., a something behind all phenomena. Phenomena are manifestations of 
 this noumenon and are of two orders, the kinetic and the metaJdnetic. 
 Kinesis is a manifestation of physical energy, metaldnesis a mental manifes- 
 tation. The one never occurs without the other : every kinetic change is 
 accompanied by a metakinetic change. Parallel with the evolution of 
 neural kinesis (in animal organisms) there has been an evolution of 
 metakinesis, but it is only when a certain stage of evolution has been 
 reached that metakinesis attains to the dignity of consciousness as we 
 understand it. Nevertheless, the metakinesis of inanimate matter is 
 essentially of the same nature as the metakinesis of a Shakespeare's brain. 
 Morgan sums up his view as follows: — He assumes "first, that there is a 
 noumenal system of ' things in themselves ' of which all phenomena,
 
 PART III.] PHYSICAL SUBkSTRATUM OF MIND. 311 
 
 definitely influenced by the ivill, the viscera and blood-vessels 
 by the emotions ; and it is well known that any one part 
 of the body may be distinctly affected by concentrating the 
 attention — by fixing the mental eye, so to say, upon it. 
 
 Hitherto the best answer to this question has been given 
 by Hughlings Jackson. It is consonant with the principles 
 laid down by our great philosopher, Herbert Spencer, and it 
 enables us to explain satisfactorily the mode in which mind 
 (or, as we must say, its physical correlative) is able to act 
 upon the body. 
 
 Hughlings Jackson regards the nervous system as made 
 up of different levels. Each level consists of sensory and 
 motor centres — i.e., of centres which receive impulses from 
 below, and centres which transmit impulses down towards 
 the perij)hery ; thus the nervous system consists of a series 
 of sensori-motor arcs. The lowest arcs consist of the 
 lowest centres and of the ordinary afferent and efferent 
 nerves ; the next higher arcs, of the next higher centres and 
 of fibres passing up to them from the lowest centres, and down 
 again to the same ; and so on to the highest arcs. Thus each 
 of the higher levels is evolved out of the one next below it, 
 and is capable of producing all the changes in the lower 
 level, plus something more. It is the lower level ' raised to 
 a higher power ' ; so that stimulation of each higher level 
 produces increasingly complex results. 
 
 Now the lowest level of all is directly evolved out of the 
 non-nervous tissues or ' parts of the body.' The sensory 
 nerve-ending, the sensory (or afferent) nerve-fibre, the cell 
 or cells directly connected therewith in the cord, the motor, 
 (or efferent) nerve-fil)re, the motor end-plate, and the muscle 
 
 whether kinetic or metakinetic, are manifestations. Secondly, that when- 
 ever in the curve of noumenal sequences kinetic manifestations (convexities) 
 appear, there appear also concomitant metakinetic manifestations (con- 
 cavities). Thirdly, that when kinetic manifestations assume the integrated 
 and co-ordinated complexity of the nerve-processes in certain ganglia of 
 the human brain, the metakinetic manifestations assume the integrated and 
 co-ordinated complexity of human consciousness. Fourthly, that what is 
 called ' mental evolution ' is the metakinetic aspect of what is called brain 
 or inter-neural evolution " {Ihid. p. 470).
 
 312 PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF MIND, [part hi. 
 
 fibre constitute one continuous strand of proto2Jlasm. It is now 
 known that every active cell in the body (= all the body cells 
 except those of the semi-vitalised connective tissues) receives 
 a nerve-twig. Hence a complex organism may from one 
 point of view be regarded as a highly complicated nervous 
 system, at the efferent periphery of which are attached so 
 many non-nervous cells, the protoplasm of which, however, 
 is directly continuous with the nervous tissue. The sensory, 
 or afferent nerves are, moreover, abundantly distributed 
 throughout the body, and place the non-nervous parts of 
 the body in afferent connection with the lowest level of 
 centres. Wherefore it is evident that the lowest level of 
 nerve-centres is in very direct connection with the parts 
 of the body, and capable of effecting profound changes 
 therein. In the language of Hughlings Jackson, this lowest 
 level ' represents ' indirectly (though most nearly directly) 
 the parts of the body; and each higher level, having 
 evolved out of the level next below, represents those parts 
 with increasing indirectness, the highest level of all re- 
 presenting them most indirectly ; from which it is further 
 evident that this highest level also is (ultimately) evolved 
 out of the parts of the body, and in direct protoplasmic 
 connection therewith. 
 
 It is this highest level of sensory and motor centres ivhich 
 constitutes the material suhstratum of mind ; and therefore it 
 is manifest that those nervous agitations which are the 
 physical correlatives of mentation are capable of affecting in 
 many and diverse ways all tlie parts of the body. Thus we 
 are able, in a manner, to explain ' how mind acts upon body.' 
 
 Be it observed that the terms ' sensory ' and ' motor ' 
 here signify afferent and efferent. The physical changes 
 which underlie mentation are not, according to Hughlings 
 Jackson, confined to the highest sensory (afferent) centres 
 alone, as the writings of modern experimental physiologists 
 would seem to imply, but occur in the highest motor 
 (efferent) centres also, and this contention of Jackson is 
 certainly justified a jpriori. With which observation I dis- 
 miss the subject.
 
 PART in.] PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF MIND. 313 
 
 It is probable that during ordinary calm and easy 
 mentation the nervous agitation is confined to the highest 
 sensori-motor level ; but that with intenser mentation (as in 
 strong emotion, or in an act of will, or while ' thinking 
 aloud,') there is a correspondingly intenser agitation of this 
 level, and a consequent overllow of nerve-force from it, or 
 rather from the highest motor ganglia of it, into the motor 
 ganglia of the lower levels and thence to the periphery ; in 
 which case the mentation is accompanied by distinct bodily 
 manifestations. Thus, if we accept Jackson's hypothesis, it 
 is clear that we have at our disposal a means by which we 
 may localise the anatomical substratum of mind, or, to put 
 it more accurately, by which we may indicate the nervous 
 arrangements implicated in the different kinds of mentation. 
 We have merely to observe the physical accompaniments of 
 each form of mentation, and the physical correlatives of each 
 form must involve those nervous arrangements of the highest 
 levels which represent the parts of the body involved in the 
 manifestation. Instance an emotion — say, the emotion of 
 anger. We observe the cast of the features, the attitude of 
 the body, the visceral and vascular changes (both of which 
 are profound), and we conclude that the physical correlatives 
 of that emotion involve nervous arrangements in the highest 
 level representing the blood-vessels, viscera, and certain 
 muscles. In calm and equable emotion, when the nervous 
 agitation is practically confined to the higliest level, no 
 bodily manifestations occur. 
 
 In a similar manner we may indicate the nervous arrange- 
 ments involved in reasoning. Whatever be the truth in 
 regard to the simplest forms,^ there can be no doubt that a 
 
 ^ That the simple forms of reasoning may be carried on without the use 
 of words is proved by the fact that dumb animals are capable of them, but, 
 unlike certain well-known writers, I have no doubt that even complex 
 reasoning may be independent of language. Certainly an individual can 
 frequently see his way to a conclusion without formulating in language, 
 spoken or unspoken, the several links of the reasoning. It may, however, 
 be argaed that he could do not do this without having first learnt 
 language, and that the use of words is unconsciously involved in the 
 process.
 
 314 PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF MIND, [part iii. 
 
 continuous and complex train of reasoning is impossible 
 without the use of words. What, then, are the nervous 
 arrangements involved in the purely intellectual i^rocess of 
 reasoning, or in any form of complex thought ? They are 
 those which represent the parts involved in language — 
 those nervous arrangements of the highest level, sufficiently 
 strong agitation of which leads to the thinking or speaking 
 of the words expressive of the thought. Some people 
 habitually speak their tlioughts aloud, and almost every one 
 must have observed the tendency to the half-suppressed 
 action of the articulatory muscles during thought, especially 
 during concentrated thought. In such cases there is an over- 
 flow from the nervous arrangements in tlie higher levels 
 which does not occur in calm and easy mentation. 
 
 A fact strongly supporting Jackson's hypothesis is the 
 tendency of an idea to act itself out. I wish to lay parti- 
 cular stress upon this point, because it enables us to give 
 a rational explanation of the action of the will and of the 
 nervous arrangements implicated therein. The tendency 
 alluded to is shown in many ways. Thus an individual 
 looking over a cliff frequently has the act of precipitation 
 so forcibly suggested to him, that self-restraint is necessary 
 to prevent him from throwing himself over ; and if he be 
 weak-willed he may be powerless to resist the impulse. 
 Similarly, in watching the approach of a train, the idea of 
 crossing the line when it is close at hand is apt to occur to 
 the mind, and may prompt the act. Instances like these 
 show that the idea of the act is the act ijotentially ; in 
 other words, that the idea involves those nervous arrange- 
 ments of the highest level which would be engaged in 
 the realisation of the idea. " The tendency of the idea 
 to become the action shows that the idea is alreadv the 
 fact in a weaker form. But if so, it must be perform- 
 ing the same nervous rounds, or occupying the same circles 
 of the brain, in both states." ' When the idea is not realised, 
 the nervous agitation is comparatively weak and practically 
 confined to the highest level ; but when the idea is trans- 
 ^ "Mental and Moral Science," A. Bain, p. 90.
 
 PART III.] PHYSICAL SUBSTRATUM OF MIND. 315 
 
 lated into the act, the agitation is sufficiently intense to 
 communicate vibrations along the efferent strands to the 
 subordinate motor centres, and so on to the muscles engaged 
 in the performance of the act. 
 
 One further fact may be given in support of the view 
 that the nervous structures constituting the physical basis 
 of mind represent the entire body. It is well known that 
 if a person direct his attention to a certain part of the 
 body, he not only feels a sensation in that part, but (if the 
 attention be svifficiently concentrated and enduring) ex- 
 periences an actual change in it ; from which it would seem 
 that the act of attention involves an agitation of those 
 nervous arrangements in the liighest level which constitute 
 the anatomical substratum of the sensation, and that im- 
 pulses stream down from the agitated area to the part 
 wherein the sensation is felt — that, in fact, the agitation of 
 these centres (or nervous arrangements) constitutes the 
 physical side of the act of attention, the act of attention on 
 this supposition leading to first a sensation, and then to a 
 dynamic change, in the part to which it is directed. 
 
 So much for the physical sul^stratum of consciousness. 
 The chief conclusion I have sought to press home is this : 
 Every mental cliange tends to be accompanied by some 
 change at the periphery, the physical series in the highest 
 level which underlie the mental series constituting so many 
 potential changes at the efferent periphery, or ' parts of the 
 body.'
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE FEELINGS AS ACTIVE FORCES (continued)— SIMFL^ 
 MENTO-MOTOR ACTIONS. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that the nervous system, even in 
 the most complex organisms, develops from the outer layer 
 of the ovum, and thus we have, in the initial stage of 
 development, an indication of the original function of that 
 system — viz., the placing and maintaining of the organism 
 in correspondence with its ever-changing environment. 
 
 In order to render this correspondence as perfect as 
 possible, certain areas of sensitive nervous tissue become 
 differentiated in the outer part of the organism, these areas 
 being able, by reason of their extreme delicacy of structure, 
 to respond more readily to changes in the environment than 
 the undifferentiated portions, and thus the degree of corre- 
 spondence is extended. 
 
 The nervous system has, of course, other functions. It 
 has, in all complex organisms, to co-ordinate the activities 
 of the several bodily parts, so that they shall act together 
 in proper harmony ; nevertheless its chief, and indirectly its 
 sole, function (since all the operations of the body ultimately 
 work towards this one end), is to enable the organism to 
 adapt itself to its environment. 
 
 Briefly, the nervous system performs this important function 
 somewhat as follows : Impressions are made upon the sensory 
 periphery by external agents, whereupon nervous impulses
 
 PART III.] CLASSIFICATION OF NERVOUS ACTIONS. 317 
 
 stream up to certain centres, and are reflected down again in 
 such wise that the organism is adapted to the external 
 conditions making the impressions. In some cases a mental 
 change intervenes between the impression and the accommo- 
 dation to it ; in others there is no such intervention, but in 
 either case the process belongs to the same type ; and, 
 indeed, the most complex mental process is traceable to such 
 simple, unconscious reflex action. If we remember that the 
 material substratum of mind is but the highest development 
 of the nervous system, and if we keep before us the facts that 
 the general mode by which the nervous system responds to 
 changes in the environment is by reflex action, and that the 
 nervous system is built up on the reflex type, we are led to 
 the conclusion that those physical changes which underlie 
 conscious action belong to the same type also. It would be 
 very strange, as Jackson has urged, if the reflex type were 
 departed from in those physical processes which underlie 
 mentation ; that is, if it were followed up to a certain point, 
 and then abruptly relinquished just as the highest develop- 
 ment is attained. 
 
 Sometimes those nervous impulses which stream down 
 from the brain as the result of mentation, and effect a change 
 at the periphery, cannot be directly traced to up-going 
 impulses started at the periphery by external agents ; in 
 which case there is no complete reflex arc. In making the 
 following classification, however, I shall assume that the 
 efferent impulses always follow upon impulses ascending 
 from the periphery : — 
 
 Classification of the different kinds of nervous action hy which 
 the non-nervous 2^arts of the hody {nmscles, glands, cue.) 
 are influenced. 
 
 o«v„IM- Simple reflex action. 
 scions j ^ 
 
 (a. Sensori-motor action. 
 
 2. Simple mento-motor action. K ?>. Emotional action. 
 
 Conscious, ^'- Simple ideo-motor 
 
 action. 
 ,3. Compound mento-motor, or Voluntary Action. 
 
 s. S.2 
 
 > < 
 a
 
 3i8 SIMPLE REFLEX ACTION. [part hi. 
 
 1. Simple reflex action. In this type of action a force 
 acts upon an afferent nerve-ending, and, as a result, mole- 
 cular vibrations pass up the nerve and strike upon a nerve- 
 centre in the loivest level. This centre is agitated, and 
 from it vibrations are at once sent down appropriate efferent 
 nerves to the cells in which they terminate, causing therein 
 some trophic change which manifests itself in muscular 
 action, modification of secretion, or otherwise. 
 
 In the other two kinds of action a mental state inter- 
 venes between the afferent and efferent impulses. 
 
 2. Simple mento-motor action. The mental state inter- 
 vening between the afferent and efferent impulses may con- 
 sist of a sensation, an emotion, or an idea. These several 
 mental states, or rather their physical correlatives, may cause 
 definite changes at the periphery, so that we get — a, sensori- 
 motor action ; h, emotional action ; c, simple ideo-motor 
 action. These states may conveniently be termed ' mento- 
 motor states,' constituting as they do the immediate precursors 
 of all consciously performed acts. They do not constitute 
 ' motives ' to action in the ordinary sense of the term. I 
 shall endeavour to show, as we proceed, how a so-called 
 motive to action differs from a mento-motor state, the three 
 varieties of which we must now consider separately. 
 
 a. Sensori-motor action, or action prompted by a simple 
 sensation. In this a simple sensation intervenes between 
 the afferent and efferent impulses, the result being quite as 
 automatic as in simple reflex action. Thus, as the con- 
 sequence of some irritation of the skin, efferent impulses 
 may be sent down from the highest centres, causing the 
 fingers to scratch the part. Such an act is purely sensori- 
 motor. There may, of course, be a distinct idea of the act, 
 in which case it would be, not sensori-motor, but ideo- 
 motor ; but it certainly may be performed without any 
 such initial idea ; and similarly, if the sensation be com- 
 plicated by an emotion, e.g.^ anger. 
 
 Many cases of purely sensori-motor action should perhaps 
 be regarded as simple reflex actions accidentally complicated 
 by a sensation, the movements not being effected by the
 
 PART III.] SENSOKI-MOTOR ACTION. 319 
 
 highest, but by some lower level, and the agitation under- 
 lying the sensation in the highest level being confined to 
 that level. But in other cases we may more properly 
 regard the sensation (or rather the nervous changes in the 
 highest level underlying it) as the cause of the movement 
 at the periphery. As an example of such simple sensori- 
 motor action the crouching attitude of animals, induced by 
 the feeling of warmth, may be cited. Animals learn by 
 experience to connect this attitude with the feeling, and by 
 constant repetition " an adhesive growth takes place through 
 which the feeling can afterwards command the movement." 
 Similarly, the sensation of relish may be said to largely 
 prompt the movements of mastication. Bain maintains 
 that the association of certain feelings with certain move- 
 ments plays an important part in the growth of the will. 
 The mode in which certain feelings are able to command 
 certain movements he explains by his law of self-conserva- 
 tion, according to which pleasurable feelings tend to hurry 
 on the vital activities, painful feelings to depress them. 
 If, by chance, a particular movement leads to a continuance 
 of a pleasurable feeling — e.g., the crouching attitude to the 
 pleasurable feeling of warmth, or mastication to the sen- 
 sation of relish — that movement, by a hurrying on of the 
 general vital activities, will tend to be perpetuated, so that 
 in course of time the " feeling is able to command the 
 movement." And he argues in like manner in regard to 
 painful sensations. 
 
 But although sensations are undoubtedly able to call up 
 certain movements, which therefore are correctly spoken of 
 as sensori-motor movements, yet many actions which one 
 might at the first glance be inclined to designate sensori- 
 motor, are on reilection seen to be in reality ideo-motor. 
 Hunger, for example, prompts to definite movements, but 
 these movements are not necessarily purely sensori-motor. 
 The hunger of an infant incites to certain sucking movements 
 which may no doubt be regarded as strictly sensori-motor ; 
 and the lifting of a morsel of food to the mouth by a 
 hungry man may be equally so, provided it is done semi-
 
 320 EMOTIONAL ACTION. [part hi. 
 
 consciously — i.e., without any distinct idea of the act rising 
 into consciousness. But hunger also prompts to movements 
 far more complicated than these : it may lead to acts which 
 require careful reflection, to acts involving, it may be, the 
 highest powers of the intellect — to the manifold activities of 
 legitimate bread-winning, to a carefully planned robbery, 
 to rebellion. Though hunger is the prime mover in all 
 these cases, it is clear that each individual movement in the 
 several complicated series of movements to which it incites 
 is far from being purely sensori-motor. The hunger con- 
 stitutes a motive in the sense in which the word is ordinarily 
 used — that is to say, an abiding mental state, which must 
 be carefully distinguished from that series of simple mento- 
 rnotor states which are the immediate mental precursors of 
 each consciously performed act. These statements will be 
 rendered plainer as we proceed. 
 
 b. Emotional action. In this form of action a more or 
 less complicated emotion intervenes between the afferent and 
 efferent impulses. Suppose an individual receives a blow. 
 Impulses pass up from the periphery assailed, and, reaching 
 the highest level, agitate therein certain nervous arrangements 
 in such wise that a sensation of pain is referred to the part 
 struck. This agitation is transmitted to other nervous 
 arrangements in the same level — to those in which take place 
 the physical correlatives of anger or fear, for instance ; and, 
 unlike the mere sensation of pain, the emotion thus induced 
 tends to persist for some time, and to evoke certain ap- 
 propriate movements, causing the individual probably to 
 retaliate upon, or escape from, his assailant. Inasmuch as 
 the emotion may continue after the sensation of pain has 
 subsided, it is obviously the more effective motor-agent of 
 the two. Of course many emotional acts, in common with 
 acts prompted by simple sensations, are largely ideo-motor, 
 a fact which I would emphasise. The individual under 
 emotion may have, in fact, clear and definite ideas of what 
 he is doing ; the emotion constituting a background to a 
 series of ideo-motor acts. But what I want to insist on here 
 is, that movements prompted by strong feeling need not be in
 
 PART III.] EMOTIONAL ACTION. 321 
 
 the slightest degree ideo-motor. This is manifestly true of 
 the vaso-motor and visceral effects of emotion ; but it is also 
 true of the muscular effects. Thus the facial and general 
 bodily expression of a particular emotion is certainly not ideo- 
 motor ; a man's face may become distorted ])y pain, or he 
 may strike out madly in rage, without any distinct idea of 
 how he looks or what he is doing, the actions being almost 
 reflex. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that by an emotional action I mean 
 one that is purely emotional — one in which ideation takes 
 no part ; and the emotion may in this sense be regarded as 
 a simple mento-motor state. 
 
 Here we have an indication of the difference between 
 those mento-motor states which are the immediate pre- 
 cursors of all consciously performed acts, and a ' motive' 
 to action as ordinarily understood. An emotion such as 
 anger or fear may, as we have just seen, constitute a simple 
 mento-motor state, as may also a sensation such as hunger. 
 But a sensation, and still more an emotion, may do more 
 than this. It may constitute an abiding mental state, 
 prompting to a highly complicated series of actions, the 
 latter needing, in so far as they are consciously performed, a 
 corresponding series of mento-motor states. (I say, in so far 
 as they are consciously performed, since many of the details 
 of acts which are in the main consciously performed are, to 
 all intents and purposes, simply reflex ; voluntary at first, 
 they have eventually become automatic through long 
 habit.) Now such an abiding feeling manifestly differs from 
 the individual mento-motor states to which it gives rise : it 
 constitutes a ' motive' or ' impulse ' to action. The strongest 
 impulses or motives are essentially made up of feeling ; but, 
 as we shall see in due course, they may be practically devoid 
 of this element. 
 
 The word ' emotion' implies, be it noted, movement, 
 and points to what is the essential function or purpose of 
 an emotion. Each emotion has its appropriate muscular 
 expression — involves nervous arrangements, agitation of 
 which causes that expression. In rage the muscles receive 
 
 X
 
 322 SIMPLE IDEO-MOTOR ACTION. [part in. 
 
 a prompting to inflict injury upon the object of rage ; in 
 terror, to make the individual start and shrink away from 
 the cause of dread ; and the " expressions" of the emotions 
 are, in fact, " the movements which would be manifested in 
 greater degree if the emotions and desires were realised in 
 action." ^ And further, each emotion has its appropriate 
 visceral and vaso-motor expression : the condition of the 
 glands and vascular system is very different in rage from 
 what it is in fear. 
 
 Hence it is clear that throuoh the influence of the 
 emotions profound bodily clianges may be wrought ; 
 muscles may be convulsed or relaxed, secretions augmented, 
 dried up, or perverted, vessels contracted or dilated. To 
 the physician, therefore, the emotional state of his patient is 
 of the highest importance. So long as a patient is kept in 
 good spirits, so long a beneficial influence streams down from 
 the cortex. " A sound heart is," as Solomon, says, " the 
 life of the flesh." Mental depression, on the other hand, acts 
 banefully upon all the bodily processes, so banefully that 
 an individual may actually compass his own destruction by 
 making up his mind that he is going to die. Now mental 
 depression itself results from unhealthy Ijodily action, so that 
 either tends to provoke and perpetuate the other ; and in this 
 way the vicious circle goes round and round, the patient sink- 
 ing into deeper and deeper gloom, and into a more and more 
 serious bodily state. Hence the great tlierapeutic interest 
 of the emotions. 
 
 c. Simple ideo-motor action. This differs from sensori- 
 motor and emotional action, inasmuch as in it there is a 
 mental representation or idea of the act to be performed. 
 An idea (or, if the act consists of a series of movements, a 
 series of ideas) intervenes between the afferent and efferent 
 impulses, and from the evolutionist's point of view, it there- 
 fore ranks higher than either of the other forms of mento- 
 motor action. 
 
 We must carefully distinguish between the idea of an 
 act as a whole and the idea of each individual portion of 
 ^ Maudsley's " Physiology of Mind," pp. 379, 380.
 
 PART III.] SIMPLE IDEO-MOTOR ACTION. 323 
 
 which that act may consist. By ideo-motor acts I do not 
 mean to imply the whole of such acts, but each such indi- 
 vidual portion. Here I am met with a difficulty which has 
 been constantly before me in the writing of this and the 
 chapters immediately following. How do these portions 
 mutually limit one another — more exactly, how much con- 
 stitutes a separate ideo-motor act ? The nearest answer I 
 can give is : The smallest part that can be separately 
 formulated in idea. As I shall again have occasion to point 
 out, many of the details of voluntary acts are not definitely 
 formulated in idea, and are not therefore ideo-motor, but 
 are rather reflex, sensori-motor, or emotional. Only such as 
 are thus formulated can properly be regarded as ideo-motor. 
 Let us now attempt to explain the rationale of an ideo-motor 
 act. We have seen that attention directed to a part produces 
 dynamic change in that part — a fact we explained on the 
 supposition that the nervous arrangements implicated in the 
 act of attention are such as represent, in the highest centres, 
 the part attended to. It necessarily follows that, by con- 
 centrating the attention upon a muscle, the niuscle may be 
 dynamically affected ; and since the special function of a 
 muscle is to contract, we should naturally expect the 
 dynamic change to express itself as contraction, much as 
 by concentrating our attention on a gland its special func- 
 tion — i.e., secretion — is modified. Hence ideo-motor action 
 is explained. We have only to assume that the idea of a 
 particular movement has as its physical correlative the 
 nervous arrangements in the highest level which are engaged 
 in the movement ; then the idea of the movement will be 
 akin to, or identical with, attention directed to the muscles 
 enoased in the movement. I cannot but think that the 
 phenomena of attention (to the body) help us in explaining 
 the will. Is it not a remarkable fact that, by sim])ly 
 fixing the attention on any one part of the body, distinct 
 dynamic change may be wrought in it ? I accept as a 
 partial explanation of the growth of the will Bain's theory 
 of spontaneity, but I venture to think that this element of 
 attention should not be overlooked.
 
 324 SIMPLE IDEO-MOTOE ACTION. [part hi. 
 
 That there is some truth in these remarks any one may 
 prove for himself by attempting some unwonted movement. 
 He will find that success is most readily achieved by con- 
 centrating his attention upon the muscles involved. Sup- 
 pose a singer has been accustomed to breathe during singing 
 from the upper part of his chest, and wishes to adopt the 
 other and right method of breathing — i.e., from the lower 
 chest (by descent of the diaphragm) — he will find it neces- 
 sary to concentrate his attention upon the lower thoracic 
 and abdominal region. 
 
 As an instance of simple ideo-motor action, we may again 
 take the case of an individual in whom the idea of preci- 
 pitating himself from a height — an idea suggested to the 
 mind by looking down from a great eminence and absolutely 
 unopposed by any antagonistic idea — is . translated into 
 action. In such a case the single, unopposed idea becomes 
 an actuality ; and therefore I have called it ' simple ' as op- 
 posed to ' compound ' ideo-motor action, in which two or 
 more ideas struggle for the mastery. 
 
 Another good instance of simple ideo-motor action is 
 afforded by the movements prompted in a hypnotised indi- 
 vidual by suggestion. The modus oiJcrandi of simple ideo- 
 motor acts is made clear if we remember that the tendency 
 of an idea is to act itself out, for, as we have seen, the 
 physical basis of the idea of an act consists of nervous 
 arrangements, strong agitation of which leads to the j)erform- 
 ance of that act. Thus the ideas suggested by the hypnotiser 
 being, I take it, the sole mento-motor occupants of the 
 mental field, they tend to act themselves out. An indi- 
 vidual who is easily hypnotised informs me that when 
 under suggestion her mind is entirely taken up with the 
 thoughts that are suggested to her, and that she feels her- 
 self impelled to do as she is bidden. We must, then, 
 assume that there is no spontaneity of mental action : the 
 ideas which are aroused through the ear and eye do not 
 call up collateral trains of ideas as in normal wakeful life. 
 The mind (or brain) is in a condition of semi-paralysis, in 
 which it accurately receives the impress of a suggestion, but
 
 PART III.] SIMPLE IDEO-MOTOPt ACTION. 325 
 
 is incapable of anything further ; just as a piece of paper is 
 capable of receiving the impress of the printer's type, but 
 yet is wholly incapable of itself spontaneously setting 
 forth impressions which shall express the associated lines of 
 thought in the author's mind. 
 
 Seusori-motor, emotional, and ideo-motor acts run into one 
 another, so that each may to some extent partake of the cha- 
 racter of the other ; in the first two, however, there is no 
 distinct idea of the course to be pursued; when there is, 
 the movement is essentially ideo-motor. When an individual 
 suddenly and instinctively moves his arm in response to a 
 painful stimulus, the action is purely sensori-motor : when 
 in a fit of anger the muscles of his face are contorted, the 
 movement is purely emotional ; but both these simple 
 mento-motor actions may be complicated by ideo-motor 
 action, as when he resolves and prepares to return blow 
 for blow. They all three, to repeat my remark, run into 
 one another, but it is well to keep clearly before the mind 
 the essential distinction between them. 
 
 These simple mento-motor actions enter very largely 
 into our every-day life, and between them and simple un- 
 conscious reflex actions there are innumerable intermediary 
 phases, the unconscious gradually and imperceptibly rising 
 into the conscious ; and contrariwise. If we consider the 
 ordinary acts of daily routine, we shall find it difficult to 
 determine how far they are simple reflex, and how far 
 simple mento-motor. During the processes of dressing, 
 undressing, eating, drinking, wending one's way through a 
 crowded tlioroughfare, the mind may be pursuing an entirely 
 independent train of thought. Many habitual acts are 
 therefore, like the so-called instinctive acts of the brutes, 
 to all intents and purposes automatic-reflex. 
 
 3. Compound mento-motor (= reflective and deliberative) 
 action. It will be advisable to devote a separate chajiter 
 to this subject.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE FEELINGS UPON THE BODY {continuecty 
 —COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 
 
 In compound mento-motor or deliberative action the peri- 
 pheral impression, instead of evoking a simple sensation, 
 emotion, or idea which automatically acts itself out, gives 
 rise to a complex mental state. There intervenes between 
 the afferent and efferent impulses a state of reflection ;" or, 
 to put it more accurately, there is a struggle between two 
 or more mento-motov states. Thus a sensation may enter 
 into conflict with an idea, as may happen when an individual 
 is having a tooth extracted : the pain tends to excite certain 
 movements (sensori-motor), but these movements may be 
 inhibited by an idea. Similarly, an idea may enter into 
 conflict with an emotion ; e.g. , an idea may check the move- 
 ments dictated by blind rage. In like manner, ideas may 
 contend with one another for the mastery, as in calm de- 
 liberation, and the action ultimately performed may then be 
 fittingly described as ' compound ideo-motor action.' 
 
 1 It will be observed from the headings that this and other chapters 
 purport to treat of the influence of the feelings on the body. But what, 
 it may be asked, has compound ideo-motor action to do with this influ- 
 ence ? I have already, however, strongly insisted that ideas are essentially 
 built up of feelings — i.e., of sensations — and thus ultimately all bodily 
 changes resulting from mentation result from feelings. 
 
 - Herbert Spencer uses the term ' reflective activity ' to denote actions 
 thus prompted, in contradistinction to perceptive activity which broadly 
 answers to the simple mento-motor actions as delined by myself (■' Prin- 
 ciples of Sociology," § 42).
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 327 
 
 In these three instances I speak, for convenience, of 
 simple mento-motor states contending together for the 
 mastery. Distinct motives, however, generally enter into the 
 conflict. It will be remembered that by a mento-motor state 
 is meant the immediate mental precursor of a consciously 
 performed act, those nervous agitations in the highest level 
 which result in muscular movements being, in so far as 
 these movements are conscious, paralleled by a series of 
 mental, or, as I have termed them, ' mento-motor ' states. 
 In fact, a mento-motor state is potentially a movement, and 
 whenever an act is consciously performed there occurs an 
 agitation of certain nervous arrangements in the highest 
 level, this nervous mechanism constituting at one and the 
 same time the central nervous agency through which the 
 movement is effected, and tlie physical side of the mental 
 precursor of the movement. 
 
 Now, as 1 have said, simple mento-motor states are not 
 usually the sole contending elements in what I term com- 
 pound mento-motor action. Between the afferent and 
 efferent impulses highly complex mental states, termed 
 motives, may intervene and struggle for the mastery, and, 
 indeed, tlie most common examples of compound mento- 
 motor action are those iu which motives contend amono; 
 themselves ; but in all cases the resulting action must be 
 through the medium of simple mento-motor states ; and 
 inasmuch as in all such cases independent mento-motor 
 •states are continually presenting themselves for selection, 
 we may conveniently term the resulting act compound 
 mento-motor. 
 
 The essence of simple as distinguished from compound 
 mento-motor action is this : Each mento-motor state 
 occupies the mental held unopposed, and being unopposed, 
 acts itself out automatically. Such actions I have therefore 
 regarded as involuntary, a view which will certainly not be 
 accepted by all.^ Even compound mento-motor action I 
 
 1 According to Hain, "the typical will neither deliberates nor resolves, 
 but passes without interval from a motive state to an action. The superior 
 intelligence of the higher beings induces upon this primitive link a series
 
 328 COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part iii. 
 
 hold to be in one sense automatic, but it is more complex 
 in nature than simple mento-motor action, and would by 
 many be regarded as the very reverse of automatic. We 
 have in it, I conceive, the typical will. From a simple 
 mento-motor state only one action can result, but compound 
 mento-motor states may give rise to two or more actions, 
 and, as we shall see in due course, the great problem of the 
 will is this — What determines the victorious impulse ? 
 
 The consideration of compound mento-motor action sug- 
 gests that of the distinction between actual and ideal 
 impulses.-^ It is desirable, though not always easy, to dis- 
 tinguish between tlie two. An actual impulse is one which 
 is directly excited by some peripheral stimulus ; an ideal 
 impulse is the revival of a past mental state independently 
 of such present stimulus. Simple mento-motor action may 
 be, and generally is, excited by actual peripheral irritation, 
 the mento-motor state or impulse being therefore likewise 
 actual. Thus an actual mento-motor state is excited by a 
 peripheral stimulus causing a sensation- — a blow, for instance ; 
 or by one causing an emotion, e.g., a spectacle, the retina in 
 this case being the area stimulated ; or, finally, by a peripheral 
 stimulus calling up an idea, such as a spoken command, in 
 which case the auditory expanse is the periphery stimulated. 
 
 of artificial suspenses, not exceptions to the general law of the ■will, but 
 complications of it "' (" Mental and Moral Science," by Alex. Eain, LL.D. 
 p. 364, 1881). From this it is evident that Eain regards simple mento- 
 motor actions as voluntarj-. Similarly Sully, who regards as voluntary 
 all "actions consciously directed towards some end" ("Outlines of Psy- 
 chology," 7th edit. p. 573). The criterion by which we determine what 
 is and what is not voluntary action is of course arbitrary, but I 
 venture to think that those acts which occur independently of dehbe- 
 ration are unworthy to be called voluntary acts. From the physician's 
 point of view, at all events, we shall find it convenient, as will presently 
 be seen, to regard only compound mento-motor action as voluntary. Will 
 any one assert that the acts performed by the hypnotised individual on 
 suggestion are voluntary 1 Yet, according to Bain, Sully, and others, they 
 are, for they must be regarded as such. 
 
 ^ I am using the term ' impulse ' as synonymous with ' mento-motor 
 state.'
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 329 
 
 In all these cases the mento-motor state may be regarded 
 as ' actual.' But it is obvious that the more elaborate 
 forms of compound mento-niotor action would be impossible 
 if these were the only mento-motor states, because it would 
 be impossible to get several distinct kinds of peripheral 
 irritation causing several contending mento-motor states at 
 one and the same time. It so happens, liowever, that 
 mento-motor states may arise independently of the peri- 
 pheral stimulation which in the first instance provoked 
 them — they may be ideally revived by memory. Without 
 memory compound mento-motor action would be impossible, 
 every mento-motor state immediately acting itself out as it 
 arises ; but owing to memory one mento-motor state is apt 
 to call up others, whereupon a conflict ensues.^ 
 
 Two mento-motor states in the actual may enter into 
 conflict — e.g., a sensation of hunger, urging to action, and 
 a sensation of fatigue, prompting to inaction. On the other 
 hand, both the contending impulses may be almost purely 
 ideal, as in deliberating a move on a chess-board. The 
 most common and most simple examples of compound mento- 
 motor action, however, are aftbrded by those cases in which 
 some peripheral stimulus causing an actual mento-motor 
 state enters into conflict with an ideal mento-motor state ; 
 and in considering this subject of compound mento-motor 
 action I shall confine myself to such. 
 
 It will be observed that an ideal mento-motor state is 
 not radically distinct from an actual one. We may assume 
 that all ideal states were in the first instance actual — i.e., 
 excited by peripheral irritation ; but when ideally revived, 
 instead of being excited from below by peripheral irritation, 
 they are called forth by collateral stimulation of the highest 
 centres. 
 
 1 When a given peripheral stimulus is always followed by a given action, 
 the centre is rigidly organised with a view to this action, which is simply 
 reflex. But when more than one action may result from stimulation of the 
 centre, then, according to Herbert Spencer, there is a passage from the 
 unconscious to the conscious ; mentation begins. (See his " Principles of 
 Psychology," §§ 199-220.)
 
 330 COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part hi. 
 
 Fig. 23. 
 
 Thus, in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 23), a, h, c, d ; 
 a', h', c', d', represent two arcs. In the left-hand arc, a = the 
 sensory periphery, h and c=the highest sensory and motor 
 centres, d = t\iQ motor periphery; and similarly in the 
 other arc. Then I, c, and h', c', represent respectively the 
 nervous arrangements constituting the physical basis of 
 two separate mento-motor states. These may be excited 
 by an irritation at a and a', in which case they constitute 
 actual mento-motor states ; but either may also be excited 
 collaterally through the other, along the lines, 1), c, h', c', and 
 the mento-motor state resulting is then an ideal mento-motor 
 state. 
 
 It therefore follows that compound mento-motor actions 
 
 are not so radically distinct from 
 the simpler forms of activity 
 already considered as would at 
 first sight appear, the sole dif- 
 erence being that whereas in the 
 latter there is but one mento- 
 motor state (sensation, emotion, 
 or idea) seeking to animate its 
 appropriate efferent mechan- 
 ism, in compound mento-motor 
 actions there are two or more 
 mento-motor states, each of 
 which, did it occupy the mental 
 field alone, would translate itself 
 into its appropriate action. 
 
 In deliberation we have compound mento-motor action. 
 An individual passes through a stage of reflection, as the 
 result of which one out of two or more lines of action 
 which suggest themselves is chosen. In calm, unemotional 
 reflection these suggestions constitute the motives to 
 action, and deliberation is q weighing of such. Very fre- 
 quently, however, the mind during the period of deliberation 
 is pervaded by strong emotion. The sharp and clear-cut 
 ideas rise up in rapid succession upon a blurred back- 
 ground of feeling. Now we have already seen that
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 331 
 
 emotions tend to excite ideas which chime in with them. 
 A feeling of affection provokes one kind of ideas ; a feeling 
 of revenge, another and different kind. Different feelings 
 being thus capable of giving rise to different ideas, and all 
 ideas tending to act themselves out, it follows that feelings 
 indirectly incite to actions ; and, as I have already insisted, 
 actions thus indirectly excited by sensations or emotions are 
 not simple sensori-motor or emotional, but ideo-motor. 
 
 The Law of the, Will. — Indirectly it is feeling ^ that gives 
 rise to all forms of compound mento-motor action ; feeling 
 constitutes the essential element of the so-called motives to 
 action. The two great incentives to voluntary action are 
 pleasure and pain ; we act with a view to secure the one 
 and avoid the other. Pleasure in the actual urges to the 
 continuance of such acts as tend to perpetuate it ; pleasure 
 in the ideal prompts us to take steps to realise it. Similarly, 
 pain in the actual moves us to seek its relief; pain in the 
 ideal, to prevent its realisation. 
 
 Pleasures for the most part go along with health, pains 
 with disease; therefore in the pursuit of pleasure we un- 
 consciously seek that which is consistent with health, and 
 avoid that which is inimical to it. But in this respect 
 we must draw a distinction between man and the lower 
 animals. The latter are impelled very largely by simple 
 mento-motor action, and we shall soon see that for them 
 the environment and tlie nervous system are more or less 
 stereotyped, so that the animal may nearly always safely 
 obey the impulses of the moment, such impulses having 
 invariably for their objects the avoidance of pain and the 
 realisation of pleasure. In the case of man, however, and 
 especially civilised man, present impulses cannot be so 
 safely obeyed, because his nervous system cannot automa- 
 tically meet all the exigencies of his complicated environ- 
 
 1 As elsewhere observed, even an idea is made up of feelings, and there- 
 fore ideo-motor action is prompted by feeling ; but the word feeliug in the 
 text is used in its ordinary sense — i.e., to denote a mental state which can 
 be recognised as feeling.
 
 332 COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part hi. 
 
 ment. Accordingly, in his case the realisation of present 
 pleasure is very frequently an unsafe course ; and therefore 
 does the wise man, knowing that the present pleasure when 
 weighed in the balance against the pain which results from 
 any indulgence in it will be found wanting forego it, being 
 thus governed by an ideal motive. In so doing, however, 
 he still obeys the principle which is the great moving spring 
 of action — the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of 
 pain. The man who so shapes his course as to procure for 
 himself the greatest amount of happiness is the prudent 
 man ; he has a vivid recollection of the pains that may 
 follow the indulgence of a present appetite. 
 
 And just as the present realisation of a pleasure is often 
 an unwise course, so also is the avoidance of an immediate 
 pain. It may be needful to pass through pain to avoid 
 greater pain in the future, or to secure a future pleasure. 
 Thus a man may voluntarily endure the pain of having even 
 a painless tooth extracted, in anticipation of its eventually 
 causing him, if allowed to remain, a greater sum of pain 
 than that entailed by the operation ; and a man keenly alive 
 to the pleasures of youth, and strongly averse to the hard 
 work needful to pass an examination and to the restrictions 
 which it necessitates, submits to both in the belief that the 
 ultimate advantages will far outweigh the temporary disad- 
 vantages. 
 
 Wherefore the law of the will may be stated somewhat 
 as follows : " The will prompts to acts which, the present 
 being weighed with the future, shall procure the greatest 
 amount of pleasure and ward off the greatest amount of pain ; 
 to which end it is sometimes necessary to forego an immediate 
 pleasure, and to undergo an immediate pain." In proportion 
 as an individual is capable of determining what lines of 
 action can best realise these ends, in that proportion has he 
 a clear and well-balanced intellect; and in proportion as 
 he follows the dictates of that intellect, in that proportion 
 has he a strong will. 
 
 This is the law of the will stated in its baldest and, I 
 might also say, most repulsive form. Happily its action is
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. ^^^ 
 
 modified in response to the workings of sympathy and the 
 sense of duty, — sympathy, which prompts an individual 
 to take on the pains of another ; duty, which leads him to 
 do what he knows to be right, without any regard to ultimate 
 self-advantage or disadvantage ; but it is not necessary to 
 pursue this subject further. 
 
 Distinction hetioeen Motives and Simple Mento-motor States. 
 — I have said that all motives to action are in the last resort 
 feelings. This is the view generally held. It must be 
 noted, however, that the quantity of feeling entering into 
 particular motives varies considerably. The motive may be 
 backed up with intense feeling, as when an individual 
 thirsts for revenge ; and, on the other hand, the element of 
 feeling may to all intents and purposes be absent, as when 
 he works out a mathematical jDroblem in preparation for an 
 examination. Suppose him to be working with the object of 
 fitting himself for some profession ; his motive is the prospect 
 of future benefit, but he may set about his mathematical 
 task without this motive being vividly present to his mind, 
 and even supposing that it is, it will practically be divested 
 of all feeling, and appear, so to speak, as a mere intellectual 
 prompting. 
 
 Feelings, then, either m the actual or ideal, prompt to 
 action, and constitute the so-called motives to action. I 
 have already hinted at the differences between such motives 
 and simple mento-motor states, and it is now needful to 
 distinguish between them more precisely. One important 
 distinction is this : A simple mento-motor state leads to a 
 simple action only ; so that in a series of consciously per- 
 formed movements there is a corresponding series of simple 
 mento-motor states — a state for each conscious movement. 
 A motive, on the other hand, may lead to a highly complex 
 series of movements, to acts extending, it may be, over a 
 lifetime, and one motive in this case suffices to call up all 
 the several mento-motor states, the immediate mental pre- 
 cursors of each conscious movement. 
 
 But although there is this distinction between a motive
 
 334 COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part hi. 
 
 and a mento-motor state, the one may, in certain rare cases, 
 be almost indistinguishable from the other. Thus, the 
 feeling of revenge is a strong motive, and if it could be 
 satisfied simultaneously with its rise by such a simple 
 action as striking a blow, it would practically constitute a 
 simple mento-motor state ; l)ut if the same prompting were 
 unable to realise itself immediately, and became an abiding 
 state ready to translate itself into action on every oppor- 
 tunity through the medium of a series of mento-motor states, 
 it would constitute a motive properly so called. In such 
 cases confusion may, of course, arise between the two, but 
 there is nevertheless a logical distinction which it is neces- 
 sary to bear in mind. 
 
 Secondly, a motive is always capable of being put in the 
 form of a proposition, whereas a simple mento-motor state, 
 being unanalysable, cannot always. In some instances, 
 however, the motives, though capable of being stated as pro- 
 positions, do not distinctly formulate themselves as such. 
 More especially is this the case in hasty yet deliberative 
 action, when, in fact, genuine motives can often scarcely be 
 said to enter the field of conflict at all, the struggle being 
 rather between mento-motor states, any one of which may 
 pass into action. Suppose, for instance, an individual to be 
 in a hi^hlv agitated state of mind, in which affection, fear, 
 and ra^e alternate. N(nv these three mental states are at one 
 and the same time motives and simple mento-motor states. 
 In their latter capacity they are able to excite simple move- 
 ments only. Thus, affection as a simple mento-mctor agent 
 tends to allay motor excitability and to call forth characteristic 
 gentle movements ; fear has a paralysing effect, and incites to 
 inaction or shrinking ; rage causes a violent perturbation of 
 the muscles — wild and chaotic movement. But as motives 
 these three emotions may act in a far more complex manner. 
 Each tends to call up a series of ideas chiming in with 
 itself, and if one gain the mastery, thrusting the others 
 out of the field, it becomes a motive in operation as dis- 
 tinguished from a motive in suspense, and may dictate a 
 series of highly complicated actions through the inter-
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 335 
 
 mediation of mento-motor states. In such a case the 
 struggle may in a manner be said to be between simple 
 meuto-niotor states. As the three emotions rush through the 
 mind each evokes its attendant train of ideas ; hence ensues 
 a wild turmoil of ideas and emotions. Each emotion as it 
 presents itself constitutes a simple mento-motor state, as does 
 also each idea ; but ideas have but little power against such 
 strong antagonists as emotions, and the course ultimately 
 adopted will probably (if the individual is strongly 
 affected) be the result of the latter ; one of the emotions 
 will at one particular moment rise into such intensity as to 
 act itself out, and the individual will find himself adopting 
 a line of conduct almost before he has time to realise it. 
 
 It will be remembered that I have defined deliberation, 
 or compound mento-motor action, as a weighing of motives 
 rather than of mento-motor states, and now that I have 
 sought to distinguish between the two, my reason may 
 perhaps be apparent. Of course, were it allowable, it Avoukl 
 simplify matters much, from the point of view of my classi- 
 fication of the different kinds of mento-motor action, to 
 regard compound mento-motor action as invoh'ing merely 
 the balancing of simple mento-motor states. 
 
 Diagrammatic Bej^^esentatioii of an Act of Will. — In 
 the following illustrative case we may conveniently neglect 
 the part played by ideo- motor action in the result, and regard 
 only the contending emotions, which we will consider in the 
 liglit of simple mento-motor states. 
 
 When a savage in a frenzy of rage, and without the 
 slightest deliberation, dashes his child's brains out against a 
 rock, he cannot be said to will : the paroxysm being the sole 
 motive to action, automatically energises its appropriate 
 motor mechanism. The act is therefore simple mento- 
 motor (= emotional). But directly any antagonistic impulse 
 arises, such as a sudden glimmer of affection, or a pang of 
 fear lest he sliall himself suffer in consequence of what he 
 may do, he will be acting voluntarily, no matter which 
 impulse he obeys. In such a case the ideally revived feeling
 
 336 COMPOUKD MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part hi. 
 
 of personal suffering (supposing fear to gain the day), will 
 have the same effect upon the muscles as the fear experi- 
 enced upon the actual approach of such suffering — i.e., a 
 relaxation of them. Here we have the simplest example 
 possible of an act of will. The case is diagrammatically 
 represented in the accompanying figures. (Figs. 24, 25.) 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 ANGEH 
 
 FEAR 
 
 ANGER 
 
 FEAR 
 
 U 
 
 "We will suppose an act of disobedience on the part of the 
 child to be the cause of the paternal auger. Instead, let us 
 say, of approaching his father when bidden, he runs off. 
 The image of the retreating child on the retina of the parent 
 commotes certain nervous arrangements in the highest nervous 
 level, and there is a perception. As a result of this, other 
 nervous arrangements in the same level are thrown into 
 activity, and the emotion of anger (Eig. 24, arc aa) rises 
 into being ; and supposing the latter to translate itself 
 into action, an impulse will pass along the efferent part 
 of the arc aa, causing a violent agitation of the muscles 
 appropriate to some expression of his anger. Fig. 24 &Z>
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 337 
 
 represents a similar motor arc, the afferent impulse in 
 this case originating in a force violently agitating the 
 periphery, and commoting certain nervous arrangements 
 in the highest level in such wise that fear rises into con- 
 sciousness, appropriate muscles being at the same time 
 energised. 
 
 In the case we are supposing, the emotion of anger and 
 the emotion of fear are the two contending impulses, the 
 former being the actual, the latter the ideal impulse. In 
 Fig. 24 I have indicated by the arrows and by the shading 
 that the arc aa has been energised — the emotion of anger 
 translating itself into its appropriate action, and tlie emotion 
 of fear remaining in abeyance. In Fig, 2 5 I have, in the 
 same way, indicated that the emotion of fear has gained the 
 upper hand, energising the efferent part of the arc h'h'} 
 
 Every deliberation resulting in an act of will, however 
 many the conflicting motives, is to be explained on the lines 
 laid down in this simple illustration. 
 
 I have assumed that in all deliberation the several con- 
 tending motives to action are, in the first instance, excited 
 by peripheral irritation, and this is probably true ; but in 
 the case of the more lofty and abstract motives the afferent 
 portion of the arc is not so demonstrable as the efferent. 
 Suppose, for example, that in the above simple instance 
 there enters into the father's mind a sense of the cowardice 
 of his act, or a sudden flash of affection towards his child, 
 we shall find it no easy matter to trace to the periphery 
 the afferent portions of the arc to which either of these 
 impulses belongs ; yet, seeing that every mental state 
 capable of exciting muscular action is almost certainly in 
 the first instance excited peripherally, we can have little 
 doubt that such arcs possess an afferent as well as an 
 efferent portion. 
 
 It follows, then, that between the hasty act of the savage 
 
 ^ The effect of this is rather to cause general muscular relaxation than 
 contractiou, and there will probably be an inhibition of energy in the 
 efferent part of the arc ula'. However, fear does sometimes actually cause 
 contraction, and this I have indicated by the shaded part of the arc h'U. 
 
 Y
 
 338 . COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part iii. 
 
 and the premeditated act of the cultured man, the difference 
 is only one of degree. If a highly complicated intellectual 
 process terminates in a definite action, that action is really 
 a compound mento-motor action, and the latter being a 
 form of reflex action, it is clear that intellectual pro- 
 cesses are built up on the reflex type. Even in calm 
 thought, when there may be no manifest motor action, 
 there occurs a faint revivification of the nervous changes 
 in those efferent arcs necessary to the utterance of the 
 thought.
 
 CHAPTEE VIIT. 
 
 THE FEELINGS AS ACTIVE FORCES— COMPOUND MENTO- 
 MOTOR ACTION {continued). 
 
 Jiesohition. — The line of action decided upon after delibera- 
 tion may vary from extreme simplicity to extreme complexity. 
 It may consist of a single co-ordinated muscular action, as the 
 uttering of a single word ; or of a series of such actions, as the 
 playing of a piece of music, or of a course of actions extending 
 over days, months, or even years, as in a protracted course of 
 study. When the line of action is complex, not one act of 
 will, but several, are needed to complete it, as will presently 
 be made manifest. A particular course of action being 
 decided upon, the decision abides as a persistent motive 
 during its performance, thereby constituting a motive in the 
 truest sense of the term. Such a persistent motive under- 
 lying a series of acts, and unifying them, I term resolution. 
 The term resolution, however, is not generally used in this 
 sense exactly, liesolution, according to Bain, is the atti- 
 tude which the mind assumes when, having decided upon a 
 particular course of action, the individual is prevented from 
 carrying his decision into inmiediate effect. When he is 
 able to do so, there is, in Bain's view, no room for resolu- 
 tion. This may be true of very simple acts, as shaking the 
 head ; but I venture to think tliat resolution is necessary 
 in all acts needing more than a single operation of the will, 
 such as preparing a meal or going upon an errand. 
 These, and all other purposeful conscious actions which are
 
 340 COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION, [part hi. 
 
 not merely raomentaiy, involve a persisting motive ; and 
 directly that ceases the act ceases. This persisting motive 
 is true resolution. Eesolution, as thus defined, includes the 
 resolution of Bain. It is the attitude of mind which per- 
 sists from the moment the decision is made till the act 
 determined upon is completed, and not only occupies such 
 time as intervenes between the coming to the decision and 
 the beginning of the act, but continues until the final 
 consummation of that act. The matter can be illustrated 
 diagrammatically thus: Let the horizontal line, a, c (Fig. 26) 
 represent a definite period of time, and the spaces between 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
 J — j — I — I — \ — J 
 
 a. 
 
 the vertical lines units of time ; then if a indicates the 
 point of time at which a particular act is decided upon ;. 
 a, h, the time which necessarily elapses before the act can be 
 begun ; and h, c, the time occupied in its performance, — 
 resolution does not (as Bain implies) cease at h, but persists 
 to c. 
 
 So far as acts which extend over days, weeks, or years 
 are concerned, no one will deny the truth of these remarks, 
 but I do not think it is generally recognised that resolution 
 is equally necessary — though not perhaps in so intense a 
 form — in all acts needing more than a single and momentary 
 act of will. That such, however, is the case, a little thought 
 will show. I have said that resolution is necessary to the 
 playing of a piece of music. When the player is young and 
 inexperienced, and is asked to play before a critical audience, 
 it will be very generally acknowledged that resolution — the 
 persisting motive — does not stop with the beginning of the 
 performance, but continues in operation to the end ; for if 
 at any moment it ceases, the player will break down. 
 But I maintain that resolution is equally necessary when he 
 is playing by himself ; what is it but want of sufficient 
 purpose (i.e., resolution) that makes some people jump from
 
 PART III.] COMPOUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 341 
 
 one piece to another, playing a few bars of each, but not 
 one ri^ht through ? 
 
 I have admitted that where the act is simple and can 
 be immediately performed there is no room for resolution ; 
 but this is at most only true of the very simplest act. I 
 know of an individual who had not sufficient strength 
 of will to put his fork to his mouth ; he would lift it lialf- 
 way and then stop, proving that even in so simple an act 
 as using a fork a persisting motive — i.e., resolution, is 
 necessary. 
 
 Any one is of course at liberty to distinguish the attitude 
 of resolution as defined by Bain from the kindred state 
 Avhich underlies the actual performance of the act decided 
 upon ; but it is necessary to remember that such a distinc- 
 tion is not radical, but arbitrary. 
 
 He that cannot be shaken in his resolutions is said to be 
 firm of purpose, of fixed resolve. Such fixity of purpose is 
 a necessary part of strong will. 
 
 We have seen that when the course of action decided 
 upon is complex, not one but many individual actions are 
 needed to complete it. Hence voluntary acts include a 
 number of involuntary acts. This is manifestly true of 
 acts which need a considerable period of time for their com- 
 pletion, but. it is also equally true of those occupying a very 
 short time, such as making a sketch, or performing a surgical 
 operation. It is clear that the will has not completed its 
 task when it has merely started the act ; it must continue 
 in action throughout it. Are we, however, to consider each 
 individual co-ordinated action forming part of the entire 
 series as the result of a separate operation of the will ? 
 The answer, of course, depends upon our definition of 
 voluntary action. But if we regard only those actions as 
 voluntary which depend upon deliberation (i.e., compound 
 mento-motor or refiective actions), then, clearly, many of 
 the component actions of the series are not voluntary. For 
 a large number of them Jire simple ideo-motor, many more 
 are sensori-motor, and not a few purely refiex. When a
 
 342 CHOOSING AND WILLING. [part iii. 
 
 person is playing for the first time a difficult piece of music, 
 some of the movements are voluntary, in the strictest sense 
 of the term, needing as they do deliberation ; but after 
 prolonged practice they tend more and more to become 
 simple ideo-motor, then sensori-motor, and finally reflex. 
 When, for instance, the individual pursues an entirely in- 
 dependent train of thought during his playing, he is, so far 
 as the latter is concerned, a mere reflex automaton. The 
 same remarks apply to the performance of a surgical opera- 
 tion. The surgeon who has by constant practice attained 
 great facility in a particular operation, can perform many 
 stages of it almost automatically. 
 
 The Determining Mcnto-motor State. — The chief difficulty 
 in explaining the will seems to me to turn practically on 
 this question — What enables one particular mento-motor 
 state to obtain the mastery and pass into action when there 
 are two or three such mento-motor states contending to- 
 gether ? I have already said that when only one mento- 
 motor state exists, I do not regard the resulting action as 
 voluntary ; but whether it be so considered or not, there is 
 no difficulty in explaining it on the j)rinciple that every 
 mento-motor state tends to act itself out, and when only 
 one occupies the field that one necessarily does tins. 
 Dismissing, then, all cases of simple mento-motor action 
 as requiring no further explanation, we return to the 
 question as above stated, and in attempting to answer it, we 
 must keep distinct two mental processes, which I believe are 
 often confounded one with another. First we have to con- 
 sider the question of choice, and secondly that of action. 
 We have to ask : by virtue of what power is the ego able 
 to determine upon a particular mento-motor state ? and 
 then, having determined upon it, by what means is that 
 particular state able to realise itself in action ? 
 
 The former process, that of choosing, results from the 
 weighing of alternatives, and is essentially an intellectual 
 process. Different motives or, it may be, merely different 
 mento-motor states, are compared, and as the result of an
 
 PAKT III.] CHOOSING AND WILLING. 343 
 
 intellectuation (to coin a word) more or less complex, one 
 meuto-motor state is selected.^ 
 
 But a little thought will sliow that the selection of one 
 motive, and thereby of a certain mento-motor state, or 
 series of mento-motor states, does not constitute the act of 
 willing, which consists in the realisation of a mento-motor 
 state. Suppose, for instance, there is a question whether 
 an individual shall, or shall not, sign a document ; as the 
 result of deliberation he decides to do so. This decision is 
 not willing. It is comparable to the solution of a problem, 
 and is effected by an intellectual process. 
 
 The selection, then, depends upon a more or less com- 
 plex intellectual process. Moreover, it may extend over a 
 considerable period, or it may be the work of a moment. 
 It may consist in the deliberate weighing of motives from 
 which the element of feeling is practically absent ; or in the 
 momentary balancing of violent impulses ; or of little more 
 than simple mento-motor states. As an example of rapid 
 deliberation from which the intellectual element is almost 
 eliminated, we may take the case of a man choosing 
 between jumping over a cliff and walking away from it. 
 Let us suppose he is perfectly sane. The thought of 
 throwing himself over is suggested to him, but we will 
 suppose him, instead of acting upon this suggestion, to walk 
 immediately away. Now it might be thought that there is 
 no deliberation in such a case ; that the individual, seeing 
 his danger, simply wills to avoid it. Such a conclusion, 
 is, however, fallacious. There is a weighing here between a 
 
 ^ In all cases of deliberation, and even when well-defined motives con- 
 tend for the mastery, it is essentially a mento-motor state that is selected, 
 Suppose an individual to be under two motives. He wants to buy a horse 
 for the sake of the pleasure or comfort which it will bring him ; on the other 
 hand, the purchase will necessitate the sacrifice of some other advantage. 
 Here are two distinct motives — not simple mento-motor states — contending 
 for the mastery. As the result of deliberation one is fixed upon. But in 
 order to put that motive into effect he proceeds to action ; he must, let us 
 say, go to the market to see about the horse, and this is done through the 
 medium of mento-motor states. These states occur to the mind very 
 largely by association.
 
 344 CHOOSING AND WILLING. [part hi. 
 
 distinct motive — the motive of self-preservation — and a 
 simple mento-motor state, the idea of precipitation. The 
 former rapidly suggests the mento-motor states necessary 
 for the safe conduct of the individual away from the source 
 of danger. The deliberation may in such a case be so 
 slight as almost to escape notice, but deliberation there 
 certainly is, differing, I contend, only in degree from that calm 
 deliberation which extends over hours, or days, or months. 
 If any one doubt this, let him say when, in the passage from 
 the complex to the simple, deliberation ceases. It can only 
 cease, I maintain, when the mind is occupied by a simple 
 mento-motor state. In like manner, when an individual is 
 prompted to action by two strongly contrasted emotions, I 
 contend that before he acts he passes through a phase of 
 deliberation, no matter how soon the action is taken. In 
 such a case the intellectual element may be very small — 
 the individual does not calmly compare, does not accu- 
 rately measure, all the consequences of the two lines of 
 action. One emotion by its sheer violence conquers. Never- 
 theless the two lines have presented themselves, so to 
 speak, before the ego for selection, and there must have 
 been some sort of deliberation, however faint, before one 
 could be chosen. 
 
 We come now to the second and entirely different 
 question : Having decided upon a course of action, by what 
 means is it carried into effect ? 
 
 The answer we have in a measure anticipated. It is by 
 the mind lapsing from a compound mento-motor state into 
 a ^^imple mento-motor state. The individual having decided 
 upon a certain course of action, he now wills it, and this is 
 done, I conceive, by his concentrating his entire attention 
 npon the idea of the action. All other ideas are 
 thereby driven from the field : he lapses into a simple 
 ideo-motor state, and just as with a hypnotised indi- 
 vidual an unopposed idea automatically acts itself out, so 
 here the mind becomes totally occupied with the idea 
 of the action resolved upon ; and concomitantly with 
 the increase in the vividness of the idea resulting from
 
 PART III.] FREEDOM OF THE WILL. 345 
 
 this concentrated attention, there is an increase in the in- 
 tensity of those nervous agitations which underlie the 
 idea. The agitation is no longer confined to those nervous 
 arrangements in the highest level which represent the per- 
 formance of the act in idea, but pass into the subordinate 
 motor centres, and so on to the muscles, which contract. 
 The idea acts itself out. The individual wills. 
 
 This element of concentration is more particularly evident 
 in calm deliberative action. In hasty and strongly emo- 
 tional action, as in the case above alluded to, one par- 
 ticular emotion may gain the day without the individual 
 being conscious of especially concentrating his attention 
 upon it. 
 
 Freedom of the Will. — The doctrine of free will appears 
 to assume that there is a power behind motives and meuto- 
 niotor states capable, by itself and of itself, of increasing and 
 diminishing the strength of any of them, independently of 
 the Law of Causation, wdiicli tells us that all phenomena 
 are governed by fixed and immutable law. But no one can 
 determine the relative strengths of these motives and mento- 
 motor states, and therefore, in one sense, no one can be said 
 to have free will. We are, nevertheless, free agents in the 
 sense that we are under no compulsion from without ; we 
 are left contending with the forces within us, and have, so 
 some argue, no reason to complain at the result, seeing that 
 it is the one which, for the time being at least, pleases us 
 most.' ... 
 
 ^ Herbert Spencer puts this matter so forcibly and clearly that I quote 
 the following passage from him in full : — ^" Considered as an internal percep- 
 tion the illusion (that every one is at liberty to determine the strength of 
 the impulses to action) consists in supposing that at each moment the ego 
 is something more than the aggregate of feelings and ideas, actual and 
 nascent, which then exists. A man who, after being subject to an impulse 
 consisting of a group of psychical states, real and ideal, performs a certain 
 action, usually asserts that he determined to perform the action ; and by 
 speaking of his own conscious self as having been something separate from 
 the group of psychical states constituting the impulse, is led into the error 
 of supposing that it was not the impulse alone which determined the action. 
 But the entire group of psychical states which constituted the antecedent
 
 346 FREEDOM OF THE WILL. [paiit hi. 
 
 It is necessary to observe, however — a fact of which 
 illustrations will be given in due course — that the indivi- 
 dual sometimes voluntarily acts in a manner which is in no 
 way pleasing to him ; in spite of himself, as it were. 
 ' In considering this question of freedom of will we must 
 again be careful to distinguish between the choosing of 
 motives or mento-motor states and the translation of the 
 latter into action. The choice obviously depends upon the 
 peculiar mental organisation of the individual, whether 
 it be deliberate, or the hasty, and, it may be, only semi- 
 conscious, choice of the moment. No one can himself 
 determine the various strengths of the different agencies 
 which will determine his action, nor which shall be 
 the overmastering one. The result must for the same 
 organisation always be the same under the same circum- 
 stances, internal and external ; so that, if we suppose two 
 individuals to have exactly the same organisation, and to be 
 subjected during life to exactly the same conditions, we may 
 be sure that the results they arrive at by deliberation will 
 be the same. When one of them chooses differently under 
 apparently the same circumstances, we may be equally sure 
 that the similarity is only apparent, that the differences of 
 choice are not due to the fickleness of an autocratic will, but 
 to undiscovered differences in circumstances. 
 
 It may be thought that when once a particular course is 
 
 of the action also constituted himself at that moment — constituted his psy- 
 chical self as distinguished from his physical self Naturally enough, 
 
 then, the subject of such psychical changes says that he wills the action ; 
 since, psychically considered, he is at that moment nothing more than 
 the composite state of consciousness by which the action is excited. But 
 to say that the performance of the action is, therefore, the result of his 
 free will, is to say that he determines the cohesions of the psychical states 
 which arouse the action ; and as these psychical states constitute himself 
 at that moment, this is to say that these psychical states determine their 
 
 own cohesions, which is absurd To reduce the general question 
 
 to its simplest form : Psychical changes either conform to law or they do 
 not. If they do not conform to law, this work, in common with all works 
 on the subject, is sheer nonsense ; no science of psychology is possible : if 
 they do conform to law, there cannot be any such thing as free will " 
 "The Principles of Psychology,'' vol. i. pp. 501-503.)
 
 PART III.] . INSUFFICIENCY OF INSTINCT. 347 
 
 decided on, the will displays its freedom of action by a 
 concentration of the attention in the manner indicated. But 
 neither is this the case. If a decision has been really made, 
 performance must follow, unless there are obstacles to it, in 
 which case the decision fails to abide. For a firm decision 
 necessarily calls up mento-motor states, which automatically 
 pass into simple mento-motor actions in the manner in- 
 dicated. 
 
 The necessity for compound mento-motor action in the case 
 of man is obvious. In animals which are merely guided by 
 instinct {i.e., are simple mento-motor) each sensory impulse 
 at once translates itself into action ; the environment is com- 
 paratively simple, and the animal is, by instinct, more or 
 less perfectly adapted to it. Both the nervous system and 
 the environment are stereotyped ; in other words, the external 
 agencies acting upon any one species being for the most 
 part the same during many successive generations, it 
 becomes more or less perfectly adapted to its environment, 
 and in such a case the promptings of instinct are practically 
 always sure guides. But as we ascend the scale, and 
 notably when we arrive at civilised man, the environment 
 increases a thousandfold in complexity ; it is no longer 
 stereotyped, the same for one generation as for another ; and 
 therefore it is impossible that the nervous system should be 
 stereotyped either — that it should be capable of wisely 
 shaping the course of the organism through life automati- 
 cally. The individual now, instead of acting on every 
 occasion upon the impulse of the moment (i.e., instinctively), 
 a procedure that would very soon lead to his destruction, 
 has his action in any given case determined by the 
 balancing of a number of conflicting impulses, the fruits of 
 experience, his own or others'. In short, the higher condi- 
 tions of his existence have a higher nervous system to meet 
 the demands which those conditions make upon it. Let me 
 illustrate what I mean by the case of the moth which, 
 attracted by the glare of a flame, rushes upon its own 
 destruction. Since occasional exposure to this particular
 
 348 COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT— RESULTS, [part iii. 
 
 danger is a comparatively recent experience in the race-life 
 of tlie moth, its nervous system has not been organised with 
 a view to avoid it ; but if during countless successive gene- 
 rations the moth should continue still, and with more con- 
 stancy, to be exposed to it, adaptation would probably occur 
 through natural selection — i.e., through the survival of those 
 moths which would show the least tendency to be attracted 
 by the flame, or the greatest tendency to shun it, a race being 
 ultimately evolved which would instinctively avoid the dan- 
 ger. The flame would become, in fact, part of a stereotyped 
 environment, and the nervo-motor action by which danger 
 from the flame is avoided, part of the function of a 
 stereotyped nervous system. Now, supposing that instead 
 of undergoing this gradual adaptation, the motli were from 
 the first compound mento-motor, not, as we may suppose, 
 simple mento-motor, then the memory of the pain suffered 
 on the slight scorching of its wings, or of the fate it has 
 witnessed overtaking other moths, would set up a conflict 
 between the attracting influence of the sight-sensory im- 
 j)ulse (= actual impulse) and the deterrent influence of 
 remembered pain (= ideal impulse); there would be delibera- 
 tion resulting in an act of will, and if the ideal impulse 
 gained the day, the moth Avould escape a danger from 
 which simple mento-motor action does not save it. 
 Taking, instead of the moth, the case of man, we find that he 
 has not been subjected during successive generations to each 
 anc] all of the many varieties of environment pertaining to an 
 ever-advancing civilisation, and it is therefore impossible for 
 his nervous system to respond correctly to these by simple 
 mento-motor action ; his environment not being stable, his 
 nervous system cannot become stereotyped to meet its 
 requirements, and consequently in his case a more complex 
 mechanism — compound mento-motor action — has to be 
 called into play to meet the exigencies of the more complex 
 condition of existence. 
 
 Thus the moth in the supposititious, man in the actual 
 case, derives an obvious advantage from compound mento- 
 motor action.
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL— THAT FORM IN WHICH COM. 
 POUND MENTO-MOTOR ACTION APPROXIMATES TO SIMPLE 
 MENTO-MOTOR ACTION. 
 
 We are now in a position to consider the different varieties 
 of weak will. They fall under four heads. To wit : 
 
 1. That form in which compound mento-motor action 
 tends to approximate to simple mento-motor action. 
 
 2. That in which no one impulse to action is able to 
 retain the permanent mastery, i.e., vacillation. 
 
 3. That due to the peculiar strength of some one motive 
 of the nature of a fascination. 
 
 4. That in which coherent thought is impossible, the 
 individual being incapable of realising in idea any definite 
 course of action. 
 
 Each of these types must now be considered in detail. 
 The present chapter will be devoted to the first — to that, 
 viz., in which compound mento-motor action tends to 
 approach the type of simple mento-motor action — that in 
 which the tendency to deliberate is weak or absent, the 
 individual being prone to act upon the impulse of the 
 moment, owing to the absence or feebleness of ideal impulses. 
 Such an one will partake of a certain dish, knowing all tlie 
 while that he will afterwards suffer from indigestion ; or 
 feeling disinclined to work, will abstain from it, though well 
 aware that subsecj^uent trouble will result. The actual 
 impulse (the desire to indulge a certain taste or avoid a
 
 350 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 certain effort) is stron^^er than the ideal. Thus the weak- 
 minded person, acting continually upon the impulse of the 
 moment, is swayed hither and thither, now drawn in this 
 direction, now in that. Like a puppet, he dances in response 
 to any external force which from moment to moment acts 
 upon him. 
 
 As another example of this kind of weak will, let us take 
 the following case. A is walking along a London street, 
 and he observes B (a cab-driver) cruelly ill-treating his 
 horse. A's righteous indignation impels him to remonstrate, 
 with the result that B hurls at him a torrent of abusive 
 language. A's original indignation at the cruelty is now 
 reinforced by anger at the personal affront, and he vows 
 that he will bring the full force of the law upon the offender. 
 Unable, however, to carry his threat into immediate effect, 
 he contents himself with noting down B's number, and goes 
 home, determined to take the proper steps on the morrow. 
 The morrow arrives, his violent emotions have quieted down, 
 he has a strong sense of the trouble the execution of his 
 threat will entail ; his impulse is now to let the matter 
 drop. This laisser aller impulse may now be regarded as 
 the actual, the faint flicker of yesterday's wrath, the ideal. 
 He remains inactive. 
 
 Such an individual has not a strong will, if indeed he can 
 be said to show will at all. Had immediate action followed 
 his access of indignation, it would have been ' simple mento- 
 motor,' one impulse to action only occupying the mental 
 field ; and as it is, he still acts upon the feeling of the 
 moment, and is in a very large measure simple mento-motor, 
 that is, weak-willed, for yesterday's impulse, which is now 
 become ideal, has no power to overcome the present feeling. 
 
 We have seen that resolution is the abiding of a decision 
 in the mind, a continuous motive, which is not cast off until 
 the end at which it aims is achieved. In this particular 
 case the decision does not persist till the consummation of 
 the act : as a motive power it grows weaker and weaker as 
 time goes on, becoming finally so weak that it is readily 
 overcome by the first fresh impulse.
 
 PART III.] VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. 351 
 
 Let us, in contrast with the ahove, take the case of an 
 individual whose teeth, though they are not painful, require 
 the services of the dentist. He is, we will suppose, very- 
 sensitive to pain, and when the idea of consulting a dentist 
 suggests itself, his vivid conception of the painful nature 
 of the operations to follow prompts him to inaction ; 
 this desire to avoid immediate pain may be regarded as the 
 actual impulse. But the picture of future troubles, if prompt 
 steps be not at once taken, also rises up before him, and 
 since these are more remote probabilities, we may look upon 
 the iinpulse to avoid them as the ideal impulse, and if this 
 overcome the actual impulse the individual may be regarded 
 as displaying strong will. 
 
 Another instance of strong will which will appeal to 
 some of my readers is the following. An individual re- 
 solves to speak upon a certain subject at a debating society. 
 The moment arrives to do so. He is seized with in- 
 tense nervousness ; his heart beats violently, his tongue 
 cleaves to his mouth, his brain whirls, all his energies are 
 paralysed ; his whole mental being cries out for inaction. 
 The impulse prompting this course may be regarded as the 
 actual impulse ; that prompting him to get up and speak, the 
 ideal impulse. Now, if this latter is capable of overcoming 
 the former, all will assuredly agree that the man has shown 
 strength of will. 
 
 In a strong-willed individual ideal impulses to action — 
 whether many or few — are more powerful than any passing 
 external impulse can be. They so mould his whole conscious 
 being that he is actually unable to act counter to them, and 
 the impressions of the moment are so neutralised by them 
 that they are as powerless to affect his line of conduct as a 
 child's sand ramparts to withstand the advance of the flood- 
 tide. We have but to look at the influence a religious 
 belief has on a man's life to see the irresistible force of a 
 powerful ideal motive ; and not only religion, but art and 
 science too, can count their thousands who, for the sake of 
 some dominant idea, have withstood temptations, overcome 
 obstacles — have, in a word, sacrificed their present, and
 
 352 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 pursued unswervingly and unflinchingly the course it marked 
 out for them, though it led to death itself. 
 
 In such cases we have typical examples of resolution, 
 motives abiding until the ends in view are gained. We 
 may diagrammatically represent them thus : 
 
 The central dark line represents a strong abiding pur- 
 pose, impelling the individual in a definite direction, and 
 constituting the attitude of mind termed resolution. The 
 lines striking obliquely against it represent so many 
 agencies acting as counter-motives, while the persistence of 
 the purpose in undiminished strength is indicated by the 
 central line remaining of equal breadth and firmness 
 throughout. The next diagram, on the other hand, repre- 
 sents the case of an individual whose resolution is easily 
 shaken, the central dark line gradually weakening in 
 strength under the influence of the forces opposed to it. 
 
 Fig. 28. 
 
 We must be careful not to confound instances of genuinely 
 strong will, like those alluded to above, with the case of the 
 individual who lets himself be possessed by a fixed idea to 
 the exclusion of all others — the individual, namely, who, 
 not from a conviction based on reason, but rather from a 
 limited intellectual grasp, allows himself in any given case 
 to be entirely dominated by some one impulse to action, 
 probably the first that presents itself to him. In such a 
 case there is practically no conflict of motives, for there are 
 no ideal motives to enter into antagonism with the domi- 
 nant one, and the individual, far from being strong-willed, 
 is essentially weak-willed, simple mento-motor. It is by 
 no means easy to discriminate between the two — the man 
 whose purpose is strong because it is based on reason, and
 
 PART III.] VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. 353 
 
 the man who persists in the course he has chosen simply 
 because he has chosen it. Who shall say whether a man is 
 martyr or fanatic ? 
 
 But although the stubborn man cannot be deemed strong- 
 willed, he nevertheless possesses, in a large measure, one of 
 the necessary elements of a strong will — viz., resolution, 
 fixity of purpose, the ability to continue for some time under 
 the influence of a given motive. Stubbornness, however, 
 implies also narrowness of view, and this, again, a limited 
 will-power. For the narrower the mind, the fewer the alter- 
 natives to action ; and the fewer these latter, the less the 
 capacity of the individual to put himself in touch with his 
 surroundings — the less, in other words, the scojje of the 
 will. The best developed will-power must, therefore, be 
 met with in the person who to fixity of purpose adds culture 
 and experience. On the other hand, the stubborn man is 
 not of necessity narrow-minded, though he is so generally ; 
 he may unite wide information with his stubbornness, but 
 in that case his knowledge does not serve him ; it is 
 ineffective. He obstinately acts in obedience to a certain 
 dominating impulse, all other impulses failing to counteract 
 it ; in short, he tends to be simple mento-motor. We may 
 therefore, I think, class weakness of will arising from 
 obstinacy under the present head ; although from another 
 point of view it might be included under the third class — 
 that, namely, in which the weakness is the result of the undue 
 strength of some one impulse. 
 
 It is manifest, then, that the more weak-willed an in- 
 dividual becomes (the fewer, namely, the number, and the 
 less the strength, of his ideal motives) the more closely does 
 he approach the condition of a simple mento-motor, or 
 purely instinct-led, organism ; until, finally, when ideal 
 motives cease to exist for him altogether, he is entirely 
 simple mento-motor. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as all disease is essentially dissolution, 
 there is in disease of the mind a dissolution, or undoing, 
 of the intellect. We should therefore expect to find the 
 will, which depends upon the intellect and is one of its 
 
 z
 
 354 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 latest acquired attributes, to be weakened when the in- 
 tellect is in any way disordered. And this we know to be 
 the case ; most of the acts of the lunatic are essentially simple 
 mento-motor. In a normally constituted individual, ideal 
 impulses arise in the mind simultaneously with actual 
 impulses, and effectually neutralise any of the latter if 
 dangerous ; but in the insane individual the ideal impulses 
 are weak or absent, and under these circumstances he is apt, 
 since every actual impulse tends to work itself out, to commit 
 suicide, or perform other disastrous, or, it may be, ridiculous 
 acts. I have heard of an inmate of a lunatic asylum who 
 so far recovered from his insanity that he was retained as 
 one of the officers of the institution. It one day fell to 
 this man's duty to conduct a gentleman over the establish- 
 ment. After showing him the various parts of the build- 
 ing, he presently led him to a high tower, from which a good 
 view of the entire premises could be obtained. Wiien they 
 had reached the summit, his old insanity seemed to return 
 suddenly. The idea of precipitating himself took such 
 hold of him that he proposed that they should both jump 
 down. His companion, happily, at once seized the position, 
 and with great readiness suggested that any fool could jump 
 down : would it not be a more difficult feat to jump up from 
 the bottom ? The lunatic caught at the idea ; he was soon 
 dominated by this new impulse, and quietly followed the 
 visitor down, and the danger was escaped. Such impulses 
 are by no means confined to the insane diathesis ; the sanest 
 people are liable to impulses w^hich, if acted upon, would 
 lead to the most terrible or the most disastrous results. A 
 gentleman with whom I am intimately acquainted, and who 
 is perfectly sane, recently took his newly married wife to 
 the top story of his house, in order to watch a fire raging in 
 the neighbourhood ; and he tells me that, as he looked down 
 from the height, which was considerable, the idea of throw- 
 ing over, not only himself, but his wife also, distinctly 
 occurred to him — to be, of course, immediately overwhelmed 
 by ideal motives. And I have heard a boy say that when he 
 held his watch or a piece of money in his hand in the same
 
 PART III.] VAEIETIES OF WEAK WILL. 355 
 
 way as a stone is grasped preparatory to throwing it, he 
 felt the strongest impulse to throw it away as he would the 
 stone. 
 
 If we remember that the insane individual is to a very 
 large extent simple mento-motor, we can account for many 
 of his curious acts, for he tends to work out any passing im- 
 pulse without regard to fitness or expediency. 
 
 Another striking example of mental dissolution — to use 
 a term stamped with the authority of Hughlings Jackson — 
 is afforded by hysteria. The typical hysterical patient is 
 swayed by each passing feeling, though underlying it 
 is the ever-present desire for sympathy. This dominates 
 her entire mental being: no nobler impulses rise up before 
 her mind to dethrone it, or, if they do, they are weak 
 and ineffectual.^ There is also another form of weak will 
 from which the hysteric is apt to suffer, as we shall 
 presently see. 
 
 A strong tendency to imitate goes along with the type of 
 weak will we are now considering, and is the mark of an 
 ill-developed mind. Imitativeness, as Herbert Spencer ob- 
 serves, is " shown least by the highest members of civilised 
 
 races and most by the lowest savages It shows us a 
 
 mental action which is, from moment to moment, chiefly 
 determined by outer incidents."* 
 
 Here I wish to speak more particularly of imitativeness 
 as manifested in external movements. Many forms of 
 convulsive movements — e.g., choreic movements and the 
 movements of wild dances — are distinctly infective. The 
 explanation appears simple. The sight of a particular 
 movement sufjGjests the idea of that movement — or rather, it 
 agitates those nervous arrangements in the liighest level 
 which are engaged, not only in the idea, but also in the 
 
 1 I must here point out the analogy between the form of weak will 
 under consideration and the tendency to jump at a conclusion and 
 obstinately reject all argument tending in an opposite direction. It is 
 said a ' woman convinced against her will is of the same opinion still.' 
 Such an one, like the weak-willed individual, is a slave to one impulse, and 
 turns a deaf ear to whatever runs counter to it. 
 
 2 "An Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy," by Howard Collins, p. 349.
 
 356 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part in. 
 
 actual performance of the movement, and inasmuch as an 
 idea tends to work itself out, it follows that there is a ten- 
 dency in all individuals who see the movement to imitate it. 
 In healthy-minded adults this tendency is counteracted by 
 ideal impulses, but in children and in the weak-minded such 
 ideal impulses may be feeble or absent. The mind is pervaded 
 by an unopposed idea^ which is thus realised in action. 
 
 It is largely in this way that we may explain those 
 frenzied emotional dances which occur even in our own day, 
 but which were a special characteristic of the Middle Ages. 
 The individual is wrought up to a pitch of intense emotion, 
 which acts as a strong stimulus to muscular action, and by 
 which the mind is so completely overwhelmed that there is 
 little room for more than a single train of ideo-motor states. 
 Such a train is suggested by the frantic movements of 
 others ; and the individual, like one hypnotised, acts in 
 obedience to the suggestion. In such cases he is not acting 
 voluntarily, in the sense in which I understand the word. 
 The movements are either purely emotional, or simple ideo- 
 motor. 
 
 A similar tendency to simple ideo-motor action is dis- 
 played by an excited mob. Every new suggestion is apt to 
 be caught up and acted on. The multitude stops not to 
 reflect, but surges now in this direction, now in that, as 
 circumstance chances to dictate ; a trifle diverts its atten- 
 tion as a trifle, probably, brought it together." Here again 
 we are reminded of the acts of the hypnotised individual. 
 
 Some individuals show a natural tendency to be easily 
 led away by others. Incapable of a self-sustaining purpose, 
 they are dominated from moment to moment by what they 
 are told, and, like the hypnotised individual, act upon 
 suggestion. A very large proportion of victimised women 
 probably belongs to this type. 
 
 I now proceed to give liistorical examples of the type of 
 weak will we have just considered : — 
 
 1 Or, rather, series of ideas, for a series of imitated movements has a 
 corresponding series of ideas. 
 
 2 See " Tale of Two Cities," chap. xiv.
 
 PART III.] VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. 357 
 
 " Antony, restless and self-indulgent, devoid alike of 
 prudence and of principle." — Liddell. 
 
 " Charles the Bold (or Eash), a man of stubhorn obstinacy 
 which never resigned its purpose, however fatal perseverance 
 might prove, .... and of headlong impetuosity which 
 commenced its career without allowing a moment's con- 
 sideration for the obstacles to be encountered. . . . The most 
 hasty and impatient, nay, the most imprudent prince of his 
 time." — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham, too, has thus been impaled on 
 the sharp point of Dryden's satire ; 
 
 '' Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, 
 Was everything by starts, and nothing long ; 
 But in the course of one revolving moon, 
 Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon. 
 Blest madman, who could every hour employ 
 With something new to wish or to enjoy." 
 
 It is evident from these last two examples that im- 
 petuosity, or impulsiveness, may be combined with obstinacy 
 — another form of weak will. 
 
 As examples of the opposite type we may take 
 Henry VIII. : " Like all princes of the Plantagenet blood, 
 he was a person of a most intense and imperious will." — 
 Froude. 
 
 William III. had " rare force of will." — Macaulay. 
 
 Frederick the Great " had received from nature .... a 
 rare firmness of temper and intensity of v/ill." — Macaulay. 
 
 The following are examples of will weak from stubborn- 
 ness : — 
 
 Charles I. : " The king is in his own nature very stiff." — 
 Contemporary writer. 
 
 " Was possessed of an obstinacy which prevented him 
 from making those prudent concessions which the temper of 
 the times rendered necessary." — J. F. Bright. 
 
 Georfje III. " had received from nature a firmness of 
 temper to which a harder jiame might perhaps be given." — 
 Macaulay.
 
 358 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 Here let us stop to inquire whether the type of weak 
 will described in this chapter is more characteristic of men 
 or women. There can, I think, be little doubt that it is 
 more commonly met with in women. This may arise 
 from two distinct causes, (a) Women have stronger feelings 
 than men, and are, as all the world knows, more apt to be 
 swayed by them. They thus tend to be more impulsive 
 and so far to be weaker-willed, (h) Further, probably more 
 women than men are incapable of taking in the whole 
 circumstances of a case, and passing judgment thereupon. 
 Unable to sweep her mind's eye over the same breadth of 
 horizon as the average man, the average woman finds the 
 alternatives to action proportionately fewer, and in pro- 
 portion as they are fewer, in that proportion does the 
 act dictated by any one of them tend to be simple mento- 
 motor, for, the more intelligent the individual, the greater 
 the scope of the will. How far the difference in this 
 respect between the sexes arises from nature and how from 
 nurture, I shall not stop here to consider.^ As one of the 
 leaders of female education recently asked us to remember, 
 " There has not yet been one generation of educated 
 women." 
 
 ^ Mobius observes that weakness of will is characteristic of women, 
 but he makes no discrimination between the different forms of weak will. 
 ("Die Nervositat," Leipsig, 1S82, S. 75).
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL {continued)— YAC1LLAT101<^. 
 
 The second variety of weak will is known as vacillation. In 
 this condition the motives to action are so nearly equal in 
 strength that no single one obtains the mastery. The indi- 
 vidual frequently finds the ;pros and cons so nearly balanced 
 — i.e., the impulse, or impulses, to one course, and the im- 
 pulse, or impulses, to another, of such equal force — that he 
 is unable to make up his mind how to act : he vacillates, 
 is undecided, and remains in a state of quiescence. This 
 is in most cases ^ weakness of will, since will essentially 
 
 ^ I say " in most cases " advisedly, because I would guard against in- 
 cluding among the class of weak-willed individuals those whom a rare 
 capacity to see all sides of a question, uninfluenced by bias, leads to take 
 up a negative position — such a man, for instance, as Lord Halifax, the 
 famous "Trimmer,'' described by Macaulay as " of rare lowers of reasoninrj 
 .... in amplitude of comprehension and subtlety of disquisition im- 
 equalled among the statesmen of his time. But that very fertility, that very 
 acuteness which gave charm to his conversation, to his oratory, and to his 
 writings, unfitted him for the work of promptly deciding practical questions. 
 He was slow from very quickness, for he saio so many arguments for and 
 against any possible course, that he icas longer in mcdcing up his mind than a 
 
 dull man ivould have been Too often when he had exhausted all that 
 
 could be said, and came to act, the time for action was over." It is clear 
 that a great logician can rarely be a great party leader. 
 
 Since the last sentence was written, I have come across the following 
 passage in " The Caxtons " bearing upon the same point : 
 
 '"Come (Trevanion is speaking), I will tell you the one secret of my 
 public life — that which explains all its failure (for, in spite of my position, 
 I have failed), and its regrets — I n-ant conviction ! ^ 
 
 " 'Exactly,' said my father; 'because to every question there are two 
 sides, und you look at them both.' "
 
 36o VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 implies action, and to remain inactive when some course 
 should be decided upon is the very negation of willing. 
 
 That such a tendency, like the tendency to imitativeness, 
 indicates weakness of will is well shown by the fact that, 
 under the influence of disease vacillation may take the 
 place of a strong will, indecision of decision. The influence 
 of prolonged torture and imprisonment in compelling an 
 individual to recant his belief, or in shaking his firmness of 
 purpose {e.g., Savonarola), may in some cases be attributed to 
 the debilitating effects of such treatment upon the nervous 
 system. 
 
 The following instance of vacillation shows that it may 
 be a symptom of nervous disorganisation: 
 
 Man, cet.2,S- Has been able to foretell an attack of nervousness 
 by finding himself unable promptly to make up his mind how to act 
 on any given occasion. On rising in the morning, for instance, he 
 cannot decide what to wear, whether a flannel suit or an ordinary 
 cloth one. He carefully studies the thermometer and the general 
 aspect of the weather. Xow he determines upon this, now on that, 
 and when at length he has brought himself to put on something, 
 he begins to question the wisdom of his choice, and to upbraid 
 himself for not having chosen otherwise. 
 
 A more remarkable case of indecision than the next I shall 
 cite it will be hard to find : 
 
 Man, «e«. 26. 6 ft. 14 st. Complexion pasty. No hair on his face. 
 Looks like an overgrown boy. Eyes restless. Stoops and walks 
 slowly. Knee jerk exaggerated. 
 
 Since his seventeenth year has been engaged as reporter in the 
 Central Criminal Court, and beheves the bad air and the trying 
 nature of the cases he has to report have been the main causes of 
 his present unhealthy nervous condition. 
 
 This manifests itself chiefly in indecision, which displays itself 
 in various ways. He has a difliculty in getting up ; canaiot bring 
 himself to put on any of his clothing without great effort, goes 
 about his bedroom in a purposeless way, without even resolution 
 enough to wash himself. At table he cannot make up his mind 
 to eat ; if a morsel of food is placed on his fork he will lift it off 
 his plate, but when it is midway to his mouth, he stops, not
 
 PART III.] VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. 361 
 
 having will enough to carry it any farther. This occurs at all 
 his meals. 
 
 When sitting in court he will arrange writing materials before 
 him and take up his pen, but he has not power to place it on the 
 paper without the help of the left hand. Once started, however, 
 he will go on for some time. When he has copied his shorthand 
 notes he is not satisfied they are correct, and makes his wife read 
 them over at least twelve or fifteen times. When they are posted 
 he is still undecided as to their correctness, and wishes he covild 
 get them back and go over them again. 
 
 In the street he is uncertain which way he shall turn, or where 
 he shall cross. Cannot hand money to cab- or omnibus-men ; 
 they have to take it from him. Is never certain about change ; 
 will count it repeatedly without satisfying himself. 
 
 After he has performed any ordinary or habitual act, such as 
 locking a desk, shutting a door, putting out a lamp, or posting a 
 letter, is uncertain whether he has done it, and will question him- 
 self over and over again. 
 
 Is easily controlled by being avithoritatively spoken to. Thus, 
 when quietly asked to undo his shirt and collar in order that his 
 chest may be examined, is unable to do it ; but a sharp and 
 authoritative " Don't be a fool, man ; undo your collar," secures 
 instant compliance. 
 
 Now if the explanation of a voluntary action which I 
 have given is oorrect — namely, that it is due to the concentra- 
 tion of the mind upon the idea of the act, and its consequent 
 vivid realisation — then we may explain such a case as the 
 above by supposing that the individual lacks this power, 
 the power of vividly realising an idea, and the facts that 
 the patient showed an inability to remember that he had 
 already performed a particular act, and also promptly re- 
 sponded to an authoritative command which served to put 
 one definitely before him, to the exclusion of all others, 
 supports this view. 
 
 History furnishes not a few examples of undecided or 
 vacillating characters. AVe may cite Louis XVI. of France, 
 whose irresolution none will deny ; and we have it on the 
 authority of Bright the historian that Elizabeth had " a rooted 
 dislike to making up her mind." Liddell writes of Pompey
 
 362 VAEIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part iir. 
 
 that lie was " grasping and selfish, but irresolute and im- 
 provident." Pilate's name also at once occurs to us in this 
 connection. Athelstane, the Unready/ is another good ex- 
 ample of indecision. Sir Walter Scott thus describes one of 
 his descendants : " He was comely in countenance, bulky 
 and strong in person, and in the flower of his age ; yet inani- 
 mate in expression, dull-eyed, heavy-browed, inactive and 
 sluggish in all his motions ; and so slow in resolution, that 
 the soubriquet of one of his ancestors was conferred upon him, 
 and he was very generally called Athelstane the Unready. 
 His friends, and he had many, who, as well as Cedric, were 
 passionately attached to him, contended that his sluggish 
 temper arose not from want of courage, but from mere want 
 of decision." — " Ivanhoe." 
 
 Hamlet also, though hardly a historical character, ex- 
 hibits all the varieties of weak will. He is impulsive when 
 he stabs Polonius, fascinated when he follows his father's 
 ghost, and vacillating throughout. 
 
 The vacillator must be carefully distinguished from the 
 shifty individual. A shifty person may be determined of 
 purpose in all that pertains to his own interest, although he 
 may, in the pursuance of that interest, appear vacillating to 
 others. 
 
 Whether men or women are by nature the more vacillat- 
 ing it is difficult to say ; but as things are, women, perhaps, 
 have on the whole greater difficulty in making up their 
 minds than men. The difference in this respect, however, if 
 any, is no doubt due to difference in training, as I have 
 before hinted. 
 
 1 The epithet 'Unready' is said by modern authorities to mean " without 
 rede" — i.e., without counsel, or wisdom. I nevertheless retain the quota- 
 tion from Scott for purposes of illustration.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL {continued)— FABCmATlO^. 
 
 We have now to consider that weakness of will which is due 
 to the abnormal strength of some one motive — fascination. 
 
 It was seen that voluntary acts have essentially for their 
 object the realisation of pleasure and the avoidance of pain ; 
 but that in obedience to the promptings of sympathy or of 
 duty, the individual may act in a way that shall secure neither. 
 In either case the will is normal in the truest sense of the 
 word. Sometimes, however, an individual, in obedience to an 
 abnormally strong impulse, not from any sense of sympathy 
 or duty, voluntarily commits an act which leads to pain ; he 
 is, as it were, fascinated to act contrary to the general law 
 of the will. In such cases he may, in a certain sense, be 
 said to act in spite of himself ; yet the action is here strictly 
 voluntary. 
 
 Thus, to take again a previous example, a person standing 
 on the edge of a clifi has a prompting to fling himself over ; 
 similarly, a person watching the light of an express train 
 may feel an irresistible impulse to rush towards it, or 
 may have a prompting to cross the rails when the train 
 is quite close to him. Now if in either of these 
 instances the particular morbid idea is the sole occupant of 
 the mental field, the individual obeys it of necessity ; he 
 does not act voluntarily in the sense in which I am using 
 that term ; but if, as usually happens, some other impulse 
 enters the field to do battle with the morbid impulse, then
 
 364 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 every one will acknowledge that the individual will be acting 
 voluntarily, no matter which impulse he obeys. 
 
 This form of weak will is so interesting and so important 
 that I propose to give some further examples of it. 
 
 When a patient dies in a hospital, and the body is 
 covered up and screened, there is often an irresistible 
 tendency on the part of some of the inmates of the wards 
 to peep behind the screen, lift the sheet, and gaze upon the 
 corpse. The silent, cold, spiritless covered-up thing that 
 was but lately warm with life and capable of thought, has 
 now become an object of morbid fascination. Patients who 
 have themselves only recently been rescued from the jaws 
 of death will, I am told, watch their opportunity, and 
 when the ward attendants are not by, silently steal up to 
 the screen. In some few cases the individuals thus 
 tempted take a positive pleasure in what they do ; but as a 
 rule the sight of the corpse is most repugnant to them, and 
 in spite of this they voluntarily give themselves up to the 
 painful experience. 
 
 As another instance of this kind of weak will, let us 
 take the case of an individual who meets in the street a 
 person afflicted with a strange deformity. Curiosity prompts 
 him to turn to look, though he knows very well the sufferer 
 cannot be otherwise than pained by the act if he observe it. 
 There is therefore a powerful motive prompting him to 
 restrain his curiosity ; and yet he may find himself 
 impelled to yield to it, not indeed because its satisfaction 
 will give him any pleasure — it probably does quite the 
 reverse — but because he is under the spell of a morbid 
 prompting. Whenever an individual thus acts he displays 
 weak will. The essence of this kind of weak will seems to 
 be this : the individual acts under fascination, counter 
 to promptings which he knows to be alike more con- 
 ducive to his own and to others' happiness than that to which 
 he yields. 
 
 These morbid promptings sometimes impel an individual 
 to do most ridiculous things. Thus I have known a person 
 who, not content with biting his nails to the quick, must
 
 PART III.] VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. 365 
 
 needs rub the tender exposed surface against some rough 
 object and thereby cause himself the most disagreeable 
 sensation, a sensation setting his very teeth on edge. He 
 feels himself irresistibly impelled to do this. In like 
 manner an individual may persist in touching a sensitive 
 tooth so that it shall cause him exquisite pain, and after 
 every such contact nerve himself to repeat the process. But 
 perhaps the most curious instance of this kind that 1 have 
 met with occurred in a boy of eleven years of age. This 
 lad acquired the habit of licking the collar of his coat. 
 The sensation thus produced was, as we may well imagine, 
 most unpleasant ; nevertheless he persisted in it for two or 
 three years, much to the detriment of his coat-collars ! 
 Some might suppose this was a veritable case of insanity, 
 but it was no such thing. The boy has since developed 
 into a man of well-balanced intellect, and no one is now 
 more ready to laugh at the absurdity of his conduct and to 
 speculate upon its cause than himself. Some of the wisest 
 men have acquired habits equally ridiculous. 
 
 Under this variety of weak will must also be classed that 
 form of impulsive insanity in which the individual finds 
 himself impelled to a certain act which runs counter to all 
 the dictates of his reason. The prompting to do some terri- 
 ble deed may, like a hideous nightmare, haunt the mind for 
 years. He struggles and struggles against it, but without 
 avail ; waking and sleeping it is there, till at last the poor 
 wretch will ask to be protected against himself. Here, as 
 in the other cases cited, the mind is, as it were, fascinated 
 by a particular idea which will not be suppressed, and which 
 sooner or later acts itself out. In all such cases, the in- 
 dividual acts voluntarily. We may trace every gradation 
 of fascination, from those cases in which the individual is 
 urged to the doing of some one senseless or ridiculous act, to 
 those in which he is haunted by a lasting motive to commit 
 a terrible crime. Hence the raison (Vet re of my classifica- 
 tion. For it is manifest that in considering weakness of 
 will we must not merely take into consideration the weak- 
 ness of ideal impulses, but also have regard to the morbid
 
 366 VARIETIES OF WEAK WILL. [part hi. 
 
 intensity of some particular impulse. For example, in 
 homicidal mania an individual is suddenly seized with a 
 frantic desire to kill, and we may fittingly, with Maudsley, 
 speak of it as a ' convulsive ' idea. The nervous arrange- 
 ments in the highest level constituting the physical basis of 
 that idea are abnormally agitated, as in the convulsive stage 
 of genuine epilepsy (in which disorder the discharge begins 
 in the same level), and the tendency of an idea being to act 
 itself out, the individual rushes on to his mad act. He 
 cannot, however, be said to act voluntarily. One morbid idea 
 fills the mind to the exclusion of all others ; the action is 
 therefore simple ideo-motor. 
 
 To this type of weak will belongs also the not uncommon 
 condition of the hysteric in which she would ' like ' to do 
 one thing, but is by an irresistible impulse impelled to do 
 another. 
 
 In this connection a curious case, cited by Meschede, of 
 Breslau, may be instanced. It was that of a man who, 
 when he attempted to do a particular thing, whether from 
 his own fancy or at the instance of some one else, found 
 himself — or, at all events, his muscles — doing the very 
 opposite.^ 
 
 Some individuals are capable of exercising a fascinating 
 influence over others, compelling them to do their bidding, 
 but it is only the weak-willed who are thus dominated. 
 They obey the word of command, especially if delivered 
 authoritatively, because the idea it suggests works itself 
 out, no counter-impulses powerful enough to neutralise it 
 coming into play. In much the same way the squirrel 
 is said to be fascinated by the bright gleaming eyes of the 
 snake, and to rush with screams of fear forwards and back- 
 wards, each time approaching nearer, until finally lured 
 within reach of the deadly fang. It is possible that the 
 bright eyes exercise a hypnotic effect in such cases. I 
 believe it is generally held that many of the night-prowling 
 carnivora — e.g., foxes — thus fascinate their prey ; and it 
 
 ^ " Correspondenz-Blatt der Deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Psjchiatrie," 
 No. II. 1874.
 
 PAKT III.] VARIETIES OF WEAK AVILL. 367 
 
 seems scarcely unreasonable to assume that two bright 
 globes shining through the darkness may produce hypnosis. 
 Look at a caged owl. The creature fixes its eyes upon the 
 bystander as if with intent to stare him out. Is it rash to 
 assume that this so remarkable stare subserves a definite 
 purpose ? 
 
 As an instance of fascination, one recalls the mythical 
 story of the Sirens. " These were their words ; but the 
 celestial harmony of the voices which sang them no 
 tongue can describe : it took the ear of Ulysses with 
 ravishment. He would have broken his bonds to rush after 
 them ; and threatened, wept, sued, entreated, commanded, 
 crying out with tears and passionate imprecations, conjuring 
 his men by all the ties of perils past which they had endured 
 in common ; by fellowship and love, and the authority which 
 he retained among them, to let him loose ; but at no rate 
 would they obey him. And still the Sirens sang. Ulysses 
 made signs, motions, gestures, promising mountains of gold 
 if they would set him free ; but their oars only moved 
 faster. And still the Sirens sang, and still, the more he 
 adjured them to set him free, the faster with cords and 
 ropes they bound him ; till they were quite out of the 
 hearing of the Sirens' notes." ^ This, like so many other 
 myths, embodies a great truth — the tendency of the human 
 will to be held captive by external forces which it would 
 fain resist. 
 
 I have now considered the first three varieties of weak 
 will. It will be unnecessary to discuss the fourth variety 
 in this work — that form, namely, in which coherent 
 thought is impossible, and in which therefore the indi- 
 vidual is incapable of undertaking a purposive course of 
 action. 
 
 I have confined my remarks to the influence of the will 
 on the voluntary muscles. As to its presumed influence in 
 controlling mentation — in directing thought and determining 
 desire, &c. — I have said nothing. 
 
 1 " The Adventures of Ulysses," Charles Lamb.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STRENGTHENING OF THE WILL— THE WILL AS A 
 THERAPEUTIC AGENT. 
 
 Having arrived at definite conceptions of the different kinds 
 of weak will, we are in a position to deal with what is, to us as 
 physicians, the all-important subject, viz., the strengthening 
 of the will ; and in considering it, which I shall do very 
 briefly, we shall find it convenient to take each sort of weak 
 will in succession. 
 
 I. It is clear that, in the first variety, our object is to 
 create and strengthen ideal motives, so that they shall be 
 able to enter into successful competition with the actual, 
 to develop compound mento-motor, in place of simple 
 mento-motor, action. The individual must be taught the 
 evils of precipitate action and the necessity for reflection — 
 a bit of scientific knowledge already crystallised for every- 
 day use in the proverb, ' Look before you leap.' For, 
 manifestly, the liability to act upon impulse is diminished 
 when ideal motives are strong and numerous; the scope 
 of the will increases as these increase. Nor is mere fixity of 
 purpose sufficient to ensure strength of will, for when this 
 is associated with narrowness of mind the individual 
 merely exhibits another variation of weak will — viz., 
 stubbornness or obstinacy. Our object, then, must be to 
 create a number of worthy ideal motives — worthy, because 
 power may be misapplied, and a will strong to follow 
 selfish impulses does not actuate a noble character. The
 
 PART III.] STRENGTHENING OF THE WILL. 369 
 
 motives must be the outcome of accurate knowledge and 
 right feeling. 
 
 2. The vacillator must be taught to come to rapid and 
 prompt decisions. There are many people — especially many 
 women — who have little occasion, in their commerce with 
 the world, to rely upon their own efforts and judgment. 
 Such are apt to fall into the lazy habit of seldom or never 
 making up their minds upon questions requiring delibera- 
 tion ; they prefer others to decide for them. Decision 
 requires effort, and etibrt is distasteful to their self-indulgent 
 natures. 
 
 Thus Lady William Lennox has alluded to the difficulty 
 which many women experience over so simple a matter as 
 choosing a dress : such should be taught to exercise their 
 powers of choice, and here certain games, as chess and cards, 
 affording practice in decision, will be fouud of the greatest 
 service. Decision of character is most necessary to, and 
 is found best developed in, practical men. What, indeed, do 
 we mean by a ' practical man,' l)ut one who is prompt to 
 decide and swift to act as emergencies arise ? The states- 
 man, the strategist, the speculator, the surgeon, all stand in 
 absolute need of decision. Imagine a surireon in the midst 
 of a difficult operation, when the patient's life depends upon 
 rapid action, hesitating between two courses ! Let any one 
 who wishes to understand what decision of character means 
 attend the operating theatre of St. Bartholomew's Hospital 
 any Thursday afternoon, when the surgeons meet to consult 
 over difficult cases. The patients are brought in one by one, 
 and are examined, in presence of the students, by the 
 surgeons in succession. After examination the patient with- 
 draws. Each surgeon then gives his opinion on the case. 
 There is no room for hesitancy. The patient's life may 
 depend upon the result ; and while the fierce light of 
 criticism beats upon the speaker, he has to seize upon all 
 the salient points of the case, and give his opinion rapidly 
 and decisively. 
 
 3. In the third form of weak will, again, that iu which 
 some one impulse to action amounts to fascination, much 
 
 2 A
 
 370 THE WILL IN DISEASE. [part hi. 
 
 good may come from practice in self-control. Every oppor- 
 tunity should be taken of fighting against the morbid 
 impulses. If an individual, for instance, finds a morbid 
 inclination to scrutinise any passing cripple in the street, he 
 should make a determined stand against the tendency. 
 
 But I will not attempt to describe in detail the various 
 methods of educating the will ; I merely seek to indicate 
 the main lines on which we sliould proceed. It is easy, in 
 fact, for anybody to set himself a series of exercises in will- 
 power. Let the weak-willed man make up his mind to 
 overcome some strong impulse occasionally. Let him, for 
 instance, forego the luxury of smoking, or let him give up 
 his wine for a week now and again — not with the object of 
 'mortifying' the flesh, but in order to strengthen ideal 
 impulses to action. A number of such exercises will readily 
 occur to every one. 
 
 I have entered at some length on the subject of the 
 will and its disorders, because it has a close bearing on 
 many forms of disease, both as regards the interpreta- 
 tion of them, their prevention, and indeed their treatment 
 also. 
 
 " I feel strongly," writes Sir James Paget,' " that this 
 intiuence of the will upon the health should be a subject of 
 resolute and careful self-education. Men should resolve 
 that they will not allow every unusual sensation to distract 
 their attention from work or any other important object. 
 If they would steadfastly go-on working in spite of noises 
 in the street or of talking in their rooms, they would 
 more easily be indifferent to sensations suggestive of disease. 
 The opposite of this is too often allowed and even boasted of. 
 It is common to hear healthy people say, and sometimes as 
 if it were praiseworthy, that they cannot sleep on this side 
 or that, or without a pillow or some such help. In some of 
 these there may be just reason for their defect, but in the 
 greater number it is a mere habit grown out of a want of 
 
 will to resist some discomfort And others, many of 
 
 ^ "Studies of Old Case-Books," pp. 163 et seq.
 
 PART III.] THE WILL IN DISEASE. 371 
 
 whom are healthy, tell that, unless they have their meals at 
 regular and fixed times, they cannot digest them. There 
 are few of these who may not safely resolve that they will 
 not fix the times, but will breakfast and dine whenever 
 they please or whenever circumstances make it most con- 
 venient. Their digestive organs will submit to their wills, 
 
 if tlieir wills do not submit to them I may as well 
 
 say that I am the more sure of these things because I have 
 myself done what I have here recommended, and have thus 
 worked hard for more than fifty years, happily and without 
 harm. And I have learned to believe that many persons, or 
 all who are not definitely unhealthy, may go even beyond 
 these rules. If they will resolve that their stomachs shall 
 tolerate this or that food, or shall not have this or that 
 stimulant, whether wine or mustard or any other, their 
 stomachs will, in time, yield. They need not be more 
 resolute than most of those must be who wish to be smokers ; 
 these find that, after a few days' distress, pleasure comes 
 from the very thing that was a cause of misery. They have 
 only to place themselves willingly in difficulties such as 
 others have to endure, whether they will or no ; as when, 
 for pleasure or duty, they go to sea or places where the food 
 seems at first unfit to eat. In time they learn to enjoy it, 
 and it serves for active work," 
 
 No one, indeed, can doubt that the will may be effectually 
 brought into service in the prevention and treatment of 
 disease, John Eeid, in his " Essays on Hypochondriasis " 
 (London, i 82 i), has an interesting chapter on " the power of 
 volition" in disease, and he aptly heads it with the lines — 
 
 " By all the gods the Romans bow before, 
 I here discard my sickness, " 
 
 In the appendix to the same work occurs the following 
 passage : — " We should have fewer disorders of the mind 
 if we could acquire more power of volition, and endeavour, 
 by our energy, to disperse the clouds which occasionally 
 arise within our own horizon ; if we resolutely tore the first 
 threads of the net which gloom and ill-humour may cast
 
 372 THE WILL IN DISEASE. [part hi. 
 
 around us, and made an effort to drive away the melancholy 
 images of the imagination by incessant occupation." 
 
 Many remarkable instances of the influence of the will in 
 disease have been recorded. Thus it is related of the 
 famous Duchess of Marlborough, that in one of her illnesses 
 her physician said to her, " Either you take these pills or 
 you die." " I will do neither," replied the doughty lady ; 
 " I will neither take the pills, nor will I die." And she 
 was true to her word. 
 
 It is above all in the functional disorders of the nervous 
 system that a knowledge of the will is helpful to us. 
 For the more an individual is a slave to strong emotion, 
 the more he acts upon the impulse of the moment, the 
 more likely is he, if endowed with a weak nervous system, 
 to suffer from disturbance of nervous function ; and it may, 
 I think, be safely said that the stronger the will — other 
 things being equal — the less likely is he to do so. The 
 weak-willed, impulsive woman allows herself to be im- 
 pelled hither and thither by the violence of her feelings, 
 and is tossed now in this direction, now in that, like a bark 
 upon stormy waters ; while the woman of strong will, 
 keeping steadily before her the end which she has resolved 
 on, flnds herself by and by in the haven where she 
 would be. 
 
 The condition of the will in diseases of the nervous 
 system, such, for instance, as hysteria, has been alluded 
 to by more than one writer, but for the most part in such 
 a loose and casual way as to make it impossible for the 
 reader to get a philosophic insight into the matter, and it 
 was indeed this circumstance which induced me to think 
 it out. My attempt will, perhaps, appear somewhat auda- 
 cious in the eyes of the professed psychologist, but my 
 motive and the inherent difficulty of the subject will, I 
 hope, induce him not to view my efforts in a too contentious 
 spirit.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abscess, cerebral, its frequency in the sexes compared, 136 
 Act of will, diagrammatic representation of, 335 
 Activity of male organisms, 102 
 
 of men and women compared, 117 
 Actual and ideal impulses, 328 
 
 Acute ascending paralysis, comparative frequency in the sexes of, 135 
 Adaptability, mental, 52 
 Adaptation and adaptability, difference between, 60 
 
 actual and potential, 60 
 Adolescent insanity, 179 
 ^sthogenic, its meaning, 108 
 Alison, on beauty, 110 
 Allen, Grant, 52 
 Anaboliam, meaning of, 99 
 Anatomical substratum of consciousness, 309 
 Angina pectoris, its frequency in man and woman compared, 145 
 Anstie, 157 
 
 Ante-pubertal monthly rhythm, 257 
 Antony, an example of weak will, 357 
 Artfulness in women, 224 
 Ascidians, fertilisation in, 36 
 
 Asylums, private lunatic, excess of male over female patients in, 250 
 Ataxic paraplegia, its comparative frequency in the sexes, 135 
 Attention, influence of, directed to the body, 315 
 connection of, with the will, 323 
 
 B. 
 
 Baldness, inheritability of, 76 11. 
 Balfour, Dr., on diseases of the heart, 96 
 Bain, Alex., 297, 339, 340
 
 374 INDEX. 
 
 Batten, Dr. R. D., on the constitutional nature of hypermetropia and 
 
 myopia, 193 
 Beauty of 'nature,' its origin, 107 n. 
 Bigotry, 229 
 Blastogenic characters, 70 
 
 inheritability of, 76 
 Boy and girl, differences in nervous organisation between the, 154 
 Boyd, R., 129 
 
 Brain, weight of, in the sexes compared, 175 
 Bravery in man, 83 
 Brooks, W. K., 14, 15, 72 n. 
 Brunton, Dr. Lauder, 138 n. 
 BufEon, 57 
 Burnet, Dr. R. W., 301 
 
 C. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 51, 163, 179 
 
 Cerebral lesions in insanity, 150 
 
 Charles I., the will-power of, 357 
 
 Charles the Bold, an example of weak will, 357 
 
 Child, mental characteristics of the, 155 
 
 Choosing and willing, distinction between, 342 
 
 Chorea, comparative frequency in the boy and girl, 140, 154 
 
 Clannishness in man and woman compared, 84, 236 
 
 Claus, Professor, 13 
 
 Climacteric disease in man, 274 
 
 period, and menstruation, 251 
 
 its influence on the sexual instinct of, 208 
 on woman, 175 
 Collins, Howard, 62 n., 63 
 Combs, the growth of, in the cock-bird, 103 
 Communal marriage, 45 
 Compound mento-motor action, 326 
 
 necessity for, in man, 347 
 Conception, 292, 294 
 Conjugation, 4, 3, 9 
 Control, self, 303 
 Consciousness, physical substratum of, 280 n. , 309 
 
 ultimate unit of, 292 
 Conservative tendency in man and woman compared, 233 
 Correspondence, meaning of the term, 59 
 Country life, influence of, 87 
 Courage in man, 83 
 
 Crimes in men and women compared, 130 
 Critical periods in the life of the female, 1 26 
 Crocodile, lack of variations in, 77 
 Cross-fertilisation, 6, 4, 8 
 Cunning, origin of, in hysteria, 54 
 in woman, 224
 
 INDEX. 375 
 
 I>. 
 
 Dances of Middle Ages, 356 
 
 Dancing, influence of sex on the liking for, 168 
 
 Daring in man, 83 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 6, 8, 9, 19, 21, 30, 32, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 79- I33 
 
 Deliberation, 330 
 
 Dependence, sense of, in women, 55 
 
 Determining mento-motor state, the, 342 
 
 Development, initial stage of, 19 
 
 from germ-plasm, explanation of, 26 
 Dichogamy, 7, loi, 102 
 
 Digestive organs, their influence on the emotions, 301 
 Direct equilibration, 40 
 Disease, effects of, 66 
 
 Disseminated sclerosis, its frequency in the sexes compared, 137 
 Dissimulation in hysteria, 54 
 Dissolution in disease, 353 
 
 Domestic worry, influence of, on woman's health, 89 
 Duck, effects of use and disuse on muscles of, 66, 74 
 
 E. 
 
 Education, influence of, on sexual differentiation, 85 
 Effeminate men, survival of, 47 
 Egoism of men, 177, 190 
 Einer, Professor, 58 
 Elizabeth, Queen, will-power of, 361 
 Emotional action, 320, 321 
 expression, 321 
 Emotionality, 303 
 Emotions, the, 295 
 
 influence on the thoughts of, 305 
 Encephalon, weight of the, in the sexes compared, 175 
 English, adaptability of the, 65 
 Entoperipheral sensations, 281 
 Environment, direct action of the, 40, 57 
 
 of an organism, definition of, 66 
 of the sexes compared, 122 
 
 part played by the, in sexual differentiation, 182 
 Environmental mouldings, 57 
 Epiperipheral sensations, 281 
 Equilibrium, direct and indirect, 40 
 Erotomania, 38 
 
 Esprit de corps in man and woman compared, 84 
 Evolution of mind, 195 
 
 of the nervous system, 311 
 of the sexual instinct, 35 
 Expression of the emotions, 322 
 Eyes, atrophy of, from disuse, 72
 
 376 INDEX. 
 
 Fascination, its influence on the will, 357 
 Fashion, fickleness of, 105 
 
 fixity of, in the East, 106 
 Fat, comparative tendency of men and women to become, 115 
 Fear of death, 186 
 
 Feathers, abundance of in cock birds, 103 
 Feelings, pleasurable and painful, 205 
 
 the, considered as active forces, 309 
 
 their influence on the thoughts, 304 
 Female and male organisms contrasted, 33, 35 
 Fertilisation, mode in which it occurs, 19 
 
 the union of sperm-nucleus with germ-nucleus, 1 1 
 Frederick the Great, an example of strong will 357 
 Function, influence of, on structure, 67 n. 
 
 Functional nervous disorders, comparative frequency of, in the two sexes, 
 141 
 
 G. 
 
 ■Galabin, Dr., 243 
 
 Gall-stones, their frequency in the sexes compared, 121 
 
 Geddes and Thomson, 5, 7, 9, 15, 43 n., 58, 97 
 
 General paralysis of the insane, its comparative frequency in men and 
 
 women, 181 
 Generative organs, their influence on the emotions, 300 
 Genius, its limitation to the male sex, 173 
 George III., will-power of, 357 
 Germ plasm, theory of, 21 
 
 its evolution, 21-27 
 Girl and boy, difference in nervous organisation between the, 1 54 
 Gout, its origin, 80 
 Gowers, Dr. W. K., 134, 164, 169 
 Greenhow, Dr., on bronchitis, 96 
 Gruber, Professor, 12 
 
 H. 
 
 Habit-spasm, its comparative frequency in boys and girls, 154 
 
 Hfematoma of the dura mater, influence of sex in the frequency of, 136 
 
 Hasmorrhage, capacity to bear, in the two sexes compared, 118 
 
 Hair, abundance of, in the male sex, 103 
 
 Halford, Sir Henry, 274 
 
 Hamlet, will-power of, 362 
 
 Hausner, Prof., 130 ?i. 
 
 Henniker, B. P., 126, 127 
 
 Henry VIII., an example of strong will, 357 
 
 Henson, Professor, 9 
 
 Heredity, as limited by sex, 30 
 
 Weissmann's theory of 2 1
 
 INDEX. 381 
 
 Reproductive cells, how they come by their structure, 20 
 
 Resignation in women, 54, 90 
 
 Resolution, 339 
 
 Respirations, rate of, in men and women, 118 
 
 Reynolds, Sir J., no 
 
 Roberts, Sir W., 169 
 
 Rolf, Professor, 9, 15, 104 
 
 Romanes, 171 n., 191, 306 «. 
 
 Ross, Dr., 307 
 
 Ruskin, 53, no, ui 
 
 S. 
 
 Satyriasis, 39 
 
 Savage, Dr., on disfigurement as a cause of insanity, 182 
 
 Savage, likeness between the child and the, 1 59 
 
 Schopenhauer, 161 
 
 Scope of the will, 353 
 
 Secondary sexual characters, 32 
 
 influence of natural selection upon, 50 
 Segmentation-nucleus, first, 19 
 Self-control, 303 
 
 in child and adult, 1 66 
 -depreciation in women, 55 
 Sensations, genesis of, 282 
 Sense-organs, sensitiveness of, in savage and civilised peoples, compared 
 
 194 
 Sensori-motor action, 318 
 Separation of the sexes, 28 
 Sex, what determined by, 106 
 cells, 5 
 
 union of, 19 
 Sexes, separation of the, 28 
 Sexual instinct, evolution of, 35 
 
 in man and woman compared, 199 
 viewed from the pathological standpoint, 214 
 selection, 41 
 
 characters, secondary, 32 
 reproduction, 4 
 
 import of, 6 
 
 a cause of variations, 10 
 system, its influence upon the nervous health of woman, 88 
 Sieveking, Sir E., 306 
 Simple mento-motor action, 316 
 Singing as a thorapeutic agent, 95 
 Sleep in men and women compared, 117, 119 
 Social and animal organisms, analogy in the evolution of, 26 «. 
 Soma, meaning of the term, 21 n. 
 Somatogenetic characters, 70
 
 382 INDEX. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 3, 9, 26 n., 40, 58 n., 59, 60, 63, 67 n., 69, 109, 155, 192 n., 
 
 196 292, 299, 345 n 
 Spermatozoon, evolution of, 5 
 
 function of the body of, 1 1 
 
 katabolism of, 99 
 
 structure of, 15 
 Spermogenetic nucleoplasm, 12, 19 
 Spiritualism, 310 n. 
 Sprengel, 6 
 
 Strasburger, Professor, 12 
 
 Structure, discoverable and undiscoverable, 67 n. 
 Stubbornness, 353 
 Sturges, Dr. O., 169 
 Suicide, influence of sex on, 216 
 Sully, 190, 296 n., 328 n. 
 Sympathy in woman, 83 
 
 T. 
 
 Tact in woman, 53 
 
 in man and woman compared, 222 
 Temperature, body-, in the two sexes, 103 
 Tenacity of life in men and women, 121 
 Tetanus, its frequency in the sexes compared, 137 
 Tetany, its frequency in the sexes compared, 141, 154 
 Thomson and Geddes, 5, 7, 9, 15, 43 n., 58, 97 
 Tilt, Dr., 259 
 
 Toes, overlapping of, in infants, 75 w. 
 Torture, its influence on the will, 360 
 Town-life, influence of, 87 
 Treves, Frederick, 174 
 
 Tumour, cerebral, its comparative frequency in the sexes, 137, 140 
 Types of beauty, 105 
 Typhoid, influence of sex on, 127 
 Typhus, 127 
 
 u. 
 
 Ulysses and the Sirens, 367 
 
 Unicellular organisms, sexual reproduction in, 4 
 
 Union of sex-cells, 18 
 
 Use, effects of, 66, 74, 194 
 
 Unselfishness in the woman, 83 
 
 V. 
 
 Vacillation, 359 
 Van Beneden, Professor, 9 
 Vanity in woman, 181 
 Variability in disease, 301 
 
 in diseases of men and women compared, 234
 
 INDEX. 383 
 
 Variability of secondary sexual characters, 47 
 Varieties of weak will, 349 
 
 Vermes, progress from the hermaphrodite to the dioecious state in, 30 
 Victimised women, 356 
 
 Viscera, their influence on the emotions, 298 
 Voluntary act, diagrammatic representation of, 335 
 action, definition of, 327 ?i- 
 
 w. 
 
 Wallace, Richard, 43 n., 70 n., 105 
 
 Wattles, the growth of, in cock birds, 103 
 
 Weak will, varieties of, 349 
 
 Weight of brain in the sexes compared, 175 
 
 Weismann, 9, 10, 12, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 39, 58 n., 64, 45, 68, 69, 72, 73, 74. 
 
 76, 77, 7S, 79,211 
 Westcott, W. W., on suicide, 216 n. 
 Wilks, Dr. Samuel, 138 w. 
 Will, the, a therapeutic agent, 370 
 
 diagrammatic representation of an act of, 335 
 
 freedom of, 345 
 
 law of, 331, 332 
 
 strengthening of, 368 
 William III. an example of strong will, 357 
 Willing and choosing, distinction between, 342 
 Woman an undeveloped man, 153 
 
 resemblance to the child of, 161 
 Worry, domestic, influence on the woman's health of, 89 
 Writer's cramp, its comparative frequency in the sexes, 144 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yolk-granules, arrangement of, in the different animals, 19 n. 
 
 PRINTED )iY IIALLANTV.NE, HANSON' AND tlO. 
 LONDON AND EDINbUKGH.
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Just Published, demy 8vo, 10s. 6d. 
 
 FLUSHING 
 
 AND 
 
 MORBID BLUSHING, 
 
 THEIR PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT. 
 
 IRottces Of tbe press. 
 
 " The work is characterised by its thoughtfulness, suggestiveness, and 
 evidence of much acquaintance with medical literature. It is a valuable 
 addition to symptomatic medicine," — Tlte Journal of Mental ^Science. 
 
 " Dr. Campbell therefore deserves great credit for having explored a 
 
 field which promised to yield so little It will thus be seen that 
 
 Dr. Campbell deals very fully with an unpromising theme, and the book is 
 evidence of the care with which he has investigated each individual 
 patient. That the results he has obtained hardly repay so much trouble i^ 
 not his fault, but is due to the inherent difficulty of the subject. The 
 book is well written, well printed, and the diagrams are excellent." — British 
 Medical Journal. 
 
 "We have been highly pleased with the work as a whole, and can 
 cordially recommend it to all those whose interest in medical science 
 takes a wider range tlian that embraced by the grosser manifestations of 
 disease. The printing, paper, and general get up of the book reflect great 
 credit on the publisher." — Liverpool Medico- Chirurf/ical Journal. 
 
 "The book is beautifully printed and illustrated with a number of 
 highly instructive diagrams. It fills very successfully a gap in medical 
 literature." — Edinburgh Medical Journal. 
 
 " The book is a valuable contribution to the physiology of the vaso- 
 motor system, and those who have patients afflicted with flushing or with 
 morbid blushing will be glad to read its pages." — 3Iedical and Surgical 
 Reporter. 
 
 " Dr. Campbell has treated the whole subject with a masterly hand." — 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 ". . . . the book is well arranged, and gives evidence of a large 
 amount df 'ckreful observation. It will be of interest to all those who do 
 more than scratch at the surface of medical science." — Australian Medical 
 Journal. 
 
 " The book is well written throughout, and is an acceptable and very 
 valuable contribution on a subject as yet but very inadequately discussed." 
 — Ijondon Medical Recorder. 
 
 " The work itself is most elaborate, and deals with these common but 
 little-studied symptoms in a most exhaustive manner." — Boston Medical 
 and Surgical Journal. 
 
 LONDON: 
 H. K. LEWIS, 13G GOWEE STREET. 
 
 2 B
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Just Published, demy 8vo, 12s. 6d. 
 
 THE 
 
 CAUSATION OF DISEASE, 
 
 AN EXPOSITION OF THE ULTIMATE 
 FACTORS WHICH INDUCE IT. 
 
 IRotices of tbe {press. 
 
 " In showing the wide extension to be given to the great principle of 
 evolution, and the doctrine of the survival of the fittest, the author of this 
 work has opened up a vast field of thought which is both stimulating and 
 suggestive. We commend the essay to the thoughtful reader who is 
 desirous of noting the extent to which the problems of disease can be 
 solved by an appeal to natural laws." — Lancet. 
 
 "Before leaving his book we feel it our duty to thank Dr. Campbell for 
 the interest which it has afforded us. It is full of chapters and passages 
 
 containing much that deserves careful thought We can assure our 
 
 readers that they will find much that is suggestive and profitable in the 
 book.'' — London Bledical Recorder. 
 
 " To those who desire to read in a work, as clear as it is profound, the 
 complicated conditions which underlie disease — the relation of the inner 
 structure, inherited or acquired, to external pathogenic influence — we 
 recommend the author's book." — Deutsche Med. Zcitung. 
 
 " His book is a most valuable addition to recent medical literature." — 
 Illustrated Medical News. 
 
 " In this book an intricate subject is ably discussed The book 
 
 deserves the careful consideration of all scientific physicians." — Liverpool 
 Medico- Chirurgical Journal. 
 
 "One chapter discusses the parasitic origin of cancer, . , . , another 
 chapter discusses the duration of the evolution of the mind, .... another 
 subject discussed with great ability is the degree in which the selection of 
 wives among civilised nations is in relation to the principles of sexual 
 selection laid down by Darwin. The interesting subject of the effect of 
 
 London life on the constitution is thoroughly discussed Such are a 
 
 few of the topics of this interesting book, the product of careful thought 
 and prolonged observation." — TJie Athenoium. 
 
 LONDON: 
 H. K. LEWIS, 136 GOWEE STEEET.
 
 y^
 
 
 University of Caiifornia 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACJUTY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from v»hlch it was borrowed.