The result of a curious obtuseness to the economics of personal and
domestic hygiene is also responsible for another serious dereliction of
parental duty, by which health and progress have been grievously, though
quite unnecessarily and constantly, hampered. I refer to the general
failure to economise nervous energy or to take any interest in what is
rightly called mental hygiene. Yet Press and people alike deplore the
evident increase of mental abnormalities, and anticipate the future with
undisguised anxiety. It has been well said that though men carry more of
the wood, women carry not less of the worries of life. They _may_ in
some cases escape the physical toil which strengthens; they do _not_
escape the mental toil which demoralises and kills spirit and energy if
not body and health. Now, though the brain tissues do not create mental
activities, nevertheless we all know that they are conditioned in some
inexplicable way by that organ. Derangement in any part of the brain
deranges or diminishes its functions; non-development in any part of the
brain can and does arrest mind growth. Chronic over-fatigue and
exhaustion, anaemia however produced, the circulation through the nervous
tissues of impure blood, alter the character of the mental processes.
The results of starvation may so distort them, that the horrors of the
French Revolution are attributed by some authorities to this particular
cause. That the imperfect lymph circulation associated with adenoid
vegetations accounts for much so-called stupidity is one of the first
fruits of the medical inspection of school children; that a severe shock
may destroy intelligence is a fact familiar to every expert in mental
hygiene. If it were generally known to parents that every impression
received by this, the most sensitive of all organs, is stored up from
early infancy, albeit subconsciously, and can at some future time rise
up into the field of consciousness, influencing both thought and action
for good or ill, a very different line of conduct would be taken towards
the persons or the places which make up a young child's surroundings and
most indelibly impress his brain cells.
It is surely time, therefore, that some broad outline of the process of
normal development of the whole nervous system should be possessed by
all in charge of children. Every mother, for example, should know that
the movements of a new-born baby, such as the facial contortions
observed during sleep, or the stretching and bending of the limbs in
very young infants, involuntary and automatic in character, constitute
the simplest form of nervous activity. They are the necessary precursors
of that intellectual ability, to the development of which parental
ambitions aspire, and should merge into more advanced forms of nerve and
muscle co-ordination, which, rightly utilised, are invaluable agents in
infant education.[119] An intelligent nurse possessed of even this
outline could begin quite early that training in physiological
righteousness and in the strict voluntary control of the whole group of
emotional expressions, of which, as a little reflection will quickly
show, good manners largely consist. Presently, as the brain cells are
stimulated into function by nutrition and a quicker and more extensive
recognition of external sensations is acquired, a child will perform
instinctive movements, such as sitting, crawling, standing, walking,
jumping and throwing. Though considerable latitude must be allowed for
their wide individual variation, failure to display these evidences of
mental progress should call for careful investigation. Later on, skill
in a hundred different forms of muscular activity should be displayed;
but many years will elapse before full control of the body in all its
parts will be acquired, and more years still must roll by before
reasoned control of the mental and moral actions is developed. The last
years of this long period of development are, perhaps, the most critical
of the whole; though all depend for their favourable fruition upon an
infinity of loving care and suitable provision for their appropriate
activities.
There would be a marked reduction in exhausting disciplinary
difficulties were every parent aware that, to the almost vegetative
character of the first few post-natal months (when sleep will or should
absorb at least twenty hours out of the twenty-four), will succeed a
period of extraordinary activity, which lasts till about eight or nine
years of age, when the mind is essentially an exploring organ;
imitative, impressionable, retentive. Every legitimate opportunity for
the liberal gratification of these characteristics should be provided,
as well as suitable surroundings for the eager, inquiring brain.
Elaborate toys are not necessary, nor is premature book-learning
permissible; but freedom to investigate, to experiment, to test, to
explore, is the child's urgent need, as well as suitable arrangements
for the intervening periods of profound sleep. Repressed activity is
often responsible for breaches of discipline; so is insufficient sleep,
following on over-excitement, accountable for "temper" and passions.
The next phase of growth is still distinguished by this continued
capacity for and dependence upon muscular activity, but the mind
becomes more reflective, more productive. The power to initiate should
develop during this stage of development, as well as increased power to
control mental and bodily functions; and, throughout each of these
periods, there should be a steady, unintermittent formation of good
habits. At first, the nature of these will be chiefly physical; the
habitual performance of the bodily functions should be safeguarded,
until their neglect is attended by discomfort and their violation
becomes almost painful. Then, by degrees, the moral and mental nature
develops.
Thus is the child prepared for the stress and turmoil of the long and
anxious years of adolescence; when, under the influence of new emotions,
of fresh temptations, of unfamiliar powers, the character built on the
sands of parental indulgence is undermined, if not swept clean away;
whereas when built on the firm rock of good habits it emerges unshaken
from the storm.
That childhood is an honourable estate must be now evident; pregnant as
it is with possibilities, pathetic in the risks associated with its
plasticity and dependence. Should it therefore be necessary in the
twentieth century to point out that, when the fund of nervous energy is
constantly exhausted by deficient sleep and poor food; when a demand on
function in advance of what nature is prepared to comply with is
persistently made, as it has habitually been in our schools; when
exaggerated and pernicious stimuli are allowed to fatigue and to
paralyse our child population; when inadequate training in the right
conduct of life is provided, and no information given on the dawning
functions of potential parenthood; when premature responsibility is
imposed or precocious and unwholesome independence is permitted; worst
of all, when, through parental disease or alcoholism, the brain tissue
is of too poor a quality to resist the strain of modern life--it is no
matter for surprise that mental instability and insanity are on the
increase, nor that degenerates hamper by their helplessness and crime
the productive capacity of the normal.
The importance of mental hygiene calls for no more emphasis on my part;
though, did space permit, further illustrations might be given of its
scope. It includes the methods in our nurseries, the curriculum of our
schools, the care of our adolescents, the increasing differentiation of
our industrial processes, the character of our often miscalled
recreations. It is concerned with the warding off of nervous breakdowns,
and, with Goethe, it would call the attention of all women to the fact
that the secret of rest is found not "in quitting a busy career, but
rather the fitting of self to one's sphere." It views with anxiety the
growing disregard of religious obligations and restraints, and
emphasises the grave antenatal responsibilities of parents for their
offspring; they who should be the most ardent advocates of a sound
heredity, as well as the promoters of a good home environment for their
children.