FEWER AND BETTER CHILDREN.
In the present age suggestions on this subject may seem superfluous. The more highly educated and wealthy classes have already sufficiently reduced the number of children which they bring into the world. But are these offspring any better than they would have been had their parents given birth to a larger number?
Mr. Darwin did not think much could be done to improve the race by parents limiting the number of their offspring. He would trust to natural selection to weed out the unfit, and to sexual selection as an aid. He thus describes the probable manner of action of sexual selection among primeval men: "The strongest and most vigorous men—those who could best defend and hunt for their families; those who were provided with the best weapons and possessed the most property, such as a large number of dogs or other animals—would succeed in rearing a greater average number of offspring than the weaker and poorer members of the same tribes. Such men would doubtless generally be able to select the more attractive women. . . . [180]If, then, this be admitted, it would be an unexplainable circumstance if the selection of the more attractive women by the more powerful men of the tribes, who would rear on the average a greater number of children, did not, after the lapse of generations, modify the character of the tribes."
The way in which the tribe would be modified would be by its producing better children. Of course among primitive men the richer and more powerful had several wives, but it is not likely that the number of children by each one was large.
Natural selection is, however, a painful process, necessary, no doubt, where ignorance prevails; but if the number of children of each pair could be limited and of a superior character, so far as vigor and adaptation to environment are concerned, would there not be less need for natural selection with all its evils? It seems to us that this would be so.
We have already quoted Grant Allen as favoring abstinence from parenthood on the part of the unfit and the duty on the part of the fit to become parents, and, theoretically, Mr. Allen is right; but except as both of these classes are swayed by duty we would make little progress in this way. A majority of mankind think they are the fit. Why should they crucify their desires for the benefit of the race? As mankind becomes more moral Mr. Allen's views may have a larger influence on [181]thought than now; but before that time little can be expected from them.
Mr. Spencer says: "We have fallen upon evil times, in which it has come to be an accepted doctrine that part of the responsibilities [of parenthood] are to be discharged, not by parents, but by the public—a part which is gradually becoming a larger part, and threatens to become the whole. Agitators and legislators have united in spreading a theory which, logically followed out, ends in the monstrous conclusion that it is for parents to beget children and for society to take care of them. The political ethics now in fashion makes the unhesitating assumption that while each man, as parent, is not responsible for the mental culture of his offspring he is, as a citizen along with other citizens, responsible for the mental culture of all other men's offspring! And this absurd doctrine has now become so well established that people raise their eyes in astonishment if you deny. But this ignoring of the truth, that only by due discharge of parental responsibilities has all life on the earth arisen, and that only through the better discharge of them have there gradually been made possible better types of life, is, in the long run, fatal. Breach of natural law will, in this case, as in all cases, be followed in due time by nature's revenge—a revenge which will be terrible in proportion as the breach has been great. A system [182]under which parental duties are performed wholesale by those who are not parents, under the plea that many parents cannot or will not perform their duties—a system which fosters the inferior children of inferior parents at the cost of superior parents and consequent injury of superior children—a system which thus helps incapables to multiply and hinders the multiplication of capables or diminishes their capability must bring decay and ultimate extinction. A society which persists in such a system must—other things equal—go to the wall in the competition with a society which does not commit this folly of nourishing its worst at the expense of its best."
We have evidence among primitive people that they understand the necessity of limiting offspring, and practice it in a perfectly healthful way. The natives of Uganda, a region in Central Africa, offers an illustration: "The women rarely have more than two or three children; the practice is that when a woman has borne a child she is to live apart from her husband for two years, at which age children are weaned."
Seaman, speaking of the Fijians, says: "After childbirth husband and wife keep apart three and even four years, so that no other baby may interfere with the time considered necessary for suckling children."
Some fifty years ago there lived in New York a [183]young couple, strong, healthy, ambitious to be rich, and both saving and industrious enough to become so under ordinary conditions. The husband was in a business which required constant attention; and in order to promote it and save the expense of help which he thought he could not afford, he labored nights, often up to the hours of twelve and sometimes one o'clock, and then arose early and went at it again. His wife sympathized with him in all his undertakings, helped him in every way possible, even to the sharing of his midnight toils. In no way did either of them spare themselves. They knew something of the evils of poverty, and were determined that it should not always be their lot. Fortune favored them, and their bank account grew larger and larger until they could count the value of their possessions as amounting to several million dollars. They lived in a fine country seat, and could gratify every wish, so far as food, clothing, books and travel were concerned. During their early married life, when the strain of work was the greatest, two children were born unto them, both boys, and they are alive today; but are they a comfort to their parents, and a help in their declining years? Instead of this they are both deformed and cripples, unable to help themselves or do any labor. Their family physician has told me that the overwork and privation of the parents at the time of their [184]birth and before, was undoubtedly the cause of the children's inferiority. A younger son born after the wife had ceased to toil like a slave, gives some promise of being a man of character.
We have here a typical case of strong, healthy parents, with a limited number of offspring, yet they were not superior. On the other hand, it would be easy to collect a large number of instances where the children in large families have had superior endowments. Take Benjamin Franklin as an example. He was the fifteenth child of his father, Josiah Franklin, and the eighth of the ten children of his mother.
It seems that superiority is a result of great vigor and perfection of body and mind and of abundant reproductive power. Where this is absent the children will hardly be superior. Yet in both cases a certain degree of limitation ought to be advantageous.
In conclusion, let me say what I have indirectly said already. Let the strong, the capable and the good rear as many children as they can without overburdening themselves in any way, and let the weak, the imperfect and the bad rear few or none, but devote their lives to perfecting their own characters. In this way the future race will be modified for good and not for evil.
Homo-culture, by Martin Luther Holbrook
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Re: Homo-culture, by Martin Luther Holbrook
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A THEORETICAL BABY.
by C. W. Lyman, M. D.
Reported by request of Dr. Holbrook.
It was our first baby. I was making a living as a doctor by writing articles on the general care of the health; and my wife before her marriage had been a kindergartner, a trainer of kindergartners, and a lecturer to mothers on the scientific and expert methods of rearing children aright. We believed in the theories we had taught, and our baby got nothing else from the start. According to the first applied theory, we made our temporary home before the boy began to be, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado; and were a large part of the time either in our garden or on horseback, in this perfect outdoor climate. My wife was entirely in love with me, and I made each day count for nothing more certainly than to deserve and return that sentiment of hers. We lived simply but freely, and had next to no anxieties. My wife had practiced general gymnastics for years; but for months prior to the birth of her boy, she every day went through with a series of special maternal gymnastics, by which the muscles that aid in parturition can be made [186]strong and entirely to be relied upon. We were rewarded for this outlay of time in a delivery that was rapid and easy, without more than an ounce of hæmorrhage, and everything so perfectly controlled that—except for the inconvenience of it—the presence and aid of the physician (myself) might have been dispensed with. Recovery was rapid also. My wife made no haste to get up, keeping quiet most of the time for two weeks, to ensure good milk. But she did a family washing without effort after three weeks, and was on horseback again by the sixth week. The baby was not severed from his mother till ten minutes after birth (ensuring a better blood supply). Then he got no bath, no food, no dressing process; but was simply swathed in cotton batting and laid aside for six hours in a padded box-bed, surrounded by bottles of hot water, and covered with plenty of soft blankets, to sleep and get used to his new environment. On the second day we began rubbing him daily from head to foot with vaseline. His first bath, with a flannel cloth dipped in warm milk diluted with soft water and without soap, came when he was a week old, and was followed by the thorough rub with vaseline. This bath he has had nearly every day up to date. He has often cried, or crowed and begged for this bath; but never cried during its performance, except when his clothes were being replaced. On the contrary, he enjoys every moment of it.
[187]Feeding began with a meal every hour of the twenty-four, for the first week. Then night feeding was reduced to two meals, and he was fed every two hours, from four or five o'clock in the morning till nine at night, till two months old. About then he began sleeping right through the nights; and until three months old was fed every three hours of the day time; then for a month he went four hours between his meals. At his fourth month began the present regime of four meals per diem. Now and then he has cried in the night from thirst, and a few spoonsful of cold water have sufficed to send him off to sleep again. All in all, I think I could count on my fingers the times that he has wakened us out of hours, and not once has anyone walked the floor with him. In fact, no diversions of this sort have ever been practiced on him. He has never been rocked to sleep; whenever cross or fretful in the day, we have known that sleep was all he needed, and into his little bed he has been promptly plumped, and covered with a loosely knit afghan, tented on a light framework, which we call "the extinguisher." Here shut away and entirely unnoticed he soon learned to give himself up to his own reflections, and then presently to sleep. Thus we have kept down the first great nuisance of ordinary infancy, namely, egoism and a habit of howling for attention when no attention is really needed. But social relations, [188]and those of the gayest, he has constantly with both his parents. We take up and make into play with him each idea of his own. We have shown him some finger-plays. In the main we leave him to originate his own amusements.
From the keeping of stomach and bowels absolutely healthy, by a regular and reasonable exercise of their all-important functions, not only has the boy been free from irritability, and spontaneously happy and self-amused, sometimes quiet, and sometimes jolly to overflowing. But the second great nuisance of those ordinarily attending baby-raising, namely, sour stomach followed by colic, was eliminated. A secondary result of this entire regularity of functioning at the upper end of the alimentary canal was that a like regularity set in at the other end. That is, at the thirteenth week he began to have but one daily passage of fæcal matter, and that soon after breakfast. Of the approach of this act he notified his mother without fail, and thereafter we had no soiled diapers. Movements were received on pieces of old cloth, and cloth and all tossed into a pan of ashes, or the fire, when we had one. When, at six months, we put him onto cow's milk, mixed with thin graham porridge, to supply the extra nourishment demanded by rapid growth, he went up to two movements per diem—morning and evening. Thus, the third great nuisance of of diaper washing was eliminated, in its more [189]disagreeable feature. Eructation of curds, rashes, colic, diarrhœa—these common ailments of ordinary babyhood, we have never had a sight of. We believe it due solely to strict adherence to the four-meals-a-day plan. These consist of an early breakfast, a later breakfast, a dinner about one o'clock and a supper between six and seven. The bath comes at any convenient time. On pleasant days, even in winter, he is outdoors, well wrapped, in a chair, for hours, and often has a long nap there. He was provided, by my own needle and penknife, with an ample fur sleeping sack, into which he is securely buttoned every evening and laid in his box-bed, on a trunk. He never sleeps with his parents. According to the coolness or coldness of the nights, additional covering, in the shape of soft blankets and shawls, is laid in on the box, their weight supported by the edges of the box. He cannot uncover himself, but he can kick freely, and use his arms. We dressed him, from the first, in the "Gertrude" system of baby clothes, introduced by Dr. Grosvenor, of Chicago—all woolen princess garments, with shirring strings at the lower hems, by which they are made closed bags, ending just below the feet; warm, but allowing of kicking ad libitum. At five months—it being winter time—he went into short clothes, including solid suits of warm flannel underwear, shirts, drawers and long snug-fitting stockings. He has never had a cold. [190]His muscles, from the first (due to his mother's gymnastics), were firm and active, like those of an adult. At the fourth week he surprised us by suspending his entire weight from his hands and arms one morning. Legs, neck, back and hands particularly have developed steadily in power and quickness. There was never any fat deposited—that avant courier of so much infant mortality—yet he is, and has been all along, a rosy, plump, dimpled baby, or boy, rather, for babyhood very early lost its hold on him. Too often children seem finally to emerge from the miseries and ailments of a tedious infancy and to take on, at last, individuality and distinct character at the second or third year. This child, per contra, having never had a sensation of illness, or of pain, save honest hunger, has seemed to be a happy little boy almost from the first, alert or thoughtful, shouting or cooing, laughing and crowing, especially after his meals and movements, studying the world of things about him by the hour, keenly appreciative of colors and of music, and preferring some sorts to others, his face crossed by vivid changes of expression, wonder, merriment, surprise, reverie—all as perfect at six months as ordinarily seen at three years. He has good color from head to foot, is pale when hungry, but the moment a bit of food is down expands to his most genial flow of spirits. Immediately after his day-time naps his cheeks are regularly flushed and [191]rosy. His spirits become more pronounced toward each evening, reaching their high-point of talking, laughing, crowing and squealing at just about bed-time. He keeps it up for some time after being tucked away for the night, till sleep masters him; and begins where he left off early next morning. All this is good physiology. So happy day succeeds happy day, and we trust and hope that many good tendencies are getting a fair start in a harmonious and spontaneous beginning of this great work of growing up that we are fostering but not forcing.
At One Year Old.—Everything continues as begun. Teething at times causes slight transient fretfulness, and more cold water is drunk. The bowels remain absolutely regular. The all-night sleep (never "put to sleep,") and two day-time naps are unchanged, in all thirteen or fourteen hours of sleep per diem. On warm days he needs and gets plenty of cool water to drink, often two-thirds of a pint at a time. Talking, standing and creeping he has attained by his own unaided initiative (this on principle). As for amusements, he invents his own always, except when engaged in social exchange with his father and mother, and in these, too, we are careful that he makes at least half the advances.
On particular occasions he comes in need of mothering—and gets it. On all others he simply [192]lives with two big but highly sympathetic playfellows; and he has developed separate lines of play and talk for each. Often he chooses to alternate as between two poles of attraction, turning his face to his mother's for her sympathy between shouts to his father, or vice versa. From week to week we notice that the older plays are mostly dropped one by one, and fresh ones invented. All, however, are real and vivid to him.
In early prospect we have but two more points to compass. Perfect health in all respects he has intact. Self-control and self-sufficiency, both in amusing himself and in enduring lesser ills, such as bumps and mild degrees of hunger, he is getting as fast as growth permits. But obedience and responsibility will soon be needed in his repertoire. Negative obedience his mother is obtaining already in response to "No, no," and shakes of the head. Positive obedience will be the far more vital thing to secure—just as soon as he can help in little ways. Here we hope to make him responsible as far as can be for the welfare, safety and amusement of younger playfellows, whether brother or sister it is now too soon to say.
At Eighteen Months.—A cold douche has, for three months past, ended his morning bath, regularly given by his father after his sister arrived, and his weight became considerable. This douche, poured slowly from a dipper until redness set in, [193]has added markedly to his spirits, muscular activity and digestive capacity. It causes screaming at the moment, but an instant later, as three Turkish towels are wrapped closely about him, his exuberance is delightful to see. Coincidently he has taken up a selected diet of solid food, including chocolate and cooked fruits, and will have but one nap, though often that is a long one.
As the child is working out of babyhood, every day counting (as no day of half illness in childhood can count), and well into boyhood, the single principle already outlined, of leaving the little individuality to establish its own activities and socialities, seems sufficient, as the illustrations appended, I believe, prove. Doubtless a child that is not, day after day, enjoying, and often thrilled by health and life, as this little boy is, a child not brought up in an unbroken camaraderie with both parents, such as he has had, and particularly a child not having the send-off of trust and amiable impulse which he received before his birth, could not be left to blossom in such wild-flower style. Ugly, sulky or "streaky" conduct, jumping perversely out in place of good cheer, we have never had to deal with. In fact, we have never been able to detect the slightest resentment immediately after punishing him for taking forbidden articles, or for raising an outcry over being denied sundry things he wanted. His crying when punished is that of pure grief, and he [194]is ready at once to nestle down under the hand that had spatted disapproval, to be comforted, resuming good spirits two or three minutes later on. In the main, simply "No, no!" from either parent, has sufficed to stop him in the beginnings of mischief, sometimes resulting in cheerful desisting, and sometimes in a little of what we call the "grieved cry." But this, too, if it becomes loud or insistent, can be hushed by another "No, no," and enable him to regain control of himself. With this regained self-control has always come gratefulness for aid in the matter, as evinced by extra sweetness and brightness immediately after, and eager resumption of some one or other of his plays or calls with one or both of us. This may be what is known as discipline. It always brings a smile to our faces, however.
Without a break of more than a day or two at a time, we have been able to be equally near him all the while, and divide up about equally the matters of bathing, feeding, dressing and undressing him. The conventional estimate of those standing nearest to a child of,
1—Mother,
2—Nurse,
3—Teacher,
4—Servants and playmates,
5—Older brother or sister,
6—Father—the man behind the newspaper,
[195]certainly does not apply here. When I am absent for from three to six hours his uneasiness sets in, and grows stronger and stronger, ending in repeated expeditions to a short distance along the road, where he stands and calls "Vager," "Vager," (Father, Father,) at first hopefully, then protestingly, and sometimes at last with indignation or tears. When I return—and he listens and catches the first distant sound of hoofs, or wheels, or whinny of the left-at-home colts, or voice, or opening gate—an eager, beaming face welcomes me from gate or doorway, or even several rods down the beaten snow on the road. Once back, things are all right in his little domain again, and he goes on, without special attention to me, in his series of occupations and plays.
I say "occupations." They are nothing else to him; serious matters that he goes about accomplishing. He is at his best when he can help his mother at her work—blowing the fire, bringing her kindling, handing her clothespins one by one as she needs them, shutting or opening doors on request, picking up articles from the floor. But there are many hours continuously when he is left to his own devices, which are numerous, though many of them he goes through daily, such as feeding the cat, visiting his little sister, emptying and refilling the wall-pockets, collecting his blocks, and fishing articles off the table with a long stick. He has learned, untaught, to get a cloth to open the stove door with [196]and save burned fingers; to get and bring clean diapers to his mother when he wishes a change; to stoop and lap water out of the pail; to stand by his bed and point up at it when wishing his mid-day nap; to retreat to a dark corner and drape his handkerchief over his head for a brief period towards the close of a day, in lieu of the discarded second nap; to scoop bread or biscuit out of a pail hung above his reach, with an iron spoon; to lasso peaches toward him with a cord, said peaches being in pan on the floor just beyond where he could reach from a little gate separating the kitchen and sitting-room. None of these things has been taught him. Nothing whatever has been taught him, and especially no words and no "tricks." He invents or does without, in all non-essential matters, in regular Spartan style. So, in pursuit of his own undertakings, he rarely asks for what he would have; just tries and tries, day after day, until he succeeds or is beaten. But as he is at some new act or plan much of the time when left to himself, he has, we are satisfied, independently attained to more of childish accomplishment than the most incessant teaching processes could have effected. In doing what he does do, for instance, in certain climbing feats, he has slowly worked up to, he is both cautious and sure; he rarely tumbles and never loses his confidence. Thus for the past two days he has achieved the feat of climbing up and [197]standing erect on a little box fourteen inches high, where he calls and shouts and roars to us his ecstacy over the matter for ten minutes at a time. Today only he has found out how to get down alone. Contrast is taken here with the frequent falls and wailings of children who are first persuaded into attempts of various sorts, but have not worked out a real personal mastery of given acts for themselves.
He has quite a vocabulary now of his own invention. The meanings of these terms we have learned mostly, and use them to him. Of our vocabulary he understands the meanings of a large number of the words for things in which he is interested, forty or fifty nouns, and a dozen verbs, perhaps. He sings to his mother, and now and then to me, rude imitations of the songs he has heard us sing, and his mother he roughly accompanies. His inflections of voice have developed to the point of entirely expressing many of his emotions; while his expressions of face are as much beyond these as the inflections are beyond his stock of English—about seven words, and those requiring some exigency to bring out.
All this pleases us, because we truly want him to become rich in his own life, to subsist and grow in his own home-made lines of feeling and thought; and not to learn words, parrot-like, before he has the thought formed, and searching, even struggling, [198]for a means by which to convey itself. It is dearth of internal life, emotion and unaided thought that is in need of replenishment in the average young person, not lack of English dictionary terms for things that can be talked about, but are evidently not intrinsic and personal.
C. W. Lyman, M. D.
New Castle, Col.
by C. W. Lyman, M. D.
Reported by request of Dr. Holbrook.
It was our first baby. I was making a living as a doctor by writing articles on the general care of the health; and my wife before her marriage had been a kindergartner, a trainer of kindergartners, and a lecturer to mothers on the scientific and expert methods of rearing children aright. We believed in the theories we had taught, and our baby got nothing else from the start. According to the first applied theory, we made our temporary home before the boy began to be, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado; and were a large part of the time either in our garden or on horseback, in this perfect outdoor climate. My wife was entirely in love with me, and I made each day count for nothing more certainly than to deserve and return that sentiment of hers. We lived simply but freely, and had next to no anxieties. My wife had practiced general gymnastics for years; but for months prior to the birth of her boy, she every day went through with a series of special maternal gymnastics, by which the muscles that aid in parturition can be made [186]strong and entirely to be relied upon. We were rewarded for this outlay of time in a delivery that was rapid and easy, without more than an ounce of hæmorrhage, and everything so perfectly controlled that—except for the inconvenience of it—the presence and aid of the physician (myself) might have been dispensed with. Recovery was rapid also. My wife made no haste to get up, keeping quiet most of the time for two weeks, to ensure good milk. But she did a family washing without effort after three weeks, and was on horseback again by the sixth week. The baby was not severed from his mother till ten minutes after birth (ensuring a better blood supply). Then he got no bath, no food, no dressing process; but was simply swathed in cotton batting and laid aside for six hours in a padded box-bed, surrounded by bottles of hot water, and covered with plenty of soft blankets, to sleep and get used to his new environment. On the second day we began rubbing him daily from head to foot with vaseline. His first bath, with a flannel cloth dipped in warm milk diluted with soft water and without soap, came when he was a week old, and was followed by the thorough rub with vaseline. This bath he has had nearly every day up to date. He has often cried, or crowed and begged for this bath; but never cried during its performance, except when his clothes were being replaced. On the contrary, he enjoys every moment of it.
[187]Feeding began with a meal every hour of the twenty-four, for the first week. Then night feeding was reduced to two meals, and he was fed every two hours, from four or five o'clock in the morning till nine at night, till two months old. About then he began sleeping right through the nights; and until three months old was fed every three hours of the day time; then for a month he went four hours between his meals. At his fourth month began the present regime of four meals per diem. Now and then he has cried in the night from thirst, and a few spoonsful of cold water have sufficed to send him off to sleep again. All in all, I think I could count on my fingers the times that he has wakened us out of hours, and not once has anyone walked the floor with him. In fact, no diversions of this sort have ever been practiced on him. He has never been rocked to sleep; whenever cross or fretful in the day, we have known that sleep was all he needed, and into his little bed he has been promptly plumped, and covered with a loosely knit afghan, tented on a light framework, which we call "the extinguisher." Here shut away and entirely unnoticed he soon learned to give himself up to his own reflections, and then presently to sleep. Thus we have kept down the first great nuisance of ordinary infancy, namely, egoism and a habit of howling for attention when no attention is really needed. But social relations, [188]and those of the gayest, he has constantly with both his parents. We take up and make into play with him each idea of his own. We have shown him some finger-plays. In the main we leave him to originate his own amusements.
From the keeping of stomach and bowels absolutely healthy, by a regular and reasonable exercise of their all-important functions, not only has the boy been free from irritability, and spontaneously happy and self-amused, sometimes quiet, and sometimes jolly to overflowing. But the second great nuisance of those ordinarily attending baby-raising, namely, sour stomach followed by colic, was eliminated. A secondary result of this entire regularity of functioning at the upper end of the alimentary canal was that a like regularity set in at the other end. That is, at the thirteenth week he began to have but one daily passage of fæcal matter, and that soon after breakfast. Of the approach of this act he notified his mother without fail, and thereafter we had no soiled diapers. Movements were received on pieces of old cloth, and cloth and all tossed into a pan of ashes, or the fire, when we had one. When, at six months, we put him onto cow's milk, mixed with thin graham porridge, to supply the extra nourishment demanded by rapid growth, he went up to two movements per diem—morning and evening. Thus, the third great nuisance of of diaper washing was eliminated, in its more [189]disagreeable feature. Eructation of curds, rashes, colic, diarrhœa—these common ailments of ordinary babyhood, we have never had a sight of. We believe it due solely to strict adherence to the four-meals-a-day plan. These consist of an early breakfast, a later breakfast, a dinner about one o'clock and a supper between six and seven. The bath comes at any convenient time. On pleasant days, even in winter, he is outdoors, well wrapped, in a chair, for hours, and often has a long nap there. He was provided, by my own needle and penknife, with an ample fur sleeping sack, into which he is securely buttoned every evening and laid in his box-bed, on a trunk. He never sleeps with his parents. According to the coolness or coldness of the nights, additional covering, in the shape of soft blankets and shawls, is laid in on the box, their weight supported by the edges of the box. He cannot uncover himself, but he can kick freely, and use his arms. We dressed him, from the first, in the "Gertrude" system of baby clothes, introduced by Dr. Grosvenor, of Chicago—all woolen princess garments, with shirring strings at the lower hems, by which they are made closed bags, ending just below the feet; warm, but allowing of kicking ad libitum. At five months—it being winter time—he went into short clothes, including solid suits of warm flannel underwear, shirts, drawers and long snug-fitting stockings. He has never had a cold. [190]His muscles, from the first (due to his mother's gymnastics), were firm and active, like those of an adult. At the fourth week he surprised us by suspending his entire weight from his hands and arms one morning. Legs, neck, back and hands particularly have developed steadily in power and quickness. There was never any fat deposited—that avant courier of so much infant mortality—yet he is, and has been all along, a rosy, plump, dimpled baby, or boy, rather, for babyhood very early lost its hold on him. Too often children seem finally to emerge from the miseries and ailments of a tedious infancy and to take on, at last, individuality and distinct character at the second or third year. This child, per contra, having never had a sensation of illness, or of pain, save honest hunger, has seemed to be a happy little boy almost from the first, alert or thoughtful, shouting or cooing, laughing and crowing, especially after his meals and movements, studying the world of things about him by the hour, keenly appreciative of colors and of music, and preferring some sorts to others, his face crossed by vivid changes of expression, wonder, merriment, surprise, reverie—all as perfect at six months as ordinarily seen at three years. He has good color from head to foot, is pale when hungry, but the moment a bit of food is down expands to his most genial flow of spirits. Immediately after his day-time naps his cheeks are regularly flushed and [191]rosy. His spirits become more pronounced toward each evening, reaching their high-point of talking, laughing, crowing and squealing at just about bed-time. He keeps it up for some time after being tucked away for the night, till sleep masters him; and begins where he left off early next morning. All this is good physiology. So happy day succeeds happy day, and we trust and hope that many good tendencies are getting a fair start in a harmonious and spontaneous beginning of this great work of growing up that we are fostering but not forcing.
At One Year Old.—Everything continues as begun. Teething at times causes slight transient fretfulness, and more cold water is drunk. The bowels remain absolutely regular. The all-night sleep (never "put to sleep,") and two day-time naps are unchanged, in all thirteen or fourteen hours of sleep per diem. On warm days he needs and gets plenty of cool water to drink, often two-thirds of a pint at a time. Talking, standing and creeping he has attained by his own unaided initiative (this on principle). As for amusements, he invents his own always, except when engaged in social exchange with his father and mother, and in these, too, we are careful that he makes at least half the advances.
On particular occasions he comes in need of mothering—and gets it. On all others he simply [192]lives with two big but highly sympathetic playfellows; and he has developed separate lines of play and talk for each. Often he chooses to alternate as between two poles of attraction, turning his face to his mother's for her sympathy between shouts to his father, or vice versa. From week to week we notice that the older plays are mostly dropped one by one, and fresh ones invented. All, however, are real and vivid to him.
In early prospect we have but two more points to compass. Perfect health in all respects he has intact. Self-control and self-sufficiency, both in amusing himself and in enduring lesser ills, such as bumps and mild degrees of hunger, he is getting as fast as growth permits. But obedience and responsibility will soon be needed in his repertoire. Negative obedience his mother is obtaining already in response to "No, no," and shakes of the head. Positive obedience will be the far more vital thing to secure—just as soon as he can help in little ways. Here we hope to make him responsible as far as can be for the welfare, safety and amusement of younger playfellows, whether brother or sister it is now too soon to say.
At Eighteen Months.—A cold douche has, for three months past, ended his morning bath, regularly given by his father after his sister arrived, and his weight became considerable. This douche, poured slowly from a dipper until redness set in, [193]has added markedly to his spirits, muscular activity and digestive capacity. It causes screaming at the moment, but an instant later, as three Turkish towels are wrapped closely about him, his exuberance is delightful to see. Coincidently he has taken up a selected diet of solid food, including chocolate and cooked fruits, and will have but one nap, though often that is a long one.
As the child is working out of babyhood, every day counting (as no day of half illness in childhood can count), and well into boyhood, the single principle already outlined, of leaving the little individuality to establish its own activities and socialities, seems sufficient, as the illustrations appended, I believe, prove. Doubtless a child that is not, day after day, enjoying, and often thrilled by health and life, as this little boy is, a child not brought up in an unbroken camaraderie with both parents, such as he has had, and particularly a child not having the send-off of trust and amiable impulse which he received before his birth, could not be left to blossom in such wild-flower style. Ugly, sulky or "streaky" conduct, jumping perversely out in place of good cheer, we have never had to deal with. In fact, we have never been able to detect the slightest resentment immediately after punishing him for taking forbidden articles, or for raising an outcry over being denied sundry things he wanted. His crying when punished is that of pure grief, and he [194]is ready at once to nestle down under the hand that had spatted disapproval, to be comforted, resuming good spirits two or three minutes later on. In the main, simply "No, no!" from either parent, has sufficed to stop him in the beginnings of mischief, sometimes resulting in cheerful desisting, and sometimes in a little of what we call the "grieved cry." But this, too, if it becomes loud or insistent, can be hushed by another "No, no," and enable him to regain control of himself. With this regained self-control has always come gratefulness for aid in the matter, as evinced by extra sweetness and brightness immediately after, and eager resumption of some one or other of his plays or calls with one or both of us. This may be what is known as discipline. It always brings a smile to our faces, however.
Without a break of more than a day or two at a time, we have been able to be equally near him all the while, and divide up about equally the matters of bathing, feeding, dressing and undressing him. The conventional estimate of those standing nearest to a child of,
1—Mother,
2—Nurse,
3—Teacher,
4—Servants and playmates,
5—Older brother or sister,
6—Father—the man behind the newspaper,
[195]certainly does not apply here. When I am absent for from three to six hours his uneasiness sets in, and grows stronger and stronger, ending in repeated expeditions to a short distance along the road, where he stands and calls "Vager," "Vager," (Father, Father,) at first hopefully, then protestingly, and sometimes at last with indignation or tears. When I return—and he listens and catches the first distant sound of hoofs, or wheels, or whinny of the left-at-home colts, or voice, or opening gate—an eager, beaming face welcomes me from gate or doorway, or even several rods down the beaten snow on the road. Once back, things are all right in his little domain again, and he goes on, without special attention to me, in his series of occupations and plays.
I say "occupations." They are nothing else to him; serious matters that he goes about accomplishing. He is at his best when he can help his mother at her work—blowing the fire, bringing her kindling, handing her clothespins one by one as she needs them, shutting or opening doors on request, picking up articles from the floor. But there are many hours continuously when he is left to his own devices, which are numerous, though many of them he goes through daily, such as feeding the cat, visiting his little sister, emptying and refilling the wall-pockets, collecting his blocks, and fishing articles off the table with a long stick. He has learned, untaught, to get a cloth to open the stove door with [196]and save burned fingers; to get and bring clean diapers to his mother when he wishes a change; to stoop and lap water out of the pail; to stand by his bed and point up at it when wishing his mid-day nap; to retreat to a dark corner and drape his handkerchief over his head for a brief period towards the close of a day, in lieu of the discarded second nap; to scoop bread or biscuit out of a pail hung above his reach, with an iron spoon; to lasso peaches toward him with a cord, said peaches being in pan on the floor just beyond where he could reach from a little gate separating the kitchen and sitting-room. None of these things has been taught him. Nothing whatever has been taught him, and especially no words and no "tricks." He invents or does without, in all non-essential matters, in regular Spartan style. So, in pursuit of his own undertakings, he rarely asks for what he would have; just tries and tries, day after day, until he succeeds or is beaten. But as he is at some new act or plan much of the time when left to himself, he has, we are satisfied, independently attained to more of childish accomplishment than the most incessant teaching processes could have effected. In doing what he does do, for instance, in certain climbing feats, he has slowly worked up to, he is both cautious and sure; he rarely tumbles and never loses his confidence. Thus for the past two days he has achieved the feat of climbing up and [197]standing erect on a little box fourteen inches high, where he calls and shouts and roars to us his ecstacy over the matter for ten minutes at a time. Today only he has found out how to get down alone. Contrast is taken here with the frequent falls and wailings of children who are first persuaded into attempts of various sorts, but have not worked out a real personal mastery of given acts for themselves.
He has quite a vocabulary now of his own invention. The meanings of these terms we have learned mostly, and use them to him. Of our vocabulary he understands the meanings of a large number of the words for things in which he is interested, forty or fifty nouns, and a dozen verbs, perhaps. He sings to his mother, and now and then to me, rude imitations of the songs he has heard us sing, and his mother he roughly accompanies. His inflections of voice have developed to the point of entirely expressing many of his emotions; while his expressions of face are as much beyond these as the inflections are beyond his stock of English—about seven words, and those requiring some exigency to bring out.
All this pleases us, because we truly want him to become rich in his own life, to subsist and grow in his own home-made lines of feeling and thought; and not to learn words, parrot-like, before he has the thought formed, and searching, even struggling, [198]for a means by which to convey itself. It is dearth of internal life, emotion and unaided thought that is in need of replenishment in the average young person, not lack of English dictionary terms for things that can be talked about, but are evidently not intrinsic and personal.
C. W. Lyman, M. D.
New Castle, Col.
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Re: Homo-culture, by Martin Luther Holbrook
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NOTES.
War and Parentage.
In the interests of unborn children we should, so far as possible, remove from the world those causes which, acting on the mother, either directly or indirectly, may injure them by lowering the standard of their health, or by altering and debasing their moral and intellectual natures. One of the most potent of the causes for harm is war. War has generally been regarded as one of the ennobling professions. If we look upon it in its most favorable light, all that we can say in its favor is that among primitive and barbarous races it has perhaps resulted in the preservation and spread of the most capable ones, and that it has at the same time welded them together into larger groups, and finally into nations, and habituated them to those restraints which are necessary to social existence; but we no longer require it for this purpose, and the industrial pursuits and the evolution of civilization are so disturbed by them that they should cease, and especially should they cease in the interest of our children, both born and unborn.
How can war injure children? We have already shown in the chapter on Prenatal Culture that when the mother [200]is under the influence of any powerful mental emotion, such as fear, depression, anger and similar passions during the months in which the child is being developed in her womb, there is very great danger of permanent injury to it. Only the strongest mothers, those with the most robust health, or who have the most stable nerves, those who are rarely thrown off their balance, are capable of resisting the intense excitements to which they are subject during some of the phases of war.
As I mentioned in my early work on Marriage and Parentage, Esquirol, a French historian, gives details of a considerable number of cases of children born soon after some of the sieges of the French Revolution, which were weakly, nervous and idiotic, on account of the terrible strain to which their mothers had been subjected. In every war where a city is besieged, even if its women and children are sent away, they cannot be altogether free from anxieties and mental strains of a most unwholesome nature, and if some of them are soon to become mothers, the offspring not yet born must suffer. No one can estimate the vast number of children injured under such conditions in the ages past. They have been only incidentally referred to in history. The fame and glory of conquerors must not be dimmed by the relation of such occurrences.
Joseph A. Allen, in The Christian Register, gives the results of some of his observations which bear on this subject. He says:
"So much is being said about war and its effects, that I am prompted to send you the result of my observations.
[201]"I was in charge of the Massachusetts State Reform School for several years, when every inmate (there were between three and four hundred) was born before the Civil War—during the time of the great anti-slavery agitation, which did so much to educate the moral sense of the people.
"I was again in charge of the same institution when every inmate was born during, or soon after the war, when the mothers were reading, talking and dreaming of battles, and of husbands, fathers or brothers who had gone to the war.
"I found as great a difference in the character of those inmates born before and after the Civil War as exists between a civilized and a savage nation.
"Those under my care the second time were much more difficult to control, more quarrelsome and defiant, less willing to work or study. The crimes for which they were sentenced were as different as their characters.
"It was not uncommon for them to be sentenced for breaking and entering with deadly weapons.
"This difference was not confined to inmates of reform schools, but it was manifest throughout all classes.
"After the war crimes increased rapidly. In Boston garroting was common, and was only checked by Judge Russell sentencing all such subjects to the full extent of the law.
"Before the close of the Civil War the State Prison at Charlestown, under Mr. Gideon Haynes, was, according to Dr. D. C. Wines, D. D., the model prison of the United [202]States. Since that time it has been almost impossible to maintain proper discipline, owing, no doubt, to the more desperate character of the inmates.
"Let us try to trace these effects back to their causes, and prove, if possible, that whatsoever a man (or nation) soweth, that shall it also reap."
But there are other ways in which war militates against the noblest motherhood. Camp life is a school for vice and prostitution. In Camp Chickamauga, which is a sample of them all, during the war with Spain on account of Cuba, the amount and baseness of the prostitution by the soldiers, with both black and white women, exceeded description. In a single day forty-one cases of specific disease applied to the physicians at the hospitals for treatment. These things were not reported in the daily papers; they were too vile. The place was a hot-bed of vice, rather than a school of virtue and patriotism. In all European armies it is the same. In times of peace, soldiers from the highest to the lowest in rank, insist that facility shall be allowed them for the gratification of their passional natures. The officers, not being permitted to marry unless they or their wives have a certain income, keep their mistresses, and not a female servant near a camp is safe. The immoral influences here generated spread throughout society, lower the standard of morals among both men and women in private life, and jeopardize the interests of children born or unborn, morally and intellectually, as well as physically.
But there is another view. "Great standing armies," [203]says the Czar of Russia, in his note to the Powers, "are transforming the armed power of our day into a crushing burden which the people have more and more difficulty in bearing."
That is to say, the tax imposed upon the individuals of any nation to support its army pauperizes or keeps on the verge of poverty a large portion of the race. It is war, far more than any other cause, which has created the burden of taxation. In some European countries almost every man carries a soldier or sailor on his back, that is, he must labor not only to support himself and family, but a soldier or sailor who devotes his life to a murderous profession. Is this not a grievous burden which cripples or paralyzes his life and reacts on his offspring?
Now, the poverty caused by this burden is a serious obstacle to the production and training of the young, and especially is this the case in the more populous countries—France, Spain and Italy are examples. These lands were once the most powerful in Europe; they are so no longer. They gloried in war, and spent immense sums of money upon their armies and burdened the people with taxes which should have been reserved for the use of fathers and mothers in educating and providing for the needs of their offspring. War has crushed out the best life of these countries, and other nations which follow in the same path will in the end come to a similar fate. They may hold out a long time, but not forever. "The mills of Gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small."
It is because war is an enemy to the highest motherhood [204]that women should array themselves against it. It is one of the greatest foes to the development and welfare of the children they love so well. Women should insist that all governments should settle their differences by peaceful rather than by warlike means. The industrial age may have its difficulties, but they are not insurmountable. In it the fathers and mothers may have the time and the means to study and learn how to improve the race through a wiser parentage. I believe that thoughtful women, when they come to see the evils of war in their true light, as they have seen the evils of prostitution and intemperance, will be its greatest foes.
Cases of Prenatal Influences.
Alfred Russell Wallace gives in Nature a few cases of prenatal influences sent him by his correspondents. The first experience is from a mother residing in Australia. She writes:
"I can trace in the character of my first child, a girl now twenty-two years of age, a special aptitude for sewing, economical contriving and cutting out, which came to me as a new experience when living in the country among new surroundings, and strict economy being necessary, I began to try to sew for the coming baby and myself. I also trace her great love of history to my study of Froude during that period. Her other tastes for art and literature are distinctly hereditary.
[205]"In the case of my second child, also a daughter, I having interested myself prior to her birth in literary pursuits, the result has been a much acuter form of intelligence, which at six years old enabled her to read and enjoy the ballads which Tennyson was then giving to the world, and which at the age of barely twenty years allowed her to take her degree as B. A. of the Sydney University.
"Before the third child, a boy, was born, the current of our lives had changed a little. Visits to my own family and a change of residence to a distant colony, which involved a long journey, as well as the work incidental to such changes, together with the care of my two older children, absorbed all my time and thoughts, and left little or no leisure for studious pursuits. My occupations were more mechanical than at any other time previous. This boy does not inherit the studious tastes of his sisters at all. He is intelligent and possesses most of the qualifications which will probably conduce to success in life, but he prefers any kind of out-door work or handicraft to study. Had I been as alive then as I am now to the importance of these theories, I should have endeavored to guard against this possibility; as it is, I always feel that it is, perhaps, my fault that one of the greatest pleasures of life has been debarred to him.
"But I must not weary you by so many personal details, and I trust you will not suspect me of vanity in thus bringing my own children under your notice. Suffice it to say that in every instance I can, and do, constantly trace what others might term coincidences, but which appear to [206]me nothing but cause and effect in their several developments."
Mr. Wallace then gives extracts from other correspondents as follows:
Mrs. B—— says: "I can trace, nay, have traced (in secret amusement often), something in every child of mine. Before the birth of my eldest girl I took to ornithology, for work and amusement, and did a great deal in taxidermy, too. At the age of three years I found this youngster taking such insects and little animals as she could find, and puzzling me with hard questions as to what was inside of them. Later on she used to be seen with a small knife, working and dissecting cleverly and with much care and skill at their insides. One day she brought me the tiniest heart of the tiniest lizard you can imagine, so small that I had to examine it through a glass, though she saw it without any artificial aid. By some means she got a young wallaby, and made an apron with a pocket inside which she used to call her 'pouch.' This study of natural history is still of interest to her, though she lacks time and opportunities. Still, she always does a little dissecting if she gets a chance."
Another Case.—"I never noticed anything about P—— for some years. Three months before he was born a friend, whom I will call Smith, was badly hurt, and was brought to my house to be nursed. I turned out the nursery and he lay there for three months. I nursed him until I could do so no longer, and then took lodgings in town for my confinement. Now after all these years [207]I have discovered how this surgical nursing has left its mark. The boy is in his element when he can be of use in cases of accident, etc. He said to me quite lately: 'How I wish you had made a surgeon of me!' Then all at once it flashed in upon me, but, alas! it was too late to remedy the mistake.
"Before the birth of the third child I passed ten of the happiest months of my life. We had a nice house, one side of which was covered with cloth of gold roses and bougainvillea, a garden with plenty of flowers, and a vineyard. Here we lived an idyllic life, and did nothing but fish, catch butterflies and paint them. At least my husband painted them after I had caught them and mixed his colors. At the end of this time L—— was born. This child excels in artistic talent of many kinds; nothing comes amiss to her, and she draws remarkably well. She is of a bright gay disposition, finding much happiness in life, even though not always placed in the most fortunate surroundings.
"Before the birth of my next child, N——, a daughter, I had a bad time. My husband fell ill of fever, and I had to nurse him without help or assistance of any kind. We had also losses by floods. I don't know how I got through that year, but I had no time for reading. N—— is the most prudent, economical girl I know. She is a splendid housekeeper and a good cook, and will work till she drops; has no taste for reading, but seems to gain knowledge by suction." Such cases are so numerous that they should be collected and scientifically studied.
Luxury and Parentage.
In all ages of luxury, fine ladies try to avoid maternity. They detest it in theory only, for women are controlled by the instinct of the race. In the circles of which we are speaking, the instincts of the race for children have vanished. Life has lost its serious meaning. Responsibility of any kind is a mere nuisance, and the idea of bringing up a new life, with all its bonds and its charm, is as repellant as the idea of a new bonnet is enticing. For such women the world has no use. Beautiful, in the great sense, they are not. Incapable, in any great way, of either loving or being loved, they are at best the painted bubbles on the stream of life. Such women will always be far inferior as mothers, and less capable of bringing into the world noble offspring than those women in the humble walks of life who live naturally, who love the family ties and are fond of the young.
Great mothers must have a certain sort of hardihood which comes from a wise physical culture, not necessarily an artificial one,—a life in the open air, and the avoidance of all social dissipation.
Degeneracy of the Breasts and Motherhood.
A sign of degeneracy is pointed out by Hegar, who appeals to young men on behalf of posterity to choose for wives women with well-developed breasts; he quotes statistics to prove inability to nurse a child a sign of [209]degeneracy which produces degeneracy in the offspring. Among other facts he points out that in a district of his knowledge, which supplies a large number of wet nurses to the city, the percentage of men incapable of military service amounts to 30 per cent., while in the neighboring districts, where the mothers remain at home with their families, it is only 18 per cent. He remarks upon the surprising number of deformed nipples encountered in the hospitals. Fehling mentions "hollow nipples" as occurring in 6.7 of his obstetric cases. He warns mothers not to allow the clothing to constrict the growing breasts of their daughters, and urges general hygiene as the best method to develop them.
In this connection the question may be asked, Is it possible for women with defective breasts to become mothers of a virile race of men and strong women. In most cases it is not. A defect in this part of their nature is evidence of a weakened constitution. It may be said, that the breasts do not always develop before marriage and parentage. This is true, and if the health is robust, and the constitution and ancestry good, the mother will, in most cases, be able to nurse her child. If it is known in advance that such cannot be the case, and it may generally be known, then the responsibilities of motherhood should be undertaken with the greater precaution. In modern times we have far better means of bringing up children by hand than formerly. Still, a mother able to nurse her own children should always be preferred.
Location of Birth.
In Manchester, England, in 1892, 37,674 boys out of every 100,000 died before they reached their fifth year. In healthy districts only 17,314 out of 100,000 died. About the same condition prevails in other places. The lesson it teaches us is, that we should choose a healthy region in which to live if we would rear the healthiest offspring.
Evolution.
This word means progress and progress implies improvement, without which there could be no evolution; but improvement of the human race will not be further possible unless the marriage relation is regarded from a higher stand-point than that of sexual indulgence.
The practical superiority of man over animals consists in his knowledge of the aim of his conduct. Animals exercise the reproductive function instinctively at particular seasons, but man knowingly always; and thus, unless the latter subordinates his passion to reason he is worse than a brute, as he knows himself to be such.
The difference between the chaste marriage of affection and the unchaste marriage of passion, is analogous to that between education and instruction, as explained by Elder Evans of the Shaker Community. Instruction imparts knowledge, such as is associated in Eastern lore with the sexual passion, but education embraces the whole disposition, which is rendered more beautiful and spiritual [211]through a marriage of chastity, and as thus affected is transmitted to the offspring, who exhibit the disposition of their parents at the time of conception. Sexual excess not only tends to produce offspring of a weakly constitution, but it interferes with the organic growth of the parents. It is as wasteful as burning a candle at both ends at the same time.
Parents should bear in mind that the mental plan on which their children shall begin life, depends on the desire by which they are governed when they beget their offspring; and as desire depends on disposition, they should aim at requiring harmony of character and conduct.
If we think less of ourselves and more of the race to which we belong, we shall have a better chance of improving both ourselves and the race as represented in our offspring.
We are all members of a great organism, which is constituted by the whole of human kind, past, present and future, and it is our duty to act in such a manner that the whole shall be benefited by our conduct; which it cannot be if we are careless as to our own disposition or as to the character of our offspring.
Our Aryan ancestors were conscious of their duty towards the race, and probably to this fact was largely due the high physical development the white race attained. Only by acting in their spirit can we hope to maintain the race at its high level or prevent its deterioration and decay.
The important influence which the gratification of the sexual impulse has had over the development of the [212]aesthetic side of Nature has been often insisted on; and there is no reason why its gratification should not be attended also with the development of the highest mental qualities, if these are made use of in the formation and exercise of the marriage relations between the sexes.—C. Staniland Wake.
Too Little Fatherhood.
The modern child is threatened not with too much mother but with too little father, and this danger is heightened by the sudden release of womanhood from the ban of conventionality and of the domineering power of physical force. Let her not too readily accept as complimentary to herself the church's adoration of Mary. Woman is made of no purer stuff than man, her companion, man her father. She cannot transmit from her own veins or her companion's veins any purer life stuff, any finer impulse to her daughter than she does to her son. We need more fathers in the home, more men teachers in our public schools; and if our homes and schools are not organized so as to evoke and direct this masculine investment, then let them be reorganized. It is not true that mothers are peculiarly the divinely appointed teachers of children, that to them is especially entrusted the intellectual or spiritual destinies of the young. That argument is based upon the analogies of the past; it is a reversion to primitive conditions, an illustration of the law of atavism, like the return to six fingers and toes in some people, or the restoration in others of the [213]muscle that can move the ear. The highest reaches of evolution point to a double responsibility and a double potency. In the interest of the child, then, let us lift him out of a mother rule into a father and mother rule. Let the home be girdled with masculine order and justice as well as with feminine love and tenderness. Let there be strength as well as tenderness. Let there be in it mind as well as heart, vigor as well as sympathy. All these are spiritual children which cannot be born except in the bi-sexual realm.—Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
The Flat-Head Indians and Heredity.
Amongst the round-head tribes woman holds a higher position, whereas amongst the flat-heads she is a mere drudge. In by-gone days it was common to see a tired-looking woman walking behind her husband carrying a heavy load, while he walked on before with nothing.
Again, the round-heads have a remarkable mythology, while the others have a poor affair.
Mr. Dean has informed me that the flat-head, which would be an acquired character, is never transmitted to offspring—another argument against the Lamarchian theory, that acquired characters are transmitted.
That whatever injures the physical or intellectual health of parents tends to degrade their offspring has long been evident. I think we have a good race illustration of this in the effects of flattening and deforming the skulls of children among the Flat-Head Indians, who for centuries [214]followed this precedent. Information has been furnished me by special request by Mr. James Dean, of Victoria, B. C., bearing on this point. He writes:
"Among the children the mortality seems to be greater with the tribes which flatten the heads of their children than in those who do not. I have long noticed that there is a very marked intellectual difference between them."
The Hidery tribes of Northern British Columbia and Southern Alaska, who never flattened their heads, have long been famous for their works of art, such as elaborate carvings in wood and stone.
Suggestion as an Aid in the Training of Children.
Within a few years an old subject, that of hypnotism, formerly called mesmerism, has received new attention under the name of suggestion, or, in medical language, "suggestive therapeutics." It was used in a rude way by Mesmer in the cure of disease. Later it was employed much more effectively by Braid and others for the same purpose, and especially for the prevention of pain in surgical operations. Want of space forbids our going into any extended historical detail as to its application for these purposes, but a few points will be considered, which bear on the subject.
It was found that when a person had contracted a bad habit, as, for instance, smoking or drinking, it could often be broken up by placing him in the mesmeric sleep, and [215]telling him he would no longer desire to continue the habit, but would even loathe them. The habit of sucking the thumb, a bad temper, lying, stealing, dullness and lack of ambition, etc., were amenable to this treatment. To illustrate: A boy fifteen years old, always at the foot of his class, was put into the hypnotic sleep, and told that he would be able to study harder and learn his lessons better, so as to go to the head. This was continued daily for several weeks, and, sure enough, he accepted the suggestion, and outstripped every scholar in his class, and kept at the head so long as these means were used; but, unfortunately, when they were discontinued he relapsed into his first state. The suggestions had not been sufficiently thorough to take deep root, and become a part of his nature, as might have been the case with a better knowledge as to how to use them. So long ago as in 1892 Dr. Bérillon, Editor of The Revue de l' Hypnotism, read a paper before the Second International Congress of Experimental Psychology, in which he stated that he had observed the beneficial effects of hypnotism in education in some 250 cases, including nervous insomnia, night terror, sleepwalking, kleptomania, stammering, idleness, filthy habits, cowardice and moral delinquency. He also stated that other observers had similar experience. My friend, Dr. B. Osgood Mason, of New York, working on the same lines, has had similar experiences. I will quote a few illustrative cases furnished by him. The first is of a school-girl fifteen years of age, a pupil in one of the grammar-schools [216]of New York—intelligent in many ways; a good reader of such books as interested her—history, biography, and the better class of novels; but for the routine of school studies she had no aptitude, and she was constantly being left behind in her classes. She could not concentrate her mind upon details which did not specially interest her. If she succeeded in learning a lesson she could not remember it, or if she remembered it until she arrived at the classroom, when she arose to recite, it was instantly gone; her mind became a perfect blank; she had not a word to say, and was obliged to sit down in disgrace. She could write a good composition, but could never stand up and read it before the class. Teachers had been engaged to give her special lessons, so as to enable her to pass her preliminary examination, which would allow her to come up for entrance to the Normal College. After months of effort they reported to the mother that it was utterly useless to go on; it was impossible for her to pass her preliminary examination, and they did not think it right to take her money without any such expectation. She was then brought to me to inquire if anything could be done to help her. I proposed hypnotic suggestion. It was then March 30; the first examination was in May. I commenced treatment at once. The patient went into a quiet, subjective condition, with closed eyes, but did not lose consciousness. I suggested that she would be able to concentrate her mind upon her studies; that her memory would be improved; that she would lose her excessive self-consciousness and timidity, and in their place she [217]would have full confidence in herself and be able to stand up before the class and recite. She was kept in the hypnotic condition one-half hour at each treatment, and the same or similar suggestions were quietly but very positively made and repeated at intervals during that time. She at once reported improvement in her ability both to study and recite. She had six treatments, and on May 25 she reported that, greatly to the surprise of her teachers, she had passed her preliminary examination with a percentage of 79, which entitled her to come up for the college examination. In June she passed her examination for entrance to the Normal College with a percentage of 88; entered the College and is at present doing well, though the suggestions have not been repeated since May.
Another case from the same author was that of a boy "so bad as to be perfectly unmanageable, and his temper so outrageous, that his mother begged me to come to the house and see if I could do anything with him.
"Having secured carte blanche for whatever course I chose to pursue, I went. He was in the back room, his grandmother urging him forward, he kicking and resisting. Without speaking, I went directly to him, seized him firmly by one wrist, and brought him topsy turvy through two intervening rooms, gave him a thorough shaking, and set him down violently in a chair. He smoothed down his bang, whimpered a little, and gruffly remarked that I had rumpled his hair. I told him I had not intended to disturb his hair, but that as he had never [218]obeyed anybody I had come to the house for the express purpose of making him obey me, and I should most certainly do it. After a few moments I said, quietly, 'Now go and lie down on the bed in the next room.' He started, walking toward the bed, but when near it he set off on a full run past it and into the back room. I brought him back and again ordered him to lie down on the bed. He went toward it as if to obey, but suddenly sprang under it, and clung to the slats underneath with hands and feet, and hung there like a monkey. I dislodged him, pulled him out, gave him a spanking, and surprised him by tossing him vigorously upon the bed, with the command to lie there quietly until I gave him permission to move. He obeyed. Presently I ordered him to go into the front room and sit down again in the chair he had before occupied. Again he quietly obeyed, I said: 'All right; now you understand you will obey me. I don't want to hurt you. I want to be a good friend to you, only you must obey me.'
"I then in a pleasant way gave him a short lesson, picturing to him very plainly the course of a boy such as he was, and where it would be likely to end; and also showing what he might be if he would change his course. I told him I should be at the house again in a day or two, and I should expect him to meet me pleasantly, shake hands with me, and do whatever I directed him.
"Next day there came a telephone message begging me to come up; M. was outrageous again. I went. He was backward in greeting me, but at length came and shook [219]hands. I afterward learned that there had not been the slightest improvement in his behavior; and the cause of his mother's sending for me was his outrageous conduct at the table, when, in a fit of anger, he had thrown a plate at his grandmother. I talked to him pleasantly a moment, and then said very quietly, 'Now go and lie down on the bed.' He did so at once. I sat down beside him, and taking his two thumbs firmly in my hands, I said: 'Now, M., I want you to look steadily at that little stud in my shirt-front; keep your eyes very steadily fixed upon it.' He did so, and I never secured better or more concentrated attention from any patient.
"In five or six minutes his eyelids quivered and soon dropped. I closed them, suggesting sleep; and directly he was in the sound hypnotic sleep. I then presented the two pictures again—the bad and the good course—and suggested that they would always be present, distinct in in his mind, that he would dislike the wrong course and desire to avoid it, and choose the good one. I suggested definitely that he would be kind and considerate to his mother, and obey her as well as me. I repeated these suggestions very positively, let him sleep ten minutes, and repeated them again, and then awoke him by counting.
"The effect of this treatment was very marked; his whole manner at home was changed, and he became comparatively docile and manageable.
"He came to my office for his next treatment, which was perfectly successful. I have given him in all six treatments, and the improvement has been maintained [220]and increased. He is not yet by any means perfect, but his general behavior is changed, and I am suggesting such definite improvements in his conduct, and impressing such pictures upon his mind, as I think will help to develop his better nature and qualities. He is a lover of flowers, and on two occasions has brought some of his own choosing to me. He has lost none of his boyishness; he is full of life; is mischievous, playing tricks even upon his mother; but he is affectionate and generally obedient. His will is not broken, but he has self-control, and he is far more considerate of others than formerly. In short, he is a fair example of one of the educational uses of hypnotism and suggestion."
The only other case I will quote is one of night terrors.
"A little girl, five years of age, went soundly to sleep when first put to bed, but after two or three hours she awoke screaming and trembling with terror, on account of the hideous black man whom she saw in her dream. The impression of the dream was vivid and persistent, and her screams kept the household aroused and alarmed for hours every night, and this state of things had already continued for months. One day, when she was perfectly bright and happy, I placed her in her high chair in front of me; put my hands gently upon her shoulders, and asked her to look steadily at a trinket easily in her view, and quieted her with passes and soothing touches until her drooping eyelids denoted the subjective condition. I then commenced in a gentle, sing-song manner to suggest that she would go easily to sleep as usual at night, but [221]that she would have no frightful dreams; that she would see the dreadful black man no more, but would sleep quietly on the whole night through. It was repeated over and over in the same gentle manner.
"That was a year ago; she has not seen the black man since, and her sleep and health have been perfect. There was no repetition of the treatment."
From these few cases, and many not quoted, it appears evident that we have in hypnotism, or suggestion, an agent which, when fully understood, will be of great usefulness to parents in the early training of children. That it should be used wisely no one will deny.
The question will naturally arise, How is it that a suggestion to a child while passive or in the hypnotic sleep is more effective than when awake. The answer is not so easy to give; but it is possible that in this state the subliminal self, the higher self, or, perhaps, the spiritual nature is appealed to; and as the active, every-day nature, the conscious self, is now dormant, it receives this appeal more seriously. Perhaps a quotation from Prof. Frederic W. H. Myer, who has given the subject profound attention, will help to make the subject clearer. He says: "In waking consciousness I am like the proprietor of a factory whose machinery I do not understand. My foreman, my subliminal self, weaves for me so many yards of broadcloth per diem (my ordinary vital processes), as a matter of course. If I want any pattern more complex, I have to shout my orders in the din of the factory, where only two or three inferior workmen hear me, and they shift their [222]looms in a small and scattered way. Such are the confined and capricious results of the first, the more familiar stages of hypnotic suggestion.
"At certain intervals, indeed, the foreman stops most of the looms, and uses the freed power to stoke the engine and oil the machinery. This, in my metaphor, is sleep; and it will be effective hypnotic trance if I can get the foreman to stop still more of the looms, come out of his private room, and attend to my orders—my-self suggestions—for their repair and re-arrangment."
To make this a little plainer. The subliminal self, the foreman, is the one who manages the machinery of the nervous system, and turns out this or that sort of conduct or behavior in the child, or the man or woman, as he is told to turn out by the conscious self. But in the hypnotic trance this subliminal self can take orders, or suggestions, for other kinds of conduct or behavior; alter the action of the brain, so as to make another sort of creature; for he is not so occupied then but that he can receive these orders. As in the kaleidescope, the pictures presented depend entirely on the arrangement of the pieces of glass. So in daily conduct, character depends on the combination and activity of the brain cells. By suggestion in the hypnotic state we are able, to some extent at least, to alter this combination so that new conduct is presented.
The question now arises, How can the parent make use of this agent in altering the nature of a child from one that is not desirable to one that is? Probably the best way [223]to proceed would be to take it while sleeping, and make the suggestion then; for ordinary sleep is not different from hypnotic sleep, except in degree. As the child is in the act of going to sleep, let the mother, or whoever is to make the suggestion, sit by its side, take it by the hand and gently soothe it with pleasant words or music, in a firm but agreeable voice. Let her say slowly: Now you are going to sleep, sleep, sleep. You will soon be sleeping sweetly. How nice it is to sleep and rest our bodies so that we can feel well and strong on the coming day. This sleep is going to do you a great deal of good. You will not have bad dreams. You will not see ugly faces or wake up with a fright. Tomorrow you will wake up good-natured, full of life, and will be good boy (or girl, as the case may be), and do your best to make mother happy and proud of you. You will want to play and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine; relish your food; not eat too much, etc., etc., according to the needs of the child. If it is timid and fearful of thunder, or dogs, or horses, or other harmless things, you can say to it, Now, you will not be afraid any more of thunder but like to hear it. This, like all other suggestions, must be repeated several times, so as to make an impression. If afraid of strangers, say, now, you will not fear men, or persons you don't know; repeating it slowly over and over again. If the child uses bad language, say, Now you will not want to use bad words any more, and will be careful how you speak. If it has a cold, put the hand over the chest and say, Now your cold will get well quickly, and not grow worse. If it [224]has the unfortunate habit of wetting the bed at night, even this can be broken up, often by one suggestion, and surely by several repeated so as to take deep root in the mind. This latter is necessary to produce any effect. In case of disease, even serious disease, when a physician is necessary, suggestion may be used by the nurse or parents, or the physician, if he has learned the art, to advantage; but if the parents are anxious or weary, they had better leave it for those who are not weary or anxious; otherwise they may transfer their own condition instead of one of health. The state of mind and body of the operator should be a stable, equable and wholesome one.
The age at which suggestion may be of use is hardly yet known. Certainly so soon as the understanding has become developed it may be employed, though the language should be simplified for the childish understanding. Before this it is of doubtful utility; but some experiments which have been made intimate that good health may sometimes be transmitted from a healthy person to a very young sick child by thought transference.
Thought transference is the transference from one to another person of some feeling, sensation or idea. The person from whom the thought is transferred is the active agent, and the one who receives it is the passive one. Often this phenomenon takes place spontaneously, as when one is in trouble, or at the point of dying, a knowledge of it may sometimes be transferred to an intimate friend who is in sympathy. In the hypnotic state, thought transference can sometimes be induced artificially; and [225]the point here to be considered is the transference to the child of healthy normal sensations to replace the abnormal ones which may have taken possession of consciousness and caused trouble.
The important thing always to have in mind in using psychic forces on children is to instil natural, or normal, conditions, not unnatural or abnormal ones. To this end to produce the best results, the active agent should be a normally healthy person, having good common sense, and living a normal, natural life. Those with sickly, sentimental or fanciful notions, if they try to use suggestion may transfer these states to the child, which would do harm rather than good.
War and Parentage.
In the interests of unborn children we should, so far as possible, remove from the world those causes which, acting on the mother, either directly or indirectly, may injure them by lowering the standard of their health, or by altering and debasing their moral and intellectual natures. One of the most potent of the causes for harm is war. War has generally been regarded as one of the ennobling professions. If we look upon it in its most favorable light, all that we can say in its favor is that among primitive and barbarous races it has perhaps resulted in the preservation and spread of the most capable ones, and that it has at the same time welded them together into larger groups, and finally into nations, and habituated them to those restraints which are necessary to social existence; but we no longer require it for this purpose, and the industrial pursuits and the evolution of civilization are so disturbed by them that they should cease, and especially should they cease in the interest of our children, both born and unborn.
How can war injure children? We have already shown in the chapter on Prenatal Culture that when the mother [200]is under the influence of any powerful mental emotion, such as fear, depression, anger and similar passions during the months in which the child is being developed in her womb, there is very great danger of permanent injury to it. Only the strongest mothers, those with the most robust health, or who have the most stable nerves, those who are rarely thrown off their balance, are capable of resisting the intense excitements to which they are subject during some of the phases of war.
As I mentioned in my early work on Marriage and Parentage, Esquirol, a French historian, gives details of a considerable number of cases of children born soon after some of the sieges of the French Revolution, which were weakly, nervous and idiotic, on account of the terrible strain to which their mothers had been subjected. In every war where a city is besieged, even if its women and children are sent away, they cannot be altogether free from anxieties and mental strains of a most unwholesome nature, and if some of them are soon to become mothers, the offspring not yet born must suffer. No one can estimate the vast number of children injured under such conditions in the ages past. They have been only incidentally referred to in history. The fame and glory of conquerors must not be dimmed by the relation of such occurrences.
Joseph A. Allen, in The Christian Register, gives the results of some of his observations which bear on this subject. He says:
"So much is being said about war and its effects, that I am prompted to send you the result of my observations.
[201]"I was in charge of the Massachusetts State Reform School for several years, when every inmate (there were between three and four hundred) was born before the Civil War—during the time of the great anti-slavery agitation, which did so much to educate the moral sense of the people.
"I was again in charge of the same institution when every inmate was born during, or soon after the war, when the mothers were reading, talking and dreaming of battles, and of husbands, fathers or brothers who had gone to the war.
"I found as great a difference in the character of those inmates born before and after the Civil War as exists between a civilized and a savage nation.
"Those under my care the second time were much more difficult to control, more quarrelsome and defiant, less willing to work or study. The crimes for which they were sentenced were as different as their characters.
"It was not uncommon for them to be sentenced for breaking and entering with deadly weapons.
"This difference was not confined to inmates of reform schools, but it was manifest throughout all classes.
"After the war crimes increased rapidly. In Boston garroting was common, and was only checked by Judge Russell sentencing all such subjects to the full extent of the law.
"Before the close of the Civil War the State Prison at Charlestown, under Mr. Gideon Haynes, was, according to Dr. D. C. Wines, D. D., the model prison of the United [202]States. Since that time it has been almost impossible to maintain proper discipline, owing, no doubt, to the more desperate character of the inmates.
"Let us try to trace these effects back to their causes, and prove, if possible, that whatsoever a man (or nation) soweth, that shall it also reap."
But there are other ways in which war militates against the noblest motherhood. Camp life is a school for vice and prostitution. In Camp Chickamauga, which is a sample of them all, during the war with Spain on account of Cuba, the amount and baseness of the prostitution by the soldiers, with both black and white women, exceeded description. In a single day forty-one cases of specific disease applied to the physicians at the hospitals for treatment. These things were not reported in the daily papers; they were too vile. The place was a hot-bed of vice, rather than a school of virtue and patriotism. In all European armies it is the same. In times of peace, soldiers from the highest to the lowest in rank, insist that facility shall be allowed them for the gratification of their passional natures. The officers, not being permitted to marry unless they or their wives have a certain income, keep their mistresses, and not a female servant near a camp is safe. The immoral influences here generated spread throughout society, lower the standard of morals among both men and women in private life, and jeopardize the interests of children born or unborn, morally and intellectually, as well as physically.
But there is another view. "Great standing armies," [203]says the Czar of Russia, in his note to the Powers, "are transforming the armed power of our day into a crushing burden which the people have more and more difficulty in bearing."
That is to say, the tax imposed upon the individuals of any nation to support its army pauperizes or keeps on the verge of poverty a large portion of the race. It is war, far more than any other cause, which has created the burden of taxation. In some European countries almost every man carries a soldier or sailor on his back, that is, he must labor not only to support himself and family, but a soldier or sailor who devotes his life to a murderous profession. Is this not a grievous burden which cripples or paralyzes his life and reacts on his offspring?
Now, the poverty caused by this burden is a serious obstacle to the production and training of the young, and especially is this the case in the more populous countries—France, Spain and Italy are examples. These lands were once the most powerful in Europe; they are so no longer. They gloried in war, and spent immense sums of money upon their armies and burdened the people with taxes which should have been reserved for the use of fathers and mothers in educating and providing for the needs of their offspring. War has crushed out the best life of these countries, and other nations which follow in the same path will in the end come to a similar fate. They may hold out a long time, but not forever. "The mills of Gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small."
It is because war is an enemy to the highest motherhood [204]that women should array themselves against it. It is one of the greatest foes to the development and welfare of the children they love so well. Women should insist that all governments should settle their differences by peaceful rather than by warlike means. The industrial age may have its difficulties, but they are not insurmountable. In it the fathers and mothers may have the time and the means to study and learn how to improve the race through a wiser parentage. I believe that thoughtful women, when they come to see the evils of war in their true light, as they have seen the evils of prostitution and intemperance, will be its greatest foes.
Cases of Prenatal Influences.
Alfred Russell Wallace gives in Nature a few cases of prenatal influences sent him by his correspondents. The first experience is from a mother residing in Australia. She writes:
"I can trace in the character of my first child, a girl now twenty-two years of age, a special aptitude for sewing, economical contriving and cutting out, which came to me as a new experience when living in the country among new surroundings, and strict economy being necessary, I began to try to sew for the coming baby and myself. I also trace her great love of history to my study of Froude during that period. Her other tastes for art and literature are distinctly hereditary.
[205]"In the case of my second child, also a daughter, I having interested myself prior to her birth in literary pursuits, the result has been a much acuter form of intelligence, which at six years old enabled her to read and enjoy the ballads which Tennyson was then giving to the world, and which at the age of barely twenty years allowed her to take her degree as B. A. of the Sydney University.
"Before the third child, a boy, was born, the current of our lives had changed a little. Visits to my own family and a change of residence to a distant colony, which involved a long journey, as well as the work incidental to such changes, together with the care of my two older children, absorbed all my time and thoughts, and left little or no leisure for studious pursuits. My occupations were more mechanical than at any other time previous. This boy does not inherit the studious tastes of his sisters at all. He is intelligent and possesses most of the qualifications which will probably conduce to success in life, but he prefers any kind of out-door work or handicraft to study. Had I been as alive then as I am now to the importance of these theories, I should have endeavored to guard against this possibility; as it is, I always feel that it is, perhaps, my fault that one of the greatest pleasures of life has been debarred to him.
"But I must not weary you by so many personal details, and I trust you will not suspect me of vanity in thus bringing my own children under your notice. Suffice it to say that in every instance I can, and do, constantly trace what others might term coincidences, but which appear to [206]me nothing but cause and effect in their several developments."
Mr. Wallace then gives extracts from other correspondents as follows:
Mrs. B—— says: "I can trace, nay, have traced (in secret amusement often), something in every child of mine. Before the birth of my eldest girl I took to ornithology, for work and amusement, and did a great deal in taxidermy, too. At the age of three years I found this youngster taking such insects and little animals as she could find, and puzzling me with hard questions as to what was inside of them. Later on she used to be seen with a small knife, working and dissecting cleverly and with much care and skill at their insides. One day she brought me the tiniest heart of the tiniest lizard you can imagine, so small that I had to examine it through a glass, though she saw it without any artificial aid. By some means she got a young wallaby, and made an apron with a pocket inside which she used to call her 'pouch.' This study of natural history is still of interest to her, though she lacks time and opportunities. Still, she always does a little dissecting if she gets a chance."
Another Case.—"I never noticed anything about P—— for some years. Three months before he was born a friend, whom I will call Smith, was badly hurt, and was brought to my house to be nursed. I turned out the nursery and he lay there for three months. I nursed him until I could do so no longer, and then took lodgings in town for my confinement. Now after all these years [207]I have discovered how this surgical nursing has left its mark. The boy is in his element when he can be of use in cases of accident, etc. He said to me quite lately: 'How I wish you had made a surgeon of me!' Then all at once it flashed in upon me, but, alas! it was too late to remedy the mistake.
"Before the birth of the third child I passed ten of the happiest months of my life. We had a nice house, one side of which was covered with cloth of gold roses and bougainvillea, a garden with plenty of flowers, and a vineyard. Here we lived an idyllic life, and did nothing but fish, catch butterflies and paint them. At least my husband painted them after I had caught them and mixed his colors. At the end of this time L—— was born. This child excels in artistic talent of many kinds; nothing comes amiss to her, and she draws remarkably well. She is of a bright gay disposition, finding much happiness in life, even though not always placed in the most fortunate surroundings.
"Before the birth of my next child, N——, a daughter, I had a bad time. My husband fell ill of fever, and I had to nurse him without help or assistance of any kind. We had also losses by floods. I don't know how I got through that year, but I had no time for reading. N—— is the most prudent, economical girl I know. She is a splendid housekeeper and a good cook, and will work till she drops; has no taste for reading, but seems to gain knowledge by suction." Such cases are so numerous that they should be collected and scientifically studied.
Luxury and Parentage.
In all ages of luxury, fine ladies try to avoid maternity. They detest it in theory only, for women are controlled by the instinct of the race. In the circles of which we are speaking, the instincts of the race for children have vanished. Life has lost its serious meaning. Responsibility of any kind is a mere nuisance, and the idea of bringing up a new life, with all its bonds and its charm, is as repellant as the idea of a new bonnet is enticing. For such women the world has no use. Beautiful, in the great sense, they are not. Incapable, in any great way, of either loving or being loved, they are at best the painted bubbles on the stream of life. Such women will always be far inferior as mothers, and less capable of bringing into the world noble offspring than those women in the humble walks of life who live naturally, who love the family ties and are fond of the young.
Great mothers must have a certain sort of hardihood which comes from a wise physical culture, not necessarily an artificial one,—a life in the open air, and the avoidance of all social dissipation.
Degeneracy of the Breasts and Motherhood.
A sign of degeneracy is pointed out by Hegar, who appeals to young men on behalf of posterity to choose for wives women with well-developed breasts; he quotes statistics to prove inability to nurse a child a sign of [209]degeneracy which produces degeneracy in the offspring. Among other facts he points out that in a district of his knowledge, which supplies a large number of wet nurses to the city, the percentage of men incapable of military service amounts to 30 per cent., while in the neighboring districts, where the mothers remain at home with their families, it is only 18 per cent. He remarks upon the surprising number of deformed nipples encountered in the hospitals. Fehling mentions "hollow nipples" as occurring in 6.7 of his obstetric cases. He warns mothers not to allow the clothing to constrict the growing breasts of their daughters, and urges general hygiene as the best method to develop them.
In this connection the question may be asked, Is it possible for women with defective breasts to become mothers of a virile race of men and strong women. In most cases it is not. A defect in this part of their nature is evidence of a weakened constitution. It may be said, that the breasts do not always develop before marriage and parentage. This is true, and if the health is robust, and the constitution and ancestry good, the mother will, in most cases, be able to nurse her child. If it is known in advance that such cannot be the case, and it may generally be known, then the responsibilities of motherhood should be undertaken with the greater precaution. In modern times we have far better means of bringing up children by hand than formerly. Still, a mother able to nurse her own children should always be preferred.
Location of Birth.
In Manchester, England, in 1892, 37,674 boys out of every 100,000 died before they reached their fifth year. In healthy districts only 17,314 out of 100,000 died. About the same condition prevails in other places. The lesson it teaches us is, that we should choose a healthy region in which to live if we would rear the healthiest offspring.
Evolution.
This word means progress and progress implies improvement, without which there could be no evolution; but improvement of the human race will not be further possible unless the marriage relation is regarded from a higher stand-point than that of sexual indulgence.
The practical superiority of man over animals consists in his knowledge of the aim of his conduct. Animals exercise the reproductive function instinctively at particular seasons, but man knowingly always; and thus, unless the latter subordinates his passion to reason he is worse than a brute, as he knows himself to be such.
The difference between the chaste marriage of affection and the unchaste marriage of passion, is analogous to that between education and instruction, as explained by Elder Evans of the Shaker Community. Instruction imparts knowledge, such as is associated in Eastern lore with the sexual passion, but education embraces the whole disposition, which is rendered more beautiful and spiritual [211]through a marriage of chastity, and as thus affected is transmitted to the offspring, who exhibit the disposition of their parents at the time of conception. Sexual excess not only tends to produce offspring of a weakly constitution, but it interferes with the organic growth of the parents. It is as wasteful as burning a candle at both ends at the same time.
Parents should bear in mind that the mental plan on which their children shall begin life, depends on the desire by which they are governed when they beget their offspring; and as desire depends on disposition, they should aim at requiring harmony of character and conduct.
If we think less of ourselves and more of the race to which we belong, we shall have a better chance of improving both ourselves and the race as represented in our offspring.
We are all members of a great organism, which is constituted by the whole of human kind, past, present and future, and it is our duty to act in such a manner that the whole shall be benefited by our conduct; which it cannot be if we are careless as to our own disposition or as to the character of our offspring.
Our Aryan ancestors were conscious of their duty towards the race, and probably to this fact was largely due the high physical development the white race attained. Only by acting in their spirit can we hope to maintain the race at its high level or prevent its deterioration and decay.
The important influence which the gratification of the sexual impulse has had over the development of the [212]aesthetic side of Nature has been often insisted on; and there is no reason why its gratification should not be attended also with the development of the highest mental qualities, if these are made use of in the formation and exercise of the marriage relations between the sexes.—C. Staniland Wake.
Too Little Fatherhood.
The modern child is threatened not with too much mother but with too little father, and this danger is heightened by the sudden release of womanhood from the ban of conventionality and of the domineering power of physical force. Let her not too readily accept as complimentary to herself the church's adoration of Mary. Woman is made of no purer stuff than man, her companion, man her father. She cannot transmit from her own veins or her companion's veins any purer life stuff, any finer impulse to her daughter than she does to her son. We need more fathers in the home, more men teachers in our public schools; and if our homes and schools are not organized so as to evoke and direct this masculine investment, then let them be reorganized. It is not true that mothers are peculiarly the divinely appointed teachers of children, that to them is especially entrusted the intellectual or spiritual destinies of the young. That argument is based upon the analogies of the past; it is a reversion to primitive conditions, an illustration of the law of atavism, like the return to six fingers and toes in some people, or the restoration in others of the [213]muscle that can move the ear. The highest reaches of evolution point to a double responsibility and a double potency. In the interest of the child, then, let us lift him out of a mother rule into a father and mother rule. Let the home be girdled with masculine order and justice as well as with feminine love and tenderness. Let there be strength as well as tenderness. Let there be in it mind as well as heart, vigor as well as sympathy. All these are spiritual children which cannot be born except in the bi-sexual realm.—Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
The Flat-Head Indians and Heredity.
Amongst the round-head tribes woman holds a higher position, whereas amongst the flat-heads she is a mere drudge. In by-gone days it was common to see a tired-looking woman walking behind her husband carrying a heavy load, while he walked on before with nothing.
Again, the round-heads have a remarkable mythology, while the others have a poor affair.
Mr. Dean has informed me that the flat-head, which would be an acquired character, is never transmitted to offspring—another argument against the Lamarchian theory, that acquired characters are transmitted.
That whatever injures the physical or intellectual health of parents tends to degrade their offspring has long been evident. I think we have a good race illustration of this in the effects of flattening and deforming the skulls of children among the Flat-Head Indians, who for centuries [214]followed this precedent. Information has been furnished me by special request by Mr. James Dean, of Victoria, B. C., bearing on this point. He writes:
"Among the children the mortality seems to be greater with the tribes which flatten the heads of their children than in those who do not. I have long noticed that there is a very marked intellectual difference between them."
The Hidery tribes of Northern British Columbia and Southern Alaska, who never flattened their heads, have long been famous for their works of art, such as elaborate carvings in wood and stone.
Suggestion as an Aid in the Training of Children.
Within a few years an old subject, that of hypnotism, formerly called mesmerism, has received new attention under the name of suggestion, or, in medical language, "suggestive therapeutics." It was used in a rude way by Mesmer in the cure of disease. Later it was employed much more effectively by Braid and others for the same purpose, and especially for the prevention of pain in surgical operations. Want of space forbids our going into any extended historical detail as to its application for these purposes, but a few points will be considered, which bear on the subject.
It was found that when a person had contracted a bad habit, as, for instance, smoking or drinking, it could often be broken up by placing him in the mesmeric sleep, and [215]telling him he would no longer desire to continue the habit, but would even loathe them. The habit of sucking the thumb, a bad temper, lying, stealing, dullness and lack of ambition, etc., were amenable to this treatment. To illustrate: A boy fifteen years old, always at the foot of his class, was put into the hypnotic sleep, and told that he would be able to study harder and learn his lessons better, so as to go to the head. This was continued daily for several weeks, and, sure enough, he accepted the suggestion, and outstripped every scholar in his class, and kept at the head so long as these means were used; but, unfortunately, when they were discontinued he relapsed into his first state. The suggestions had not been sufficiently thorough to take deep root, and become a part of his nature, as might have been the case with a better knowledge as to how to use them. So long ago as in 1892 Dr. Bérillon, Editor of The Revue de l' Hypnotism, read a paper before the Second International Congress of Experimental Psychology, in which he stated that he had observed the beneficial effects of hypnotism in education in some 250 cases, including nervous insomnia, night terror, sleepwalking, kleptomania, stammering, idleness, filthy habits, cowardice and moral delinquency. He also stated that other observers had similar experience. My friend, Dr. B. Osgood Mason, of New York, working on the same lines, has had similar experiences. I will quote a few illustrative cases furnished by him. The first is of a school-girl fifteen years of age, a pupil in one of the grammar-schools [216]of New York—intelligent in many ways; a good reader of such books as interested her—history, biography, and the better class of novels; but for the routine of school studies she had no aptitude, and she was constantly being left behind in her classes. She could not concentrate her mind upon details which did not specially interest her. If she succeeded in learning a lesson she could not remember it, or if she remembered it until she arrived at the classroom, when she arose to recite, it was instantly gone; her mind became a perfect blank; she had not a word to say, and was obliged to sit down in disgrace. She could write a good composition, but could never stand up and read it before the class. Teachers had been engaged to give her special lessons, so as to enable her to pass her preliminary examination, which would allow her to come up for entrance to the Normal College. After months of effort they reported to the mother that it was utterly useless to go on; it was impossible for her to pass her preliminary examination, and they did not think it right to take her money without any such expectation. She was then brought to me to inquire if anything could be done to help her. I proposed hypnotic suggestion. It was then March 30; the first examination was in May. I commenced treatment at once. The patient went into a quiet, subjective condition, with closed eyes, but did not lose consciousness. I suggested that she would be able to concentrate her mind upon her studies; that her memory would be improved; that she would lose her excessive self-consciousness and timidity, and in their place she [217]would have full confidence in herself and be able to stand up before the class and recite. She was kept in the hypnotic condition one-half hour at each treatment, and the same or similar suggestions were quietly but very positively made and repeated at intervals during that time. She at once reported improvement in her ability both to study and recite. She had six treatments, and on May 25 she reported that, greatly to the surprise of her teachers, she had passed her preliminary examination with a percentage of 79, which entitled her to come up for the college examination. In June she passed her examination for entrance to the Normal College with a percentage of 88; entered the College and is at present doing well, though the suggestions have not been repeated since May.
Another case from the same author was that of a boy "so bad as to be perfectly unmanageable, and his temper so outrageous, that his mother begged me to come to the house and see if I could do anything with him.
"Having secured carte blanche for whatever course I chose to pursue, I went. He was in the back room, his grandmother urging him forward, he kicking and resisting. Without speaking, I went directly to him, seized him firmly by one wrist, and brought him topsy turvy through two intervening rooms, gave him a thorough shaking, and set him down violently in a chair. He smoothed down his bang, whimpered a little, and gruffly remarked that I had rumpled his hair. I told him I had not intended to disturb his hair, but that as he had never [218]obeyed anybody I had come to the house for the express purpose of making him obey me, and I should most certainly do it. After a few moments I said, quietly, 'Now go and lie down on the bed in the next room.' He started, walking toward the bed, but when near it he set off on a full run past it and into the back room. I brought him back and again ordered him to lie down on the bed. He went toward it as if to obey, but suddenly sprang under it, and clung to the slats underneath with hands and feet, and hung there like a monkey. I dislodged him, pulled him out, gave him a spanking, and surprised him by tossing him vigorously upon the bed, with the command to lie there quietly until I gave him permission to move. He obeyed. Presently I ordered him to go into the front room and sit down again in the chair he had before occupied. Again he quietly obeyed, I said: 'All right; now you understand you will obey me. I don't want to hurt you. I want to be a good friend to you, only you must obey me.'
"I then in a pleasant way gave him a short lesson, picturing to him very plainly the course of a boy such as he was, and where it would be likely to end; and also showing what he might be if he would change his course. I told him I should be at the house again in a day or two, and I should expect him to meet me pleasantly, shake hands with me, and do whatever I directed him.
"Next day there came a telephone message begging me to come up; M. was outrageous again. I went. He was backward in greeting me, but at length came and shook [219]hands. I afterward learned that there had not been the slightest improvement in his behavior; and the cause of his mother's sending for me was his outrageous conduct at the table, when, in a fit of anger, he had thrown a plate at his grandmother. I talked to him pleasantly a moment, and then said very quietly, 'Now go and lie down on the bed.' He did so at once. I sat down beside him, and taking his two thumbs firmly in my hands, I said: 'Now, M., I want you to look steadily at that little stud in my shirt-front; keep your eyes very steadily fixed upon it.' He did so, and I never secured better or more concentrated attention from any patient.
"In five or six minutes his eyelids quivered and soon dropped. I closed them, suggesting sleep; and directly he was in the sound hypnotic sleep. I then presented the two pictures again—the bad and the good course—and suggested that they would always be present, distinct in in his mind, that he would dislike the wrong course and desire to avoid it, and choose the good one. I suggested definitely that he would be kind and considerate to his mother, and obey her as well as me. I repeated these suggestions very positively, let him sleep ten minutes, and repeated them again, and then awoke him by counting.
"The effect of this treatment was very marked; his whole manner at home was changed, and he became comparatively docile and manageable.
"He came to my office for his next treatment, which was perfectly successful. I have given him in all six treatments, and the improvement has been maintained [220]and increased. He is not yet by any means perfect, but his general behavior is changed, and I am suggesting such definite improvements in his conduct, and impressing such pictures upon his mind, as I think will help to develop his better nature and qualities. He is a lover of flowers, and on two occasions has brought some of his own choosing to me. He has lost none of his boyishness; he is full of life; is mischievous, playing tricks even upon his mother; but he is affectionate and generally obedient. His will is not broken, but he has self-control, and he is far more considerate of others than formerly. In short, he is a fair example of one of the educational uses of hypnotism and suggestion."
The only other case I will quote is one of night terrors.
"A little girl, five years of age, went soundly to sleep when first put to bed, but after two or three hours she awoke screaming and trembling with terror, on account of the hideous black man whom she saw in her dream. The impression of the dream was vivid and persistent, and her screams kept the household aroused and alarmed for hours every night, and this state of things had already continued for months. One day, when she was perfectly bright and happy, I placed her in her high chair in front of me; put my hands gently upon her shoulders, and asked her to look steadily at a trinket easily in her view, and quieted her with passes and soothing touches until her drooping eyelids denoted the subjective condition. I then commenced in a gentle, sing-song manner to suggest that she would go easily to sleep as usual at night, but [221]that she would have no frightful dreams; that she would see the dreadful black man no more, but would sleep quietly on the whole night through. It was repeated over and over in the same gentle manner.
"That was a year ago; she has not seen the black man since, and her sleep and health have been perfect. There was no repetition of the treatment."
From these few cases, and many not quoted, it appears evident that we have in hypnotism, or suggestion, an agent which, when fully understood, will be of great usefulness to parents in the early training of children. That it should be used wisely no one will deny.
The question will naturally arise, How is it that a suggestion to a child while passive or in the hypnotic sleep is more effective than when awake. The answer is not so easy to give; but it is possible that in this state the subliminal self, the higher self, or, perhaps, the spiritual nature is appealed to; and as the active, every-day nature, the conscious self, is now dormant, it receives this appeal more seriously. Perhaps a quotation from Prof. Frederic W. H. Myer, who has given the subject profound attention, will help to make the subject clearer. He says: "In waking consciousness I am like the proprietor of a factory whose machinery I do not understand. My foreman, my subliminal self, weaves for me so many yards of broadcloth per diem (my ordinary vital processes), as a matter of course. If I want any pattern more complex, I have to shout my orders in the din of the factory, where only two or three inferior workmen hear me, and they shift their [222]looms in a small and scattered way. Such are the confined and capricious results of the first, the more familiar stages of hypnotic suggestion.
"At certain intervals, indeed, the foreman stops most of the looms, and uses the freed power to stoke the engine and oil the machinery. This, in my metaphor, is sleep; and it will be effective hypnotic trance if I can get the foreman to stop still more of the looms, come out of his private room, and attend to my orders—my-self suggestions—for their repair and re-arrangment."
To make this a little plainer. The subliminal self, the foreman, is the one who manages the machinery of the nervous system, and turns out this or that sort of conduct or behavior in the child, or the man or woman, as he is told to turn out by the conscious self. But in the hypnotic trance this subliminal self can take orders, or suggestions, for other kinds of conduct or behavior; alter the action of the brain, so as to make another sort of creature; for he is not so occupied then but that he can receive these orders. As in the kaleidescope, the pictures presented depend entirely on the arrangement of the pieces of glass. So in daily conduct, character depends on the combination and activity of the brain cells. By suggestion in the hypnotic state we are able, to some extent at least, to alter this combination so that new conduct is presented.
The question now arises, How can the parent make use of this agent in altering the nature of a child from one that is not desirable to one that is? Probably the best way [223]to proceed would be to take it while sleeping, and make the suggestion then; for ordinary sleep is not different from hypnotic sleep, except in degree. As the child is in the act of going to sleep, let the mother, or whoever is to make the suggestion, sit by its side, take it by the hand and gently soothe it with pleasant words or music, in a firm but agreeable voice. Let her say slowly: Now you are going to sleep, sleep, sleep. You will soon be sleeping sweetly. How nice it is to sleep and rest our bodies so that we can feel well and strong on the coming day. This sleep is going to do you a great deal of good. You will not have bad dreams. You will not see ugly faces or wake up with a fright. Tomorrow you will wake up good-natured, full of life, and will be good boy (or girl, as the case may be), and do your best to make mother happy and proud of you. You will want to play and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine; relish your food; not eat too much, etc., etc., according to the needs of the child. If it is timid and fearful of thunder, or dogs, or horses, or other harmless things, you can say to it, Now, you will not be afraid any more of thunder but like to hear it. This, like all other suggestions, must be repeated several times, so as to make an impression. If afraid of strangers, say, now, you will not fear men, or persons you don't know; repeating it slowly over and over again. If the child uses bad language, say, Now you will not want to use bad words any more, and will be careful how you speak. If it has a cold, put the hand over the chest and say, Now your cold will get well quickly, and not grow worse. If it [224]has the unfortunate habit of wetting the bed at night, even this can be broken up, often by one suggestion, and surely by several repeated so as to take deep root in the mind. This latter is necessary to produce any effect. In case of disease, even serious disease, when a physician is necessary, suggestion may be used by the nurse or parents, or the physician, if he has learned the art, to advantage; but if the parents are anxious or weary, they had better leave it for those who are not weary or anxious; otherwise they may transfer their own condition instead of one of health. The state of mind and body of the operator should be a stable, equable and wholesome one.
The age at which suggestion may be of use is hardly yet known. Certainly so soon as the understanding has become developed it may be employed, though the language should be simplified for the childish understanding. Before this it is of doubtful utility; but some experiments which have been made intimate that good health may sometimes be transmitted from a healthy person to a very young sick child by thought transference.
Thought transference is the transference from one to another person of some feeling, sensation or idea. The person from whom the thought is transferred is the active agent, and the one who receives it is the passive one. Often this phenomenon takes place spontaneously, as when one is in trouble, or at the point of dying, a knowledge of it may sometimes be transferred to an intimate friend who is in sympathy. In the hypnotic state, thought transference can sometimes be induced artificially; and [225]the point here to be considered is the transference to the child of healthy normal sensations to replace the abnormal ones which may have taken possession of consciousness and caused trouble.
The important thing always to have in mind in using psychic forces on children is to instil natural, or normal, conditions, not unnatural or abnormal ones. To this end to produce the best results, the active agent should be a normally healthy person, having good common sense, and living a normal, natural life. Those with sickly, sentimental or fanciful notions, if they try to use suggestion may transfer these states to the child, which would do harm rather than good.
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Re: Homo-culture, by Martin Luther Holbrook
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INDEX.
Acquired characters, inheritance of, 71, 73, 77 et seq., 79, 90, 109, 111, et seq.
Acquired characters not transmitted, 213
Adaptation to environment necessary for health, 149
Aesthetic sense displayed by animals, 28
Aesthetic surroundings during gestation, 95
Air, regarded as food, 174
Alcohol, as a poison, 91
Alcohol, effect of, on offspring, 171
Allen, Joseph A., observations of, as to effects of war on children, 200
Allen, Grant, 34, 48, 51, 180
Amphimixis, theory of, 76
Ancestral ids, 75
Ancestral tendencies, correction of, 126
Animals, practical superiority of man over, what?, 210
Animal flesh, supposed effect of eating, 63
Atavism in relation to disease, 83
Baby, a theoretical, 185 et seq.
Bad habits, broken up by suggestion during mesmeric sleep, 214
Bad temper cured by hypnotic suggestion, 217 et seq.
Beauty, reference of sexual selection to, 28
Bees, instincts of, 122
Bérillon, Dr., on beneficial effect of hypnotism over bad habits, etc., 215
Birthmarks, 59, 68, 94
Blood, healthy, purifying influence of, 92
Blood, study of the, 140, 151
Bones, modification of certain, through sitting, 116
Boys, mortality among larger than with girls, 136
Breasts, best methods of developing, 209
[227]Breasts, defective, women having, incapable of becoming mothers of a virile race, 209
Breasts, development of, after marriage and parentage, 209
Breasts, degeneracy of the, and motherhood, 208
Breeding in and in, Noyes' first principle for race improvement, 38
Camp life, evils of, 202
Cases of prenatal influences, 204 et seq.
Cells, sexual, 110, 162
Chandler, Jennie, 97
Character, dependence of, on arrangement of nerve cells, 222
Character, improvement by suggestion, method to be employed by parents for, 223
Character of children affected by war, 201
Characteristics, origin of, through sexual selection, 134
Charles, Havelock, 116
Chickamauga Camp, prostitution at, 202
Children acquire special aptitudes from mothers, 205
Child bearing, best age for, 170
Children, breeding of, in Plato's Republic, 11, 12
Children considered as belonging to the State, 10 et seq., 22
Children, deaths of, in New York city, 139
Children, healthy, essentials for having, 168
Children, interests of unborn, 199
Children, characteristics of, in the Oneida Community, 39
Children in the Oneida Community, care of, 38
Children, mortality among, 136
Children, obstacle of war to production and training of, 203
Child training aided by suggestion, 214 et seq.
Children, training of, 16 et seq., 52
Civil War and how it affected the character of children, 201
Co-adaptation of parts as evidence of transmission of acquired characters, 116
Coalescence of sperm and germ cells, 166
Concentrative power, want of, cured by hypnotic suggestion, 216
Conduct, knowledge of its object, not possessed by animals, 210
Congenital characters, transmission of, 177
Congenital deformities, 80
Consanguineous marriages among the Greeks, 23
Consanguineous marriages, regulations as to, among uncultured peoples, 21, 42
Consanguineous marriages, effect on offspring, 42
[228]Constitution, bodily, improvement of the, 150
Consumption, causes of, 176
Consumption, tendency to, whether a bar to marriage, 176
Contentment, value of, 95
Continuity of germ-plasm, 107, 118
Co-operation, hygienic value of, 156 et seq.
Cope, Prof. E. D., 59, 69
Cousins, marriage between, 43
Couvade, custom of the, 63 et seq.
Crimes, increase of, caused by war, 201
Darwin, Charles, 28, 30 et seq., 73, 75, 85, 100, 105, 106, 109, 141, 179, 184
Death, causes of, 150
Deformities, congenital, 80
Degeneracy of the breasts and motherhood, 208
Degeneracy in offspring due to maternal degeneracy evidenced by inability to nurse a child, 208
Degeneration, evidence of, 140
Development of breasts after marriage and parentage, 209
Diseases, influence of hygiene over, 159
Diseases, inheritance of, 80
Diseases which affect offspring, 175
Disposition spiritualized through marriage of chastity, 210
Disproportion between accidental causes and effects, 68, 90
Diversity between offspring and parents, causes of, 58
Domestication of animals, 9
Doutrebente, Prof., 92
Drink, influence of, over offspring, 16
Duncan, J. C. Mathews, 170
Education, beneficial effects of hypnotism in, 215
Education and heredity, 111 et seq.
Education and non-transmission of acquired characters, 124
Education of Spartan children, 15
Education, Plutarch on, 17
Education, study of laws of evolution, as part of, 125
Educational uses of hypnotism and suggestion, 220
Egg. See Ovum.
Eimer, Dr. G. H., 71, 79 et seq., 90
Embryo, how parental properties communicated to, 69
Embryology, importance of, 103
[229]Energy, bodily, use and abuse of, 153
Environment, adaptation to, necessary for health, 149
Epigenesis, theory of, 104
Esquirol on the effects of the French Revolution over children, 200
Ethics of the body, hygiene as the, 160
Evolution, a superior race produced by, 130 et seq.
Evolution, meaning of the term, 210
Evolution of the horse, 102
Evolution, study of laws of, as part of education, 125
Evolutionary theories, conflict of, with humane sentiments, 145 et seq.
Example, influence of, over children, 18
Exercise, transmission of effects of, 111
Experiment in race improvement by Noyes, 37 et seq.
Explanation of the action of hypnotic suggestion, 221
Family life, abolition of, in Plato's Republic, 10
Father rule should be combined with mother rule, 213
Fatherhood, too little importance assigned to, 212
Feeble constitutions prevent numerous offspring, 147
Fertilization essential to true germ plasm, 165
Fertilization, nature of, 166
Fison, Lorimer, 42
Fitness for survival, characteristics of, 140
Flat head Indians and heredity, 213
Flat head and round head tribes, comparison between, 213
Flat head not transmitted to offspring, 213
Flattening the skull, injurious effect of on health, 214
Flint, Dr. Austin, 88
Food, how it affects germ plasm, 173
Food (certain) injurious influence of, 94
Foot, compression of, by Chinese ladies, 20
Fosterage, 96
French Revolution, evil effects of over children, 200
Galton, Francis, 46, 50, 73, 106, 135, 170
Gemmules, essential to pangenesis, 105, 106
Generation, influences over, at time of conception, 57, 58
Generation, influences over, subsequent to conception, 58
Generative powers, debilitation of the, 84
Germ plasm and heredity, 107, 162
[230]Germ plasm, continuity of the, 73, 74 et seq., 107, 118
Germ plasm, how affected by food, 173
Germ plasm, modification of the, 76, 80
Germ variations, causes of, 81
Gestation (period of) importance of pleasant surroundings during, 93
Gestation, maternal influence during, 96
Gestation, strong emotion during, effect of, 63, 94
Gestation, uterine disturbances during, 93
Girls, physical training of, among Spartans, 14
Girls, mortality among, smaller than with boys, 136
Great mothers, how constituted, 208
Group marriage of Australian natives, 21
Hæckel, Ernst, 109
Harvey, 103
Haycraft, John Berry, 143
Head flattening, 20
Health, action of nature in relation to, 130
Health, transmission of, by thought transference, to young sick child, 224
Healthy localities enable the healthiest offspring to be reared, 210
Health, adaptation to environment necessary for, 149
Health, ideal of, 148
Health, importance of, in relation to marriage, 135, 168, 171
Hearn, Professor, 67
Hedonism, New, 48
Hereditary tastes of children, 204 et seq.
Heredities, antagonistic, of two parents, 58
Heredity among Flat-head Indians, 213
Heredity, definition of, 100
Heredity and education, 111 et seq.
Heredity, evils arising from, may be cured, 35
Heredity, exceptions to law of, 58
Heredity and germ plasm, 107
Heredity, importance of knowledge of, by teachers, 125
Heredity, modification of law of, 99
Heredity, preponderating influence of, 69, 89
Heredity, rational view of, 109
Heredity, spectre of, 127 et seq.
Heredity, theories of, 73 et seq.
Heredity, transformation of, 83
Hering, Richard, 70
[231]Hidery tribes of British Columbia, 214
High-pressure, effects of living at, 152
Hypnotic sleep, differs from ordinary sleep only in degree, 223
Hypnotic suggestion, value of, as aid to education, 216
Hypnotism as suggestive therapeutics, 214
Horse, evolution of the, 102
Human selection, plans for, 135 et seq.
Human kind, regarded as a whole, should be benefited by our conduct, 211
Human race, further improvement of impossible, if marriage relation be regarded only from standpoint of sexual indulgence, 210
Humane sentiments, conflict of, with theories of evolution, 145 et seq.
Husband and wife, tendency to resemble each other, 89
Huth, A. H., 42
Hygiene, modern, as opposed to natural selection, 142 et seq.
Hygiene, as the ethics of the body, 160
Hygiene, promises of, 158 et seq.
Hygienic laws, punishment for infraction of, 161
Hygienic surroundings, importance of, 139
Hygienic training, value of, 151
Ideal of Health, 148
Idiots, education of, 25
Illustrative cases of prenatal influence, 60 et seq.
Imagination, effect of, on unborn offspring, 55 et seq.
Improvement of race. See race improvement.
Incas of Peru, consanguineous marriages among the, 23
Income, bodily, importance of living within, 152
Individual, the, as the beginning and end of the race, 50
Individuality, development of the, 126
Infanticide among Spartans, 15
Infanticide, former general prevalence of, 19
Infanticide in Plato's Republic, 11
Infanticide not morally permissible, 24
Inheritance of acquired characters, question as to the, 71, 73, 77, 79, 90, 109, 111 et seq.
Inheritance, organic, wonders of, 101
Injuries during life, transmission of, 79 et seq.
Injury to health through flattening the skull, 214
Instinct, explanations of origin of, 121
[232]Instincts of the race for children, loss of, 208
Instruction and education, difference between, 210
Intelligence affected by head flattening, 214
Jacob, rods of, 56
Jeune, Lady Mary, 47
Jowett, Professor B., 25 et seq., 34
Krafft, D. Von Ebing, 82, 84, 91
Lamarck, 111
Lamarchian theory of transmission, 213
Language, not transmitted to offspring, 119
Leeuwenhock, 103
Limitation of offspring, 179 et seq.
Locust, egg-laying instinct of, 123
Luxury and parentage, 208
Lycurgus, marriage regulations of, 13 et seq., 22, 27
Lyman, Dr. C. W., on treatment of a baby, 185 et seq.
Man, variations undergone by, 138
Man, practical superiority of, over animals, what, 210
Manufacturing life, unhealthiness of, 152
Manufacturing mills, deterioration caused by, 158
Marriage, consanguineous, ideas as to, 21, 42
Marriage customs among Spartans, 18, 19
Marriage, early, disadvantages of, 137
Marriage, importance of health in relation to, 135
Marriage, regulations as to, in Plato's Republic, 22, 25
Marriage of weak and worthless, 137
Marriage, a sacred state, 52
Marriage of chastity, disposition spiritualized by, 210
Marriages of affection and passion, difference between, analogous to that between education and instruction, 210
Mason, Dr. R. Osgood, on beneficial effect of hypnotism in education, 215
Maternity, avoidance of, 208
McGee, Dr. Anita Newcomb, 37
Memory, endowment of reproductive cells with, 70
Memory, improvement of, by hypnotic suggestion, 210
Mental dullness, curable by suggestion during hypnotic sleep, 215
[233]Mental emotion of mother, injury to unborn child through, 200
Mesmeric sleep, effect of suggestion during, 214
Mesmerism, now known as hypnotism, 214
Method to be employed by parents for using suggestion in child training, 223
Microbes, selective action of, 143
Mind of operator, state of, necessary to successful suggestion, 224-5
Modification of certain bones through sitting, 116
Modification of the organism during descent from first ancestors, 71
Modification of sense of touch, 114
Modification of toes, 112
Modification of the whale, 115
Molecular structure of sexual cells, 110
Monogamy, return to, by the Oneida Community, 40, 41, 53
Moral nature, growth of the, 146
Mosaic regulations as to unclean animals, 63
Motherhood, highest, war an enemy to, 204
Motherhood and degeneracy of the breasts, 208
Mothers, not peculiarily the divinely appointed teachers of children, 212
Musical talent, not transmitted to offspring, 120
Mutilations, not transmissible, 119
Myer, Prof. Frederic W. H., on hypnotic suggestion, 221
Natural selection, 9, 115, 138, 142
Natural selection, always operative, 147
Nature, action of, in relation to health, 130
Nerve cells, constitution of, alterable by hypnotic suggestion, 222
Nervous system, debilitation of the, 84
Night terrors cured by hypnotic suggestion, 220
Nipples, deformed, common occurrence of, 209
Nisbet, J. F., 90, 92
Non-nursing of children a sign of degeneracy, 208
Normal conditions only should be transferred by hypnotic suggestion, 225
Nose molding, 20
Notes, 199 et seq.
Noyes, John Humphrey, 37 et seq.
Nucleus of cell, essential to reproduction, 167
Nutrition, action of, on germ cells, 151
Nutrition (arrested) organic effect of, 77
[234]Obedience the basis of education among the Spartans, 15
Offspring, effect of alcohol on, 171
Offspring, effect of consanguineous marriage on, 42
Offspring, influence of locality on health of, 210
Offspring, injuriously affected by sexual excess of parents, 211
Offspring, inception of, the starting point of stirpiculture, 52
Offspring, limitation of, 179 et seq.
Oneida Community, 37 et seq.
Ovum, 163 et seq.
Ovum, the beginning of animal life, 101, 163
Ovum, developmental tendency of the, 110
Ovum, effect of gestation on the, 102
Ovum of different animals, apparent similarity of the, 163
Paget, Sir James, 148
Pain, prevention of, in surgical operations, 214
Pangenesis, experiments in, 106
Pangenesis, theory of, 75, 105, 109
Panmixia, theory of, 78
Paper mill (New England), 154
Parentage and luxury, 208
Parentage and war, 199
Parentage, responsibility in, 49, 181
Parentage, Plato's restrictions on, 11
Parentage, sacredness of, 93
Parents, how to make use of suggestion in the training of children, 222
Parents, organic growth of, injuriously affected by sexual excess, 211
Parental life, influence of, over offspring, 95
Perfectionists of the Oneida Community, 37 et seq.
Phillips, Wendell, 128
Physical culture, 160
Physical training of girls among Spartans, 14
Physical weakness may be associated with mental greatness, 34
Plato, Republic of, 10 et seq., 25
Plutarch, 13, 16 et seq.
Poisons, actions of, on the sexual cells, 91
Poverty, obstacle of, to production and training of the young, 203
Preference, as exhibited among animals, 131
Preference, as exhibited among men, 133
Preference, first principle of sexual selection, 131
[235]Prenatal culture, 55 et seq.
Prenatal culture, illustrative cases of, 60 et seq.
Prenatal influence, 112
Prenatal influence in telegony, 85
Prenatal influences, cases of, 204 et seq.
Principles on which sexual selection is based, 38, 131
Progress in organic life, 9
Promiscuity regulated in Oneida Community, 37
Promiscuity regulated in Plato's Republic, 11
Prostitution, camp life a school for, 202
Psychical diseases, heredity of, 82 et seq.
Psychological laws, uncertain effect of, 68
Psychological research, laboratories for, 160
Quatrefages, M. de, 59
Race (human) deterioration of the, through hygienic action, 143 et seq.
Race, improvement of the, aim of, 36
Race, improvement of the, based on spiritual sympathy, 58
Race improvement, experiment in, of the Oneida Community, 37 et seq.
Race improvement, failure of compulsory attempts at, 27
Race improvement, Grecian methods for, 10 et seq.
Race improvement, Grecian methods not suited for modern times, 24
Race improvement, natural factors in, 10
Race improvement, State aid to, 37, 53
Race should be thought of before ourselves, 211
Reproductive function, difference in exercise of, by animals and man, 210
Responsibility in parentage, 49, 181
Ribot, Th., 57, 68, 83
Romanes, G. J., 28, 73, 85, 87
Ruin of countries by the burdens of war, 203
Sacredness of parentage, 93
Saint-Hilaire, Geoffroy, 68
Sampson, mother of, 172
Science of true living, hygiene as the, 160
Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society's manufacturing mill, 156 et seq.
[236]Selection, artificial, by man, 9
Selection, individual, by Noyes, 38
Selection, natural, see "Natural selection."
Selection, sexual, see "Sexual selection."
Selective action of female animals, 28 et seq.
Selective action of woman in marriage, 43 et seq.
Self-control, importance of, 96
Self-consciousness, excessive, cured by hypnotic suggestion, 216
Self-development, 48
Sense of touch, modification of, through use, 114
Sex-instinct, 51
Sexual cells, 162
Sexual cells, acquired powers of, 110
Sexual excess injuriously affects both parents and offspring, 211
Sexual impulse, gratification of the, consistent with the development of the highest mental qualities, 212
Sexual selection, 27 et seq., 131 et seq.
Sexual selection, action of, among primeval men, 179
Sexual selection applicable primarily to male characteristics, 30
Sexual selection by women, effect of, 44 et seq.
Sexual selection, influence of, 31, 33
Sick child, transmission of health to, by thought transference, 224
Sire, previous, influence of, on subsequent progeny, 86 et seq.
Sleep, ordinary, differs from hypnotic sleep only in degree, 223
Smith, Sidney, 121
Sobriety, importance of, in relation to offspring, 91
See "Alcohol."
Soldiers demand gratification of their passional natures, 202
Spartans, marriage relations among, 13 et seq.
Special aptitudes of child determined by prenatal influences, 204
Spectre of heredity, 127 et seq.
Spencer, Herbert, 4, 77, 78, 85, 87, 112, 115, 149, 169, 181
Spermatozoon, 162
Spiritual nature, appeal to, in hypnotic suggestion, 221
Spontaneous thought transference, 224
Standing armies, crushing burden of, 203
State, aid of the, to race improvement, 53
State, children regarded as belonging to the, 10 et seq., 22
Stirpiculture. See "Race, improvement of the."
Stirpiculture, meaning of, 10
Stirpiculture, good air and water as factors in, 175
Stirpiculture, Noyes' experiment in, 37 et seq.
Stirpiculture, starting point of, 52
[237]Strength as necessary as tenderness to bringing up of children, 213
Struggle, sexual selection through, 132
Studious habits transmitted to children, 205
Subliminal self, orders conveyed to, by hypnotic suggestion, 222
Suggestion as an aid to child training, 214, 221
Suggestion by parents to children for educational purposes, 223
Suggestion during mesmeric sleep, bad habits cured by, 214
Suggestion during mesmeric sleep, beneficial effect of, over mental dullness, 215
Suggestion, hypnotic, influence of, in developing self-control, 219
Suggestion, hypnotic, method of, employed by Dr. R. Osgood Mason for educational purposes, 215 et seq.
Suggestive therapeutics, 214
Superiority of offspring, where limited, 184
Surgical operations, prevention of pain in, by mesmerism, 214
Survival of the fittest, 9
Survival, what constitutes fitness for, 141
Sympathy, spiritual, as the basis of race improvement, 53
Taxation, burden of, created by war, 203
Telegony, 85 et seq.
Temper, bad, cured by hypnotic suggestion, 217
Tenderness to be combined with strength in bringing up children, 213
Theoretical baby, 185 et seq.
Thought transference induced artificially in hypnotic state, 224
Thought transference, nature of, 224
Thought transference, transmission of health by, to a young sick child, 224
Timidity cured by hypnotic suggestion, 216
Toes, modification of the, in man, 112
Touch, modification of the sense of, 114
Training of children aided by hypnotic suggestion, 221
Training of children, Plutarch on the, 16 et seq.
Transformation of heredity, 83
Transitory states of parents, effect of on offspring, 59
Transmission by mother to child of aptitude for hard work, 207
Transmission by mother to child of artistic and literary tastes, 204 et seq., 207
Transmission by mother to child of taste for study of natural history, 206
Transmission by mother to child of taste for surgical nursing, 207
[238]Transmission of acquired characters. See "Acquired characters."
Transmission of effects of exercise, 111
Tylor, E. B., 64, 67
Twins, resemblance of, 90
Unborn children injured by war, 199
Unborn children, interests of, 199
Unfit, elimination of the, 139
Unicellular organisms, 109
Uterine existence, disturbances of, 58, 68
Vaccination as a preserver of weak constitutions, 143
Vitality, surplus, production of offspring depends on, 169
Wake, C. Staniland, 21, 42, 66
Wallace, A. R., 44, 136
Wallace, Alfred Russell, on prenatal influences, 204
War and parentage, 199
War, effects of, on civilization, 199
War, effects of, on unborn children, 199 et seq.
War, enemy to the highest motherhood, 204
Weber, Professor, 114
Weismann, Professor, 72, 74 et seq., 78, 107, 118
Wet nurses, use of, accompanied by physical weakness, 208
Whale, modification of structure of the, 115
White race, superiority of the, due to consciousness of duty towards the race, 211
Wolf, Caspar Frederick, 104
Woman, condition of, among Flat head Indians, 213
Woman, first duty of, 47
Woman not superior to man, 212
Woman, selective action of, in marriage, 32, 43 et seq.
Women incapable of love inferior as mothers, 208
Women more numerous than men, 136
Women, preference for certain characteristics in men, 133
Xenophon, 15
Zeigler, Professor, 81, 91
Acquired characters, inheritance of, 71, 73, 77 et seq., 79, 90, 109, 111, et seq.
Acquired characters not transmitted, 213
Adaptation to environment necessary for health, 149
Aesthetic sense displayed by animals, 28
Aesthetic surroundings during gestation, 95
Air, regarded as food, 174
Alcohol, as a poison, 91
Alcohol, effect of, on offspring, 171
Allen, Joseph A., observations of, as to effects of war on children, 200
Allen, Grant, 34, 48, 51, 180
Amphimixis, theory of, 76
Ancestral ids, 75
Ancestral tendencies, correction of, 126
Animals, practical superiority of man over, what?, 210
Animal flesh, supposed effect of eating, 63
Atavism in relation to disease, 83
Baby, a theoretical, 185 et seq.
Bad habits, broken up by suggestion during mesmeric sleep, 214
Bad temper cured by hypnotic suggestion, 217 et seq.
Beauty, reference of sexual selection to, 28
Bees, instincts of, 122
Bérillon, Dr., on beneficial effect of hypnotism over bad habits, etc., 215
Birthmarks, 59, 68, 94
Blood, healthy, purifying influence of, 92
Blood, study of the, 140, 151
Bones, modification of certain, through sitting, 116
Boys, mortality among larger than with girls, 136
Breasts, best methods of developing, 209
[227]Breasts, defective, women having, incapable of becoming mothers of a virile race, 209
Breasts, development of, after marriage and parentage, 209
Breasts, degeneracy of the, and motherhood, 208
Breeding in and in, Noyes' first principle for race improvement, 38
Camp life, evils of, 202
Cases of prenatal influences, 204 et seq.
Cells, sexual, 110, 162
Chandler, Jennie, 97
Character, dependence of, on arrangement of nerve cells, 222
Character, improvement by suggestion, method to be employed by parents for, 223
Character of children affected by war, 201
Characteristics, origin of, through sexual selection, 134
Charles, Havelock, 116
Chickamauga Camp, prostitution at, 202
Children acquire special aptitudes from mothers, 205
Child bearing, best age for, 170
Children, breeding of, in Plato's Republic, 11, 12
Children considered as belonging to the State, 10 et seq., 22
Children, deaths of, in New York city, 139
Children, healthy, essentials for having, 168
Children, interests of unborn, 199
Children, characteristics of, in the Oneida Community, 39
Children in the Oneida Community, care of, 38
Children, mortality among, 136
Children, obstacle of war to production and training of, 203
Child training aided by suggestion, 214 et seq.
Children, training of, 16 et seq., 52
Civil War and how it affected the character of children, 201
Co-adaptation of parts as evidence of transmission of acquired characters, 116
Coalescence of sperm and germ cells, 166
Concentrative power, want of, cured by hypnotic suggestion, 216
Conduct, knowledge of its object, not possessed by animals, 210
Congenital characters, transmission of, 177
Congenital deformities, 80
Consanguineous marriages among the Greeks, 23
Consanguineous marriages, regulations as to, among uncultured peoples, 21, 42
Consanguineous marriages, effect on offspring, 42
[228]Constitution, bodily, improvement of the, 150
Consumption, causes of, 176
Consumption, tendency to, whether a bar to marriage, 176
Contentment, value of, 95
Continuity of germ-plasm, 107, 118
Co-operation, hygienic value of, 156 et seq.
Cope, Prof. E. D., 59, 69
Cousins, marriage between, 43
Couvade, custom of the, 63 et seq.
Crimes, increase of, caused by war, 201
Darwin, Charles, 28, 30 et seq., 73, 75, 85, 100, 105, 106, 109, 141, 179, 184
Death, causes of, 150
Deformities, congenital, 80
Degeneracy of the breasts and motherhood, 208
Degeneracy in offspring due to maternal degeneracy evidenced by inability to nurse a child, 208
Degeneration, evidence of, 140
Development of breasts after marriage and parentage, 209
Diseases, influence of hygiene over, 159
Diseases, inheritance of, 80
Diseases which affect offspring, 175
Disposition spiritualized through marriage of chastity, 210
Disproportion between accidental causes and effects, 68, 90
Diversity between offspring and parents, causes of, 58
Domestication of animals, 9
Doutrebente, Prof., 92
Drink, influence of, over offspring, 16
Duncan, J. C. Mathews, 170
Education, beneficial effects of hypnotism in, 215
Education and heredity, 111 et seq.
Education and non-transmission of acquired characters, 124
Education of Spartan children, 15
Education, Plutarch on, 17
Education, study of laws of evolution, as part of, 125
Educational uses of hypnotism and suggestion, 220
Egg. See Ovum.
Eimer, Dr. G. H., 71, 79 et seq., 90
Embryo, how parental properties communicated to, 69
Embryology, importance of, 103
[229]Energy, bodily, use and abuse of, 153
Environment, adaptation to, necessary for health, 149
Epigenesis, theory of, 104
Esquirol on the effects of the French Revolution over children, 200
Ethics of the body, hygiene as the, 160
Evolution, a superior race produced by, 130 et seq.
Evolution, meaning of the term, 210
Evolution of the horse, 102
Evolution, study of laws of, as part of education, 125
Evolutionary theories, conflict of, with humane sentiments, 145 et seq.
Example, influence of, over children, 18
Exercise, transmission of effects of, 111
Experiment in race improvement by Noyes, 37 et seq.
Explanation of the action of hypnotic suggestion, 221
Family life, abolition of, in Plato's Republic, 10
Father rule should be combined with mother rule, 213
Fatherhood, too little importance assigned to, 212
Feeble constitutions prevent numerous offspring, 147
Fertilization essential to true germ plasm, 165
Fertilization, nature of, 166
Fison, Lorimer, 42
Fitness for survival, characteristics of, 140
Flat head Indians and heredity, 213
Flat head and round head tribes, comparison between, 213
Flat head not transmitted to offspring, 213
Flattening the skull, injurious effect of on health, 214
Flint, Dr. Austin, 88
Food, how it affects germ plasm, 173
Food (certain) injurious influence of, 94
Foot, compression of, by Chinese ladies, 20
Fosterage, 96
French Revolution, evil effects of over children, 200
Galton, Francis, 46, 50, 73, 106, 135, 170
Gemmules, essential to pangenesis, 105, 106
Generation, influences over, at time of conception, 57, 58
Generation, influences over, subsequent to conception, 58
Generative powers, debilitation of the, 84
Germ plasm and heredity, 107, 162
[230]Germ plasm, continuity of the, 73, 74 et seq., 107, 118
Germ plasm, how affected by food, 173
Germ plasm, modification of the, 76, 80
Germ variations, causes of, 81
Gestation (period of) importance of pleasant surroundings during, 93
Gestation, maternal influence during, 96
Gestation, strong emotion during, effect of, 63, 94
Gestation, uterine disturbances during, 93
Girls, physical training of, among Spartans, 14
Girls, mortality among, smaller than with boys, 136
Great mothers, how constituted, 208
Group marriage of Australian natives, 21
Hæckel, Ernst, 109
Harvey, 103
Haycraft, John Berry, 143
Head flattening, 20
Health, action of nature in relation to, 130
Health, transmission of, by thought transference, to young sick child, 224
Healthy localities enable the healthiest offspring to be reared, 210
Health, adaptation to environment necessary for, 149
Health, ideal of, 148
Health, importance of, in relation to marriage, 135, 168, 171
Hearn, Professor, 67
Hedonism, New, 48
Hereditary tastes of children, 204 et seq.
Heredities, antagonistic, of two parents, 58
Heredity among Flat-head Indians, 213
Heredity, definition of, 100
Heredity and education, 111 et seq.
Heredity, evils arising from, may be cured, 35
Heredity, exceptions to law of, 58
Heredity and germ plasm, 107
Heredity, importance of knowledge of, by teachers, 125
Heredity, modification of law of, 99
Heredity, preponderating influence of, 69, 89
Heredity, rational view of, 109
Heredity, spectre of, 127 et seq.
Heredity, theories of, 73 et seq.
Heredity, transformation of, 83
Hering, Richard, 70
[231]Hidery tribes of British Columbia, 214
High-pressure, effects of living at, 152
Hypnotic sleep, differs from ordinary sleep only in degree, 223
Hypnotic suggestion, value of, as aid to education, 216
Hypnotism as suggestive therapeutics, 214
Horse, evolution of the, 102
Human selection, plans for, 135 et seq.
Human kind, regarded as a whole, should be benefited by our conduct, 211
Human race, further improvement of impossible, if marriage relation be regarded only from standpoint of sexual indulgence, 210
Humane sentiments, conflict of, with theories of evolution, 145 et seq.
Husband and wife, tendency to resemble each other, 89
Huth, A. H., 42
Hygiene, modern, as opposed to natural selection, 142 et seq.
Hygiene, as the ethics of the body, 160
Hygiene, promises of, 158 et seq.
Hygienic laws, punishment for infraction of, 161
Hygienic surroundings, importance of, 139
Hygienic training, value of, 151
Ideal of Health, 148
Idiots, education of, 25
Illustrative cases of prenatal influence, 60 et seq.
Imagination, effect of, on unborn offspring, 55 et seq.
Improvement of race. See race improvement.
Incas of Peru, consanguineous marriages among the, 23
Income, bodily, importance of living within, 152
Individual, the, as the beginning and end of the race, 50
Individuality, development of the, 126
Infanticide among Spartans, 15
Infanticide, former general prevalence of, 19
Infanticide in Plato's Republic, 11
Infanticide not morally permissible, 24
Inheritance of acquired characters, question as to the, 71, 73, 77, 79, 90, 109, 111 et seq.
Inheritance, organic, wonders of, 101
Injuries during life, transmission of, 79 et seq.
Injury to health through flattening the skull, 214
Instinct, explanations of origin of, 121
[232]Instincts of the race for children, loss of, 208
Instruction and education, difference between, 210
Intelligence affected by head flattening, 214
Jacob, rods of, 56
Jeune, Lady Mary, 47
Jowett, Professor B., 25 et seq., 34
Krafft, D. Von Ebing, 82, 84, 91
Lamarck, 111
Lamarchian theory of transmission, 213
Language, not transmitted to offspring, 119
Leeuwenhock, 103
Limitation of offspring, 179 et seq.
Locust, egg-laying instinct of, 123
Luxury and parentage, 208
Lycurgus, marriage regulations of, 13 et seq., 22, 27
Lyman, Dr. C. W., on treatment of a baby, 185 et seq.
Man, variations undergone by, 138
Man, practical superiority of, over animals, what, 210
Manufacturing life, unhealthiness of, 152
Manufacturing mills, deterioration caused by, 158
Marriage, consanguineous, ideas as to, 21, 42
Marriage customs among Spartans, 18, 19
Marriage, early, disadvantages of, 137
Marriage, importance of health in relation to, 135
Marriage, regulations as to, in Plato's Republic, 22, 25
Marriage of weak and worthless, 137
Marriage, a sacred state, 52
Marriage of chastity, disposition spiritualized by, 210
Marriages of affection and passion, difference between, analogous to that between education and instruction, 210
Mason, Dr. R. Osgood, on beneficial effect of hypnotism in education, 215
Maternity, avoidance of, 208
McGee, Dr. Anita Newcomb, 37
Memory, endowment of reproductive cells with, 70
Memory, improvement of, by hypnotic suggestion, 210
Mental dullness, curable by suggestion during hypnotic sleep, 215
[233]Mental emotion of mother, injury to unborn child through, 200
Mesmeric sleep, effect of suggestion during, 214
Mesmerism, now known as hypnotism, 214
Method to be employed by parents for using suggestion in child training, 223
Microbes, selective action of, 143
Mind of operator, state of, necessary to successful suggestion, 224-5
Modification of certain bones through sitting, 116
Modification of the organism during descent from first ancestors, 71
Modification of sense of touch, 114
Modification of toes, 112
Modification of the whale, 115
Molecular structure of sexual cells, 110
Monogamy, return to, by the Oneida Community, 40, 41, 53
Moral nature, growth of the, 146
Mosaic regulations as to unclean animals, 63
Motherhood, highest, war an enemy to, 204
Motherhood and degeneracy of the breasts, 208
Mothers, not peculiarily the divinely appointed teachers of children, 212
Musical talent, not transmitted to offspring, 120
Mutilations, not transmissible, 119
Myer, Prof. Frederic W. H., on hypnotic suggestion, 221
Natural selection, 9, 115, 138, 142
Natural selection, always operative, 147
Nature, action of, in relation to health, 130
Nerve cells, constitution of, alterable by hypnotic suggestion, 222
Nervous system, debilitation of the, 84
Night terrors cured by hypnotic suggestion, 220
Nipples, deformed, common occurrence of, 209
Nisbet, J. F., 90, 92
Non-nursing of children a sign of degeneracy, 208
Normal conditions only should be transferred by hypnotic suggestion, 225
Nose molding, 20
Notes, 199 et seq.
Noyes, John Humphrey, 37 et seq.
Nucleus of cell, essential to reproduction, 167
Nutrition, action of, on germ cells, 151
Nutrition (arrested) organic effect of, 77
[234]Obedience the basis of education among the Spartans, 15
Offspring, effect of alcohol on, 171
Offspring, effect of consanguineous marriage on, 42
Offspring, influence of locality on health of, 210
Offspring, injuriously affected by sexual excess of parents, 211
Offspring, inception of, the starting point of stirpiculture, 52
Offspring, limitation of, 179 et seq.
Oneida Community, 37 et seq.
Ovum, 163 et seq.
Ovum, the beginning of animal life, 101, 163
Ovum, developmental tendency of the, 110
Ovum, effect of gestation on the, 102
Ovum of different animals, apparent similarity of the, 163
Paget, Sir James, 148
Pain, prevention of, in surgical operations, 214
Pangenesis, experiments in, 106
Pangenesis, theory of, 75, 105, 109
Panmixia, theory of, 78
Paper mill (New England), 154
Parentage and luxury, 208
Parentage and war, 199
Parentage, responsibility in, 49, 181
Parentage, Plato's restrictions on, 11
Parentage, sacredness of, 93
Parents, how to make use of suggestion in the training of children, 222
Parents, organic growth of, injuriously affected by sexual excess, 211
Parental life, influence of, over offspring, 95
Perfectionists of the Oneida Community, 37 et seq.
Phillips, Wendell, 128
Physical culture, 160
Physical training of girls among Spartans, 14
Physical weakness may be associated with mental greatness, 34
Plato, Republic of, 10 et seq., 25
Plutarch, 13, 16 et seq.
Poisons, actions of, on the sexual cells, 91
Poverty, obstacle of, to production and training of the young, 203
Preference, as exhibited among animals, 131
Preference, as exhibited among men, 133
Preference, first principle of sexual selection, 131
[235]Prenatal culture, 55 et seq.
Prenatal culture, illustrative cases of, 60 et seq.
Prenatal influence, 112
Prenatal influence in telegony, 85
Prenatal influences, cases of, 204 et seq.
Principles on which sexual selection is based, 38, 131
Progress in organic life, 9
Promiscuity regulated in Oneida Community, 37
Promiscuity regulated in Plato's Republic, 11
Prostitution, camp life a school for, 202
Psychical diseases, heredity of, 82 et seq.
Psychological laws, uncertain effect of, 68
Psychological research, laboratories for, 160
Quatrefages, M. de, 59
Race (human) deterioration of the, through hygienic action, 143 et seq.
Race, improvement of the, aim of, 36
Race, improvement of the, based on spiritual sympathy, 58
Race improvement, experiment in, of the Oneida Community, 37 et seq.
Race improvement, failure of compulsory attempts at, 27
Race improvement, Grecian methods for, 10 et seq.
Race improvement, Grecian methods not suited for modern times, 24
Race improvement, natural factors in, 10
Race improvement, State aid to, 37, 53
Race should be thought of before ourselves, 211
Reproductive function, difference in exercise of, by animals and man, 210
Responsibility in parentage, 49, 181
Ribot, Th., 57, 68, 83
Romanes, G. J., 28, 73, 85, 87
Ruin of countries by the burdens of war, 203
Sacredness of parentage, 93
Saint-Hilaire, Geoffroy, 68
Sampson, mother of, 172
Science of true living, hygiene as the, 160
Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society's manufacturing mill, 156 et seq.
[236]Selection, artificial, by man, 9
Selection, individual, by Noyes, 38
Selection, natural, see "Natural selection."
Selection, sexual, see "Sexual selection."
Selective action of female animals, 28 et seq.
Selective action of woman in marriage, 43 et seq.
Self-control, importance of, 96
Self-consciousness, excessive, cured by hypnotic suggestion, 216
Self-development, 48
Sense of touch, modification of, through use, 114
Sex-instinct, 51
Sexual cells, 162
Sexual cells, acquired powers of, 110
Sexual excess injuriously affects both parents and offspring, 211
Sexual impulse, gratification of the, consistent with the development of the highest mental qualities, 212
Sexual selection, 27 et seq., 131 et seq.
Sexual selection, action of, among primeval men, 179
Sexual selection applicable primarily to male characteristics, 30
Sexual selection by women, effect of, 44 et seq.
Sexual selection, influence of, 31, 33
Sick child, transmission of health to, by thought transference, 224
Sire, previous, influence of, on subsequent progeny, 86 et seq.
Sleep, ordinary, differs from hypnotic sleep only in degree, 223
Smith, Sidney, 121
Sobriety, importance of, in relation to offspring, 91
See "Alcohol."
Soldiers demand gratification of their passional natures, 202
Spartans, marriage relations among, 13 et seq.
Special aptitudes of child determined by prenatal influences, 204
Spectre of heredity, 127 et seq.
Spencer, Herbert, 4, 77, 78, 85, 87, 112, 115, 149, 169, 181
Spermatozoon, 162
Spiritual nature, appeal to, in hypnotic suggestion, 221
Spontaneous thought transference, 224
Standing armies, crushing burden of, 203
State, aid of the, to race improvement, 53
State, children regarded as belonging to the, 10 et seq., 22
Stirpiculture. See "Race, improvement of the."
Stirpiculture, meaning of, 10
Stirpiculture, good air and water as factors in, 175
Stirpiculture, Noyes' experiment in, 37 et seq.
Stirpiculture, starting point of, 52
[237]Strength as necessary as tenderness to bringing up of children, 213
Struggle, sexual selection through, 132
Studious habits transmitted to children, 205
Subliminal self, orders conveyed to, by hypnotic suggestion, 222
Suggestion as an aid to child training, 214, 221
Suggestion by parents to children for educational purposes, 223
Suggestion during mesmeric sleep, bad habits cured by, 214
Suggestion during mesmeric sleep, beneficial effect of, over mental dullness, 215
Suggestion, hypnotic, influence of, in developing self-control, 219
Suggestion, hypnotic, method of, employed by Dr. R. Osgood Mason for educational purposes, 215 et seq.
Suggestive therapeutics, 214
Superiority of offspring, where limited, 184
Surgical operations, prevention of pain in, by mesmerism, 214
Survival of the fittest, 9
Survival, what constitutes fitness for, 141
Sympathy, spiritual, as the basis of race improvement, 53
Taxation, burden of, created by war, 203
Telegony, 85 et seq.
Temper, bad, cured by hypnotic suggestion, 217
Tenderness to be combined with strength in bringing up children, 213
Theoretical baby, 185 et seq.
Thought transference induced artificially in hypnotic state, 224
Thought transference, nature of, 224
Thought transference, transmission of health by, to a young sick child, 224
Timidity cured by hypnotic suggestion, 216
Toes, modification of the, in man, 112
Touch, modification of the sense of, 114
Training of children aided by hypnotic suggestion, 221
Training of children, Plutarch on the, 16 et seq.
Transformation of heredity, 83
Transitory states of parents, effect of on offspring, 59
Transmission by mother to child of aptitude for hard work, 207
Transmission by mother to child of artistic and literary tastes, 204 et seq., 207
Transmission by mother to child of taste for study of natural history, 206
Transmission by mother to child of taste for surgical nursing, 207
[238]Transmission of acquired characters. See "Acquired characters."
Transmission of effects of exercise, 111
Tylor, E. B., 64, 67
Twins, resemblance of, 90
Unborn children injured by war, 199
Unborn children, interests of, 199
Unfit, elimination of the, 139
Unicellular organisms, 109
Uterine existence, disturbances of, 58, 68
Vaccination as a preserver of weak constitutions, 143
Vitality, surplus, production of offspring depends on, 169
Wake, C. Staniland, 21, 42, 66
Wallace, A. R., 44, 136
Wallace, Alfred Russell, on prenatal influences, 204
War and parentage, 199
War, effects of, on civilization, 199
War, effects of, on unborn children, 199 et seq.
War, enemy to the highest motherhood, 204
Weber, Professor, 114
Weismann, Professor, 72, 74 et seq., 78, 107, 118
Wet nurses, use of, accompanied by physical weakness, 208
Whale, modification of structure of the, 115
White race, superiority of the, due to consciousness of duty towards the race, 211
Wolf, Caspar Frederick, 104
Woman, condition of, among Flat head Indians, 213
Woman, first duty of, 47
Woman not superior to man, 212
Woman, selective action of, in marriage, 32, 43 et seq.
Women incapable of love inferior as mothers, 208
Women more numerous than men, 136
Women, preference for certain characteristics in men, 133
Xenophon, 15
Zeigler, Professor, 81, 91
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Re: Homo-culture, by Martin Luther Holbrook
by admin » Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:25 pm
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
The following corrections have been made to the text:
Page 19: visited her "with great caution and apprehension"[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 25: "that the difference between men and the animals is forgotten in them."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 62: The Philosophical[original has Philosphical] Journal for October 5, 1895
Page 66: come to console him [original has extraneous quotation mark]for the pain
Page 82: distinguished psychiatrist, D. Von Krafft-Ebings[original has Kraft-Ebings]
Page 84: inconsistency in desires, sudden and variable will."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 104: develop[original has devolop] other organs than those like the ones in which it was formed
Page 109: theories of heredity—Hæckel's[original has Heckel's], for instance
Page 112: without the transmission[original has transmision] of the effects of the use
Page 141: to give continuous[original has continous] food, warmth and protection
Page 164: the ape, the dog, the cat or other animal."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 164: clear, round germinal vesicle[original has vescicle]
Page 167: they completely[original has competely] efface themselves
Page 176: often of an unusually[original has unsually] cheerful and hopeful disposition
Page 180: quoted Grant Allen as favoring abstinence[original has abstainence]
Page 182: must bring decay and ultimate extinction.[original has comma]
Page 199: children, both born and unborn.[period missing in original]
Page 200: capable of resisting the intense excitements[original has excitments]
Page 200: dimmed by the relation of such occurrences[original has occurrencies]
Page 203: Is this not a grievous[original has grevious] burden
Page 206: [original has extraneous quotation mark]Mrs. B—— says: "I can trace
Page 207: cloth of gold roses and bougainvillea[original has bougianvillea]
Page 210: only 17,314 out of 100,000 died.[original has comma]
Page 213: mind as well as heart,[comma missing in original] vigor as well as sympathy
Page 217: gruffly[original has grufly] remarked that I had rumpled his hair
Page 217: suggestions have not been repeated since May."[original has extraneous quotation mark]
Page 226: number "200" is below the entry for "Air" in the original, but it belongs to the entry for "Allen, Joseph A.", and has been moved accordingly
Page 228: page numbers for the entry on Darwin have been put in numerical order
Page 228: Eimer,[original has period] Dr. G. H., 71, 79 et seq., 90
Page 230: Hæckel[original has Haeckel], Ernst, 109
Page 232: Inheritance of acquired characters, question as to the, 71, 73, 77,[comma missing in original] 79
Page 232: Krafft[original has Kraft], D. Von Ebing, 82, 84, 91
Page 232: Leeuwenhock[original has Leeukwenhock], 103
Page 233: Jowett[original has Jewett], Professor B., 25 et seq.,[comma missing in original] 34
Page 233: Mason, Dr. R. Osgood, on beneficial effect of hypnotism[original has hynotism]
Page 233: Myer[original has Meyer], Prof. Frederic W. H., on hypnotic suggestion
Page 235: Quatrefages[original has Quartrefages], M. de, 59
Page 235: Race improvement, natural factors in, 10[original has 1]
Page 235: Saint-Hilaire, Geoffroy[original has Geoffory], 68
Page 238: Transmission[original has Tranmission] of acquired characters
The following corrections have been made to the text:
Page 19: visited her "with great caution and apprehension"[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 25: "that the difference between men and the animals is forgotten in them."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 62: The Philosophical[original has Philosphical] Journal for October 5, 1895
Page 66: come to console him [original has extraneous quotation mark]for the pain
Page 82: distinguished psychiatrist, D. Von Krafft-Ebings[original has Kraft-Ebings]
Page 84: inconsistency in desires, sudden and variable will."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 104: develop[original has devolop] other organs than those like the ones in which it was formed
Page 109: theories of heredity—Hæckel's[original has Heckel's], for instance
Page 112: without the transmission[original has transmision] of the effects of the use
Page 141: to give continuous[original has continous] food, warmth and protection
Page 164: the ape, the dog, the cat or other animal."[quotation mark missing in original]
Page 164: clear, round germinal vesicle[original has vescicle]
Page 167: they completely[original has competely] efface themselves
Page 176: often of an unusually[original has unsually] cheerful and hopeful disposition
Page 180: quoted Grant Allen as favoring abstinence[original has abstainence]
Page 182: must bring decay and ultimate extinction.[original has comma]
Page 199: children, both born and unborn.[period missing in original]
Page 200: capable of resisting the intense excitements[original has excitments]
Page 200: dimmed by the relation of such occurrences[original has occurrencies]
Page 203: Is this not a grievous[original has grevious] burden
Page 206: [original has extraneous quotation mark]Mrs. B—— says: "I can trace
Page 207: cloth of gold roses and bougainvillea[original has bougianvillea]
Page 210: only 17,314 out of 100,000 died.[original has comma]
Page 213: mind as well as heart,[comma missing in original] vigor as well as sympathy
Page 217: gruffly[original has grufly] remarked that I had rumpled his hair
Page 217: suggestions have not been repeated since May."[original has extraneous quotation mark]
Page 226: number "200" is below the entry for "Air" in the original, but it belongs to the entry for "Allen, Joseph A.", and has been moved accordingly
Page 228: page numbers for the entry on Darwin have been put in numerical order
Page 228: Eimer,[original has period] Dr. G. H., 71, 79 et seq., 90
Page 230: Hæckel[original has Haeckel], Ernst, 109
Page 232: Inheritance of acquired characters, question as to the, 71, 73, 77,[comma missing in original] 79
Page 232: Krafft[original has Kraft], D. Von Ebing, 82, 84, 91
Page 232: Leeuwenhock[original has Leeukwenhock], 103
Page 233: Jowett[original has Jewett], Professor B., 25 et seq.,[comma missing in original] 34
Page 233: Mason, Dr. R. Osgood, on beneficial effect of hypnotism[original has hynotism]
Page 233: Myer[original has Meyer], Prof. Frederic W. H., on hypnotic suggestion
Page 235: Quatrefages[original has Quartrefages], M. de, 59
Page 235: Race improvement, natural factors in, 10[original has 1]
Page 235: Saint-Hilaire, Geoffroy[original has Geoffory], 68
Page 238: Transmission[original has Tranmission] of acquired characters
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