CHAPTER IX 



SOME POSSIBLE CRITICISMS 

 ANTICIPATED 



IT is not improbable that the nervous charge is more 

 intense during childhood than at any subsequent period 

 of life. The period of growth is a period of intense meta- 

 bolism. The whole system is tremendously active, and 

 the nervous system seems to share this activity. More- 

 over, the bulk of the nervous system is proportionately 

 greater, as compared with the rest of the organism, than 

 at any later period. Nothing is so difficult for a child 

 as to sit still. Its nerves seem to be all atingle with 

 energy which demands an outlet. True the child may 

 be easily tired, but children have little muscular strength, 

 and it is a characteristic of nervous energy that it can 

 be rapidly expended. Indeed, it is doubtful if we are 

 justified in saying that children are easily tired. The 

 seemingly exhaustless energy which some children display 

 in racing about all day is amazing. I have seen children 

 in the tropics tearing around aboard ship under conditions 

 which left the grown up people with only enough energy 

 to sit about in deck-chairs and gasp. 



It is probable, then, that the nervous charge is most 

 intense during childhood, and steadily declines throughout 

 life. The most fertile period, between fifteen and thirty, 

 occupies a middle position. Still, as the reproductive 

 functions do not develop until towards the end of the 

 period of growth, the intensity of the nervous charge 



155 



