62 



KNOWLEDGE. 



February, 1911. 



and a " twelve inch,"' but ths amounts of energy 

 liberated b-- these equally exc'table mechanisms are 

 immeasurably different. I'-'i oiher words, there is 

 a high affectability couple:,. ■,', iai the output of much 

 nerve-energy, and there 's a ii.^h affectability coupled 

 with the output of -ircie : this latter constitutes 

 " irritable weakness " {" \. aakness to be wroth with 

 weakness"): it is ;; ihat is the basis of neuroses, 

 of nervousness. .■ : : brain-centres related to 

 consciousness ca : co exert on the lower centres 

 a restraint thai; :. learnedK' called " inhibition." 

 Inhiliition or r:: . aint by the higlier on the lower 

 plays a 1:1^,0 .t in the acti\-ities of the central 

 nervous . st-.aii. Persons neuralh" robust ha\'e 

 inhibit- ;; v.ell developed. ner\ous people have it 

 poorl\ aeveloped. Inhibition is of two kinds, that 

 unccasciously and that consciously exerted. The 

 for;^,er is the more mechanical kind of restraint 

 w .iich any one centre exerts on any one lower down 

 in the neural scale. Thus it is that when the head 

 is cut off. the posterior part of a worm wriggles more 

 actively than the head end : it has lost the automatic 

 restraint of the head end. The legs of a decapitated 

 crayfish "work" much more ra[>idl\- than in the 

 intact animal. ^^'e may oursehes emplo\- this 

 form of mechanical inhiliition in restraining, for 

 instance, an awkward sneeze liy hrmh' pressing 

 on the upper lip. The otherwise uncontrollable 

 tendenc}- to sneeze is abolished b\ the impulses 

 from the skin of the lip ; the_\- act here as inhibitor\-. 

 That it is only inhibition of the tendency and not 

 removal of it is interestingly brought out sometimes 

 by the fact that after a certain inter\-al of time the 

 sneeze may be produced in v.hat would have been all 

 its original intensity. The stillness of an attentive 

 audience is a case of unconscious inhilntion : the 

 subsequent coughing and restlessness is e\idence 

 that it was only inhibition and not abolition that was 

 at work. But by means of the w ill \\ e can consciousK- 

 inhibit or restrain. What we call "education" is 

 very largel\- the cultivating of latent powers of this 

 order ; the psychological difference between a 

 Hottentot and an ambassador is the high de\-elopment 

 of the powers of inhibition ac(iuired by the latter. 

 Training in children and animals means their 

 acquiring inhibitory powers : a performing tiger has 

 to restrain many instincts and tendencies before it 

 can be convenientl}- exhibited in public. Now some 

 forms of nervousness are the result of loss of 

 inhibition resulting in the expression of violent 

 emotions and violent responses of all sorts. The 

 strong man is not the violent man : the strong man 

 is the man who restrains the exhibitions of his 

 strength, who strongly controls strong emotions for 

 his own good and that of the community. The 

 neurotic person, not jjossessing the necessar\- [lower 

 of inhibition, does not do this. Better is " he that 

 ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city " : that 

 \vas written long ago, lint the nervous system 

 was the same then as now ; in modern language 

 it is inhibition that is alluded to. Nervousness may, 

 then, in one form be a condition of diminished 



restraint. We talk about a nervous dog that barks 

 apprehensively at every little incident, of a nervous 

 horse that jibs and shies at all sorts of harmless 

 objects : inhibition is that in which these animals 

 are deficient. It is. then, clear that the deN-el(.)pment 

 of inhibition is the essence of foundation of character : 

 a person with little inhibition may do all sorts of wild 

 things, succumb to all sorts of temptations: conscious 

 inhibition is the physiological name for self-control. 

 Lack of inlnbition is one of the elements in neur- 

 asthenia, that low nervous state to which reference 

 has already been made. H\steria, again, is a form 

 of nervousness; it is a morbid state of the central 

 nervous s\-stem. and has been described as the acting 

 or imitating of some other disease. " A fit of 

 h\sterics " is really a violent emotional display due 

 to diminished inhibition. In true h\'steria all sorts 

 of morbid conditions are imitated. — fainting, par- 

 alyses of various kinds, and so on. Some hysterical 

 people cannot walk, cannot talk, cannot eat, cannot 

 get out of bed, and so forth. Hysteria is a form of 

 " nervousness." if " nervousness " means anything 

 unusual in the nervous system, which is apparently 

 all that in certain cases it does mean. The term as 

 popularlv used covers a large number of very 

 different conditions, liy a nerv(.)us child is meant 

 sometimes a shv child, one not sufficiently self- 

 reliant. v\h() shrinks from strangers, and is not soon 

 at home amid new surroundings. It may only mean 

 a child that does not like to be left alone in the dark. 



A verv well marked form of nervousness is the 

 '■ fear " of various conditions, such as fear of looking 

 over heights, fear of open spaces, fear of enclosed 

 spaces, fear of the presence of crowds, and so on 

 through all the varit)us " phobias." as they are called, 

 many of which are ludicrous to those incapable of 

 experiencing them. Allied to hysterias and phobias 

 are certain harmless obsessions which, however, lead 

 right on to the illusions, delusions, and hallucinations 

 of typical mania. 



In connection v\ith nervousness we have the 

 factor of siiihlciiiicss to reckon with. Something 

 happening without v\arning will ;//merve a man or 

 animal which it v\ould not do had the occurrence 

 been foretold or developed gradually. Just as a 

 sudden knock will break a glass, which the same 

 pressure cautiously applied would not. so a sudden 

 mental blow will injuriouslv aftect the nervous 

 system in a v\av it vsould not have done had it fallen 

 more graduallv. ISoth non-living and living molecules 

 resent sudden changes of state; both can endure 

 strains if gradually apjilied which would not be 

 withstood if applied without warning. Especially 

 should the affectable and plastic nervous systems of 

 children be protected from sudden impacts. Per- 

 manent damage may be done them by " taking them 

 by surprise,"' "giving them frights," suddenly showing 

 them " horrors " and so forth. The nervous system 

 will "endure"" (almost) "all things" provided they are 

 presented to it in graded order : it may be trained 

 by degrees to suffer conditions which if suddenly 

 developed vvouM liave~ overwhelmed it altogether 



