206 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



were right, it is the same with some of the obscure reflexes 

 connected with eating. The reflex which prevents, or 

 should prevent premature deglutition, is outraged by all, 

 especially when they enjoy the pleasures of conversation 

 and the table at the same time. I do not know whether it 

 has ever been noticed, even by the observers I have named, 

 that this particular reflex only comes naturally into play 

 when savage methods of feeding are indulged in, that is to 

 say, when the mouth is crammed with food and swallowing 

 in the ordinary sense is actually impossible. If we decide 

 to re-educate this particular reflex Fletcher advised us to 

 work over long paths to restore its efficacy ; that is, to 

 attend voluntarily to mastication. It may, however, be 

 pointed out that if a child is not interfered with by a 

 polite mother it will fill its mouth so full that deglutition 

 without thorough mastication is impossible. The natural 

 instinct will lead the child to use and preserve its teeth 

 and its digestion. The pleasant, but physiologically 

 damnable, habit of cheerful conversation at meal-times 

 should be corrected. There are, however, no instincts 

 which lead the young to bathing, and such reflex actions as 

 are connected with it are, among the simple, merely those 

 of repulsion. The instincts of mankind are really against 

 it. What then was its origin, seeing the common dislike 

 and even horror of water displayed by those unaccustomed 

 to it, and the comparative ease with which even the most 

 cleanly under pressure learn to do without it ? I think it 

 will not be so difficult to find how it arose and branched 

 into purification and therapeutics if we delve into the far 

 past with the help of anthropology. 



The first thing that one learns in dealing with primitive 

 man is, that although he was logical, his premisses partook 

 of the simplicity seen in children, even the most intelligent, 



