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experiments, by Bolton, on thirty subjects showed that the clicks of an
electric telephone connected in an induction-apparatus nearly always fell
into rhythmic groups, usually of two or four, rarely of three or five, the
rhythmic perception being accompanied by a strong impulse to make
corresponding muscular movements.[75]
It is, however, with the influence--to some extent real, to some extent,
perhaps, only apparent--of cosmic rhythm that we are here concerned. The
general tendency, physical and psychic, of nervous action to fall into
rhythm is merely interesting from the present point of view as showing a
biological predisposition to accept any periodicity that is habitually
imposed upon the organism.[76] Menstruation has always been associated
with the lunar revolutions.[77] Darwin, without specifically mentioning
menstruation, has suggested that the explanation of the allied cycle of
gestation in mammals, as well as incubation in birds, may be found in the
condition under which ascidians live at high and low water in consequence
of the phenomena of tidal change.[78] It must, however, be remembered that
the ascidian origin of the vertebrates has since been contested from many
sides, and, even if we admit that at all events some such allied
conditions in the early history of vertebrates and their ancestors tended
to impress a lunar cycle on the race, it must still be remembered that the
monthly periodicity of menstruation only becomes well marked in the human
species.[79] Bearing in mind the influence exerted on both the habits and
the emotions even of animals by the brightness of moonlight nights, it is
perhaps not extravagant to suppose that, on organisms already ancestrally
predisposed to the influence of rhythm in general and of cosmic rhythm in
particular, the periodically recurring full moon, not merely by its
stimulation of the nervous system, but possibly by the special
opportunities which it gave for the exercise of the sexual functions,
served to implant a lunar rhythm on menstruation. How important such a
factor may be we have evidence in the fact that the daily life of even the
most civilized peoples is still regulated by a weekly cycle which is
apparently a segment of the cosmic lunar cycle.
Mantegazza has suggested that the sexual period became established with
relation to the lunar period because moonlight nights were favorable to
courting,[80] and Nelson remarks that in his experience young and robust
persons are subject to recurrent periods of wakefulness at night which
they attribute to the action of the full moon. One may perhaps refer also
to the tendency of bright moonlight to stir the emotions of the young,
especially at puberty, a tendency which in neurotic persons may become
almost morbid.[81]
It is interesting to point out that, the farther back we are able to trace
the beginnings of culture, the more important we find the part played by
the moon. Next to the alteration of day and night, the moon's changes are
the most conspicuous and startling phenomena of Nature; they first suggest
a basis for reckoning time; they are of the greatest use in primitive
agriculture; and everywhere the moon is held to have vast influence on the
whole of organic life. Hahn has suggested that the reason why mythological
systems do not usually present the moon in the supreme position which we
should expect, is that its immense importance is so ancient a fact that it
tends, with mythological development, to become overlaid by other
elements.[82] According to Seler, Quetzalcouatl and Tezeatlipoca, the two
most considerable figures in the Mexican pantheon, are to be regarded
mainly as complementary forms of the moon divinity, and the moon was the
chief Mexican measurer of time.[83] Even in Babylonia, where the sun was
most specially revered, at the earliest period the moon ranked higher,
being gradually superseded by the worship of the sun.[84] Although such
considerations as these will by no means take us as far back as the
earliest appearance of menstruation, they may serve to indicate that the
phases of the moon probably played a large part in the earliest evolution
of man. With that statement we must at present rest content.
It is possible that the monthly character of menstruation, while
representing a general tendency of the human race, always and everywhere
prevalent, may be modified in the future. It is a noteworthy fact that
among many primitive races menstruation only occurs at long intervals.
Thus among Eskimo women menstruation follows the peculiar cosmic
conditions to which the people are subjected; Cook, the ethnologist of the
Peary North Greenland expedition, found that menstruation only began after
the age of nineteen, and that it was usually suppressed during the winter
months, when there is no sun, only about one in ten women continuing to
menstruate during this period.[85] It was stated by Velpeau that Lapland
and Greenland women usually only menstruate every three months, or even
only two or three times during the year. On the Faroe Islands it is said
that menstruation is frequently absent. Among the Samoyeds, Mantegazza
mentions that menstruation is so slight that some travelers have denied
its existence. Azara noted among the Guaranis of Paraguay that
menstruation was not only slight in amount, but the periods were separated
by long intervals. Among the Indians in North America, again, menstruation
appears to be scanty. Thus, Holder, speaking of his experience with the
Crow Indians of Montana, says: "I am quite sure that full-blood Indians in
this latitude do not menstruate so freely as white women, not usually
exceeding three days."[86] Among the naked women of Tierra del Fuego, it
is said that there is often no physical sign of the menses for six months
at a time. These observations are noteworthy, though they clearly
indicate, on the whole, that primitiveness in race is a very powerless
factor without a cold climate. On the other hand, again, there is some
reason to suppose that in Europe there is a latent tendency in some women
for the menstrual cycle to split up further into two cycles, by the
appearance of a latent minor climax in the middle of the monthly interval.
I allude to the phenomenon usually called _Mittelschmerz_, middle period,
or intermenstrual pain.
Since the investigations of Goodman, Stephenson, Van Ott, Reinl,
Jacobi, and others, it has been generally recognized that
menstruation is a continuous process, the flow being merely the
climax of a menstrual cycle, a physiological wave which is in
constant flux or reflux. This cycle manifests itself in all a
woman's activities, in metabolism, respiration, temperature,
etc., as well as on the nervous and psychic side. The healthier
the woman is, the less conscious is the cyclic return of her
life, but the cycle may be traced (as Hegar has found) even
before puberty takes place, while Salerni has found that even in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]