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A little farther on, Dr. Anstie adds, "But I confess, that, with me, the result of close attention given to the pathology of neuralgia has been the ever-growing conviction, that, next to the influence of neurotic inheritance, there is no such frequently powerful factor in the construction of the neuralgic habit as mental warp of a certain kind, the product of an unwise education."
In this matter Anstie may be regarded as a forerunner of Freud, who has developed with great subtlety and analytic power the doctrine of the transformation of repressed sexual instinct in women into morbid forms. He considers that the nervosity of to-day is largely due to the injurious action on the sexual life of that repression of natural instincts on which our civilization is built up.
Such women, he adds, have kept themselves free from masturbation "at the expense of a perpetual and almost fierce activity of mind and muscle." Anstie had found that some of the worst cases of the form of nervosity and neurasthenia which he termed "spinal irritation," often accompanied by irritable stomach and anæmia, get well on marriage.
Among the dead were Colonel Durnford and Lieutenant Macdonald, Royal Engineers; Captain Russell and Captain Stewart Smith, Royal Artillery; Colonel Pulleine, Major White, Captains Degacher, Warden, Mostyn, and Younghusband; Lieutenants Hobson, Caveye, Atkinson, Davey, Anstie, Dyson, Porteous, Melville, Coghill; and Quartermaster Pullen of the 1st battalion 24th Regiment; and Lieutenants Pope, Austin, Dyer, Griffith, and Quartermaster Bloomfield, together with Surgeon Major Shepheard, of the 2nd battalion 24th Regiment.
"Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademtum." 3d, 658 line. Plain Talk about Insanity. By T.W. Fisher, M.D. Boston. Pp. 23, 24. Neuralgia, and the Diseases that resemble it. By Francis E. Anstie, M.D. Pp. 122. English ed. Op. cit., p. 160. Wear and Tear. By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D. Body and Mind. By Henry Maudsley, M.D. Lond. p. 31 Op. cit., p. 87. Op. cit., p. 32. "Pistoc.
In the middle of the last century Anstie, an acute London physician, more or less vaguely realised the transformations of sexual energy into nervous disease and into artistic energy.
Anstie, in his work on Neuralgia, refers to the beneficial effect of sexual intercourse on dysmenorrhoea, remarking that the necessity of the full natural exercise of the sexual function is shown by the great improvement in such cases after marriage, and especially after childbirth.
Neuralgia, Op. cit., by F.E. ANSTIE, p. 20. Wear and Tear. Op. cit., p. 33-4. It is a curious commentary on the present aspect of the "woman question" to see many who honestly advocate the elevation and enfranchisement of woman, oppose any movement or law that recognizes Nature's fundamental distinction of sex.
Use of the Ophthalmoscope. By T.C. Allbutt. London. Some physiologists consider that the period of growth extends to a later age than this. Dr. Anstie fixes the limit at twenty five. He says, "The central nervous system is more slow in reaching its fullest development; and the brain, especially, is many years later in acquiring its maximum of organic consistency and functional power."
A closer inspection by competent experts would reveal the secret weakness which the labor of life that they are about to enter upon too late discloses. The testimony of Dr. Anstie of London, as to the gravity of the evils incurred by the sort of erroneous education we are considering, is decided and valuable.
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