THE GIRL OF TO-DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 80, 5 April 1926, Page 7

THE GIRL OF TO-DAY

HER LIFE OF FRIVOLITY

DOCTOR'S SCATHING CRITICISM

I (From Our Own Correspondent.) / LONDON, 24(h February. r^-What he considered to bo the couses M many of* the nervous maladies discernible among young people to-day were tho subject of a searching diagnosis by Dr. J. S. Eisien Russell in a leciiKw-st the Institute of Hygiene. He dealt with the ultimate harm that may lie sustained by children in falling from perambulators; the mischief caused by ■ importing psycho-analysis into the training of children; and the hectic round of tho girl of to-day, with her freedom from the chaperoncs, and her (resort to druga and drink to induce /the. artificial sleep to which she has lost 'the natural key. The title of his lecture was "The ■Prevention of Nervous Affections in the iiYoung." "People," said Dr. Bussoll, ;•• speak of their 'nerves' being affeetl'ed, or of their friends suffering from '•norves,' without having the faintest 'idea of what the n-ervous system is. ' Bo many children arc born with abnorj may conditions of their nervous systems l.that wo must look further back in thoix rlife history if wo are to search for a [ moans to prevent these abnormalities. f ; Ono of the chief scourges in this coniaection has been syphilis, and the other [alcoholism. Tho former of these, thanks f.to a more enlightened manner of facing fsuch problems in the community, is beiing gradually stamped out, but tho flatter is still with us, though appro : \ ciably loss in evidence than hitherto fand I am persuaded is likely to become less and less as' times goes on, Sunless the present tendency to excesses -.of all kinds is allowed to continue un- \ checked or 'prohibtion' finds its way [into the country. Knowing as wo do i what serious consequences may follow j knocks and blows to the head in adults, •■ who can say how much that :is abn ormal in a child's nervous system in I later life is to be ascribed to frights * and blows to tho head, deliberately ad- '■■ ministered, or the result of their being allowed to fall from a pram or chair SWING OF THE PENDULUM. 1 "I view with horror the introduction cf anything so abominable as psychoanalysis m the training of children, and regard this as deserving of the strong-j est possible protest on the part of the public,, for every means should be , taken to put a stop to the evil and - enucleate the canker which has taken • root among some of those responsible for the training of the young. Apart ' from this much to be deprecated method of dealing with children, the whole modern tendency of studying the child's whims and pandering to them for fear, of harm resulting from upsot- ' ting their complexes, and thus allowing theni to do much as they please and to go undisciplined is responsible for much harm. From the perhaps -too strict discipline of the Victorian era the pendulum has swung too far in tho opposite direction, so that the modern child has become quite out of hand. An undisciplined child ie one whose nervous system cannot fail to Buffer. Hygiene of ;body and mind .are much need- | ed in these days when children are al- '■ lowed to read the most baneful literarture at will, and spend so many hours i' in cinemas, where the mental food may >„' be of the most pernicious type for them, '. instead of being' compelled to reap the benefits provided by Nature in the way of fresh air and sunshine. There is a happy mean to bo aimed at, but it would be far bettor for their nervous systems were the young people compell,ed to return to the strict discipline of: the Victorian era than that things should remain a3 at present with all ..the laxity and, indicipline responsible for so much harm. /

"Among the subjects ■which are actively engaging public attention at the present time, spiritualism takes a prominent part. There are many who are highly neurotic and unbalanced, and who cannot possibly dabble in matters cf the kind without serious risk of disordering their brains so seriously as to cause them to become insane. DRENK AND DRUGS—COCKTAILS TOR GIRLS. There are evidently still sources through which some women are able to securo drugs to keep themselves going with little or no food and next to no sleep. Whether or not the war is to ,be blamed for the change, the fact remains that the girl of the present clay, even when still in her teens, has a freedom of action and liberty which is ' fraught with more than ono danger. The chaperonc is, in the main, a thing of the past, and young girls are free to go out with young men, not only to ro's- ' taurants and dances, but to night clubs, ' .with no sort of restrictions put on their , actions, and with no limit'of time when ,: they must return to their homes. The > result i 3 that the whole, or the greater '• part* of tlie night, is spent in frivolity, (with no time left for sleep to refresh ! the nervous system, so that a day fol- ; lowing this full of social and other cnt'gagements can only be got through with i the assistance of alcohol or drugs. } Girls not long from school are to be I seen drinking cocktails, champagne, and r liqueurs, whilo in. time whiskies and ; sodas are added to the list of stimulants required to. keep them going.

''Scarcely ..has the age of twenty been reached, before the- lines that be- [ long "to the face of a woman of middle , age have become evident in such girls, i'Nature, deprived of her normal hours , of sleep, begins to forget the habit, the nervous system, overtaxed by the ; strain .' of so abnormal a life, and poisoned by ' alcohol, tobacco, and perhaps drugs, falls into a state of neurasthenia,, with insomnia, which demands the increase of drugs to bring sleep. Is it ,to be supposed that when girls of this kind reach womanhood, and become mothers they can produce men and women with anything but the most miserable physiques find of the neurotic type?"