THE QUERY CLUB

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 85, 1 July 1927, Page 4

THE QUERY CLUB

ANNUAL MEETING Miss J. Tapper, the president, presided over a large attendance of the Query Club members yesterday afternoon, on the occasion of the club’s annual meeting. The annual report showed that a great amount of useful work had been accomplished during the past year and that service had been rendered in many directions. The work that the club does in connection with the Mayoress War Memorial League has been continuously successful during the year. The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows: Patroness, Lady Gunson; president. Miss J. Tapper (re-elected); vice-pre-sidents, Misses Mason, Clark and Haycock; hon. secretary, Miss H. Wight; hon. treasurer, Miss W. Griffiths. NERVES AND THE WOMAN THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HYGIENE Most of us believe in “nerves” nowadays, for most of us have suffered from them in greater or lesser degree. We are faced with a tremendous speeding-up in transit, communications and competition. This was one of the points made by Dr. Charles S. Thomson when he addressed the English Institute of Hygiene recently, his lecture forming the first of a series on “Women’s Health.” The Victorian age, he added, had been good for the nation’s nerves. The nervous system, the lecturer said, is particularly unfavourably situated In that it has to bear the brunt of stresses coming from two directions. It is liable to exhaustion, poisoning or damage from physical causes, as, for example, from poisoning of the teeth or errors in hygiene, and it is swept also by emotional waves which set it vibrating. Emotion may be just as tiring as running a race. Causes of Breakdown Emotion in itself was sufficient to cause a nervous breakdown, but the causes of collapse were many and complex. Neurasthenia, some people might say, was due to a change in the physical condition of the nerve cells and nerve fibres. But what of the mind? The mind is a sort of electrical current generated by batteries of brain cells; it is a brilliant flame which waxes and wanes with the physical health of the nervous system. It was possible that our thoughts and emotions made structural changes. What we think and what we feel are certainly in the closest relation to our nerve health or lack of it. Massage, rest cures and diet cures .and electrical treatment had all a curative value in neurasthenia, especially electrical treatment. „But not one of them was a panacea. Restoration of health was a mater of mind and body. The only way to free people from the network of crippling thoughts and sensations in which they are caught is to show them how and where they can break their bonds by understanding the true facts of the case . Hygiene of the mind is just as important as care of the body. The two should be the foundationstones of that department of nerves which was worthy the whole-hearted consideration of the Ministry of Health. The Appeal to the Spiritual We must take into account not only suggestive therapeutics, medical hypnotism, the psycho-analysis of orthodox psychology, but go further and attempt to understand how and on what basis the,appeal to the spiritual instinct in mankind has curative value. You will find nerve disorders in people who never do any hard work, Dr. Thomson said, and people with no definite object in life often present nervous symptoms. Such people must find work or find an aim. Brain workers often suffered from neurasthenia, but it was not the mental work in itself that led to breakdown but mental work accompanied by worry, grief or disappointment. FELIX PHYSICAL CULTURE CLUB The members of the Felix Physical Culture Club held their second dance of the season in the Mount Roskill Hall on Wednesday evening. The hall was tastefully decorated with black and gold streamers, the colours of the club, while the lamps were adorned with caricatures of their feline mascot. About forty couples were present, who were treated to a programme rendered by Teddy Oswald’s Frivolity Five. The leader arranged all the dance numbers to a time-table, thus he and his colleagues left very few dull moments. The committee was certainly to be commended on the manner in which it discharged its duties, everything being well arranged and carried out.