Two young ladies, both good violinists, also affirmed that ever
since their first menstruation they had noted a tendency for the strings
to snap at this period; one, a genuine artist, who often performed at
charity concerts, systematically refused to play at these times, and was
often embarrassed to find a pretext; the other, who admitted that she was
nervous and irritable at such times, had given up playing on account of
the trouble of changing the strings so frequently. Laurent also refers to
the frequency with which women break things during the menstrual periods,
and considers that this is not simply due to the awkwardness caused by
nervous exhaustion or hysterical tremors, but that there is spontaneous
breakage. Most usually it happens that a glass breaks when it is being
dried with a cloth; needles also break with unusual facility at this time;
clocks are stopped by merely placing the hand upon them.
I do not here attempt to estimate critically the validity of these alleged
manifestations (some of which may certainly be explained by the
unconscious muscular action which forms the basis of the phenomena of
table-turning and thought-reading); such a task may best be undertaken
through the minute study of isolated cases, and in this place I am merely
concerned with the general influence of the menstrual state in affecting
the social position of women, without reference to the analysis of the
elements that go to make up that influence.
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