In the very nature of the case, therefore, a curve of this
kind could not possibly be otherwise than most irregular if the discharges
tended to occur most frequently upon definite days of the month; and thus
the very irregularity of the curve affords us proof that there is a
regular male periodicity, such that on certain days of the month there is
greater probability of a spontaneous discharge than on any other days.
5. Gratifying, however, though this irregularity of the curve may be, yet
it entails a corresponding disadvantage, for we are precluded thereby from
readily perceiving the characteristics of the monthly rhythm as a whole. I
thought that perhaps this aspect of the rhythm might be rendered plainer
if I calculated the data into two-day averages; and the result, as shown
in Chart 10, is extremely satisfactory. Here we can at once perceive the
wonderful and almost geometric symmetry of the monthly rhythm; indeed, if
the third maximum were one unit higher, if the first minimum were one unit
lower, and if the lines joining the second minimum and third maximum, and
the fourth maximum and fourth minimum, were straight instead of being
slightly broken, then the curve would, in its chief features, be
geometrically symmetrical; and this symmetry appears to me to afford a
convincing proof of the representative accuracy of the curve. We see that
the month is divided into five periods; that the maxima occur on the
following pairs of days: the 19th-20th, 13th-14th, 25th-26th, 1st-2d,
7th-8th; and that the minima occur at the beginning, end, and exact middle
of the month.
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