Note 10 — Chapter VIII · THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

Statement by Madame Toyi Niku of Yeddo, Japan, after a six months’ visit to the United States.—“Worry and inactivity, it seems to me, sharply mark the women of your middle classes. I did not attempt to study your leaders of society, for they are much alike the world over—the same fuss, the same display of jewels and finery, the same scandals, the same uselessness. Your women do not diversify enough. If they are good cooks, they stop there; perhaps another is a good housekeeper, another can sew finely; but doing one thing makes narrow-mindedness. In Japan we strive to do many things. The worry troubles of your women, it seems to me, come largely from improper eating and overeating. I have sat at many of your tables and there is too much food on them and too much variety. First, women overeat, then they doctor, then they starve, and then they become nervous. A woman’s diet, especially a mother’s, should always be simple. Cut down eating and increase variety of labor and exercise. My own people live that way with a result that we have better feminine bodies, better skins, and better tempers than your women. I like the brightness of your young women. Perhaps you will take the hideous hats off them some day, find a substitute for the bad corset, and let them wear clothes that are loose, yet are soft and clinging. They are bound up in their clothes too much now and their judgment of colors and combinations is not good. Their clothing is either garish or very dull in hue. The simplest girl in Japan knows how to harmonize color with herself.”—Mother’s Magazine, November, 1907.