Chicago Tribune
NERVE SHOCKS A NECESSITY;
ENNUI IS THE ALTERNATIVE.
Prof. W. I. Thomas Says That Is One Reason Why Women Like to Gossip About
Neighbors.
Women like to gossip because the new of the terrible things the neighbors have done gives a pleasing shock to their vaso-motor systems.
They have an appetite for shocks to their nerves which comes down to them from their primitive ancestors. Unless the vaso-motor system receives a goodly share of shocks the individual suffers from ennui.
At least this is the theory which William I. Thomas, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and inventor of the term "The adventitious character of woman," presented to the delegates of the National League of Handicraft societies at Hitchcock hall in an address on "The Hand and the Mind," yesterday.
"Our primitive ancestors led exciting lives," Prof. Thomas explained. "We share the appetite for excitement which their experience built up in the race and different as our occupations and amusements are from theirs we enjoy them in proportion as they provide shocks to the vaso-motor system which they got out of hunting, fighting, and escaping from dangerous animals. We crave shocks."
