Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-08-06
The HypOchOndrlae.

THERE Is certain period in every man
or womans life when they begin an in
Prospective examination of themselves,
This period is usually In the vicinity of
middle age, when the elasticity and vigor
of youth have given way before the ad.
vances of absolute maturity. 1t is at this
period that one begins to lose his recu.
perative powers. The dissipation or dc.
bauch of yesterday is not followed, on to-
day, by that perfect restoration which
once resulted from the rest of six or ten
hours. 1t requires longer to recover from
over-exertion, In fine, the human bone
has begun to lose its springiness, and now,
when bent, IL stays so, or recovers its nor
NAL shape slowly, and with difficulty.
IL is then that one begins this introspec-
tive examination to discover, II possible,
why II Is that he tires more easily, that he
sleeps less soundly, than he did before. II
rarely happens that, when one begins this
searching of his constitution, he fails to
discover what he supposeS To be the cause
OF the evils which annoy him. His inves-
LEGATIONS travel about from brain TO Joint,
from heart TO liver, from nerves fluids to
arterial circulation, and, after fancying for
awhile that the evil is here or there, he
finally settles upon some one organ, or set
of organs, as being the cause of his
troubles. He concludes that his stomach
refuses to digest, or his heart to perform
its offices, or that his nerves are impaired,
or that some other specific evil has taken
possession of him.
And here let 1t be observed that Just so
soon as man or woman reaches the con-
clusion, from self-examination, that he
or she is affected with some specific dis
ease, from that moment the person and
heal lth part company, rarely, if ever, to be
again united.
And now commences an existence that
is far from desirable. The victim speedily
becomes more or less virulent hypochon-
driao whose attention is fixed upon that
portion of his system which he has con
cluded to be diseased. He constantly con-
| templates, say, his heart, with an expect
| ancy that becomes painful, Each little
pain In the region of this organ, each new
| sensation, assumes prominence which,
in other days, would have attracted no at
tention. BY some ingenious process
known only to this class of people, any
novel feeling in any portion Of his system,
| any pain, however remote, any phenom-
enon, however ulikely to be connected
with his pet ailment, is at once referred TO
the complaint which he supposes to be
affiicting him.
| There would be no great harm in this
| species of determination were it not
that the sensitiveness of the nervous lines
is such that they not merely telegraph to
the brain all that is going on in the body,
but they very soon impress upon the body
any very decided convictions of the brain.
| II will thus very often result that dis.
ease which is, at first, mere creature OF
the imagination, win, in time, become a
reality. Let one persistently fancy that
his liver is deranged; let him contemplate
IL incessantly, and refer to its:diseased ac-
tion everything that goes wrong in his
system, and 1t is two to one that, in time,
that organ will become all that he has long
since concluded it to be. In this way al.
most any person, whose bodily organs are
sound as oak, can readily produce serious
and permanent arrangement in any one OF
them.
We fancy that the only remedy for this
state of things lies in an intelligent compre-
hension of the fact that one cannot always
remain young, and that, with youth, there
depart many of those powers Of resistance
which enable one in early life to eat, drink,
dissipate, or to offend nature, in almost
any way, with impunity. When one gets
TO understand these facts, he will be well
advanced in the direction of the solution
| OF MS ulHlCulJleS. lDlS solution Is
largely in the fact that he should
decrease his offenses against nature in
proportion with the decrease of his ability
to do SO with impunity Ifthe craft can.
not carry so much sail in middle life, let
some of the broad sheets that have been
spread 10 catch the spiced breezes of youth
be reefed Power should now be hus
banded, in place of being lavishly expended
Nature is less recuperative in middle age
but she will kindly sustain a moderate
average of strength. She will not memo
the broken links of digestion, as she die
before, but she will enable those that re
main unbroken to perform a moderate anC
reasonable amount of duty.
Let the hypOchOndriac of middle lif,
understand that he has passed the easy
down grade of life, and that he is begin
ming to climb the upgrade of old age, OF
which the machine will not runb by its owl
weight Let him understand the fact tina
he has reached period when he is begin
ming to break up" Let him adapt him
self TO this state Of things, and avoid a
deadly these searchings after specific all
menta. Let him understand that he mus
eat, drink, labor, worry, moderately. ii
fine, let him adapt himself to that new con
dition in his life in which he is weake
every way than he was before.-C Chicdg
| Times ....