Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-07-16

stopping TO think of The consequence
they were bringing upon Themselves
! The York Tribune ssgs. The Anne
rican professional man, or Journalist,
4 nowsa4ta5s, begins % break down ar The
age when his father was, in his prime;
uneasy symptoms beset hin, too slight tC
bring under the doctors eye, yet which
he motbfdly fAncies are the touch Of
Death lingering hin oyer: Chief AMONG
these, almost invariably, is frequent
uncomfortable loa,hing of the work into
which heretofore he has gladly thrown
all his strength. His pen refuses to movt
his memory is paralyzed; his brain is like
3 sponge from which every drop has been
wruDg. With women, tie symptoms
vary. a woman who has reared half q
dozen children on small mrans, has had
TO oyertax her brain TO do 1t as much as
any professional man would in his prac-
tee. At forty, she is sharp-nosed and
fla: breasted; irritable or morbid without
reason, she has bad digestive organs, and
no back at ail worth mention; and her
daughter of eighteen is her weaker coun-
terpalt. SO alarming has this everywhere
apparent weakness in the nervous system
of the present generation become that
theories as 10 its cause and cure are thrust
on us from every side. vs I'D !
Ii is a relief TO receive at last few
words of explanation ard warning from
an authoritative source. A monograph
on the subject, entitled "Wear and Tear, "
has just been written by DR.. S. Weir
Mitchell, one of the most eminent author
tiles on Nervous Diseases 10 the country.
The National Hospital for the cure IF
such diseases established by the Govern
ment during the war, and placed under
his charge, ia still maintained, and offers
him an opportunity for close and accur-
ale observation among the educated
classes of the effects of oyertaxing the
brain. The facts he states are more alarm
ing than even the general uneasiness would
have anticipated. He goes direct to the
desth-rstes to prove the sudden increase
of nervous maladies, which is hardly fair
to his own argument, as l. necessarily ex-
cludes palsy in children ard neuralgia in
the milder forms. Taking CHICAGO as Can
illustration, in concentrated form, of causes
which are at work throughout the land"
he reports from 1852 to 1857 (opitting
1854, the cholera Year, that the deaths
from nerve. disorders were to the total
mortality as l in 26. Ten years later,
from 1864 to 1858, inclusive, the neutral
deaths were in 9. Among those dis
eases whose increase has been so inordi.
nate are spoplezy, palsy and epilepsy,
which are in the vast majority of cases
due to direct disease of the nerve cen.ers.
The cause of this appalling lack of en-
durance il the nervous systems of Amer
leans, he attributes not only to the sui
cid2l strain upon them, but to the fact
that the climate of the United States ex
hausts them sooner than that of other
countries. 81 believe" he says, ''that
something in our country makes intellect
ual work of all kinds harder 10 do than it
is in Europe; and, since we do it with a
terrible energy, the result shows itself very |
soon. Among the higher Intellectual
workers, such SIS astronomers, physicists, |
and naturaIi3ts, l have frequently heard |
this belief expressed, and by none so |
positively as those who have lived on |
both continents" La confirmation of |
this, he quotes The personal experience of
Agassiz aud others, depressing from the
main point TO show that physical labor
also is more trying here than abroad.
"Why this is" be adds, 81 cannot say;
but it is not more mysterious than the
fact that agents which, as sedstives or
excitants, affec. the great nerve centers,
do this very differently in different eli
mates. II is possibletO drink with safety |
in England quantities CT wine which here
would be disagreeable in their first effect |
and perilOus in their ultimate results.
The Cuban who takes coffee enormously at
home, and smokes endlessly, cln do here
neither the one nor the other to |
the same degree. And so also the amount
of excitatiOn from work which the brain
viii bear varies exceedingly with varia-
tiOns Of climatic Influences. The Stats
tics which his notebooks furnish with
regard 10 the classes of men most likely |
to suffer from cerebral exhaustion will |
surprise in some points the ordinary Oh
server. ''Next TO overtasked men of /
science, manufacturers and certain classes
Of railway officials are the most liable to
suffer from neural exhaustion. After |
thsse come merchants in general, brokers,
etc; then less frequently clergymen; still
less often lawyer; and more rarely doc
tors; while distressing cases are apt 10
occur among the over schoOled young of
both sexes. The worst instances to
be met with are among young
men suddenly cast into business positions
involving weighty responsibility. The
ages when the man is most apt to mani
fest these diseases is, he states, ''when
the mind ia maturing, and at the turning
point Of life when the brain has attained
its fullest power" An immature man
goes into business with borrowed capital;
the lifelong strain follow3. Then come
''overwOrk, late hours of work, irregular
meals boiled in haste away from home,
the want of holidays aud pursuits outside !
of business. When they get TO be fifty |
or Whereabouts, aod ale thinking Now we
will stop and enjoy ourselves the brain
suddenly refuses 10 work, and the mis-
chief is DONE There is co attempt in |
this treatise IN Ilsurn fba ,ctor's nlece.