The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-02-25
Y5Braih9Work!
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las Periis and penaIiies-Or Pes ParaIysi,


The mind possesses a curious faculty which
medical men call .sunconscious cerebration. :" The
brain appears occasionally to do its work auto
matically and without the aid of the win the
problem which was perplexed and difficult is
clear when we have g slept over it " and SO well
are some men acquainted with this peculiar fac
ulty of the mind that they commonly, when pos
sible, sleep over a difficult subject, leaving the
practiced and trained intellect to unrayel the
tangled threads of an argument and arrange the
mass of material into order and symmetry. This
. unconscious cerebration,,' however, involves
mental toll, and he who sets the willing organ to
perform a task of this kind usually pays the PEN
atty next day in languor. debility, and a host Of
kindred evils.
Happy is he, says Wendell Holmes, s whose
feet are ice, and whose head burns when in the
throes of composition-' Happy, perhaps. in a
certain sense ; for the clever essayist merely meant
that no really mental toll is properly performed
without these symptoms being apparent in the
victim. But does it not occur to the most cursory
thinker that phenomena of this description, re-
treated daily, must in the long run tell upon the
general health? We have known writers who,
when they had risen from their tasks-poOr pale
faced fellows ordinarily-looked positively ruddy
and bloated, while the veins of the forehead were
gorged with blood. They were always the dashing
scribes OF the press-men who could 9 throw off
a column in an hour, and who never cared to
make any material alterations in the s.proofs.''
They were the men with fluent pens-so dear to
editors-who could always be counted upon to
sum up a debate at three in the morning, or write
at need when any casualties has reduced the liter |
airy staff. We never knew these writer's to be
men they were commonly stricken
down at a comparatively early period of life when
with proper care, a man ought to count upon
years of health and strength. And it was
the same deadly foes which cut them down
or paralysis, tie win fends that
haunt men who Iahnr with the brain Conoot;,1o,
consumption steps in and does its cruel work. as
IN a recent case, when a brilliant essayist fell in /
his prime. and with mental power untouched.
before the terrible destroyer of British youth.
whatever the immediate cause of death, brain
labor is usually the first originator of disease.
Driven to Its daily toll and compelled to work at
hours, the over exerted organ either absorbs
The general powers of the system, or gives way
warning under the unequal strain.
Few writers bear to reflect on these truths. and
u the mind performs its task with its wonted
power, they put off the evil day, and care nothing
or the future. Or a journalist will complacently
contemplate any danger which may lie in the dis
'ance, If he is certain for the present TO escane
rom what, for the want of a better name. we
nave called the paralysis OF the pen. Every
writer Will understand what we mean, and NAV
fretted over this, the most trying of the
mall evils which beset mankind. Whether
of the pen be the precursor of some Sc
ious evils behind-a silent but eloquent protest
galnst oVer-Work-We know not but, whatever
is cause, it is a malady which is worthy of pass
ne allusiOn. The symptoms are usually painful
nougb, and the disease may be summed up in n
Tord. The writer finds himself suddenly. and
'ithout apparent cause, unable to pen a single
me. For the moment he imagines himself para.
yzed he tries again and again with the same .
Throwing aside the useless
'eapon which has hitherto served him SO well, he
about for the cause of the unusual phenom-
ma. Was it his dinner THAT confounded roast
always upsets one-or was it the claret {? He ;
gam attempts to write and again fails. Perhaps :
he fit lasts for an hour or two, or even for '
hole day and no effort of the will, while the =
1ell is on the BRAIN, can recall the truant power /,
subsection. But the fit ends rs suddenly as il !
iine, the mind clears instantly, and the bv-no- =
cans complex topic which the moment before
emed so difficult is lucid, and all is { plain
" again. The sufferer of course, speedily {
the visitation. For the moment, he is led .
reflect upon the slender tenure by which he :
lids the nOblest of intellectual faculties or he .
rms good resolutions, which are forgotten under :
e pressure OF the next days duty, and the old {
of excessive work is continued. PARALYSIS :
the pen, as we have limited, is, perhaps, one of Q
ose merciful warnings which nature sometimes
lords US before she assumes the part of ayenoer !.
her violated laws. 1t is, at all events. a hint =
should not be neglected, and we advise our u
ethren, wien next the unwelcome yisitant -
upon them, to make some effort to obtain r
Mt repose which is so readily accorded to all but :
e unfortunate journalist. C1-A1 u4 =