Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-10-25

when mental activity is diminished.
Hence arises the impossibility of fulfill
ing the physical conditions of sleep, the
most important of which is the dimin-
ption of the flow of the vital fluid to the
brain. xr3e4 ...4sr,,5 f,.-e g4a.!H.}
Some extraordinary. instances have
been recorded of prolonged iwakefulness
as result of mental overstrain. Boer-
have mentions that when, on one occas-
ion, 4intently engaged on particular
study. he did mot close his eyes in sleep
for six weeks. Sir Gilbert Blame was
Informed by Gen. Fichegru that, for a
wholeyear, when engaged in active cam
paign operations. he slept but one hour
in stwenty-four., These and other SINH
lar cases have probably been unconsci-
BUSINESS Of the fact, 1t is certain enough
that the continued deprivation of any
considerable part of the hormal amount
of sleep will be seriously, detrimental to
health 49,,
DR.. Hammond, in his work on sleep,
mentions the case of a literary man in
America whO,i for nearly year. while
intently engaged in afayorite study, re-
stricted his period of rest to four hours a
day, and frequently less. At the end of
that time the overtasking of his mental
powers was manifested in a curious way,
He told the physician. that, though still
apt to maintain a connected line of re-
asoning, he, found that as soon as he at
tempted to record his ideas on paper, the
cornpOsition turned out to be simply a
tissue of arraut nonsense. :
Wien id the act of writing his thoughts
| flowed SO rapidly that hes was not con-
scious Of the disconnecte dnature of what
he was writing; but as soon as he stop
ped to read it over he was aware how
completely he had misrepresented his
conceptions. If the language happened
to be at all Ineligible, it was sure to
have no relation to the ideas he wished
to express, THUS, wishing to obtain Il
book from a friend, he fonnl that, in
| stead of the request, he had written the
Sir Isaac N ewton, in the later years of
his life, suffered greatly from wakeful-
ness. -. l'h T fts4lt -'it H'z
The fact, well known to every medical
man, that persistent sleeplessness is fire.
quently the precursor or iritiatory stage
of several most intractabie maladies,
physical and mental, always invests the
] presence Of this Indication of mental
foverstrain with grave interest. But a
continued course Of mental labor gerler-
ally .manifests its effects on the mind
/ itself in various ways, all more or less
/ lpremonitory of approaching collapse.
l 1uO VI hCk W PClCCiSO Oil
unwonted want of clearness in his ideas !;
work becomes gradually less easy to him
he is alarmed at sudden awkward fail
| ures of memory; a feeling Of surfeit or
| dis gust viii steal over him in the midst
I tofwoEk; he becomes unable long to fix
This attention, and latterly feels as Ii all
mental CLERGY were crushed out of him
If these warnings of an ovewrought-
brain. now speaking distinctly with the
i tongue of disease-are disregarded, the
1 wonder frequently is, not that the in
1fevit able retrfbution follows, but that it
should have beenis0 long delayed. What
4 particular from the Nemesis shall assume
whether Of, physical, or mental disease,
win be determined BY accidents, partly
of pefsoual Habits and temperaments,
Pand partly of inherited predispositions.
! 1t isnotewerthy, however, that thecom- :
mon opinion that, excessive mental oc-
cupatiOn gravitates toward insanity, does
I fappeari to be verified by facts. Indeed,
4 one Of the foremost Of living English
4 lphysicians doubts whether alienation of
imlnd iso ever the result of simple mem
q tai overstrain. 1t is to physical, not to
mental, arrangement that excessive
work Of the. brain generally gives rise.
4 Insanity, he points out, finds the most
suitable materialfor Development among
4 our iclodGish, uneduested CLASSES, while
the worst forms of ply ysicalf disease are
4 originated and intensified by our; etiucs-
ted oversrralhing brain-workers.l 4 I
s.