The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-29
OVERWORKED BRAINS.

The suicide of Mr.. Ralston, President OF
warning against excessive brain work. The
horrible act of selfdestruction may be i'm
puted to financial or other troubles, but what
ever the proximate exciting cause may have
been, it will probably be discovered that
the real operative cause was disease of
the brain superinduced by excessive men,
tai labor coupled with anxiety. We
say of his "insanity," and we speak advised
ly both on account of the strong prima .tacie
presumption which suicide of itself always
believe that his deed was done in spite of his
| reason than with its deliberate approval
Suicide committed in cold blood and with
| full use Of sound memory and reason is rare,
leaving in almost all such apparent cases
grounds for surmising that the act was done
under the immediate influence of sudden
| alteration of mind. The rational suicide
would be scarcely distinguishable from a
criminal, but suicide resulting from insanity
involves no guilt.
dusfrious man in business. He was at the
head or ruling director in numerous corpo-
rations, whose operations involved interests
of very great importance. His large personal
fortune and those of numerous friends were
invested in them. He had been brilliantly sue
cessful as banker and fnancier, and the
reputation he had acquired was further
stimulant to exertion. The result was that
for many years his mind was for long period
in a state Of great activity. Its machinery
sure. 1t would be no exaggeration to say that
he did more brain work than any five men
ought to be called upon to do and as much as
they can do and retain sound health. Even
if he had done as much merely for the sake
of salary, and without anxiety, he might
have escaped longer from the overstraining.
HIS toll grew with the growth and magnif-
cence of San Francisco and with the rapid in
crease of his wealth, and in the harvest which
paper money has been to great fnanciers Mr..
busy reaper.
la addition to his many occupations he was
an active and leading spirit in many social,
educational, artistic and literary associations,
besides entertaining throngs of guests, and
all this called for the use of more brain s,
more attention and more care.
There are thousands of our countrymen
who are destroying themselves by the same
means, men who give themselves no holiday
or rest, but are adding new cares, new bur-
dens and new anxieties from day to day.
They give their bodies insufficient time for
sleep; their digestive apparatus meagre
chance to perfect its processes. They stint
the air they .breathe, forget to associate
with their families and find no time to
visit at home. Their sentiments have no
chance for natural growth and regular de-
velopment. If forced to seek change and re-
creation, it is done in the same hasty and
spasmodic style. Everything they do seems
to be performed under a fearful sense Of the
brevity of human life and thoro ugh uncon-
Germ for comfort, health or pleasure. If mat
tiers of business require them to travel they
fercely pack their valises, rush to the depot
and earnestly read or study their pass books,
bills and letters, with constant spirit of dis
content with their slow progress of forty miles
an hour.
This overwork is leaving sad traces, and
producing calamitous effects which will be
entalled upon new generation. 1t is an ex-
travagant waste of health, vitality and strength,
and like all other extravaganza, is productive
of damaging reaction. Innumerable cases of
insanity are caused or developed by it, lead
ing often to suicides as saddening as that to
which we have referred. We hear on every
side that the suicidal mania is fast increasing,
while more precisely stated it is the frequency
of insanity that is growing Suicide being
one of its incidents, dismal crisis of the
"mind's disease"
The most numerous of these sufferers are
the children and grandchildren of progen-
itors who sinned against the laws of mental
and bodily health by overstrained, prolonged,
and intense mental exertion in pursuits re-
curing much care and anxiety. These are
the sour grapes which "set the children's
teeth on edge"
FAIL CALIcoEs. - The Messrs Danzgers
whose stores, 203 Canal street, and 22S and $50
Royal street. are the great places OF resort for
ladies' seeking seasonabe and fashionable goods,
are now opening to the delightful gaze OF their
visitors splendid line of fall calicoes, new de-
az hlu LON