Litchfield enquirer., 1877-01-11

 las increased for tie same reasons that 1ther and allied nervous diseases have in- creased, and pari pGssu with them.
 As this proposition has been disputed by some, it is necessary to give in detail the arguments that sustain it. This course seems to be all the more proper because those writers who up to the present time have assumed that nervous diseases have increased, without analysing the reasons for their belief. This subject, 1t will be seen at once, bears not only on inebriety but on other nervous disorders of our time and country, and must shed light on various problems in sociology. It can be shown, think, that the increase of ner- vous sensitiveness on which inebriety de- pends, is matter not of opinion, but Of demonstration. The question of the in- crease in nervous susceptibility and of the number and variety of morbid rer- vous symptoms must be answered by de- ductlve reasoning, with the aid of general observation and comparison. Cotnpara- tive statistics on the subject are beyond the bounds of possibility.
 There are powerful c Eri0rS reasons wlly nervous diseases should increase with the increase of civilization. Over use of any organ or part of the body IS liable to indnce special diseases of that organ or part. The arm of the blacksmith grows large, and firm, and strong up to certain point, but if over used condition analo- gohs to writer's crsmp may arise. The
 hammer palsy, so called, has a like expla-
 nation. The cramp of the milkmaid, of
 the sewing girl, of the dancing girl, of the
 telegraph operator, and of the pianist, are
 all illustrations of the same law. In trop-
 ical climates the liver is over worked and
 frequently diseased. The excessive use
 of drinks that stimulate the kidneys may
 excite maladies of those organs, just as
 over eating gives rlse to dyspepsia. Ex- cessive muscular strain invites diseases of the heart and arteries; the use of the voice in public speaking is superb exer- else, and tends to strengthens the vocal organs. but when carried beyond cer- tain degree leads to various laryngeal dis turbances. The nervous system ought to follow the same law; we shall find that it does follow it.
 It is also law that under strong and constantly acting temptations to over use any part or organ, average human nature yields. In savagery the great objects sought for are sensual pleasures; in civil ization the ambition is for wealth, fame, and social standing. The result is that the savage over uses his lower, and the civilized man his higher nature. This point can be most wildly seen by con- trasting ancient Greece with America,- the one the highest type of the old, the other the extreme type of the work and worry of modern civilization. Three great printing press, the steam engine, and the telegraph, are peculiar to our modern civilization, and they give it a character for which there is no prece- dent; they make it possible to concentrate an enormous quantity and intense quality of work in a short time. It is difficult to bring mathematics to bear on these in- definite questions, but surely it cannot be far from the truth to say that the average American has ten times as much work and worry as the average Greek of the olden time.
 Compare the life of the Athenian boy t.laas4a- -ss AEe7r Kvrh. Ali that the wo.Id has done for two thousand years-all the history it has made. all it's art, science, religion, politics, morals, and social life, the Greek boy could know nothing of, could not even anticipate; the world to him was young, and Greece was all the world. No scholar can graduate with even a moderate stand from one of our public schools, without mastering in a certain way, and after years of labor, deeds that have occupied the human race From all these events of history. which
  burden for the future, the Athenian schol ar was joyously free; education was to him but delicious union of poetry. phil osophy, and art. The New York boy works harder in vacation than his Athe- nian prototype 1n term time. What they called work, gymnastics, competition games, and conversations on art and let ters. Is to us recreation. The contrast in the life of Athenian and American adults is equally striking. We have our occa- sional holidays, and picnic or other pleasure party is cautiously allowed, or ome-anniversary is celebrated; but the Greeks life was long holiday, a perpet- ual picnic, a ceaseless anniversary. Con- slider the elements of seriousness and in- tensitY in American life. How much cere- bral force is expended in trying to con- vince and reform the world. What vast numbers of societies, boards, institutions, and organizations of science and mercy Consider the enormous and perpetually recurring settlements of politics and re-: ligion. the stress and fever Of endless elections and revivals. Diffusion of knowl- edge and of freedom are followed by diff fusion of care and responsibility; in Amer ica every man IS king, and bears the bur- den of the republic.
 The close connection between religion and morals which is peculiar to modern faiths. gives to our lives soberness, and a somberness that draws se- verely on the nervous force The char acter of people may be learned from their idea of heaven, for 1t is natural to make the future glorifed image of the present state. The elysium that the Greek imagination loved to picture was an ideal ized Greece, when amid flowers, and games, and pleasant converse the hours of the blessed passed merrily by. In the Roman civilization an element of greater sternness appeared, deeper and sadder feeling of responsibility which seems to have reached it's culmination in the Anglo Saxon race, of whom Froissart remarked ''they take their pleasures sadly"
 Note also that in modern days the means of transmitting news by the tele- graph, railroad. and daily press, makes the distress of every region,severy coun- try, every city, the distress of the whole world. Thus we are kept in ceaseless liability to excitement and trouble, ex- emotions are constantly called into play; every man must feel the sorrows of every other man.
 Contrasts of environment between Greece and Amerlca, Athens and New York. should also be noticed. In a mild and equable cline, in which the tempta- tion to keep out of doors was as strong as 1t IS with us to keep in doors-where the theatres were on the ll-sides, and plays were acted in the day; where the needs of man were few and work was done by siaves-life to the cultivated Greek was a delightful poem.
 But most striking of all is the contrast Tn the lives of the Athenian and American women. The Greek wife was half doll, half slave. Save few of the more bril- iIant among the etairae-the deani monde of the time they had no more voice Tn the interests of state, or art, or learning,