, 1877-11-03
"OVER.WOEK."
A COMMON CANT-S0T THE HEAD, But THE
STOMACH AFFECTED.

q
STOMACH AFFECTED.
The can't of over-work in the present da,
may be compared to the .cant Of Byrunisn
| fifty years ago. The young gentleman who
gloried in loose collars, flowing eravats
whose faces wore fixed expression Of With
erilg scorn, whose spirits were consumed by
q volcanic despair and who were eloquent
on the subject of blighted hopes and desc
lated beings, have disappeared. Modern sen
| timeatalism exercises itself not on the sub
jects of hearts, but heads. The modern work
er feels twinge, which may be gout or liver
and d;mness of vision or a noise in the
head, which is indigestion There are ON
inous whispers the :nvalid himself frplaces
his hand upon his brow, and his friends hint
that the mighty intellect is protesting, after
| its own fashion, against the incessant strains
imposed upon it. There are certain phrases
and quotations OF which 1T may be sai,i that
they embalm fallac;es and perpetuate SUPER,
stitions and when the Ry,ial laureate pen
ned his coupIet on the subject Of the laying
! waste our powers, he was throwing by aniic-
ipaticn poetic glamor on complaint which,
if sometimes based on facts, rests infinitely
, more often on mere fancy. Certain malaiies
of the flesh ere exceptionally common At Ger
tain periods. The fashionable indispositi2n
at the present time Is over-work: and tie
patient who hears froaa the doctor tha. it is
the stomach, and not the brain, which is
over-taxed, is apt TO feei that he has received
something very Ike 4 personal insult. Ii
matters 20 on at this rate 1t viii soon be X
nOred that We have such things Is bodies.
An influenza, y general 'uGiGise nanifestiy
traceable to want of proper exercise, the las
si.ude that follows excess of pleasure or ey-
citemant, is interpreted rs monitor OF the
part of Nature that the mind must be allowed
some pause in its heroic operations. Habit
ual violation of the laws of health is visited
with its inevitable penalty; the seeds of =
fatal malady, long since sown, yield their
harvest, and there Is . premature death
The verdict of society and the press Is death
by over work The deceased is compliiaen-
tel on having died in harness; but 1t is an
understood thing that 1t was the continuous
pressure of the harness which killed him.
IS MATTER OF FACT,
What is called over-work, but what is really
hard work, leads to lengths of days rather
than to an early grave. The chief instances
of longevity recently witnessed have been
those OF I career passed IN close and urin-
termitting toll Lord Broughan and Lord
Palmerson are eminent examples and would
have place IN any modern treatise De Ne
nectate They are not exceptional cases any
reader NAV mentally run over a list oT the
hardest workers whom he knows, in state or
church, In law, letters, medicine, o: arts.
h,,,ralf fI,ar fharta ls rp@
to believe that indeiatigable industry is 4
premium. on untimely dissolution. That hard
work Is purely relative term IS trae. Even
Milo could not have accomplished the la5ors
Of Hcrcales. 1t Is not orerworh, to use the,
word in its conventional sense, that kills,
hut the conditions under which the work is
done-the over.worry which sometimes ae-
COMPANIES it, the feverish efforts which men
who g-ori hard, bat are not over-workers-
that is, who DO not work more hard than
their natural capacities qualify them to do
make to combine the pursuit of pleasure with
industry. society with the study OF 1.-The
shep." 1t seems : truism which sounds like
piatitu,e to say that the human machinery
as all other machinery which is to produce
motion, must be fed, the food IN tins case
being physical nutriment and rest. In other
words, If the energies are not to he preIna-
turely exhausted, the demand on them mast
be accompanied by thecOncesslon OF healthy
diet and a proper amount OF sleep. The suit
ability of the former and the sutficiency OF
the latter are not difficult to ascertain. In
each case
NATURE Is THE JUDGE,
And # her promptincs are disregaried dys-
persia, insomnia and all the other maiadies
of life will foliow-not because they are,
from the first. inevitable, but because they
have been wantonly provoked. II BRAN
work is only done under pressure OF stlmu-
lants. the brain suddenly gives way. 1t the
Ivrical precept of Captain Morris isfollowed.
the days are heightened by annexins to them
part Of the legitimate territory of night, the
rireur. has no right to complain II the seqnei
IS disastrous. And, of course, the mind re-
acts upon the body, just as mental exercise
is, if properly conducted, physical gam
so that state of anxious, hopeless worry
the worry which springs from the haunting
consciousness of the skeleton IN the cupboard,
financial or otherwise-surely saps, and final
ly DESTROYS, the physical system. There
NAV he over-work-there assuredly Is over
worry. and both in the long run end IN
death. But in a general way it IS demon
stra.rable fact that the deaths which are at
tr;buted to over-work are to be explained on
other grounds too prUsaic to mention. 1t
NAV be excusable to gid with SPECIAL
nbrase the origin Of a common place mortal
~ bnt there is no reason why honest IN
dnstry should be discredited by cant term,
and a dauger-signal hung out where, with
proper steering no danger IS but Fa'neF
health and happiness are