Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-01-16
GRIP.

GRIP.
How a Man Loses it's It Insanity.
Keokuk Constitution.
The following is an interesting ex-.
tract from lecture on insanity, de-
livered yesterday, before the students
of the college of physicians and sur
geons, by DR.. j. NJ. Shaffer:
In every community there are men
who, by patient industry, intelligent
effort, and honest endeavor, have ac-
cumulated q certain amount of prop
erty, and have gained certain social
influence and position. Their bust
ness has not been speculative, but on
q firm basis. But, in the twirling Of
the whirligig of time, u reverse sets
in; somehow matters no longer
thrive with them. The store is no
longer frequented by throng.-
Somebody else secures his custom and
without any seeming fault of his, his
business goes 10 pieces, and his prop
erty vanishes as quickly as q vapor is
dissipated Before he knows it, or be-
fore his friends are certainly aware
Of 1t, he has nothing left-except life.
And life is poor TO On without ener-
gy, tact, skill, health and combative-
ness. The man has "lost his grip"
He goes late to his work and retires
early from 1t. He don't advertise.
He don't care whether he buys or
whether he sells. He has lost some
thing. Scholarly minds call it ambi-
ton. Let us cali it "Grip." He has
let 60 his hold on his work, and his
hand is powerless and graspless. He
don't care any more for the things
which once gave him employment,
delight and competence. Perhaps
you will find at the bottom of all this
q whisky bottle--or some domestic
infelicity, or some confidence des-
troyed, or some failure to reach the
blessings to which his longing soul
aspired. The man gets "blue," that
is q good word; he sees everything
with jaundiced vision, and he has
lost his grip. His friends may at
tempt to arouse him; they might as
we'll try to kindle fire with water
soaked elm. He is perfectly content
to have nothing and do nothing. He
hardly cares if he do but compass
enough to satisfy him for dinner,
whether or not he shall ever have a
supper again.
There is something wrong with
such man. He is a sick man. He
is an unusual man. He has departed
from his usual method of acting
He is an insane mamie has made a
departure from his usual method of
thinking. He has .'lost his grip
If you surrounded such one with
the proper elements he may be restor-
ed to health. Money will utterly
fail to do it. First of all can you Sc.
cure his confidence? Will he tell you
fairly and squarely why he has lost
his interest in business? The way to
q remedy is very short and easy.
Many q broken farmer, or mer-
chant. or banker, or tradesman, or
worker in any of the branches of the
busy markets of the world, has 'lost
his grip" because he is sick and there
is no physician with skill enough to
cure him. There is no doctor who
has that intimate knowledge of the
close connection of the brain with all
the other parts of the body, that can
prescribe q remedy that shall break
up his morbid habit of thought and
restore him to his healthy method OF
thinking. Such remedies there are
not mental or moral remedies, but
physical and natural means that has
reached a man who has "lost hit
grip" and bring him back to health
. and to consequent usefulness.
; This form of insanity is far too com.
, mon; because it is not clearly appre'
, ciated. The physician should attack
such case with vigor and decision
and should first of all discover the
cause of the malady, and then sci
about to apply remedy. 1t may bt
. said-you cannot cure causes of do
mestic insanity with the pills and ton
: les and powders and potions. Yei
: you can-when you come to get tht
E incest appreciation of the relation Of
the work Of the brain, to the work o.
: every other part of the human organ
! ism. The physical--the natural con
!, ditions have more to do with this very
. question than all the moralities anC
. theologies in the universe. If there
+ is bad boy or recusant girl in the
family; if he or she is the element o.
discord, begin right at that point
| Who is at fault? Has the child it,
character of badness from hereditary
predlsposition Is it like its father
or mother? "Did this man sin or It'll
parents, that he was born blind ?"-
. Did q physical evil fall upon the child
because Of the sin of the parents
We believe it. Now to effect cure
and to bring this man back that he
may recover his grip, you must take
! into account all those things which
attach to his ancestry and that of hi.
children. Then physical remedies
can come into play; and skill, tact
. and common sense will suggest wha,
is necessary to be done for man who
is sick because he has fallen into a
bad line in stipiculture. You cal
hardly 60 back and eradicate the dis.
ease--the fruits of character of dead
ancestry; but you can so teach and
enforce and indoctrinate him that he
will see this universal sweep Of law
and seeing it, obey it and profit by
his obedience. What you want to
know in the treatment of this case, i:
the foundation principle from which
they have sprung. BY educating the
man who has "lost his grip" and
showing him all these important re.
lations, you have gone long way in
bringing him back to health, to sani.
|ty, to soundnesss of mind.
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