Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-10-17
FldgetIng.

Avery curious description OF nervous
ness is that which is commonly known
rs "fidgeting." Although women are
usually considered to be more nervous
than men, they certainly tidget less;
Put an equal number of men and OF
women to sit for half an hour upon arm
chairs with loose chintz covers and anti
macassars. When the women rise, the
general appearance of their seats will be
little altered; but when the men leave
their chairs, there will remain visible
evidences of a screw-hke action upon the
chintz, and it will be a miracle if half
the antimacassars are not torn from their
places. Or if a lady and gentleman con-
verse together beside a drawing-room
table covered with knick-knacks, the
former will not touch them but the lat
ter will select some object and nervously
play with it in q meaningless manner.
One of the most wearisome and provok-
ing forms of fidgetness is that known as
"pacing the quarter deck" in which
the offender traces and retraces a short
space of ground or carpet, like a wild
beast at the geological gardens when
feeding time draws near. In this habit,
and in any of the many other ways in
WlllGn a Vail DlOh bilthb hN Ltto SSbb
what children term 1.-THE fidgets in his
legs" he has the power of making an in
tolerable nuisance of himself. The arch
tidget of history was the great Napoleon.
Not only did he pace up and down, but
he also whitfield chairs and tables, and
did other naughty things for which y
iudicious nurse would have tied up his
hands in fingerless gloves. Such habits
are but forms of nervousness, and 1t IS
certain that Napoleon was essentially a
nervous man.
A curious feature of the forms of ner-
vousness we have just described is that
they produce nervousness in Others.
They are, in fact, infections, although
the symptoms vary in different patients.
The man in fidget, the PAGER up and
down, and the tattoo beaten, render
other people, if anything, more nervous
than themselves. 1t is humiliating to
be forced TO yawn by seeing another
person yawn; but it is still more morti-
tying to be fidgeted by the fidgetiness Of
others. In sick room nervous person
is uncomfortable, from the woman who
perpetually fancies that her patient is in
want of this, that, or the other, to the
man who drums with his fingers upor
the window panes. The more strictly
mental forms of nervousness are equally
troublesome tothe friends of the sufferer
and to himself. He is miserable him
self, and he makes those around hin
miserable. The wife has no bed of roses
who is perpetually informed by her hus
band of sights which his imaginative
mind supposes to have been offered tc
him; nor is it pleasant to hear the faith
fulness of her friends constantly i'm
pugned or to be told that, if things e
on as they are doing at present, it is fal
from unlikely that the family may have
to give up their nice house and go int
lodgings, and that it is possible that tn,
girls may have to go out as governesses
There is no kind of doctoring or edu
cation which requires more tact an(
skill, more patience, more firmness, anC
more forbearance, than the cure of ner
vousness in others. 1t is often an in
herent disease, which will only submit
to eradication during youth; and, al
though it usually yields easily to judi
cious remedies, it becomes aggravated
by irritation, and returns with increased
virolence when checked by too sever
treatment. In its earliest stages it i
manageable, but in it's more develope,
forms it is utterable incurable.