Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-20
Night Work and Long Hours.

There is no disease insidious, nor when fully developed difficult to cure, as that species of nervous degeneration exhaus- tion produced by night-work or long hours.
 It is easy to understand how such state of prostration may be induced. The brain and the nervous system have been very aptly compared to galvanic battery in constant use to provide a supply of electric fluid for consumption within given time. "As long," says a recent writer, ''as supply and demand are fairly balanced, the functions which owe their regular and correct working to the | fluid are carried on with precision; but when, by fitful and excessive demands car ried far beyond the means of supply, the
 balance is not only lost, but the machine it. self is overstrained and injured-disorder at first and disease afterwards are the result.
 This illustrates pretty clearly the condition of
 well balanced brain and nervous system, supplying without an effort all the nervous force required in the operations of the
 mind and body, so long as it's work is in pro-
 portion to it's powers, but is embarrassed by excessive demands feebly and fitfully endea-
 voring to carry on these mental and physical operations over which it formerly presided
 without an effort" The symptoms of ner- vous prostration are exceedingly painful; we can afford to pity even the man of pleasure
 who has by his own foolish conduct induced them, but much more so the brain-worker,
 who has been burning the midnight oil in the honest endeavor to support himself, and probably wife and family, with respectabil- ity in life He has made 8 mistake for which we can readily forgive him. In the pleasureabie excitement of honest toll he has forgotten that the supply of work cannot be regulated by the demand or need for 1t, but by the power to produce it. He has been living on his capital as well as the interest thereof and when he finds the former falling when he finds he has no longer the strength to work as he used to do, and starvation it. -IzL h1 hn foa 1o ceases to toil why the very thought of the coming collapse tends only to hasten the
 catastrophe and reason itself may totter and fall before the continued mental strain.
 Probably the first sign of failing nervous energy is given by some of the large organs of the body; it may be functional derange
 ments of the heart, with fiuttering palpi- tatiou or intermittent pulse, and shortness of breath in ascending stairs or walking quickly. The stomach may give timely warning, and distaste for food, or loes of appetite, with acidity, fatulence and irregularity of the bowels, may point to loss of vitality from waste unrepaired. Or brain symptoms may point out to the patient that things are go- | ing wrong He may not find himself able to work with his usual life and activity; he
 may have fits of drowsiness, or transcient at- | tacks of giddnies, or pain, or heav1ness, or
 loss of sleep itself. This latter would be a | very serious symptom indeed, for in sleep | not only are the muscular and nervous tissues restored and strengthened, but there is for | the time being cessation of waste itself | and if sleep be essential to the ordinary heal | thy man, it is much more 50 to him whose
 mental faculties have been over -tasked.
 Long hours and night-work lead to loss of
 sleep. and loss of sleep may lead to insanity | and death. Loss of memory, whether tran scient or general, is sure sign that the brain
 has lost it's power of healthy action, and
 needs rest and nutrition to restore it. IT, I ritability of temper, and fits of melancholy,
 both point in the same direction, to an ex-
 hausted nervous system. Now may safely say that there are very many thousands of
 brain-workers in these islands who are suf
 fering, sadly and it may be silently suffering,
 from the effects of excessive toll and over
 mental strain. To warn such that they are positively shortening their lives, and thai
 they cannot have even the faiutest hopes o1
 reaching anything like an old age is only tt
 perform part of my duty as medical adviser
 should try to point out some remedy fo
 the evil. To bid them cease to work would
 in great many cases, be equivalent to tell
 ing them to cease to live. They must work
 or they cannot eat. We'll, there is one thin . that all can do, they can review, remodel ant !; regulate their mode and system of living,