Morning journal and courier., 1882-04-12
How to Escape Nervousness.

[Dr. William A. Hammond, in Our Continent Nervousness is nervous we akness. The principal sign of feeble nervous organiza- ton is an excessive degree of irritability of one or more of the organs of the body. If the nervous system be weak, the organs to which the nerves are distributed will also be weak, and weak organ is also an irritable one. It takes very little to throw such an organ out of it's orderly course of action. Some slight cause or other acting on nervous brain creates such 8 degree of irritability that it's possessor feels as if he would like to ''jump out of his skin," or he may be thrown into paroxysm of intense emotional distur- bance, or a sick headache, an attack of hy- steria, or even more severe disorder may result. A nervous" eye or ear is annoyed by unusual or persistent lights or sounds, a ! nervous" stomach is irritated by food which ] healthy baby could easily digest, and the condition known as nervous dyspepsia" is induced and ''nervous'' spine, to specify
 no further, causes Arrangements of nearly all the organs of the body To cure these various disorders is often difficult and some times impossible. To prevent them even in persons predisposed to nervousness is con- paratively Ian easy matter.
 1 The whole hygiene of the subject is em- braced in the sentence-strengthen the ner- vous system.
 How IS this to be done?
 First-The first prescription is. an ample supply of pure fresh and cool air The nerves will always be weak if the greater part of the day and night be passed in close, i'll ventilated and overloaded apartments The nerves, more than the rest of the body, to be properly nourished, require a full sup ply of oxygen. They will not endure vitiated air, whether the impurities come from sewers, gaslights, subterranean furnaces or the in dividual's own person, without making an energetic protest
 A gas burner consuming four cubic feet of gas per hour produces more carbonic acid in given time than is evolved from the respir
 ation of eight adult human beings. Bear this in mind, you who suffer from nervous
 ness, that when you have shut yourselves up in your rooms and lighted an argand burner (which consumes about twelve cubic feet of
 gas per hour), you are, to all intents and purposes, immured with twenty-three other persons. all taking oxygen from the atmos- phere. Is it wonder that after several hours exposure to the depraved air your nerves should rebel as far as their weak stat @ permits, and that your head should ache your hands tremble and that your daughters playing on the piano almost drives you wild? An overloaded apartment always enervates it's occupants. lit Is no uncommon thing to find
 rooms heated in winter by an underground furnace up to ninety degrees. Fights and
 murders are more numerous in hot than in cold weather, and the artifcially heated air that rushes into our rooms deprived as
 it is of it's natural moisture by the baking it
 has undergone, is even more productive of
 vicious passions. It is no surprising circum-
 stance, therefore, to find the woman who
 swelters all day in such temperature, and
 adds to it at night by superhuous bedcloth-
 ing, cross and disagreeable from little every
 day troubles that would scarcely ruffie her
 temper if she kept her rooms at sixty-five
 degrees and opened her windows now and
 then.
 Second-Eat plenty of well-cooked and
 nourishing food. The nerves cannot be kept
 healthy on slops Gruels, panadas and teas
 are well enough in their way, but the nerves
 require for their proper nourishment undi-
 luted animal and vegetable food as rule,
 the former should predominate. Meat eaters
 are rarely troubled with nervousness. Ameri-
 cans eat more vegetables than any other we'll
 to-do people, and they are probably the
 most nervous" nation on the face of the
 earth.
 Third-Take sufficient physical exercise in
 the open air. When you feel irritable, trem-
 ulous, fretful, fdgety and un able to concen-
 trate your thoughts on the veriest trife, take
 . long walk, or split half cord of wood
 Even the extreme nervousness of lunatics is
 best quieted by bodily labor. The homicidal
 maniac who cannot, if kept in his cell, be trusted with bodkin, may safely be given
 spade, pickaxe or hoe, and set to work in the garden. His irritability is quietly led off into another and safer channel, and his nerves are strengthened.
 These are the principal rules. It they were faithfully followed, there would be less work for us doctors to do.