The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-05-24
NERVOUSNESS.

NCN UOOSN ESSsSs
In a very interesting pamphlet
by the late Doctor Beard, published
just before mis- death, he throws
considerable doubt upon the gen
orally accepted theory of the in
crease Of American nervousness.
He claims that his researches upon
this subject have formed the foun-
dation Of a large and increasing
literature in England and Ger
many. He contends that the phil.
osophy Of the prevention of ner-
vousness in this country is the
working out by natural forces Of
the spirit of contentmeut. He looks
forward in the centuries to come to
what he calls orders of financial
nobility, who, without the necessity,
but not above the capacity to work,
shall use their vast and easy re-
sources for the upholding of man
kind, physical and mental. Fam
lies thus favored can live without
physical discomfort and work with
out worry. He argues that far
from nervousness being destruc-
tive agent in American life, Ameri.
cans Of the brain-working class live
longer than Europeans. He further
argues that the nervous tempera-
ment is antagonistic to fatal, acute
and infammatory disease, and fav-
orable to long life; that most annoy
ing nervous diseases do not rapidly
destroy life, and are consistent with
great longevity; that nervousness
protects the system against the
febrile diseases that are so rapidly
fatal to the sanguine and phlegmatic.
'sIn the conflict with feyers and in
Examinations strength is often weak
ness ard weakness becomes
strength. We are saved through
debility" All these facts should
afford considerable comfort to those
who think that nervousness is wear.
ing their lives away. Negroes are
seldom nervous, and yet their NOR
tality through acute diseases is far
greater than that of the whites, "If
Gsmbetta," he says, ':had been
nervous man-a braIn-bankrupt-
he would probably have survived
his wound"
DR.. Beard points to the immense
amount of labor performed by ner-
vous men, by men like Gladstone,
Darwin, Spencer and many others
who have been chronic sufferers
from cerebrasthenia (brain exbaus-
tion). England, Germany and
France, he says, for one or two
decades have been suffering in the
same way as America. The Anglo
Americans make more than one
half of the population, and so fur
nish absolutely greater numbers Of
the nervons and non-neryous, but
Germans born in this country, or
coming here in youth, break down
as badly as the English, and far
sooner than the Irish or Scotch.
All parts of our country do not
suffer equally. In the South there
is very little nervousness; in Colo
RADIO and the Northwest nervous
ness abounds. The dryness of our
air and furious extremes of heat
and cold-conditions that extend
across the continent to the Rocky
mountains-are the main cause of
the nervousness of the Americans.
1t is satisfactory to know, upon the
authority of DR.. Beard, Charles
Dickens and others, that we are i'm
proving, in this respect, in physique
and mental powers. We are the
hardest workers in the world, and,
say, DR.. Beard, 'swe may be born
larger than the Germans, carry less
flesh, mature earlier, dry up and
decay younger; but in dispatch, ex-
ecutive ability, impromptu practical
judgment, we can as far excel them
as they excel us in science and
philosophy. Every young man feels
that if he does not become President,
it will be because he did not try to
be, or else his own abilities are at