The Portland daily press., 1884-03-11


the purpose of keeping packages together
If the package Is somewhat large, and the
| band is kept around it for a long time, ths
J band, when removed, does not return to it.
original size. 1t is exactly the same with
the blood-vessels of the brain. A condition
! Oh congestion is thus produced which Ii
, | iraugnt with danger to those who do not
} heed the first warnings.
ChleI and earliest of the premonitions Is
WaKefulness. The vessels of the brain refuse
70 contract; they remain gorged with blood,
the mind Is In consequence active, and sleep
such as is required is not to be obtained.
reward morning, perhaps, an hour or two
OF disturbed slumber may ensue; but it does
little good, and the sufferer gets up to go to
work utterly unfit for either mental or physi-
cal exertion
Instead of the calmness natural to a per-
son who has passed the night in sound and
refreshing sleep, he is excited and weary,
the most tritling event annoys him, he Is dis
agreeable to his family and friends, and he
reels that he is not capable of sustained
thought or of dispassionate Judgment
nave known many persons to suffer
heaVy losses from attempting to do business
When their brains, from want of rest that
comes with sleep, were not competent to do
WIN tEoroughness and exactness the mental
work requisite for success.
by far the most influential factor in caus-
ing wakefulness is emotional excitement,
and OF the emotions most powerful in this
ulrectlOn anxiety comes first. l suppose
tnere IS more or less anxiety attendant upon
all business operations, but certainly those
| VINO are engaged in stock speculations ap-
pear 70 me to be most liable to be affected
with anxiety. Not even the certainty of dis
aster so efectually wears away the brain as
the uncertainty which exists with the great
| mass OF transactions relating to stocks
Ihe operator" after having perhaps passed
an almost sfcepless night, goes sdown town.
IA tne morning, knowing that he must OBJ
lam szOO,oOoor S3OO,0O0 by 8 O'Clock to ,B15~
up ms margin or make his balaneF t. bnt
is to Onn coms ana fro mot showing day after day,
/ the same THING ir repFe nervous system
| till eventually hiele does not get 1t, ruin
| breaks down. most Americans be knows
| comes :.lapt himself to the inevitable, and
| heuter the first pang is over he manages to
start again, or goes into some entirely differ
ent business, and the intercurrent rest
which is forced upon him is the best medi-
cine he can take for restoring his exhausted
brain.
Politicians suffer in like manner, for
politics requires for Its successful prosecu-
tion both intellectual and emotional activi-
ty. call to mind the case of an eminent
Massachusetts statesman, who from an
Vice President of the United States, and
who during the war of the rebellion carried
his mental exertion to point that has rare
ly ever been reached, and in whom the most
powerful emotions were constantly at work;
who never knew moment during the day
that he could call his own, and who passed
the greater part of the night in cabinet
councils or committee meetings upon whose
actions the fate of the nation depended.
He was man of powerful build, free
from vices, temperate in his living, and OF
most equable temperament. So strong was
he in all the attributes of vitality, that / am
sure that if he had when peace came re-
signed his public position, and made the
tour of the world, or even spent six months
on the Western plains, he would now have
been alive and receiving the honors he had
so worthily earned. But he acted different
ly, and it was again shown in him that
though the brain be strong and capable OF
enduring a terrible amount of ill-usage,
| there is a limit to its powers of endurance.
He had suffered from wakefulness and
| other symptoms of cerebral disorder for sew
eral months, and the Sunday before he died
| he came to consult me for the second or
third time. found his brain intensely con-
gested s7zssas-his whole nervous system un-
| strung. insisted. -tthtsat-he should not go
| to Washington that evening as LIE ended,
| but should first have two or three nights e.
| sound sleep. He promised to follow my ad-
vice, but a few hours afterward he wrote me
| note from his hotel, saying that as the
| business that called him to the capitol was
| very important, and as he was feeling so
| much better thaDin the morning, he had
changed his mind, and woaid leave for
| Washington in an hour.
He went and attended to his work, but it
was the last he ever did, for shortly after
ward he suddenly passed into state Of stu
pDr, and in few hours he was dead in the
capitol in which he had planted the seeds
of his disease.
Nothing is so instructive as an example,
| and hence l hope to be excused for adduc-
ing another case-one that shows how sin
gularly erratic the mind may become when
the brain is overtaxed, and how strong are
the powers of recuperation when the reguis-
| ite repose is granted.
A gentleman, aged 80, unmarried, and CT
! good general health, consulted me in refer
| ence to peculiar nervous affection with
| which he had suffered for several months.
| He stated that being engaged upon litera-
| ry labor of some Importance, he had given
the greater part of his time to the studies
| necessary to its being carried on with sue
cess, and was conscious of having overtaxed
his mental powers.
So great, however, was his ambition to
excel in his undertaking, that he had perse-
l
| friends, and the still more pointed warnings
he had received from his own sensations.
Instead of sleeping, as had been his custom,
for from seven to eight hours, he had rarely
for nearly year slept more than four hours,
and frequently even less than this.
The symptom of disordered action which
particularly attracted his attention was an
inability to concentrate his mind upon sub
jects about which he wished to write. There
] W NJ ltu in v1aai infa aipfn 0fad
line of reasoning except when he attempted
to put his ideas on paper, and then he found
it utterly impossible to direct his thoughts
in methodical manner
| He conVersed very intelligently in refer
ence to his case, and was perfectly consci-
GUS of the difficulty under which he labored.
As an instance of the character of his dis
ease, he said that the day before he came to
see me ne had reflected to his entire satis-
faction upon certain points in literature he
was investigating, and that when he came to
read over what he had written, he found it
was tissue of the most arrant nonsense.
| At the time of writing his thoughts flowed
| so rapidly that he was not conscious OF the
! disconnected nature of his composition. If
he stopped, however, to read over what he
had written, he at once saw how thor ough-
lyit misrepresented his conceptions. No
mater what the subject, the result was sim
liar, and even the most trivial notes could
not be written without language being used
which was either perfectly without relation
to the ideas he wished to communicate, or
else in direct opposition to them.
For instance, wishing to obtain a book
from a friend, he found that he had written
the prayer of Socrates which concludes the
Ph@dus of Plato. On another occasion, in
tending to indite an epstle to a lady who
had sent him volume of her poems, he dis
covered when half through his letter that he
had requested her to accept one of his own
books, and had then gone on to give his
ideas relative to suicide and matrimony.
) Upon questioning him ascertained that
he went to bed generally at about O'Clock
i'll the morning; that he lay awake for an
hour at least, during which his mind was
exceedingly active; and that he rose between
6 and Z, took sponge bath and ate a light
breakfast. He then went to work, spending
the day in reading and in debating to his
sister, who wrote out his language verbatim,