The Wilmingtonian., 1885-04-18

depression is frequently synpnymous with
mental exhaustion. AS DR.. Hlills truly anc
tersely observes, worry is in ITSELF form o.
brain work; to worry means to cersbrate
intensely"
The lecture was based upoa study o.
sixty cases of men prominent y political and
professional life, inf iloss of health
or life was mainly al to excessive
brain-work and brain-
Their actual ocodpatl re cabinet of.
ficer, one; senators, eight }Fatives in
Congress, ten; department. ofsyi yials, five; gov
ernors, two; candidates for im1 1ortant Offices,
two; physicians, six; lawyers, sni clergy
men, two; Journalists, four; siientlsts, six
teachers, seven.
Twenty-eight of the sixty, tNrefore, were
men in political and Official life, land eighteen
of these were members of Confess.
Mercantile life is equally prolific of exam
| pies of premature failure of heJllh, owing to
the anxiety and excitement atttEdant upon
the getting and losing of wealth in this era
of competition.
While brain strain is particularly danger
GUS ts = i pose who have passed D prime Of
\ ne, lRs m :. = li sages Is
shown b. he fact N. |sisey cases
under consideration the 5wn occurred
between twenty-five and lars in two
cases, between thirty and in fourteen
cases, and between forty and li{yin eighteen
cases. Of the remaining twen4+six cases,
seventeen broke down between Wy and sixty
and seventy. In every instansR however,
sudden OIL unusual brain-worlY or strain,
terminated the careers of those sho were ap-
parently destined to live from fife to twenty
years longer.
Fortunately, mental exhaus lion maniiests
itself by several definite premonitory symp-
toms, which, if needed, may erable fatal
issue to be avelted. The most prominent OF
these early warnings are, DIR. Mills observes,
the symptoms OF the affection conveniently
termed acute neurasthenia, and are as fol
lows: 1st Certain psychical symptoms, sucl
as excessive irritability of temp p|er; depression
ofspirits; mobtd impulses or fed FRS; constantly
recurring thoughts or phrasest impairmen
ofmemory, and changes in habits and meth
ods of work. Sd Laxity or il mmobility o
countenanee. Sd. A diminuti ion or loss o
physical resisting power. 4thI. Heart fail
ure. 9th. sleeplessness. eth. Pain o
distress in the back of the head or neck
7th. Nervous dyspepsia.
These symptoms are in all III reliability du
to impairment of the regulatilI e and inhibit
ing power exercised by the h CHER csrebra
centres upon the centre of org anic function
situated in the medulla oh ongata. Thi
impairment results from the o 'er-stimulatio
and consequent exhaustion pf the highe
cerebral centres dependentX upon undu
intellectual exertion. An owe rworked nery
will waste as well as an overI worked muscle
Every mental act is associat ed with som
molecular change in the gray matter OF I'll
cerebral conyolutions. When mentalizatio
proceeds beyond the limita lich are pra
tiaally fixed for eve:,s ial,exhaustiol
defective nutrition, 80 fvst ,metimes eel
atrophy results" AS cons |equence, val
GUS vase motor or atrophic d (hanges resul
which culminate in a grave d isease.
Another danger which mut IT not be owe
looked, is that that over work of al
portion of the brain means Terwork of &
vessels going to that part. i is impossib
to subject vessels anyyhSx to freque
increased pressure without % oducing disea
of their walls, or exposing th EN- to the ri
of rupture if such disease salready exis
In four cases of the series und pr considerati
death was caused by cerebr u hemorrhaG
undoubtedly the result of undue rressu
upon atheromatous arteries To other cas-
hyperamia and minute he norrhages il
the pons varolii and medtilla bblongata occ
after several mental stra 10. Richards
records the case of an overy worked Engl
statesman, who, while spe aking upon
momentous question in Parl lament, beca
faint and was compelled to n Ptire, Exami