, 1888-11-09
THE CAUSE OF LANeuoR.
Not to BE COMPOUNDED with True Fatigue.
Cure and Prevention.


Not to BE COMPOUNDED with True Fatigue.
Cure and Prevention.
In ordinary states of health the strong.
est persons are apt TO feel sensations or
tits of languor which they call fatigue.
and for which they can give no reason.
able explanation either to themselves or
to others. The weather largely innu.
ences this condition. 4 moist and warm
atmosphere always increases the DISPOSE
ton to languor; a moderately cold and
dry atmosphere always prevents it. The
sense of relaxation and disposition to
sleep must not be cOHfUuufed- with trur-
fatigue, arising from hard or prolonged
physical or mental work, but must be
taken as simply due &c a condition in
which there is WEAKNESS without a suf
fcent reason for it.
When this condition is strongly pres.
ent, it is marked by one particular sign.
which is of itself characteristic it comes
on after repose. The affected person ex
periences it most on rising in the morn
ing, and even after a good nights sleep
is still oppressed by a sense of WEAKNESS,
a feeling as if the day, with all its cares
and anxieties, could not be passed
through. The desire, almost irresistible,
is to go to sleep again, Il desire which, if
gratitied, increases the evil and makes
the day heavier than it otherwise would
be. That it is not real fatigue or eXhaus-
ton which causes the sense of languor
now being described is clearly shown,
not only by the fact that the feeling
comes on after long repose, but hat it il
dispersed In the day, after it has been
present in the morning, by the exercise
and duties of the day. l have no doubt
that it is caused b.. the accumulation in
the body of some diffusible and light
chemical substance, which acts after the
manner of an intoxicant and is a true in
t~oxicant to the nervous system. The
probable physiology of the condition is
plain, but what is to be the cure, and.
above all, what is to be the prevention?
The cure is exercise and the wearing
of clothing which will give free liberia
ton to the exhalations of the skin.
Every one who is affected with the sense
of languor is soon conversant with the
knowledge that if he resolves to throw
off the load which Expresses him and
takes a short, sharp walk or other good
and wholesome exercise, he is always re
lieved, and many find this mode of cure
so certain that they invariably follow it.
Others, and l fear the majority, are so
oppressed that they feel as if they could
not bring themselves to the effort OF
throwing off the sense of WEAKNESS by
resorting to anything like active motion.
When the oppression is the strongest and
eXertion is most demanded, they try to
balance betwiXt the two modes of treat
ment, the sharp exertion and the seduc-
tive sleep. They give way to the sleep;
the giving way becomes a habit; in a
very short timo the habit lapses into a
confirmed method, and with the habit
structural changes in vital organs of the
body are soo set up, and add rapidly to
the evil. The body becomes obese, the
liver becomes inactive, the mind becomes
dull, and a short life is, of necessity, de-
termined.
The treatment of languor in the healthy
consists, then, in taking exercise in due,
but in moderate amount. To go in for
desperate exercise, as some do, is to
Illustrate, not to assist, cure; for desper
ate exercise produces actual fatigue,
which nothing except rest will cure, and
then the WEAKNESS from actual work and
the WEAKNESS from underworld get con-
fused the one with the other, and all goes
wrong. Rightly conducted, the cure is
exercise, and the prevention is continued
tASItlSe Carried OuI udly anu regularly,
whatever the temptation may be to give
it up. Second to this is light and porous
clothing, as l have many years taught.
Whatever holds or takes up the fluid ex-
llalations from the skin is not clothing fit
to wear. Whatever cannot be easily
breathed through is not clothing That is
fit to wear.
No kind of clothing for the human
body is SO good as that which admits
freely into and through its meshes the
most perfect purifier and the most per-
feet non-conductor and healthy equalizer
of temperature known atmospheric
air. Patients sometimes come to me lit
orally borne down with the weight of
their own clothing. They are coated
with three or four layers of heavy and
close materials. These materials are
saturated with the moisture from the skin.
are unduly heavy, are always damp, il
taken off for n short time leave excessive
cold, and if kept on too long induce OPP
pressive heat all round mischiefs of sure
and certain development. A fairly
healthy person who takes reasonable out
door exercise daily, and who clothes him
self lightly in porous material, will feel
no WEAKNESS except that which comes
naturally from healthy fatigue.-Dr
Richardson in The Asclepiad.