Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-01-28
When the Nerve. are On, of Time.

When the Nerves are Out of Tune.
STRANGE LIKES AND DIsLIKES GRoUNDLEss FEARS
NDQCEER TRICKS OF MANNER OF NERVOUS PEOPLE
From the st Louis Republican
Ihe tricks and petty mannerisms, possessed
oy so many people, are only too often the pre-
cuTsors OF graver nervous condition; the initial
warnings of nature, as it were of the direction in
which the system Is tending. Often, to be sure,
these habits never become worse, the condition of
the nervous centers giving rise to them recover
ing through some fortuitous circumstance There
are sudden starts the patient is easily frightened
DISTURBING the motor area OF the brain and giving
rise 10 seml-spasmodic actions. What physicians
arrest morbid influences becomes Impaired so
that what the mind would usually restrain passes
into action. The mind has the ability to enforce
such restraint. but action affords so much relief
that the sufferer acquiesces and nervous habits
newly acquired. are the result. We have ali seen
The practices into which nervous people fall
There is the man who clears his throat or courhs
when he has never the sign OF a cold or Who
yawns when he has no reason whatever to feel
bored. Others will twitch their beard or mus
tache. pun at their clothing or buttons or pick
and bite at their finger nails until the blood runs
linen there are other such familiar evidences OF
embarrassment as the continual shifting OF the
position when In company, and this together with
tendency to au ,omatic and absent-mlnded actions
when not dependent on profound mental pre-oc-
cupancy, may be often taken as Indicating the
approach OF nervous prostratiOn. When one gets
very nervous, marked habits OF irritation appear:
familiar and natuarlly agreeable soundS-such as
the prattle OF chtldren-becOme annoying InsOm-
MIA VIII set In, the repair or the system becomes
unequal TO the daily demand, and the result is
seen In irregularities or regulated movements.
Some people will jerk and twitch their bodies when
they fal asleep from an irregular explosion OF mo-
tor nerve force, the energy or spinal cell becOm-
ing suddenly liberated. This same condi ion OF
things higher up In the brain gives rise to inoppor
tune and incomplete ideation, disturbing and COM
1OrtleSS dreams, when the natural capacity OF the
Drain TO secure Its own timelyfepose Is impaired
IN still graver states OF nervous troubles may
be observed morbid fears, some OF them most
peculiar. There are people AFFLICTED with mono
phobla, or the fear OF being alone, which Is a most
peculiar condition OF the mind. 1 knew lawyer
VINO would never dare TO appear in court for the
purpose of pleading a case when unaccompapied
by ms vile or some other member or the family
length, but otherwise an indefinable terror of
something that might happen-he knew not
what-would seize him and render him pow
erless. Then there victims OF claustro-
phObia, or the fear OF going through ntr-
row places. l have known people to be
Ia In, mortal nor h terror when proceeding along any
should close In on them and crush them. Anthro-
pnooia and gynephobia, the one the lear OF
WOMEN, are not uncommon. These and similar
troubles, associated with morbid sounds in the
ears, are symptoms or what has been termed
American nervousness or neurastnenia it being
nrst discovered by American physicians. Again
we have perversfon OF smell and tasLe, all local
causes beng absent; Cases OF people who smell
smoke when there is none at hand, and the preui-
lection or school girls for chalk and ground Slate
pencils. The liking for alchol Is often a matter OF
the nerves, and even acquired tastes for various
articles OF food and drink may be traced 10 the
same cause. One OF the Saddest symptoms OF
nervousness and one which In many inst ances
marks the last stages OF the aftiicJon is the in
decision of men previously remarkable for vigor
and the rapidity with which they grasped conclu-
slOnS and acted On their convictions. But pernapS
the most characteristic OF all nervous troubles is
the fear OF personal contamination which appears
TO have developed more since the advancement of
the bascilli theory and which SO afTects some n.r.
sons that they Will not shake hands or otherwise
come into actual contact with tn ir neighborsn
In connection with this last a certain gentleman
well known In sc. Louis, but now dead, may be re.
called by many, In whom was developed in a re-
markable degree this fear OF contamination He
wore gloves, and not only would not shake hands
but had the greatest aversion to touching any one
sitting next MIN In a street Car. Many people
there are VINO nave some one nervous affiiction
that never develops Into anything worse and
which Is merely a source Of annoy ance to the at
ficted