Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-27
SOLDIERS DEPARTMENT.
AILMENTS OF SOLDIERS.

~. Horace p. Porter Explains Why Our
Veterans Age Young-An Address to the
Northern Kansas Medical Society.
Pardon me for asking you why it is
that the ex-soldier's hand trembles?
why is his gait unsteady? Why these
failures of memory and will power?
Why is he so sensitive to thermal
changes, or why, should have said,
this permanent unbalancing of the heat
regulating mechanism of the soldiers
body?
Why is it that he is so often disquali-
fed for making the best possible ad-
justment, or even an average adjust
ment to his surroundings? Why does
he so often fall behind his competitors
in the struggle for existence? Why
this tendency to mendacity so heart
lessly mentioned in recent issue of a
leading daily paper? What is the cause
of these aches and pains that he will
persist in calling rheumatic? Why
that stiffness when attempting to mobi-
lie himself? What has become of his
ability to make fine mental and muscu-
lar adjustments? Why. in short, did
the ex-soldier age yonng?
This is no fiction of the Imagination.
You can find evidences of these physi-
cal defects in this pre-eminently soldier
Stale on every hand-they are visible
to every competent observer. and so
very common that they have been al
most entirely overlooked.
Men think, reason, remember, will,
and act by reason of their having a
nervous system, and it is to state very
simple truth when we say that defect of
function always follows defect of nerve
| structure. The converse is also true
that when the nervous system functions
effectively it is evidence of a defect
within itself. and when it functions de-
fectively for long periods of time the
defect is undoubtedly structural.
The life of our soldiers of the late war
was one continuous hardship to the
nervous system. 1t was characterized
by continuous discomfort to the body in
general, and the nervous system in par
ticular.
When the brain of man functions as
courage in the presence of great and
imminent danger it does so at a great
sacrifice of energy and there can be no
great sacrifice of energy without injury
to the physical substructure that has
functioned as energy.
General Sheridan was honest enough
to say that he was g. afraid" in bat
tie; that it was all question of the
power Of the mind over the body.
For every one hour of battle there
were hundreds of hours of the brain
tension of expected danger.
One of the prominent factors in the
deterioration CT the soldiers nervous
system was loss of his regular sleep in
a comfortable bed.
The wear and tear of the soldiers Or
ganism was never compensated for (and
under the circumstances of war never
could have been) by adequate rest and
refreshment.
The nervous system of man is the
highest known product of organic evo-
luton in the universe, or to put it in
harmony with prevailing belief, it is
Gods best effort.
In the hemispherical ganglia cf the
human brain, matter rises to the dig
nifty OF thought.
The structure of the nervous system
is delicate and complex beyond all other
things-it can not be abused with i'm
punity, although long intervals of time
may exist betwixt the infiiction of the
injury and the after effects that never
fail to follow if life is sufficiently pro-
longed.
These nervous defects did originate
in the service of the United States, and
in the line OF duty, and they are pen
sionable under existing laws; but what
does the pensioner know about neurO-
pathology? He knows that he tires
readily when engaged at manual labor
that a sound man performs with ease;
that his wind Gas he expresses it)
give out, and that somehow he is not
well; being IMMERSED in medical nomen-
clature he is at loss to give a name to
his ailments and consequently can not
in many cases go to work properly and
lay the foundation of a well-deserved
pension claim.
My purpose in writing this article is
for the ex-soldier's good and his coun-
try's honor. 1t is to call your attention
to the disabilities that are so common.
as we have stated above, that we are
apt to overlook them.
In presenting this paper. have no
other axe to grind; did not come here
to peddle any wares; l did not write
this to advertise any fancied superior
wisdom in the domain of neurotic dis
ease; but l am here to point out way
whereby every one of us can conscien-
tiously help some deserving man before
the end of this week if we will look
around us for the opportunity.
DR.. Stearns, of Lynn, Mass, has sug-
gested the word neurokinesis to express
in brief the common nervous troubles
of ex-soldiers. 1t would seem that
Neurokinesis, meaning a shaking up of
the nervous system, should be applied
to the cause of these troubles, and that
neural atrophy would better express the
present conditions as we find them in
these cases to-day. am aware that
the words neural atrophy involve
a pathological hypothesis, but it is an
hypothesis resting on grounds that |