Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-01-12
OVERWORK THAT KILLS.
A DISEASE THAT Is BliGHTiNG THE
LIVES OF BUSY MEN.

It Is Incurable. but Men of Small Mental
Calfber Need Not Fear It-Women Fur
nish Less Than One Per Cent. Of the Cases.
No Other Land So Cursed by It.
Few weeks go by now in which the COM
munity is not startled by the intelligence
that some men OF prominence has suddenly
become insane. Some act Of sudden and I'M
reasonable violence or the demonstration of
some astounding delusion coInpels attention
to bis condition. Then, friends and relatives
remember he has been for some tame acting
queerly" and the question, How long has
his mind been affectedf' is one that awakens
much excited interest, especially among those
having business relations with him, or con-
cerned in his estate. ''Rest and quiet viii
speedily restore him." say his friends, and so
physicians profess to hope. He is secluded
in an asylum, or In some private rural re-
treat. The next that is heard of him is that
experts in cerebral affections have pro-
nounced his disease ''paresis." Paresis! The
horror of the age; slow death in life; a
malady as incurable and inevitably fatal as
leprosy-that is paresis.
Perchance, after a time, the victim may
seem to rally, to regain his mental control,
and hopeful friends will doubt the correct
ness of the physicians diagnosis. But in a
few months the reaction comes, darker and
darker the cloud settles down upon the
afflicted mind, more and more feeble grows
the body, slowly and surely life fades out.
How many instances of this fatal progression
might be cited, among men not only locally
prominent, but OF national reputation as
o. aywrights, actors, merchants and imam
cers, were it desirable to call the painful
rolf At least three, whose names are known
all over the land, are now in or near New
York, awaiting the certain end, and there is
not an insane asylum in the country III
which there are not numerous cases, of per-
sons OF minor individual Importance, doomed
to death by paresis
Generally the disease runs Its course In
about three years from the time that it un-
questionably declares itself, but there are
csses-where it is induced altogether by al
coholism-in which the end is delayed as
much as ten years, the greater part of which
time the victim is faced, paralyzed, drool-
ing, helpless and hopeless imbecile or tort
ured by the saddest hallucinations-a condi-
ton from which death would seem to be a
happy release.
THE HISTORY OF PARESIS.
As long ago as 1872 this peculiar variety of
cerebral affection was observed, but until
fifteen years ago it was rare and had not been
SO closely studied, accurately defined and the
knowledge concerning it SO systematlzed as
now. Within ten years it has constantly and
with alarming rapidity increased in the
United States, until now it is not too much to
say that it is our national terror. In no
other part of the world is it SO frequent And
its blight is most apt TO fall upon those who
are brightest, most mentally active. Stupid
people have little reason TO fear 1T, II they
keep sober, nor have women. Not one per
cent. of the cases are those of females. The
average woman does not dangerously strain
her brain, but many men, in the eager com
petition, rapid life and over excitation of
brain and nerves common to American exist
ence, do so-and invite paresis.
DR.. Allan McLane Hamilton, who is recog-
nized as one of the highest authorities upon
mental diseases III this country, when con-
suited few days ago upon the subject OF
paresis, for the purpose of this article, said:
Il see a great deal Of it, in various asylums
and institutions, as well as In my private
practlce, and recognize Inc facO that IL mas
been, during ten years past, steadily and
alarmirgly increasing. 1t is a disease Incl
dent to the rapid life of this country. In a
majority of cases it is directly dependent
upon vice and not upon actual overwork
alone It is the fashion nowadays to call all
forms of structural disease of the brain, with
mental disturbance, general paresis,' but the
general name, domentia paralytica, is the
proper term. AS rule the disease attacks
persons who are primarily dissipated, and
with that dissipation have certain amount,
probably excessive, of irregular mental work.
Nearly always it begins with some depression,
dependency, or, very often, hypochondriasis.
After the period Of depression, which lasts
for variable time, ensues extravaganza OF
IDEAS, which is an important feature of the
disease