Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-08-16

Few of us realize how far We are over
taxing not only the brain, but all the physi
cal powers, in the mere fact of keeping M
our daily lives with the exactons of modern
habits and demands In order to maintain
these habits and crafty these demands W,
exert ourselves to make money at a rat,
quite beyond our natural and normal DOW
ers and then one day everything givei
way and down We go, so many wrecks am
ruins. This is perhaps inevitable from tn,
fact of our newness as country, and tn,
unconsciously felt necessity of being equa
with others in the race where all have had
fair start, and so of leaving family pro
vided for. Future generations, when the
social limits may have become more fixed
when it may be found all but impossible u
make more money than the legitimate re
turn for labor gives, will in a measure rem
edy this by making the ceaseless struggle
under which we labor today unnecessary
and fruitless then. Perhaps we shall then
settle into the condition of people in the
older countries, who accept their fate, striv
ing just to do their duty in it, and do not
wear out their forces in furious haste tc
reach that which is unattainable without
such waste ; and thus there may in time
come calmer and stronger race in conse
quence of the camer modes of life. if in.
deed the nervous expenditure of the pres
ent do not hinder the continuance of any
race at all
1t is said that today we as people dis
play more of the result of worry and strain
in our health than is shown by any other
nation. The number of our dyspeptics may
be known by the number of our patent
remedies for dyspepsia which pay for their
vast advertising and bring fortunes to their
proprietors, while the frequency of apo
plexy, of heart paralysis, of direct and in
direct brain trouble, and of disease of the
kidneys, all of which are immediate effects
of excessive mental exertion, is something
really appalling.
The worst of it is that no one realizes the
danger till the blow has fallen and the dam.
age is done, and we go on in our ruinous
courses often without warning or advise
ment, People hesitate 10 lift more weight
than can he lifted easily, because it will
strain the muscles of the back injurously
and do mischief they hesitate to run or
walk greater distances than can be comfort
ably accomplished, because it will tire the
muscles of the legs and give pain, and so in
relation to much other physical exertion :;
they never seem to feel that as, according
to Bichat, life is the totality of the func-
tions, so all functions and all organs are to
he regarded with equal care and concern ::
and thus they forget that to think, to plot
and plan, and strive and fret and worry.
tires and weakens both the brain and the
heart, and puts additional work on the kid
neys, doing damage that is more than per
manent inasmuch as it is fatal
When it is remembered how the heart
shakes at any and every emotion of conse-
quence, how it sinks with fears. and palpi-
tates with desires, and stands still with loss
and horror and defeat, it will be seen that
lives of strong emotions and unceasing eff
forts and aspirations must have a great
deal to do with the condition of the heart
1t is not steady and persistent work that
does this. That, with fit intervals of rest
does injury to no one, but, on the contrary,
is healthy, and in way strengthening
it brings no trouble of heats and colds, of
beatings and boundings, no holdings of the
breath, no nervous starts, no dizzy pauses
of expectation. 1t is not work, but il is
worry, that does the harm worry and
strain and shock, whether sudden and We
hement, or of long continued frequency,
like series of small repeated blows, the
first of which is unnoticeable, the last of
which is agony The brain, however, would
stand great deal of strain, and even of
shock, if it were not for its auxiliary, the
heart. The heart has by no means the Wig
or and elasticity and resource of the other
organ sorrow and fear, suspense, anxiety,
all rush at once with their burdens and
blows TO the heart and great Joys, great
successes and triumphs, act just as siren
uously as shocks upon that delicate organ,
enfeeble it, and prevent it from feeding the