The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-02-06
HENRY /. BIOSSiT, Business Manager.

savage as strong in arms as themselves.
Wherever records of longevity have
been kept it has been found to be in
proportion to the advance in civiliza-
ton and cultivation-the rate OF NOR
tally in Paris. for Instance, having
decreased one hundred per cent. in the
last five hundred years. and half-bar-
barous Russia to-day showing in pro-
portion to its population more than
double the mortality of England. Our
insane asylums are largely peopled
with inmates, especially women, from
country districts, whose lives have
been one round of monotOnous labor,
knowing little or no mental stimulus Or
development. From somewhat the
same cause minds that maintain too
constantly Il relaxed, as opposed to a
tense, Misunderstanding greatly, for
instance, in reading to the exclusion of
study, habitually relying upon written
memoranda instead of eXerting them
selves to remember, etc.-not only
dwell in bodies necessarily unstrung,
but can never be thoroughly healthy
themselves. The reason, too. why in
everyday life and in personal crises
people are too slow in adopting the
right course is largely that, being too
mentally lazy to think, they have
missed the highest soundness and
health of all-the moral.
An able writer. Mr.. L. W. Higgon-
son, says: eff civilization sacrifice the
physical hopelessly to the mental, and
barbarism merely sacrifice the mental
to the physical, then barbarism is I'M
questionably the Better thing. so far as
it goes, because it provides the essen
tial preliminary conditions. Barbar-
ism is one-story log hut, a poor
thug, but better than nothing; while
such civilization would be simply a
second story, with a first story too
weak to sustain it, a magnificent sky
parlor, with all II eaven in view from
the upper windows, but with the whole
family coming down in a crash pres
emily, through fatal neglect of the
basement" This happily, however, is
not the case. Civilization and intel
lectual culture are good all round, not
bad.
Now comes highly important pro-
viso. All that has heretofore been said
in relation to the development and ex-
ercise of the mind being beneficial to
health must be unqualifiedly condi-
toned by the statement that, when
mind activity is pushed beyond its
proper limit, it ceases to be healthful
and becomes a source of disturbance
| and danger both to the general healt tn
and to the brain, which is the organ OF
the mind.
A human being possesses a variety o.
powers, as, for instance, the physical
the intellectual, the emotional, the
volitional, etc, and his well-being de-
ponds upon the normal proportion be
ing preserved i'll their evolution ant
use. This, of course, is not the same
for all persons, some being innatel.
intellectual rather than physical, some
the opposite, the relative strength o
others lying in tn cir passions, etc, bu
in each case it exists, and when it ha
been found must be needed or harm
ensues. While the employment of thu
intellect up to the limit of its power
contributes to q high condition o
health, and, indeed, is absolutely nee
essary for it, if carried beyond tina
point. it destroys the balance among
the different faculties, and becomes
drain upon the system. We all know
how common thing it is for mel
whose brains have been overworkcd il
their business to lose their appetites
be troubled with indigestion, palpita
ton of the heart, etc, and we see whel
they are attacked by disease how east
ly they often succumb, the brai
having appropriated to itself more
than its proper share of nutrition, an
left the general powers weak and in
capable of resistance. A human OF
ganism possesses only about so niue
energy; if one faculty uses it all tn
others are defrauded.
Excessive mental exertion is also, a
we should naturally expect, detr
mental to the brain itself. The brair
in spite of the marvellous amount an
variety of work it is capable of doing
is the least organized organ in th
body. 1t consists simply of an aggre
CATION of tubes and millions of cell
permeated with blood vessels. Ever
time we think, feel or will, imagin,
t remember or desire, hundreds of thes
, cells are destroyed, and must be {
J once replaced from the blood, or deaf
: or insanity ensues. When we remen
: Der the varied and often tumultuol
f drama which is enacted every day
/ the consciousness of every one of u
we obtain some conception of the was
: and supply that go on within tt
l brain. Its nutrition consumes on
9 fifth of all the blood in the bod
l When once it is injured, its powers I
y recuperation are slight.
0 Some forms of mind exercise exc
n a more invigorating effect upon it thu
e do others. Total inertia results
n feebleness. Original or creative me-
J. tai acts-as those of Judging, pla
n nlng' calculating, inventing, literal
II composition, etc. tend to increase i
l. volume, stability and endurance, ju
d as physical exercise develops al
Is hardens the muscles. While this