River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-05-22
ABOUT NERVOUSNESS.
Why Americans Are More Nervous This
the People of Europe.

other behind which the physician takes
refuge when perplexed at the recital OF
a multitude of symptoms seemingly
without logical connection or adequate
cause, that word is nervousness. Amer
lean nervousness is indeed distinctive
phrase, and the frequency with which
allusion is made TO IL gives it, in the
minds of many, meaning apart from
that ordinarily ascribed to the term. We
hear very little of English, French or
German nervousness, and yet in a pref
ty large experience in the treatment of
this condition, the writer has thus far
failed TO detect any widely divergent
lines of different nationalities. But
while the general characteristics of the
nervous temperament are very much
the same, whether observed in the
English or German, French or Ameri-
can, and while the same general causes
underlie each class of cases, it can not
be denied that in America there are
climatic conditions and business and
social environments, TO the influence OF
which the nervous system is peculiarly
susceptible, especially If complicated
with evil habits, excuses, tobacco, al
cohol, worry and special excitements.
An American in England is frequently
surprised to find that he is able TO in
dulge in malt and spiri tuous liquors to
an extent that he would never attempt
in his own country, while the English
man, if for any time a resident here.
finds to his cost that excuses in eating
and drinking impose a heavier tax upon
the conservative processes of the body
than in the humid atmosphere of his in
sular home. The Englishman is less
nervous than his American cousin. not
because he is less abstemious in his eat
ing and drinking, but because excuses
are less hurtful in certain directions in
his climate than in ours. 1t has been
denied that Americans are especially a
nervous race because of the immense
amount of work they accomplish. This
union of nervousness with capacity
for mental labor is by no means
peculiar to any race, for much of the
worlds best work has been done by the
rvously-exhausted. George Eliot
Darwin and Spencer, Heine, Kant and
Schiller. Montaigne, Joubert and Rous-
seau, illustrate the possibility of not
only living, but doing original work on
a small capital of reserve force. This
union of nervousness or nervous exhaus.
ton with capacity for mental labor,
while apparently paradox of science,
is one that can be reconciled and made
consistent If we go deep enough in our
researches. The late DIR. Beard aptly
said that 1.-THE human body is reser-
voir of force constantly escaping, con.
stantly being renewed from the one
center of foroe-the sun" A per.
feet healthy man has large amount
of nerve force in reserve, and
this reserve is not often ex.
hausted, even approximately, by the
necessary toll and wear of mind and
muscle. A nervously-exhausted man
has small amount of nervous force in
reserve, and this reserve is often and
speedily exhausted. The margin on
which he can draw is narrow. may be
almost wiped out, under the calls OF
emotion and of mental or bodily labor,
but just as with the strong man the
force is renewed from without by food
and repose, so, like the strong man, he
can keep on thinking and worrying
until he dies, which may be long after
the death of the strong man. While
nervousness makes life painful and ir-
ritating, it does not of necessity shorten
life, nor does it always destroy its USE
fulness. Civilization itself, with all
that the term implies, with its railway,
telegraph, telephone and periodical
press, is the primary cause of the in.
crease of American nervousness. But
these accomplishments of civilization
exist in Europe as well as in America,
and there, as here, intensity in ten
thousand ways cerebral activity and
| worry. Excuses also in eating and
drinking, and all forms of dissipation
are no greater here, if as great, and We
must search elsewhere in order to an.
swer the question, Why are Americans
more nervous than other people?
AS before intimated, the impor.
tant causative factor is found
in the relative dryness of our at.
mosphere, as we'll as in our extremes
of heat and cold. Evidence of the dry.
ness of the climate is observed in the
| dryer and sitter hair grown by Ameri
cans, and in their leanness compared to
| the English and Germans. The atmos-
phere causes us literally to dry up. In
the Northwest this popularity of eli.
mate is more positive even than in the
East, as evidenced by the readiness
with which meats, when hung in the
air, are dried and preserved. Then,
again, no one can estimate the impor.
lance of the natural electricity of the
body, nor altogether analyze the part il
| plays in the human economy. Since, then,
we live in a climate that predisposes to
nervousness, must we of necessity all
become nervous? BY no means Man
can rise superior to climate-can adapt
his methods of living to the vicissitudes
of climate, and thus make the collective
bodily activities seem one.-Dr. A. ID,
Rockwell, in Frank Leslie's Illustrated
| Newspaper.