Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-07-23
ABOUT NERVOUSNESS.


If there is one word more than an.
other behind which the physician takes
refuge when perp!exed at the recital Of
| multitude Of symptoms seemingly
without logical connection or adequate
| cause, that word is nervousness. Amer
lean mel vousness is indeed a distinctive
| phrase, and the frequency with which
sllusion is made to it gives it, in The
minds of MANY, a meaning apart from
| that ordinarily ascribed to the term. We
hear very little of English, French or
| German nervousness, and yet in 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 resident here,
finds to his cost that excuses in eating
| r. n n hos wi tov
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. It has been
! denied that Americans are especially
| 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
nervously-exhausted. George Eliot,
Darwin and Spencer, Heine, Kant and
Schiller, Montague, Joubert and Rous-
1
only living, but doing original work on
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 DR.. Beard aptly
said that 1.-The human body is reser-
voir of force constantly escaping, con-
stantly being renewed from the one
| center of force-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. Willis
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 it's railway,
telegraph, telephone and periodical
press. is the primary cause of the i'm
crease of American nervousness. But
these accompaniments of civiliza tion
exist in Europe as we'll 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 it
plays in the human economy. Since, then,
we live in a climate that predisposes to
nervousness, nust 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. D
| Rockwell, in Frank Leslie's illustrated
| Newspaper.
| THE ARAB WOMAN.
Her Social Condition, Dress, Psstimes and
Love For Jewelry.