The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-10-31
TIE PHILOSOPHY OF NOSE.
Aversion TO Disturbance L . Symptom o
Seurotic Degeneration.

Aversion to Disturbance L = Symptom OF
Seurotic Degeneration
y woman suffering from neuralgia sta
tons her son 70 keep boys from making
noise IN front Of the house. 4 boy
comes by whistling-a performance IN
which we must recognize q natural.
wholesome and bOylike act, whereupon
there ensues a short, sharp fight between
the pair in which oneis accidentally cut
The upshot is not important; the origin
OF it Is.
II has long been usual to accord spe-
cial privileges 70 inyalids IN relieving
them against noise. Formerly straw
would be strewp in the street, and thou
sands of persons who were not sick
would be inconyienced TO ease the pains
Of one who was. In part, this custom
was one Of ostentation. 1t could be
practiced only by the influential who
were exalted by making themselves a
nuisance. When death ensued, hatch
ment was set up in the same spirit of
vainglory. All the windows in the
house We're closed for term, the dura-
ton Of which was fixed by custom, but
which bore a relation to the estate of the
deceased and the consequent degree of
exaltation descending upon his heirs.
All healthy animals delight in noise.
The description includes barbarous folk
and children. Dogs bark (curs only
sneak Off, birds scream, boys shout,
girls clap hands to their ears in sweet
confusion, horses paw, all animate ma
ture responds to the exhilaration of noise.
The sick do not. In every form of sick
ness the nervous function is deranged.
AS we have seen above mankind has
shown its appreciation of this fact by its
customs. Excessive sensibilty to noise
is thus one symptom of neurotic degen-
Grafton. It is the mark of one broad dis
tinction between the state of civilization
and its opposite. 1t testifes to one part
of the price which that state exacts from
man on his physical side.
Within civilization itself indifference
to noise is one of the distinctions of a
system rudely healthful, both in body
and mind. The converse of this propo-
sition is equally true. Whenever a per-
son displays peculiar constituencies to
noise we may know that the case is one
of an unwholesome mind in an unwhole-
some body. From the fact that the dis
turbance is essentially neurotic one it
follows that it is comfortable to a great
extent by the will. Much of the dis
turbance that is experienced from noise
can be put completely aside by exercise
of the will. a barking dog may keep
one person awake while his healthier or
wiser neighbor sleeps the sleep of the
just. Under the pinging of the cable
car bells valetudinarian subsidies into
frenzy while his younger clerk is Tapped
in dreams of the equally unconscious
typewriter on the next floor. The con-
trast here need not be one of relative
strength of mind merely; one of the two
minds is sick.
In such Il case the will power is i'm
paired. 1t would probably be found that
the complaining person is also irritable,
passionate, perhaps consumed by self
In many cases of this
order relief could no doubt be gained
treatment by suggestion. But
in vastly the greater number the patient
is competent to minister to himself. He
is still capable of exerting the will, and
in this exercise lies complete and per-
cure. Furthermore, the cure
does not apply alone to the particular
noise that may have called for it. 1t will |
Do IOuuu TO nave 1nIlueQCeu the NINA |
The injurious effects at
tributed to noise do not proceed from |
but from within. They do not |
inhere in the aerial vibrations, but in the |
mental response made to them.
Finally it ought to be observed that |
the disease is one that increases by be- |
ing yielded to. The noise that is first |
noticed as an annoyance in some mo-
ment of irritation, anxiety or other nerv-
Gus disturbance can be nursed into an
object of horror. Time was when folks |
thought sensitiveness to noise to be evil
1ence of high strung character. They
were rather proud of it and trotted it
forth in public. The world knows bet
ter now. Iterects hospitals for the Mrs.
whom it rather admired
n Nicholas Nickleby's time. 1t no
onger holds poor Tom of Bedlam for in
;pired, and since it has learned how
much sickness is either fruit or phase
If ignorance it is getting a little sick Of
hose sick folks, at least of whom it has
\ right to look for something better
New York Evening Sun.