The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-03-28
NERVOUSNESS INCREASES
Tho Causes Leading to 1t-Too
Much Hurry.
Flushing from Change to Change soc,ns TO
Sc the Only ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
aud Women of To-Day u
RESTLESS Lot.

Under this rather startling title,
Prof w. Erb, at Heidelberg, gave an
address some time ago which demands
more than Il passing notice. Prof. Erb
takes it for granted that there is Il
marked increase of functional nervous
disorders, and he believes that the
events of the present century have
naturally led to this result. The
nineteenth century, says the British
Medical Journal, began in disorder
and commotion. France had passed
through n bloody revolution which
was to be followed by the excite
ment and exhaustion of Napolconic
adventures; restlcssncss, political and
social, was followed by q period
of calm, but, with the advanc-
ing years, labor-saving inventions
rapidly replaced man and increased
wealth, and rendered communication
easy-as our author says, time and
space seemed to be annihilatcd. In
science, in literature, all were develop
ing, and with it there appeared in
capacity for restful pleasure; rushing
from change to change seeming to DO
the only alternative work. With over
work there was overcrowding and
overstinulation; alcohol and tobacco
were used in greatly increased quanti-
tics; railway travelling and its nerve
Earring motion still further tended to
nervousness; and, so Prof Erb CON
vinccs himself, with all this there has
been clear loss of nerve tone to tho
whole of the highly civilized nations
n4l III, Il
liantly pat than the contrast bctvccn
the normal reaction to work ana worry
and the ncurasthenic and abnormal re-
action to the same conditions, and it
will be for us to see whether we agree
with all that Prof. Erb says. Accord
ing to him, all this rapid, restless move
1ncnt has left an irritable and slow-re-
covering nervous system, which must
be considered rs ncurasthenic. The
essentials of this disorder which has
not been recognized twenty years, nrc
increased scnsitivencss, with weakness,
WEAKNESS, lack Of power of endurance,
and defective rccuperativc power This
disorder is a refinement of hysteria and
hypochondriasis, and it is the outcome
OF the conditions of life. lie thinks it
ought to be found in all periods of cx-
element and of luxury, but owns that
there is no evidence of its existence in
Greece or in Rome.
The disorder is to be recognized and
to be met by changing conditions, and
nerve hygiene is to be considered as
much as sanitation. From school DAYS
to professional life the human being is
to be tended and brought up, his men
tai, moral and physical education is TO
be regulated, his holidays arc to be
nethodized, his business is to be con-
Quoted in healthy surroundings and
his cities are to be made healthy and
beautiful, with fresh air and beautiful
surroundings Thus, the professor is II
preacher of hygienic socialism. AS we
said before. we have been charmed with
the address, but not convinced
The old questionreappears III another
form. is increased insanity and nervous
disorder in necessary correlation to de-
vcloping completely of society? 1t must
be recognized that the more complex
the rules of society the moro frequent
will be breaches of these rules; at all
events, for time. In developing civ
ilization, too, we have very perplcx-
ing factor added in the survival and tho
propagation of the nonfittcst, and this
doubtless adds to the increasing num-
Der of the nervous. We are inclined
to believe that there is some slight in
crease OF nervousness, but that there
is much greater knowledge of the
subject, and with knowledge comes
subdivision and classification. We re-
member the time when hysteria, in its
present connotation, was looked upon
as anew and increasing danger to So
ciety. This disorder is now recognized
as no longer defect OF will for which
the patient is to be blamed. and has
been subdivided. Hypochondriasis in
the same way is no longer considered
to be maladic imaginairc, but is rec
ognizcd IS having some organic basis,
and with this progress the so-called
functional disorders have 10 be studied
apart and are now placed under the
head ncurasthcnia We do not believe
more women, at al events in England,
have nerves now than they had fifty
years ago. With the increase of cX-
element there has been n still greater
tendency to moro freedom of exercise,
more freedom from convcntionalisn
and much healthier home surroundings.
Stories of Fred Douglass.
When lccturing before a negro con-
vention in Louisville, Ky, some years
ago he said that the question of social