The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-01-29
THE HAWAIIAN HARD
WARE COMPANY.
3o7 Fort street.
EFFECTS OF FATIGUE
THE MIND AND THE BODY ARE INIT
MATELY ASSOCIATED.

Specialists-It Is Bcgotten More In the
Brain Than In the MuscIe-How Men APP
proach the Danger Line.
| 1t is popular belief that WEAKNESS Is q
| physical symptom alonc-that is to say,
| people become tired because their muscles
IRE weary, Whereas in truth, muscular
WEAKNESS depends not on the muscle alone,
but on the manner in which the muscle
in its work is aided and supported by the
rest of the body. THE blood, sweeping
through the whole body, washes out of the
muscles all hurtful bodies, providing al
ways the blood stream is pure. If the
blood stream be sluggish, or if the blood
coming to the muscle be already loaded
with hurtful bodies, the clearance is slow
or wholly fails, and WEAKNESS comes on
npace. But even the simplest and rudest
muscular tasks are not carried out by the
muscles alone, for the brain and the nerves
share in them too. 1t is II common expo
rcnce that when we are weary almost it
may be, to death, some sudden emotion,
some great joy or fear, may spur us to an
effort which just before seemed impossible.
| Conversely an emotion may appear to take
|
that the muscles neither know nor feel
their WEAKNESS cannot be affected by any
emotion. That WEAKNESS which is put
aside by hope, or which is hurried on by
despair, must be WEAKNESS not of the
muscles, but of the nervous system"
1t would be interesting to follow Pro-
fessor Foster as he goes on TO prove the diff
ference between the brain and the nerves,
the brain being, of course, the central mech
anism the nerves mere bundles of flbers
which carry the impulses to the muscles.
We must, however, refer our readers to the
article itself for this and other informa-
ton and would direct their attention cs
pecially to the experiments by which Pro-
fessor Foster proves that the greater part
at least of WEAKNESS is begotten not in the
muscle, but in the brain.
Let us now consider n few of the mental
symptoms of fatigue or WEAKNESS Pro
fessor Foster insists that two facts must
be grasped and remembered While it may
be said of each member that the blood is
the life thereof, it may with equal truth
be said the blood is the death thereof
The blood is the channel for food, but is
also the pathway for poison Again, all
our knowledge goes to show that the work
of the brain, like the work of the muscles,
is accompanied by chemical changes; that
the chemical changes, though differing in
details, are of he same order in the brain
as in the mt les. 1t is true that the
changes in the brain are smaller than
those of + MUSCLE but this is counter
balanced by the exceeding sensitiveness of
the nervous substance, the last giving
point to the caution that to do the maxi
mum OF brain work it is essential not to
render the brain more agile, but to encour-
= | re hat hni
more efficient cooperation may defer the
onset of WEAKNESS.
Mind and body being thus intimately
associated, no sensible person will risk the
, destruction of health by neglecting either
the one or the other Sleep, good food,
healthy Surroundings, rational hours of
work and sufficient exercise are points
which many people have long recognized
as essential to their well being, yet the
race for wealth, or for political advance
ment, or the struggle for existence, may
cause the most enlightened to neglect
, them. AT first man so circumstanced at
tributes his lassitude, which is usually
confined to the early morning, to anything
but the right cause. A feeling of depres-
: sion and sense of ill being may make
, him miserable, but unless the doctor takes
him in hand they will not check his down
|
pressed with the need of increased effort,
loss of memory, and the difficulties of
remembering what he reads. To this point
man may advance without fatal injury,
but should he proceed until everything APP
, pears to him dark and hopeless, worry
and an apprehension, then he may be be-
, yond rescue, and his next step may land
him in lunatic asylum If he does not ter
inmate earlier in a graveyard.
, DIR. Cowles of the Mclean hospital has
, written Il most interesting paper on the
: mental symptoms of fatigue which all
brain workers should read. He shows in
, practical way how difficult it Ia to re-
store the weary to energy and strength.
Overworked women, professional men, pol
iticians and others work on their
nerves" and say they "don't feel tired
a and nothing is the matter. Many of them
indeed insist that they feel better when
: actively pursuing their ordinary occupa-
S tions. DR. Cowles declares this condition,
4 which comes on insidiously, to be a most
dangerous one. With the impairment of
the natural fatigue sense the mental effect
] is that man will not believe even his
}, physicians diagnosis of fatigue He is
6 therefore prone TO look for some other rea-
!, son for his sense of i'll being and ineffi-
] cheney and finds in retrospection cause for
| self reproach and hopelessness in the fu-
, ture, or insists upon revolution in his
. affairs as the only remedy for condition
of which he himself is the central cause.
2 Here, then, we arrive at the two great fac
tors which have to be faced today in our
national and political life. The first, or
\ retrospective, cause lies at the root of the
r present epidemic Of suicide, of which the
s papers are fun, The second, or impair
| Aft hn i,t1 OF he
root of the political impasse, which its au-
!. | thora DECLARE can ha cured only nv rnyoltI.