St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-28
COUNTLESS HUMAN ILLS
That Arise From u Disorder In
the Nervous System.
New York Sun.

New York Sun.
Prof. Leonardo Cognetti di Martiis,
of the University of Turin, discourses
in the Giornati degli Economist the
relation of labor to nervous diseases.
The article is mainly directed to Show
ing that each occupation, mechanical
or Intellectual, has it's peculiar ner-
vous diseases and the enumeration as
a whole, with it's illustrative examples,
forms a narrowing picture of the dam
gers attending modern industrial life.
He begins by discussing the perils to
the nerves of open air workers.
Lightning is one of these. Not only
does it kill twenty-five persons an
nually in England and seventy-one in
France, but it leaves with shattered
nerves many who escape death from
the stroke. So of electricity used in
various industries. A severe shock
from electricity is always liable to pro-
duce important nervous changes in
the victim. The malarial fevers to
which many open-air workers, espec-
tally agricultural laborers are exposed,
are followed in many cases by severe
nervous disorders, and there is a true
rural paralysis, resulting from these
feverS.
Tetanus, which is commoner among
the agriculturists than elsewhere, be-
cause the germ that produces the dis
ease is often found in swampy ground,
is followed by number of shocking
nervous manifestations Sunstroke
often leaves its victims a prey to pain
ful nervous disorders, and the peasant
in the open fields, under, the intense
light of the summer sky, often suffers
from nervous Affections of the eye and
more serious disturbances. Reflected
light, as from snow, sometimes pro-
duceS the familiar snow blindness, a
nervous affection of the eye. 1t was
once epidemic in Southern Russia after
March snowstorm. One form of the
disturbance makes the victim practi-
cally blind toward sunset and after
nightfall. Foundrymen are subject
to this form of the disease.
Miners, from an opposite cause, have
painful nervous affections of the eye,
accompanied with strange illusions,
such as the apparent swaying back
and forth of objects in the field of
vision
Business men engaged in speculative
occupa tons are subject to neuraS-
thenia, that manifests itself in the loss
of the power of mental application.
Madness often follows. Pianchi, the
Italian student of nervous diseases,
finds as a result of the pressure of
modern life tendency on the part of
the young to initiate, accompanied by
an intolerance of restraint aud other
signs of nervous degeneration.
Labor-saving machinery has resulted
in making workmen work harder than
ever with their nerves, arTt "a severe
nervous disorder among those that
q naI1 Ir1n he @f EI1,.,.
machinery seems limited only by the
power of the human attendant, and a
constant strain of attention at a mon
otonouS occupation tends to mental
breakdown. Pain and cramp of the
muscles, accompanied by forms of neu-
ralgla, are some of the disturbances
that affect the modern mechanical
worker, driven by the pressure of his
inan1mate fellow worker. The intense
preoccupa ton and great manual speed
of the piano player often produces
paresis.
Miners working in mountain shafts
have the so-called mountain sickness,
accompanied by headache, writhing of
the body, hesitancy of movement,
heart affections, nausea and vomiting,
sometimes followed by insenSibility, de-
lirium and coma. All these manifes-
tations are to be ascribed, in part at
least, to the rare1ication of oxygen.
AeronautS have the same trouble.
Even worse are the nervous disorders
that attack men who continue under
high atmospheric pressure. The voice
becomes metallic, utterance is difficult,
and in the case of some sounds impos-
sible; hearing is impaired, muscles are
knotted, and smell and taste are some
times lost, while the laborer handles
his tools with difficulty. Seasickness
IS a nervous affection that has a re-
markable medical history and for
which no satisfactory remedy has been
found.
Neurasthenia in many forms is an
enemy of intellectual workers. The
modern school often brings children to
epilepsy and st. Vitus dance. STAN.
mering sometimes comes from mental
overWork, and, while a large proper
sound eyes, nearsighr is quickly devel-
oped and is found to increase regularly
as the child advances from class to
class. With this comes an actual
weakness of the visual power at all
distances. Headache, uncertainty Of
visual movement. sudden alterations
of hot and cold, insomnia, and fleet
ing Authorizations are Some of the re-
suits of too much mental labor in the
case of chil1ren.
Clarinet players have spasms of the
tongue. Sewing machine workers, tel
egrapherg cigarmakers, buttonmakerS
and others required to maintain high
nervous disturbances Immediately af-
fecting the part of the body especially
under strain, but extending to other
parts. Dentists leg is a paralytic af-
lection of parts kept long under pres
sure. Paralysis of the hammer comes
plying a tool of the striking kind. It
affects the right arm, and the right
-