The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-11
OUR MUCH-RACKEO NERVES.
Long List Of Disorders Caused by Special
Occupations.

Long IlSt OF Dl6Of0ef6 caused Dy SpeCI0A
Occupations.
Prot. leonardo Cognetti di Martiis. of
the University of Turin, discourses in
the Giornai degli Economist the rela-
ton of labor to nervous diseases The
article is mainly directed to showing
that each occupation, mechanical or
intellectual, has its peculiar nervous
disease, and the enumeration, as a
whole, with its illustrative examples,
form 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
produce important nervous changes in
the victims. The malarial fevers to
which many open-air workers, espe-
cially agricultural laborers, are ex-
posed are followed in many cases by
severe nervous disorders, and there is
q true rural paralysis resulting from
these fevers- Tetanus, which is COM
moner among the agriculturists than
elsewhere, because the germ that
produces the disease is often found in
swampy ground, is followed by shock
ing nervous manifestations. Sum
80 -
painful 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
Reelected light, as from snow, some
times produces the familiar snow
blindness, a nervous affection of the
eye. 1t was once epidemic in south
ern Russia after March snOwstorm.
One form of the disturbance makes
the victim practically blind towards
sunset and after nighrfall. Foundry
men are subject to this form Of the dis
ease.
Miners, from an opposite cause, have
painful nervous affections of the eye,
such as the apparent swaying back and
forth of objects in the field of vision.
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,
Halt
festations are to be ascribed, in part at
least, to the rarefcation of oxygen.
Aeronauts have the same BILE.
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-
nible; 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 re-
markabl medical history ard for
which no satisfactory remedy has been
found.
Neurasthenia il many forms is the en-
envy OF intellectual workers. The mod
ern school often brings children to
epilepsy aud 1t. Vitus' dance. SIAM
mering sometimes comes from mental
overwork. and, while large proper
ton OF children enter school with
sound eyes. near-sight is quickly de-
veloped and is found TO increase regu-
larry as the child advances from class
to class With this comes an actual
weakening Of the visual power at all
distances. Headache, uncertainty of
physical movement, sudden alterna-
tons OF hot and cold, insomnia, and
heeting halElcinStions are some of the
results of too much mental labor IN the
case of children
BusaesS men engaged in specula-
tive occupations are subject to neuras-
thenia, that manifests itself in the loss
of the power o. mental application.
Madness often follows Bianchi, the
italian student OF nervous diseases.
finds as a result ofthe pressure of mod
ern life tendency on rae part OF the
young TO initiate, a,coFapa aiet by an
intolerance of restreiat and other
signs OF nervous degeneration
Labor-saving machinery has resulted
IL rIsasSng worAmea work harder than
ever with their nerves. and IN severe
nervous disorders among those that