The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-08
AMERICAN NERVOUSNESS.
Stamina of the Race In America Has
shown No Deterioration.

DR.. p C. Knapp. in the Century.
The belief in the greater nervousness of
late DR.. Beard, of New York, was one of
the first to describe nervous prostration,
and TO give. it its medical name of neuras.
thena so that Ii has often been spoken OF
as 1.-The American disease" In lis work
on American Nervousness he treats chief
ly of the causes of the nervousness and its
symptoms, accepting almost as an axiom
the statement that Americans are more ner-
vous than any other race, and that there IS
q vastly greater amount OF nervous disease
in this country than in Europe He admits,
however, that the severer forms of organic
nervous disease, sucn as iocomotor ataxia
the increase being in the so-called function
al conditions, neurasthenia, hysteria and
the like. 1t is probable that the majority OF
try would admit without murmur that as
people We are peculiarly subject to nervous
Although as 1 have said, the statistics are
not conclusive, nevertheless such statistics
as We have. and the conclusions drawn from
various general impressions, absolutely con-
tradict this belief. It is only since the war
of 1872 that the American has acquired his
reputation for restless energy; before that
he was denounced as indolent and sluggish
Up to. the period of the civil war lac vas
also denounced as physically DEGENERATE.
inferior in bulk, strength and endurance 10
his English cousins: The civil war put an
end to such talk No armies endured more
more than those who stayed behind waiting
The record of the First Kentucky Brigade
In the Confederate army, almost continuous
ly in action or on the march for a hundred
days in 1854; retreating from their homes
with the hope of success steadily fading
away; LAO strong at the beginning, suffer-
ing 1850 fatal or hospital wounds, with Only
fifty left unwounded, yet mastering 30 at
the end, with less than ten desertions-such
a record has never been surpassed. These
men were of the purest American stock.
At about the same time DR.. Brown
Sequard found that the American mammals
survived injuries that were inevitably fatal
to the European, and our surgeons found a
surprising percentage OF recovery from Sc
we're gunshot wounds, greater probably than
A. Gould found that the American soldier
was physically as well developed as the
European, and Dr. II. p. Bowditch found
in measurement of the boys of Eton and
Rugby American life insurance underwrit-
ers, too, have found that the longevity in
this country IS as great as It Is in Europe.
civil war and the prompt recovery OF indf-
viiual communities, such as Chicago, Bos-
ton and Portland, after great CONGREGATIONS
are futher instances of the great recupera-
tive power of people.
Since the civil war our physical condition
has greatly improved. The greater interest
bly, had something to do with this improve
ment We have held the Americas cup for
nearly fifty years. In shooting cricket, row.
ing and tennis we have not been inferior in
Yale has recently SHOWN her superiority to
Cambridge, and the New York athletes have
not only surprised their London rivals. but
have established new worlds records In
more than one event. In the famous ride
few years ago between Berlin and Vienna
the picked riders and horses of the Austrian
and German armies were used IN, yet our
cavalrymsn and express messengers on the
Pains. with ordinary mounts, have made
better records both for time and distance,
without the slightest injury to horses or
men.