The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-05-28
VIGOR OF AMERICANS,
We Are No More Nervous Than Other
Nationalities.

| NationalitieS.
The belief in the greater nervousness
| of the American seems very widespread.
! The late DR.. Beard, of New York, was
one of the first to describe nervous
prostration, and to give it its medical
name of neuraSthenia, so that it has
often been spoken of as the American
| disease" In his work on american
Nervousness" he treats chiefly of the
| causes of the nervousness, and its symp-
toms, accepting almost as an axiom
| the statement that Americans are more
nervous than any other race, and that
there is vastly greater amount of nerv-
Gus disease in this country than in Eu-
| rope. He admits, however, that the Sc
verer forms of organic nervous disease,
such as locomOtor ataXia and apopleXy,
are probably less frequent, the increase
being in the so-called functional condi-
lions, neuraSthenia, hysteria and the
| like. 1t is probable that the majority
of educated people not physicians in
this country would admit without a
murmur that as a people we are peculi-
arly subject to nervous disease.
Although, as | have said, the statis-
tics are not conclusive, nevertheless
such statistics as we have, and the con-
illusions drawn from various general
impressions, absolutely contradict this
belief. 1t is only since the war of 1912
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 he was also denounced as physical
ly degenerate, inferior in bulk, strength
and endurance to his English cousin
The civil war put an end to such talk.
No armies endured more than ours in
the field; no people endured more than
those who stayed behind waiting and
helping.
The record of the first Kentucky
brigade in the confederate army. almost
continuously in action or on the march
for a hundred days in 1864; retreating
from their homes, with the hope of sue
cess steadily fading away; LAO strong
at the beginning, suffering 1850 fatal
or hospital wounds, with only so left
unwounded, yet mastering 240 at the
end, with less than ten desertions-
such record has never been surpassed.
These men were of the purcst Amer
lean stock
At about the same time DR.. Brown
! SequaId found that the American mann
mails survived injuries that were in
evitably fatal to the European, and our
surgeons found a surprising percent
| age of recovery from severe gunshot
wounds, greater probably than had ever
been observed in Europe. Dr. b. A.
| Gould found that the American soldier
was physically as well developed as the
| European, and DR.. H. p. Bowditch found
| that the American schoolboy was the
equal in measurement of the boys of
Elton and Rugby. American life-insur-
| ance underwriters, too, have found that
the longevity in this country is as great
as it is in Europe, or greater. The rise
of the south since the civil war, and the
| prompt recovery of individual COM
munities, such as Chicago, Boston and
Portland, after great CONGREGATIONS,
are further instances of the great re-
operative power of our people.
Since the civil war our physical con-
dition has greatly improved. The
/ greater interest in athletics, and better
cooking. have probably had something
to do with this improvement. We have
held the Americas cup for nearly so
years. In shooting cricket, rowing and
| tennis we have not been inferior in in
| ternational contests. In track ath-
letics Yale has recently shown her SUI
! periority to Cambridge. and the New
York athletes have not only surpassed
their London rivals. but have estab-
lished 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 Aus
trlan and German armies were used up,
yet our cavalrymen and express mes
sengers on the plains. with ordinary
! mounts, have made better'records both
for the time and distance, without the
slightest in jury to horse or men.-Dr.
Philip c. Knapp, in Century.