Crawford avalanche., 1896-05-28
AMERICAN NERVOUSNESS
NO MORE or THE DISEASE HERE
4 THAN ELSEWHERE. -
Statistics Show that the Stamina Of the
Race In America Has Shown No Deter
ioratIon.--vigor Of Our People.

| Statistics Show that the Stamina OF the
Race In America Has Shown No Deter
ioratlon---viger Of Our People.
1ne belief In the greater nervous
ness Of the American, writes DIR. Philip
O. Knapp, In the Century Magazine,
seems very widespread. The late DIR.
Beard, of New York, was one Of the
first to describe nervous prostration,
and to give to 1t its medical name OF
neurasthenia, SO that 1t has often been
spoken OF as ''the American disease" T"
In his work on american Nervous
ness" he treats chiefly of the causes
of the nervousness, and Its symptoms,
accepting almost as an axiom the state
ment that Americans are more nervous
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, such
as locomotor ataxia and apoplexy, are
proba ably less frequent, the increase be-
ing in the so-called functional condi-
tions, 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 people we are pecu-
liarly subject to nervous disease. Al
though, as / have said, the statistics
are not conclusive, nevertheless such
statistics as we have, and the conclu-
sions drawn from various general I'M
pressions, absolutely contradict this
belief. 1t is only since the war Of
1912 that the American has acquired
his reputation for restless energy; be-
fore that he was denounced as indOlent
and sluggish. Up to the period OF the
Civil War he was also denounced as
physically 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 bri-
gade in the Confederate army, almost
continuously In action or on the march
for hundred days in 1864; retreating
from their homes. with the hope Of sue
cess steadily fading away; 1,14O strong
at the beginning, suffering1 $50 fatal
or hospital wounds, with only so left
1nwou' dcu, vet mastering 240 at the
end, with less than 10 desertions-such
n record has never been surpassed.
J he, e u'en wre of the purest Ameri-
can stock.
At about the same time DR.. Brown
Sepuard found that the American
mammals survived injuries that were
inevitably fatal to the European, and
our surgeons found surprising per-
centage of recovery from severe gun
shot wounds, greater probably than
had ever been observed in Europe.
DIR. b. A. Gould found that the Amer
lean soldier was physically as well de-
veloped as the European, and DR.. II.
school-boy was the equal in measure
ment of the boys of Eton and Rugby.
American life-insurance underwriters,
too, have found that the longevity in
this country Is as great as it is in Eu-
rope, or greater. The rise Of the South
since the Civil War, and the prompt
recovery of individual communities,
such as Chicago, Boston, and Port
land. after great conflagrations, are
further instances Of the great recuper-
ative power Of our people.
Since the Civil War our physical con-
dition has greatly improved. The
greater interest in athletics, and bet
ter cooking, have probably had some
thing to do with this Improvement.
We have held the Americas cup for
nearly fifty years. In shooting,
cricket, rowing and tennis we have not
been inferior in international contests.
In track athletics Yale has recently
shown her superiority to Cambridge,
and the New York athletes have not
only surpassed their London rivals,
but have established new worlds re-
cords 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 Ger
man armies were used up, yet our cav
alrymen and express messengers on
the plains, with ordinary mounts, have
made better records both for time and
distance. without the slightest injury
to horses or men.