The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-23
AMERICAN NERVOUSNESS
No More of the Disease Here Thar
Elsewhere.
Statistics Show That the Stamina of the
Race In America Has shown No
Deteriorstion-yigor of
Our People.

The belief in the greater nervousness
of the American seems very widespread.
| The late DR.. Beard, of New York, was
pne 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-
BUS 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 people we are peculi-
arly subject to nervous disease.
Although, as 1 have said, the Stats
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 incident 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 a record has never been surpassed
These men were of the purest Amer.
lean stock.
At about the same time DR.. Brown
Sequard found that the American nam
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 az the
European, and DIR. II. 2. 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 confagrations,
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 SC
years. In shooting, cricket, rowing ano |
tennis we have not been inferior in IN |
ternationa1 contests. In track ath, |
letics Yale has recently shown her su
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
ono event. In the famous ride a few |
years ago between Berlin and Vienna the |
picked riders and horses of the Aus
TRAN and German armies were used I'D,
yet our cavalrymen and express mes
sengers on the plains, with ordinary
mounts, have made bet tier records both
for the time and distance. without the
slightest injury to horse or men.-Dr,
Philip c. Knapp, in Century.
nj