The San Francisco call., 1897-07-25
The GYMNASTICS of Rest.

The Edinburgh health lecture was de-
livered by DR.. George R. Wilson. medical
superintendent Mavisbank Asylum, on
1.-The Gymnastics of Rest"
He said 1t was the unfortunate habit OF
our tines to measure the welfare of the
people only by their material prosperity,
and to ignore their mental distress. The
waste of human material was greater than
ever, the tear and wear OF mems minds
increased, and now, in spite of all our in
ventions, nay, because of all our inven-
tions, the world was more than ever in
need OF rest. The nervous system was
contrived so as to thrive in an atm osphere
OF mild impressions, not in one OF con-
slant shocks and jars. True, we could
become accom- m odated to shocks, to
noise and din, but we became accom-
modated to them only by using up en-
ergy. 1t would repay us to get away
from noise and din even for a short time.
Just as noise was to the ear dinginess
and the dull gray atm osphere of cities
were to the eye; our eyes and our brains
were adapted for richer colors than the
life OF cities afforded. There was. perhaps.
greater evil which city life brought upon
the eye. The eye itself and its nerves and
muscles, was so conceived that in the
natural state, in the state of rest, we
looked at a distance, but by constantly
looking at objects close at hand we never
gave the eye rest.
1t was not easy for older people to learn
new ways, but children should be taught
whenever glimpse of distance could be
had TO let loose their eyes upen 1t, to turn
to the horizon and rest. One of the first
steps to mental rest was the ability to per-
! form the feat-as to the requirement
of which the lecturer gave some in
teresting hints-of looking at dis
| tance when there was no distance to
look at, and resting the eye on
an imaginary picture of the hori-
zon. A second step toward rest was
the relaxation of that tension in the
muscles round the eye, and especially in
the muscles of the forehead, which char
acterized men of the city, and busy men
everywhere, when they were attending
intently to something they considered
important. A third step was the teach
| ing of the muscles round the mouth
to ''stand at ease" rather than "at at
tention." This threefold process he
called expansion OF the attention" 1t
was mistake to suppose that this whole
subject was stupid; nothing was more evil
dent in this bustling age than that most
| men and women had not the most remote
notions of keeping their minds at rest. In
play and at work alike we were pressing"
/ to use an expression from the language of
| golf, nearly all the time, anxious minded
| and strained. Passin 6 on to the subject OF
"hurry," the lecturer noted that there was
| a world of difference between prOmptness
or quickness and hurry. The difference
was that when we hurried we were anxious
minded-we were pressing; and the ex-
cessive tension disordered our activities.
Next, speaking of the panic. the lectu-
rer offered various hints for "squander-
ing the attention" by way of mini
mizing the effect of shocks Closely
allied to panic but more lasting
mora chronic, was the vice of the
mind which we called worry. Worry was
an inability to withdraw the attention
from unpleasantness. 1t was vice which
was rampant among us-a most repre-
hensible vice, because so unnecessary and
so easily evaded. II we practiced what he
had called the gymnastics OF rest we would
never worry. We would feel pain and dis
tress often enough, but our mind would
not dwell on the feeling of them.-Scots-
man.