Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1897-06-25
AMERICAN NERVOUSNESS
No More Of the Disease Here Than
Elsewhere.
Statistics Show That the Stamina of the
- Race In America Has shown No
Observation-Disclosures Of
Our People.

The belief in the greater nervousness
of the American seems very widespread.
The late DIR. 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. lie 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
tions, neurasthcnia, hysteria and thu
like. 1t is probable that the majority
of educated people not physicians in
this country would admit without Q
murmur that as people we are peculi-
arly subject to nervous disease.
Although, rs 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 WINS denounced as indolcnt 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 On 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 hundred days in 1864; retrcating
from their homes, with the hope of sue
cess steadily fading away. 1.14O strong
ut the beginning, suffering 1860 fatal
or hospital wounds, with only so left
unwounded, yet mastering 24O at the
end, with less than ten assertions
such record has never been surpassed.
These men were of the purcst Amer
lean stock.
At about the same time DIR. Drown
Sequard 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.. II. p. Bowditch found
that the American schoolboy was the
equal in measurement of the boys of
Elton and Rugby. American life-insur-
nnce underwriters, too, have found that
the longevity in this country is us great
as 1t 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
ternntional 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
one event. In the famous ride few
years ago between Berlin and Vienna the
picked riders and horses of the Aus
TRAN and German armies were used up,
yet our cavalrymen and express mes.
sengers on the plains, with ordinary
mounts, have made better records both
Tor the time and distance, without the
slightest injury to horse or men.-Dr.
Philip C. Knapp, in Century.
Paris . Great Fortress.