The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-03-13
lie GYMNASTICS Of RgsT.
A Scotch Physicians Suggestions to Ale
viate the vital Waste of Hurry.

A Scotch Physician's Suggestions to Ale
viate the vital Waste of Hurry.
In his Edinburgh health lecture DR..
George R. Wilson, medical superin,
tendent Mavisbank asylum, on This
Gymnastics of Rest" says it is the UNI
fortunate habit of our times to measure
the welfare of the people only by their
material prosperity and to ignore their
mental distress. The waste Of human
material is greater than ever, the e
and wear of mems minds increased, N
now, in spite of all our inventions, nay,
because of all our inventions, the world
is more than ever in need of rest. The
nervous system is contrived so as to
thrive in an atmosphere of mild inn
pressions, not in one of constant shocks
and jars. True, we could become ac-
commodated to shocks, 10 noise and din,
but we become accommodated to them
only by using up energy. It would re
pay us to get away from noise and din
even for a short time. just as noise is
to the ear, dinginess and the dull gray
atmosphere of cities are to the eyes,;
our eyes and our brains are adapted for
richer colors than the life of cities AFT
fords. There is, perhaps, a greater evil
which city life brings upon the eye.
The eye itself, and its nerves and mus
cles, are SO contrived that in the nat
ural state, in the state of rest, we look
at a distance, but by constantly look
ing at objects close at hand we neve
give the eye rest.
1t is not easy for older people to learn
new ways, but the children should be
taught, whenever a glimpse of distance
can be had, to let loose their eyes upon
it, to turn to the horizon and rest. One
of the first steps to mental rest is the
ability to perform the feat of looking
at a distance when there is no distance
to look at, and resting the eye on an
imaginary picture of the horizon. A
second step toward rest is the relaxa-
ton of that tension in the muscles
round the eye, and especially in the
muscles of the forehead, which char
acterize men of the city and busy men
everywhere, when they are attending
intently to something which they con-
slider important. A third step is the
teaching of the muscles round the
mouth to "stand at ease" rather than
"at attention" This threefold process
he calls Expansion of the attention."
1t is a mistake to suppose that this
whole subject is stupid; nothing is more
evident in this bustling age than that
most men and women have not the most
remote notion of keeping their minds
at rest. In play and at work alike we
are ''pressing'-to use an expression
from the language of golf-nearly all
the time, anXious-minded and strained.
Passing on to the subject of hurry.
the lecturer notes that there is a world
Of difference between promptness or
quickness and hurry. The difference is
that when we hurry we are anxious
minded-we are pressing" and the eX-
cessive tension discords our activities.
Next, speaking of panic, the lecturer
offers various hints for "squandering
the attention" by way of minimizing
the effect of shocks. Closely allied to
panic, but more lasting, 0 chronic,
is the vice of the mind which we call
worry. Worry is an inability to with
draw the attention from unpleasant
ness. 1t is a vice which is rampant
among us; a most re~prehensible vice,
because so unnecessary and so easily
evaded. If we practice what he has
called the gymnastics of rest we would
never worry. We would feel pain and
distress often enough, but our mind
wonld not dwell on the feeling of them.
Scotsman.