The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-15
DIR. Lindsay in a Paper Read
Before Academy of Medicine,
Discusses the Causes Which
Lead to Insanity.
TOO MUCH OF A RUSH,
He Cites as One of the Most
Prolific Breeders
Of Nervous Disorders Leading
to Loss of Mind.

| At the meeting of the Topeka Acad-
emyof Medicine and Surgery last night
DR.. w. S. Lindsay told the assembled
! physicians what he believed to be the
! influences disturbing nervous people al
! the present day. His story is interest
I ing as the opinion of a professional mar
who has made nervous disorders a spe-
cial study for several years.
Dr. Lindsay's paper is as follows:
THE methods of our civilization are
frequently arraigned as tending to the
production of a puny race. We read
much OF the push and worry in educa-
ton and in business and professional
lives. Newspapers and magazines pre-
sent this subject to our attention al
most daily in some form, till from ia
miliarity with it we even make a Jest
of this serious condition.
illustrations are to be seen showing
the modern business mans running to
catch the early car, taking meals
through the agency of a grinding ma
chine while he dictates to two stenog-
raphers, and at last his funeral process
sion is pictured with the hearse horses
at full gallop.
This rush with some variations
known as the pace that kills is in
large measure a nineteenth century
production, although its baneful effects
have been known through all ages. We
read in the Psalms an exhortation as
4OIIOWS- 1t IS vain IOF you TO rise up
early, to sit up late, to eat the bread
of sorrows, for He giveth His beloved
sleep
The entailment of this line of over
anxious people has been the develop
ment Of what are popularity known as
nervous people,
'Over activity of the brain causes
acidity Of the brain tissue and unusual
waste of the phosphOrized constituents,
prOtOgen and lecithui By this means
we get impairment and increased irri-
liability. We have here the brain re-
garded as impassiOnable, the brain cas-
lily affected by shocks, and whose func-
tons are easily perverted.
so much in explanation of what I
mean by nervous people, and we now
consider the influences disturbing them.
1T has fallen to my lot to hear from
many people the innermost thoughts
of their minds and to trace the lines
along which they have passed to mental
unrest, and this has led me to note
the things which I shall mention as
harmful
LAS the greater number of Impressions
come to the average man through the
optic tract let US first observe the
things to be seen. The public press,
which, as a public educator is unsur-
passed, has I believe, unwittingly fallen
into a custom which is most damag-
ing. The publication of the details of
horrible crimes is one of the ways by
which the exposed brain we have de-
scribed is worried, made sleepless and
helped along to a morbid state.
4 have now in mind the effects of the
pen picture we had a few weeks ago of
the child murdered near Kansas City.
Another line OF literature is the pan
iciy wall of the pessimist in political
and financial matters.
I'VE have also the articles published
by human vultures, who in order to
sell their wares resort to the most
startling headlines. 1 noticed recently
in one of the city papers in large let
No. 4
to an article detailing the manner by
which slight disorders of the kidneys
lead to nervousness and dethronement
of reason.
What is more specious than the ar
gument thus presented to one ready to
engage in introspectiOn and utterly
helpless to escape the conclusions pre-
dicted. 1t is no justification of the case
to answer that the remedy is offered by
the druggist at so much per bottle.
The remedy may be sufficient to relieve
the simple kidney disorder, but is Who'll
~ inadequate to quiet the mental storm
aroused. People think deeply on these
matters, much more than the few
words so frequently expressed to the
doctor would indicate. Patients say to
US, Doctor, I sometimes think 1 have
kidney disease when the fact is they
have taken all manner of remedies and
are really in despair.
Another patient will say, I don't
sleep very Well when after more conf
Dental relations you learn that he real
ly has night horrors and suffers untold
misery in apprehension of fancied all
ments
Another influence I have observed is
the method of instruction to young chill
dren. The following taken from news
paper serves me as a text on this sub
ject: We know the susceptibility of
young persons of nervous temperament
to chorea from fright and shocks of va
rious kinds
1T seems to me that these physio-
logical and anatomical lessons should
be reserved for more mature minds
Another bad influence which comes
to my observation frequently is the as
sOciatiOn of an insane member Of a
family with children at the home Here
we have the father or mother the vic
tim of mania or melanchOlia, with their
children at home with them, and kept
there for weeks. What could be great
ar shock to the young mind when look
ing to the parent for wisdom and guild |
ance nothing is found but the chaos of
1ethroned reason The impression thus
made may be lasting.
"A case of chorea in young girl |
from grief at the death of her mother |
recently coming under my observation, |
has led me to notice the susceptibility |
Of the young mind to this kind of inf1u- |
ence.
''Hypnotism is another damaging in |
auence. which several of our states |
have taken steps to guard against. |
While a great deal that passes for hyp- |
notism is no doubt charlatanry and |
fraud, yet we do have evidence of the |
reality of this state and of the cruel |
practice of it's induction upon young |
minds"