The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-07
HON ESICkNESS.
Disease That in the Intense Form
Affiicts All Races

Afiicts All Races
There is a malady whoich boasts of
learned appellation compounded of
two Greek words. but which is better
known by homelier and far more ex-
pressive name in the vernacular, and
yet although this binomial disorder is
described in the dictionaries as "a We
hement desire affecting the
physical health" it has not been as
signed place in the Nomenclature of
Diseases for which the Royal College
of Physicians in London is responsible.
The fact, too, that inconsistencies, il
impervious to drugs, is nevertheless
in the highest degree amenable to trs at
ment, might creditably seem to still
further justify its inclusion in the offi-
cial glossary of the 1850 natural shocks
that flesh is heir to. With regard to
the etiology Of this unqualified COM
plant there still remains several pc nts
| requiring calculation, albeit in it's gene
sis no bacillus is concerned, nor for its
adequate diagnosis is there any need
of microscope or test tube.
Shortly stated, the essential factor
| in the production of nostalgia is an en-
| vironment differing from that amidst
which the affected person passed his or
her early days. When this is the case
some tangible influence is generated,
which reacts upon the victim, but, just
as happens in many official maladies
there must first be innate receptivity
| or preparedness of soil on the part of
| the individual who succumbs. This re-
| ceptive state is favored by at least
| three separate things-race, education
and temperament-but of these predis-
| posing causes the last possesses less
| power than either of the others. Cete-
ris paribus, plegmatic subjects. are
| more likely to experience inconsistencies
| than their sanguine compeers. A ten
dency to 'despond without sufficient
| cause undoubtedly subserves toward
nostalgia, but ardent, enthusiastic peo-
| pei. who continually look forward
who never are, but always to behave
| the advantage, If advantage it be, Of
remaining immune.
Education. or rather the want Of it.,
| is more potent than temperament, the
| trend of civilization, which is equiva-
| lent to education, being distinctly in
| the direction of cosmopolitan ism. The
| deeper the ignorance the ruder the con-
| ditions of life under which a human
| being exists, the greater the probability
when exposed to it's influence Of his
acquiring nostalgia. If an islander from
| TERRA del Fuego, for instance, were to
| be transported to the comparative
| paradise of the Gilbert Islands in the
Pacific ocean, which have been de-
| scribed as a "cluster of pearls hung
upon the equator he would very likely
| bewail his hard lot and pine for his own
| Indictment and inhospitable wilderness,
| and If in like manner Pacific Gilber-
| tian were to be promoted to. say, Pail
| Mall, which. without wishing to speak
disrespectfully of the equator, we main
| tain to be the most desirable abode of
| the two-he also would no doubt soon
break his heart longing for the de-
| lights of his sweltering hut in Micron-
| esia.
| But of the three predisponent races 1t
| is which is the strangest and most in
| consequential. .Anglo-Saxons and their
| Celtic brethren vary their manners and
| customs while abroad to a less extent
probably than people of any other ma
| tionality, and yet in spite of this they
| make the best colonists. There is no
preciate the charm of a home more ex-
| human being in existence who can ap-
| quisitely than the Celtic Anglo-Saxon,
| and yet he is to be met with in every
| corner of the world. He loves his own
| native place beyond words. but he can
endure enforced repatriation without
giving in to nostalgia. The fact is, he
recognizes the futility of kicking
against the pricks, and so makes his
mind up to sacrifice portion OF MS
| life, or even, if it comes to the worst,
| the whole of it. For nostalgics we
must turn to some other tribe. When
| all is said, they remain narrow-mind-
| ed crew, whose mental processes run
| in grooves They may call their failing
by the high sounding name of patriot
ism, but such it is not.
| Nostalgia is the cats complaint, a
purely selfish disorder, whereas love of
| country can flourish anywhere and
| takes no account of self. And so, aft
all, our masters in medicine are FER
fectly right. Nostalgia is righteously
excluded from a list of the shocks that