Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-29
HOiiESICkNESS.
"A Disease That in the Intense Form
Aff1icts All Races
From the Lancet.

From the Lancet.
There is a malady which boasts of a
learned appellation compounded of two
Greek words but which is better known by
a homelier and far more expressive name in
the vernacular. and yet although this BIZ
nom1al disorder is described in the diction-
aries as " vehement desire affect
ing the physical health it has not been as
signed place in the Nomenclature of
Diseases for which the Royal College of
physicians of London is responsible The
1act. too, that inconsistencies, if impervious
to drugs is nevertheless in the highest de-
gree amenable to treatment, might credi-
bly, seem to still further justify its inclu-
SION in the official glossary of the .O53
natural shocks that flesh is heir to- With
regard to the etiohgy of this unqualified
complaint there still remain several points
requiring calculation, albeit In its genesis
no bacillus is concerned nor for its ade-
quate diagnosis is there any need of either
microscope or test tube.
Shortly stated, the essential factor in the
production of nostalgia is an environment
dlner1ng from that amidst which the af-
fected person passed his or her early days.
When this is the case some intangible in
nuence Is generated, which reacts upon the
victim, but, just as happens in many Off
claI maladieS, there must first be innate re-
ceptlFlty or preparedness of soil on the part
OF the individual who suCcumbs This re-
ceptive state is favored by at least three
separate thing+raca, education and tenn
perdment-but of these prediSDOsiug causes
the last possesses less power than either of
the others. Caeteris paribus phlegmatic
subjects. are more likely to experience
hOme'Ick1Iess than their sanguinc compeers
tendency TO despond without sufficient
cause undoubtedly subserVes toward nos
litr
continually look forward-who never are
but always to behave the advantage if
advantage 1t be, of remaining immune.
Education or rather the want of it. is
more potent than temperament the trend
OF civilization, which is equivalent to edu-
cation, being distinctly in the direction of
cOSmOpolitdnlSm The deeper he ignorance
the ruder the conditions OF life under which
a human being exists, the greater the prob
ability when exposed to its influence of his
acquiring nostalgia. If an islander from
Ilerra del FuegO, for instance, were to be
transported to the comparative paradise of
the Gilbert Islands. in the Pacific ocean,
which have been described 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 a. Pacific
Gilbertian We're to be promoted to- say
Pail Mail-which. without wishing to speak
dlsrespectfuliy of the equator, we maintain
TO be the more deSira BILE abode of the two
he also would no doubt soon break his heart
longing for the delights of his Sweltering
hut in Micronesia
But OF the three prediSponents race 1t IS
which IS the strangest and most incense
quenttal. Angfo-SaXOnS and their Celtic
brethren vary their manners and customs
while abroad to less extent probably than
people of any other nationality, and yet in
spite of this they make the best coIonists.
There Is no human being in existence who
can appreciate the charm of a home more
eXquisitely than the Ceitic-Anglo- Saxon,
and yet he is TO be met with in every cor
Der of the world. He loves his own native
place beyond words, but he can endure en-
forced expatriation without giving in 20
nostalgia The fact is, he recognizes the
futility Of kicking against the pricks, and
SO makes his mind up to sacrifice a portion
of his life, even, if the worst comes to
the worst, the whole of it. For nostalgics
We must turn to some other tribe. When
all IS said they remain a narrOw-minded
crew, whose mental processes run in
grooves. They may call their failing by the
high-sounding name OF patriotism, but such
it is not.
Nostalgia is the cats complaint. a purely
selfish disorder, whereas love of country
can flourish anywhere and takes no ac-
count of self And so, after all our mas
ters in medicine are perfectly right. Nos
talgia is righteOusly excluded from a list
of the shocks that Anglo-Saxon flesh is
heir 10.