Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-10-19
CAUSES OF HOMESICKNESS.
Considerations Which Operate to the
Promotion of Nostalgia.

| There is malady which boasts of a
learned appellation compounded of two
Greek words, but which is better
known by hOmeller and far more ex-
pressive name in the vernacular, and
is described in the dictionaries as "a
vehement desire affectine
the physical health" it has not been
assigned a place in the Nomenclature
of Diseases" for which the Royal Col
lege Of Physicians of London is re-
sponsible. The fact, too, that home
sickness, if impervious to drugs, is
nevertheless in the highest degree
amenable to treatment, might credibly
seem to still further justify its in
clusion in the official glossary of the
! 1853 natural shocks that flesh is heir
to. With regard to the etiology of this
unqualified complaint there still re-
main several points requiring elucida-
ton, albeit in it's genesis no bacillus is
concerned, nor for it's adequate dag
nOsis is there any need of either micro
scope or test tube.
|
in the production of nostalgia is an
environment differing from that amid
which the affected persons passed his
or her early days. When this is the
case some intangible influence is gen
Grated which reacts upon the victim
but, just as happens in many official
maladies, there must be innate receptiy-
ity preparedness of soil on the part
Of the individual who succumbs. This
receptive state is favored by at least
| three separate thingS-race, education
and temperament. But of these pre-
disposing causes the last possesses less
! power than either of the other Gaze
teris paribus, phlegmatic subjects are
more likely to experience homesick-
ness than their sanguine compeers. A
tendency to despond without sufficielt
cause undoubtedly subserves toward
nostalgia, but ardent, enthusiastic PEG
| pie 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 equival-
ent to education, being distinctly in
the direction of cosmopolitanism. The
deeper the ignorance, the ruder the
conditions of life under which human
being exists, the greater the probable
ity 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 compare
tive paradise of the hilbert Islands, n
the Pacific Ocean, which have been de-
scribed as a cluster of pearls hung up
on the equator" he would very likely
bewail his hard lot and pine for his
own inclement and inhospitable
wilderness; and if, in like manner, a
Pacific Gilbertian were to be promoted
to, say, Pail Mall-which, without
wishing to speak disrespectfully of the
equator, we maintain to be the more
desirable abode of the two-he also
would no doubt soon break his heart
longing for the delights Of his swell
tering hut in Micronesia.
But of the three predisponents race
it is which is the strongest and most
inconsequential. Anglo-Saxons and
their Celtic brethren vary their man
ners and customs while abroad to a
less extent probably than people If
any other nationality, and yet in spite
Of this they make the best colonists
There is no human being in existence
rhn 70 ha oh "a
home more exquisitely 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 eX-
patriation without giving in to nostal-
gia. 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, or even, if the |
worst comes to the worst, the whole + |
it. For nostalgics we must turn o
some other tr4De. When all is said |
they remain a narrow-minded crew,
whose mental processes run in grooves.
They may call their falnng by the
name of patriotism, but
such it is not.
Nostalgia is the cats complaint,
purely selfish disorder, whereas love Ct
can flourish anywhere and
axes no account of self. And so after
Ill, our masters in medicine are per-
,ectly right. Nostalgia is righteously
excluded from a list of shocks that
flesh is heir to.-Lancet.
GEM-STUDDED GLOVE BUTTONS.