Iron County register., 1899-09-07
HOMESICKNESS.
This In q MaIady That I'm the Intense
Form AfRicts Ala Human
Beings.

Beings.
There is a malady which boasts of a
learned appenation compounded of two
Greek words, but which is better known
by a homelier and far more expressive
name in the vernacular, and yet al
though this binomial disorder in de-
| scribed in the dictionaries as "a vehe-
ment desire affecting the phys
ical health" it has not been assigned
a place in the Nomenclature of Dis
eases" for which the Royal College of
Physicians of London is responsible.
The fact, too, that homesickness, if i'm
pervious to drugs, is nevertheless in
the highest degree amenable to treat
ment, might credibly seem to still
further justify its inclusion in the of
fetal glossary of the 1858 natural
shocks that flesh is heir to. With re-
gard to the etio1ogy of this unqualified
complaint there still remain several
points requiring elucidation, albeit in
its genesis no bacillus is concerned,
nor for its adequate diagnosis is there
any need of either microscope or test
tube.
Shortly stated, the essential factor
in the production of nostalgia is an
environment differing from that amidst
which the affected person 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 first be innate
receptivity or preparedness of soil on
the part of the individual who sue
cumbs. This receptive state is favored
by at least three separate things-race,
education and temperament-bu of
these predisposing causes the last pos
sesses less power than either of the
others. Caeteris, paribus, phlegmatic
subjects, are more likely to experience
homesickness than their sanguine COM
peers. A tendency to despond without
sufficient cause undoubtedly subserves
toward nostalgia, but ardent, enthusi
astic people, who continually look for
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 fcosmopolitanism. The
deeper the ignorance the ruder the
conditions of life under which human
being exists, the greater the proba-
bility when exposed to its influence of
his acquiring nostalgia. If an islander
from TERRA del Fuego, for instance,
were to be transported to the compara-
tive 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 like
ly bewail his hard lot and pine for his
own inclement and inhospitable wilder
ness, 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 sweltering hut in
Micronesia.
But of the three predisponents race
it is which is the strangest and most
inconsequential. Anglo-Saxons and
their Celtic brethren vary their man
nerS ana customs Wnllo ABROAD 10 Il
less extent, probably, than people of
any other nationality, and yet in spite
Of this they make the best colonists.
There is no human being in existence
who can appreciate the charm Of 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 nos
talgia. The fact is, he recognizes the
futility of kicking against the pricks,
and so makes his mind up to sacrifice
portion of his life, or 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 narrowminded 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 account of self. And so, after
all, our masters in medicine are per-
fectly right. Nostalgia is righteously
excluded from list of the shocks that
Anglo-Saxon flesh is heir to.-London