Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-24
HURRY CAUSES ILLS.
Nervous Diseases That Are Due to
Stress of City Life.
From the Lancet.

From the Lancet.
To point to the hurry and stress of mod
ern town life as the cause of half the ills
to which flesh today Is heir has become al
most a commonplace in. astrological dag
nosis. The old-fashioned complaints might
Nalmost excite a medical mans pity, so
much do they seem to be crowded out by
those active widespread young fellows, neu-
rits. neurasthenia and a whole young fam
lily of nervous illnesses, the offspring of the
strained existence of today.
A chain is as strong its weakest link,
and today it appears that the nervous sys-
weakness is not natural. Ie is acquired be-
cause the strain upon this link Is often
almost constant and out of proportion to
the wearing power of the material. Wheth-
or as generations advance individual nerv
Gus stems will more easily bear the la
bors asked from them not at any rate,
it may fairly be assumed that in the early
days of any new style of life the genera
tons born under an old regime have the
worst Of it. Their children cope more easily
with the new necessities sThey are earlier
confronted with them and new arrange
ments which perpleXed and worried their
parer rs become habits easily borne and
therefore not to be reckoned among the
trying elements of existence.
Thu we may imagine future generations
perfectly calm among hundred telephones
and sleeping sweetly though airships whiZZ
among countless electric wires over their
! heads and a perpetual night traffic of mo-
tor cars nurtles past their bedroom win
| dows. AS yet, it must be sorrowfully con-
| fessed, our nervous systems are not so cal
| lOus. Some of US still start at the tele-
phone ring and find the IRE gularities of the
| instrument source of irritation and worry.
Many of US actually nervous at the sud-
den appear of motor car round the
rfr,p sir of n Str no
result of countless repetitions of these
trials, small thoutI they may be singly, is
not to be lightly estimated.
Fortunately, the very causes of nerve
exhaustion, so far as improved rapidity
of locomotiOn may be counted one of them,
provide one important counteracting feature
of town life at the present day. We are
abiding to the ia clity with which those
whose week days are spent in city toll may
spend the seventh in breathing the fresh
air and bcholding the innocent joys of the
rustic. To the Woodworking Londoner the
value of the weekend properly used is hard
to overestmate. From the eager broker
and worried business man to the stifed
seamstress and toilng artisan there are few
who cannot find further or nearer from the
metropolis some fresh and open spot where
they may replace the evil atmosphere of
the office or the factory. Without trains,
electric tramways and motor cars such a
wholesome change of scenery and sur
roundings would be scarcely possible in the
limited time available.
We do not wish to underrate for mo-
ment the value of parks and open STAGES
the "city's lungs" For many these afford
the only possibility of Sunday in at any
rate comparatively fresh air. Those large
numbers, though, who habitually find the
Sabbath's rest in a days wholesome exer-
else at some little distance from their work.
a-day center may spare a moment from
the usual condemnatory attitude toward
the hustle. rush and clatter of up-to-date
locomotion to bless the means which enable
them SO probably to enjoy lie day