The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1902-06-14
$40 PER YEAR.
furry Causes 9ns
Nervous DISEASES That IRE Due to Stress
of Cit, Life. 49,. ..

! TO point to the hurry and stress of
! modern town life as the cause
| of half the ills to which
| i flesh to-day is heir has become
almost common place in aetio-
logical diagnosis. The old-fashioned COM
plants might almost excite a medical
mans pity, SO much do they seem to be
crowded out by those active widespread
young fellows, neuritis, neurasthenia and
a whole young family of nervous illnesses,
the offspring of the strained existence
| of to-day. ..>.-
A chain is as strong as it's weakest
link, and to-day it appears that the ner-
vous system is the weak link of the or
ganism. The weakness is not natural.
! It is acquired because the strain upon
I this link is SO often almost constant and
| out of proportion to wearing power OF
| the material. Whether as generations ad-
| vance individual nervous systems viii
| more easily bear the labors asked from
| them or not, at any rate, it may fairly
| be assumed that in the early days of
any new style Of life the generations born
| under an old regime have the worst of it.
| Their children cope more easily with the
| new necessities. They are earlier con-
| fronted with them and new arrangements
| which perplexed and worried their
parents become habits easily borne and
| therefore not to be reckoned among the
| trying, elements of existence.
Thus we may imagine future genera
! tons perfectly calm among hundred
| telephones and sleeping sWeetly though
| airships whizz among countless electric
| wires over their heads and a perpetual
| night traffic Of motor car hurtles past
their bedroom windows. AS yet, it must
| be sorroWfully confessed, our nervous
systems are not so callous. Some Of us
still start at the telephone ring and find
! the irregularities Of the instrument
source of irritation and worry Many of
| us are actually neverous at the sudden
| appearance of a motor car round the
wrong side of a London street corner.
The result of countless repetitions Of
these trials, small though 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 counteract-
ing feature of town life at the present
day. We are abiding to the facility with
which those whose week days are spent in
| city toll may spend the seventh in breath
| ing the fresh air and behOlding the inno-
| cent joys of the rustic. To the hard
working Londoner the value of the week
| end properly used is hard to overestimatc.
From the eager broker and worried bust
ness man to the stif1ed seamstress and
| toiling 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 whole
some change of scenery and surroundings
would be scarcely possible in the limited
| time available.
| We do not wish to underrate for a mo-
ment the value of parks and open spaces
| the "citys lungs" For many these af-
| ford the only possibility of a Sunday in at
any rate comparatively fresh air. Those
| large numbers though, who habitually
find the Sabbath's rest in a days whole
some exercise at some little distance from
| their work-a-day center may spare
| moment from the usual condemnatory at
| titude toward the hustle, rush and clatter
| of up-to-date locomotion to bless the
means which enable them so profitably to
enjoy the day.-Lancet.