The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-26
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HOLIDAY.
whence Comes the Benefit of Summer
Months in the Country.
American Physician.

American PHYSICIAN
Now that the holiday time has come
and gone we may do we'll to consider what
is the active principle OF holiday, and the
reason of its influence. The ordinary ex-
plantations of the holiday cure are very
vague. For instance, we attribute our I'M
provement to fresh air, but there is no evil
dence that the chemical results of country
air inside of us can Withstand an hour
exposure to the air of a large city. We
say that the change has done us good. but
we should be hard put to 1t to define our
meanings, or to draw the line between
change and the memory of change. We
refreshed us, though We may feel just as
tired Immediately after as We did before.
action of holidays; we can only observe
that they fail to act on those who do not
need them, and on those who do not know
how to take them and are constant to re,
sumo wherever they go the habits and
modes of city life.
Perhaps the closest analogy to the holt
day influence Is to be found in the restora-
tive power of sleep, for there are many
resemblances between the two processes.
Concerning sleep much has been written
in vain. 1t has been described in terms
of human physiology, as though vegetables
did not also sleep, and wake, and sleep
again; and, for all we know TO the con-
trary, there may be nocturnal state, akin
to sleep, through the whole inorganic
world. And holiday, like sleep, is a
reversion, a periodical phase or instinct
in man: there is a sense of going back to
that passive state which is one of the
oldest and most constant facts of our ma
ture 1t is not the mere absence of work,
but the positive satisfaction of existence
without work. that makes a holiday; it is
the exercise of the aboriginal faculty for
passive idleness, which has not been exer-
cised for a year; for the faculties of the
holiday life are just the difficulties of the
working life.
Other instincts probably of later origin,
urge us TO use our holidays, not in idleness.
but In sightseeing, and we go climbing and
travelling and admiring far and wide. Even
| here the analogy between holidays and
| sleep still holds good, for the sightseeing
| Is to the idleness as dreams to sleep. A
| great deal of nonsense is talked about
| dreams, and it would be well worth the
| trouble IL the experimental psychologists
would make careful clinical study of
them. The tabulation of 10000 dreams
| could scarcely fail TO bring out some very
| strange facts of association, memory and
| character. Anyhow, ii is to be noted that
| the faculties and senses which are most
| awake when we are asleep-the exaltation
of the emotions and the Imagination, the
| revival of the past, the sense of adventure
| and of wonderful have their counterpart
| in the holiday life; and the very phrase
| that we use TO describe the utmost pleas
| ure of sightseeing is that ii is like dream
| For we are in holiday time such stuff as
| tive, We find the beauty of common things
| But 1t is still a matter of instinct and a
| return to nature, for the natural man is
not man as he may once have been, but
man as he is. So great a part of us is in.
| hibited during the eleven months of the
working year, not only the faculty fol
idleness. but also the free exercise of oul
bodies and enjoyment of art, our va
grant thoughts and all casual and unbusi
| nesslike habits. Then comes the holiday
and these and the like happy instincts stil
| and are set at liberty like dreams in sleep.
Therefore, In the halcyon weeks we ough
to take our rest and change as a natura
phase of our lives-like men who give them
selves TO sleep, perchance to dream. Their,
Is something in the idleness of a holida,
that is not mere fatigue and in its sight
seeing something that is rot mere self
culture