Omaha daily bee., 1906-04-08
Clay Modelling
Rv Joseph Collins. Ia. 10.

by Joseph Ct
4 u more than thirty-nve years since
George M. Beard, physician of this
city, described the disease which Is now
universally known as neurasthenia
nervous exhaustion and nervous pros
tratlon. Neurasthenia, the name that
DIR. Beard selected for the mental ana
bodily symptoms which he maintained
constituted a disease, means literally
nerve weakness. DR.. Beard found II
easier to discover a new disease than to
get the medical profession to recognize
that he knew whereof he spoke and wrote.
He devoted twenty years of youthful en-
ergy, tireless enthusiasm and matchless
patience to the task and won out.
For years after he described neurasthe-
MIA the reality of its existence was tg-
nored by all save a few specialists. The
way in which the disease was accepted
finally, however, was characteristic OF the
people of this country. We Americans do
not move by steps, but by flights. When
we turn over the first page we fly straight
way to the end of the story. II we accept
anything at all 1t must be wholly ours
even IL 1t be disease. Whether the dis
ease described by Beard has taken a per
sistent hold upon the American people or
whether the American people have taken
an insstent hold upon the symptoms, the
fact remains that the popularlZaton of
neurasthenia has been complete. There
is probably no other disease on record
that has received such a degree OF atten-
ton from the laity. Abroad It is often
spoken Of as our national disease. 1t is
an American disease only in so far as Il
was discovered by an American physician
and that America offers in an unrivalled
degree the conditions upon which It
thrives.
Work, worry and excuses are, in a nut
shell, the immediate causes of neurasths-
MIA. Work, worry and excuses form =
trio which few constitutions are able to
IL n
cause; work and worry are. Our American
life of to-day offers the most fertile soil
In which these causes can flourish and
multiply. The feverish competition In all
departments of life which Is the out
growth OF the struggle in the industrial
world spreading like an epidemic even
into tn eheart OF social and domestic life,
has infected all with frenzy of unrest.
This spirit OF unrest is the spirit Of our
time. 1t finds expression In gigantic
trusts. in strife between capital and labor
in our politics, our churches, our chari-
ties, our schools and our homes. Every
where are excess and dissipation Of en-
ergy
Our besetting sin is the tendency to sac
rihce method to acton-often to meaning
less action. Our very rehnements mar
roWly escape the vulgarity of being over
done. We overwork. overeat, overdress
We make a task of our amusements, and
in order to sustain this unnatural tension
nave recourse 10 AL
forms, excitement being the chief. We
score up to our account crimes OF com
mission In order TO escape faults of omis-
sion, and In the mad rush TO win the game
we sacrifice too often half OF the advan-
tage and nearly all OF the pleasure Of
playing. Balzac said many years ago
This age Is afflicted with a disease thai
makes every man strive 90 rise above hil
fellows, and there are more saints thar
shrines among u.s." The disease that Bal,
FAC speaks OF appears 10 have emigratec
since his day to America and to have De-
come naturalized 1t has broken the way
for neurasth enia.
Neurasthenia is essentially a democratic
disease. It Is no respecter OF sex, age OF
class. Men have II oftener than women
because they are more exposed to the ex-
citing causes, but In proportion as women
essay to rival men In their work and In
their pleasures they expose themselves e
neurasthenia. Formerly, when their re-
strictlons were greater, though their use
fulness was perhaps no less, neurasthenis
was very uncommon In women. Neuras-
thenia existed long before DR.. Boards
time, but Il has become more frequent al
social political and economic conditions
have made the struggle for existence more
violent and the prospects for quiet life
more perilous. SO long as such conditions
exist and so long as mankind essays
through choice or necessity, to cope with
them Just so long viii neurasthenia con,
tlnue 20 occur. unless in process OF evolu,
ton the human species becomes more abb,
20 resist these factors AS there seems L
be little chance that evolutionary progress
viii hurl itself into the breach Il become.
necessary for the individual, In order thai
he may Withstand the strife, 20 ADOPT
measures that will tend to fortify his vita
resistance and nervous equilibrium. II 4
truism TO say that all men enter the
race OF life differently equipped. Som,
may transgress Hygeia's laws every day
Without having a penalty eXacted; Others
find Il perilous TO transgress once. Befors
any one gets far on the journey through
life he finds himself possessed OF certain
funds that may easily be divided into TIVE
classes. The first Is what we call inher
itance. II Is the amount OF nerve fore,
OF energy with which each individual 4
bora into the world and which he eanno