New-York tribune., 1906-12-27
CLOTHES AND NERVES.

Scarcely a day passes that science does not
tell us something new. Indeed, it has always
seemed to us that the greatest wonder of Ill
the wonders of science" was its ability TO sup
ply the human appetite for novelty. To be sure.
we never hear again of many of these aston
shing contributions with which the popular
taste for new discoveries by the human intellect
is regaled. but that is not at all surprising.
They come too fast for the mind to assimilate
them. Science is already getting to have an
tiquity, and there viii soon be occasion for a
history of the wonderful things over which the
world had no time for more than a before
breakfast thrill We can imagine a scientific
antiquarian Of whom the ancient epigram would
be true:
"Oho!" quoth Time of Thomas Hearne,
Whatever I forget you learn"
proper pride In the progress Of science" is
the habit OF every we'll regulated mind. Every
man respects it as he does the Ten Command
ments and, respecting It, he respects himself.
It is intellectual virtue to believe every new
thing the scientists tell him, and, believing.
to marvel, and, marvelllng, to utter that ever
true exclamation "What wonderful things sci
ence keeps dlscovering!" The sensations of
science entertain the public equally with the
sensations of crime and politics. and 1t is hard
to satisfy the demand for novelties Of knowl-
edge.
their healing interest the general mind. Dis
ease is the surest OF human expectations. Life
Is a course in ii. The list OF diseases in q
medical cyclopRdia is the curriculum. Not
everybody. to be sure gets through the currlc-
ulum, but that is because Of the shortness Of ife
Everybody doubtless read with interest the other
day the news that a Chicago expert neurolo-
gist" had declared this country was getting over
nervous prOstratiOn from East to West West
Il ~.
The East is recovering from its nervousness;
the Middle West is in an acute stage. but 1t,
too. will be convalescent when the disease has
reached its height beyond the Rockies. The
older parts of the country are getting well
first Nervousness is something like national
growing pains" Boston has acquired the Sc
date and settled ways OF age There are no
nerves in Boston. which is nearer the calm
Orient than New York Philadelphia, though
without the advantage in longitude over New
York, is a town with an old head on young
shoulders. Nerves are unknown in Philadel-
phia. We need only mention the circumstance
that the rest cure originated and reached It's
highest perfection in Philadelphia. Can any
think OF a rest cure in Chicago or Kansas
City or Goldf1ed or Bulfrog or Big Gulch?
In connection with this a strange crcum-
stance is called 20 our attention. y New York
man visiting Boston q short time ago took with
him to that embodiment OF all that is highest
in American civilization his best and latest cut
Fifth avenue "dress suit" He found he writes
to THE Boston Herald" that when he wore
it he was q conspicuous exception among Bos-
tonians. The men OF that sedate and unterri-
fed metropolis Of the East he says treat the
first Of the ten commandments of dress with
superb Indifference. They wear what they like
In the evening, and there is no punishment for
that sartorial immortality. Why is Boston so
different from New York in this matter2 We
feel sure that Chicago and Omaha show no
such Complacent disregard for the laws of
dress We read constantly OF the anxiety
which is felt on that subject in such Western
cities as SalIna, Dodge City, Platte. Keokuk,
Cairo and Kalamazoo. The home press Of
Western towns a decade or so ago used to
chronicle the arrival OF the first 'dress suit as
matter of prime Importance. Soon they be-
gan to boast Of the number of such garments
in town. The oldtime Intermunicipal rivalry
regarding population gave place to a rivalry
regarding the number Of "dress suits"-gar-
ments to hire excepted-which the towns con-
tanned.
We note this westward course of the dress
suit" and ask, Has it anything to do with the
westward course of nervous prostration noted
by the Chicago scientist? This is a deep medi-
cal and sociological question, and It seems to
US that a scientist properly trained in induc-
tive reasoning might make much of it.