The San Francisco call., 1908-11-22
STRANGE MA[ADI[S
AFFLICT MANKIND
Fears of Various Things Are a
Heritage From Our SIM
ian F0rebears

OAAC VI Lie lnlliSS lHdl inOQeT0 Iucu-
icine has yet to do is to mark out
exactly the dividing line between sick
ness and health. At present the whole
matter is vague and obscure, and all
sorts or controversies are raging. To
the layman the problem is sometimes
presented in its simplest form. The
hands of a day laborer, for instance,
become covered with a hard, horny
substance. He regards it as natural
and necessary thing. But when the
same substance appears on his feet he
calls the nodules bunions, and looks
upon them as pernicious. Here we have
the same phenomenon viewed from
diametrically different aspects. Once it
is normal and the next time it is ab-
normal; once it is an evidence of health
and the next time OF disease.
Similar problems engage the pathol-
ogist constantly. For instance he is
puzzled often to point out an essential
difference between fatigue and illness.
Ordinary fatigue, as every one knows,
is compatible with perfect health Yet
fatigue sometimes becomes indistin-
guishable from pathological exhaus-
tion. Again, consider the pain which
accompanies the cutting of teeth. Is it
10 be taken as proof of illness or as
manifestation of good health? Yet
again, consider the matter of hunger.
When does it cease to be normal and
become unnatural unhealthy and dis
eased?
In no department of pathology is
there more furious debate regarding
this dividing line between health and
illness than in the department which
deals with the mind. Evidence of this
is furnished almost daily by proceed
lngs in the law courts. One, alienist
testifies that a murderer is perfectly
sane and normal and that he is en-
tfrely conscious of the nature of his
crime. Another swears that he is abb
solutely irresponsible. AS a matter of
fact the boundary between sanity and
insanity is a fence whose bars are
down. The most intelligent man in the
world is deficient mentally in some
respect or other. and the worst mnatic
is. in some way or at some time per-
fectly normal.
CONCERNING NEURASTHENIA
Ordinarily. pathologists distinguish
two well marked and distinct mental
states between undoubte6l sanity and
undoubted lunacy. One is called
neurasthenia and the other hysteria
Neurasthenia is condition marked by
| excessive sensitiveness to ordinary
stimuli That is to say, the neuras-
thenic is profoundly and unpleasantly
affected by things or events which
bother the normal nan little or not at
all. In hysteria this weakness is more
marked. The hysaerlc is another step
forward on the road to insanity. He
suffers from well marked delusions and
in many respects has lost entirely his
power of ratiociaation. Another step
and he is obvioasly crazy.
| Neurasthenias is called the national
malady OF the United States; all of us,
it is said are more or less its victims.
/ One man has a case of nerves" and a
loud noise pAkes him jump from his
! chair, anotber man is abnormally ex-
citable and quarrels on the slightest
provoeatiot; another Is gloomy and
downcast no matter what the tempta-
ton to Re gay; another ''hates chill
dren"; azother is nervous and can not
sit still for two minutes at a time;
another has a senseless fear of the
water All of these men, at bottom, are
neurakthenics They are out of tune
with the rest of the world The or
dinar9 phenomena and experience of
life pain them.
Every man fancies that he person
1 allyEs absolutely free of such abnor-
maliies and delusions; but, as a matter
OF fIct It is extremely rare to encoun-
ter human being of whom this claim
may be made truthfully.
DELUsIONs OF MANKIND
t.Every man." says the German prov
CRIB, has his tubercle." We may para
Jhrase that into Every man has his
ldelusion." One is afraid of the water
and another of the dark; one fears
firearms and another sharp instru-
ments; one hates crowd and another
hates loneliness; one turns sick at the
sight of blood-and his wife faints If
a mouse crosses the room. These people
do not make believe; they really suffer.
If Won do not believe it consider your