Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-16
OCTOBER 16, 1910.
WORST MALADY, HoMEslCKNEss

and self-sufficient mortal may be sub
ject, physically, it is evident you have
not travelled widely.
Homesickness, TO the grown man,
seems like a disease for susceptible
children, mental trouble which, II ex-
perienced, must not be revealed, for
tear of ridicule; it seems like an all
ment for the timid and shrinking. 1t
is no such thing.
There was never an army recruited
that did not suffer, to man, with a
more or less intense attack of the dis
ease, though few soldiers will admit 1t,
and physicians in the field have fre-
quently found men, mere physical
wrecks, with no apparent organic
trouble, who were simple victims OF
what is scientifically known as nostal-
gia.
There is a scientific explanation for
it as well as a sentimental, and in
scores of cases the least sentimental
people have suffered Yitally from dis
ease which no one could diagnose, and
which, in fact, was no more than COM
mon homesickness, such as children
suffer when away from the parental
abode.
The city man in the country the
country man in the city, the high
lander in the lowlands, and vice versa,
all know of the pangs of nostalgia.
The foreigner among people with whom
he cannot converse is one of the Keen
est sufferers, for he is in the position
of a man alone IN crowd; but we
all know something of it, if we are
willing to confess 1t.
No appetite, perSpiration, spasmodic
movements of the muscles of the dia-
phragm, hectic fever, blood congestion
and an overWeening desire for sour
things, lemonade and the like-are you
familiar with the symptoms? This is
the catalogue of troubles that are COM
monty associated with nostalgia in the
scientific mind, although they may be
even more numerous and more severe.
There have been cases of slow death
without organic trouble of any sort
that have been due to nothing more
serious than plain, childish homesick-
ness, manifesting itself in people who
"are old enough to know better"
The scientific explanation for the
whole matter of this longing for home
is simply this 1t is not longing for
certain people essentially, for some
of the worst cases have been those of
men who have no relatives or friends
left in the place from which they orig
mate. But a mans life becomes so
ineXtricably a part of his environment,
his earliest environment usually, that
separation from the scenes which he
first knew is like tearing away some
essential part of his anatomy. The inn
pressions which children receive are
the most lasting and the most intense,
therefore most highly priced. These
early sensations of childhood are the
things we miss, and not the girl we
leave behind, though that helps some,
doubtless.
The fact that it is matter Of as
ISOLATION and not one st 1ctly of SEN
tjment is an explain on of many va
riations in the intensity of home lck-
ness. The man who comes fl ON coun-
try where the scenery is of an I'M
pressive and dist nctlve ma ure is
much more violently attack by the
hideous notalgia tnan the fellow who
comes from a co,orless country where
there is nothing to make a deep i'm"
preston on a ch Id s miad. The 10y
from the mountains, where every
glance about him is awe-inspir ng, or
Impressive at least, is the hardest II
reconcile to scenes of anot er char
acter. Take him into a lowland citG
and in sp te of every comic and ev-
cry attention he will suffer agon es OF
mind which communicate themsel es
to the physique. But transport MN
to another mountain scene like his
own in it's features. and the transitl
will be shortly forgotten For TINS
reason the city dive Ter is most e | i.y
feconciled to travel. Cit e5 are mucn
the same the world over, and the sense
of loss disappears as soon as he mas
made fri nds in his ew home.
The change from the peace of co N
try life to the Life of a soldier, in coln-
+riaS like GERMANY. Wlere the young