Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-17

Protcus himself; but in this article we
will consider only that phase of 1t which
is related to our subject. NeuraSthenia can
be distinguished by the various disagree
able symptoms it produces. Among these
are headache and backache, with dead
ening" of all the organs concerned IN dlges-
ton metabolism, and elimination; a pro-
found nervous and muscular weakness,
melancholy, and general depression, mental
irritability, and sleeplessness. In fact,
when the nerves "let down there is little or
nothing that may not happen to a person.
The fourth common cause for spring fever
is oxygen starvation. There IS hardly any
thing that can be drunk out of bottle that
will produce headache, lassltude, or the gen
cral debility signs Of spring fever any sooner
than oxygen hunger, Notwithstanding the
fact that a human being can accustom HIM
self to almost any amount OF abuse.
One almost universal method of INDUCING
in this abuse is to exclude good air and re-
breathe the bad air in a room, from
which most of the oxygen has been exhaust
ed, and replaced with carbondioxid. Now,
a human being is-or should bean out
door animal. He usually is, in summer; for
doors and windows are then constantly
open; but in the winter humanity shuts
itself up in Theoretically sealed boxes as
nearly as possible From houses, offices,
churches, theaters streetcars, trains from
every place where oxygen should be avail
able, it is excluded, chiefly for economic
reasons.
TT costs money to heat house or a street.
car. 1t is less expensive to bottle up last
summers air, and breathe it over and over
again; that is, it seems less expensive. In
reality it is not; for the cost falls upon the
ultimate consumer in this as in other cases
where the overhead charges are passed
along The transportation company saves
money by herding passengers into made
quate boxes These are warmed somewhat
as the "breath of lowing kline warmed the
stable in Burns beautiful poem. But the
loss in energy on the part of passengers con-
scquent upon having to rebreathe one an
Others carbonic gas exhalation, is very de-
cided.
The householder also thinks he is saving
money, to which the coal man or the gas
company are legitimately entitled, by fasten-
ing weather strips on all doors and WIN
dows, and by educating the family to shout
in Mortified unison "Shut that door, In
fact, slamming the door in an unholy tri-
umph of dexterity is our most proficient
winter accomplishment. Yet, if a 1.-THE of
this energy was employed in holding the
door open, SO that the family might have
Ife DelleIlt Oh breathing HltiC lllOlC ohySCIl
and little less carbonic acid gas. the chances
are that they would be energized into doing
a quantity and quality of work that would
insure them an increased income,-an in
come more than adequate to buy many
thousand units of whatever it is they burn
as fuel And in the meantime they would
be oxidizing their food, and thereby pre-
venting the formation of underoxidized 1end
products, '-unconsumed clinkers, which
remain in the system to clog, poison, and
depress.
60 the cure of these four causes of spring
- fever is ridiculously simple. 1t consists
merely in a radical regulation of the diet,
based upon the physical needs of the body,
liberal flushing of the system with plain cool
water,-the palmer the better, and a plen-
tifu increase in the intake of oxygen.
1t should be remembered that the system
requires just about SO much nutritive ma
terial-or perhaps little bit more, for good
measure. Roughly, the average require
ment for all races of mankind is the amount
that will furnish from two thousand to three
thousand calories Of heat every twenty-four
hours A calory is the amount required to
raise the temperature of one pint of water
four degrees Fahrenheit. If man rises
from his chair and walks about eight feet,
then returns, he uses up one of these units.
Yet the body-even while resting or quiet
in sleeps constantly using up energy 1t