Year: 1874

a symptom OI meutdl eAuduStlOI,


indicative of very good degree Of


mental strain, is persistent wakeful-


ness. The physiological cause Of this


condition is well understood. During


excessive labor of the brain there is an


increased flow of blood to the working


organ, the vessels of the head and neck


become distended with blood, as is


shown by the flushing of the face. II


this condition of distention is long con-


tinued, the vessels are apt to lose the


power of contracting when mental ac-


tivity is diminished. Hence. arises the


impossibility of fulfilling the physical


conditions of sleep, the most important


of which is the diminution of the flow


of the vital fluid to the brain. Some
extraordinary instances have been re-


corded of prolonged wakefulness as a
result of mental overstrain. Boerhave


mentions that when, on one occasion,
intently engaged on a paticular study.
he did not close his eyes in sleep for
six weeks. Sir Gilbert Blame was in
formed by Gen. Pichegrue that for a
whole year, when engaged in active
campaign, he slept but one hour in the
twenty-four. These and other similar
cases, have probably, been uncon-
sciously exaggerated, for people often
sleep without having an after-conscious-
ness of the fact. 1t is certain that the
continued deprivation of any considers
BILE part of the normal amount of sleep
will be seriously detrimental to health.
DR.. Hammond, in his work on sleep,
mentions the case of a literary man in
America who, for nearly a year, while
intently engaged in favorite study,
restricted his period of rest to four
hour q day, and frequently less.


At the end of that time the overtask-
ing of his mental powers was manifested
in curious way. He told the physi-
clan that though still able to maintain
a connected line of reasoning, he found
that as soon as he attempted to record
his ideas on paper the composition
turned out to be simply tissue of ar
rant nonsense. When in the act of
writing his thoughts flowed so rapidly
that he was not conscious of the discon-
nected nature of what he was writing {:
but as soon as he stopped to read it
over he was aware how completely he
had misrepresented his conceptions.
Ii the language happned TO be at all in
telligible, it was sure to have no rela-
ton to the ideas he wished to express.
Thus, wishing to obtain book from a
friend, he found that, instead of the re-
quest, he had written the prayer of
Socrates, as given by Plato.


Sir Isaac Newton, in the later years
of his life, suffered greatly from wake
fulness. The fact, well known to every
medical man, that persistent sleepless-
ness is frequently the precursor or
initiatory stage OF several most intracta-
BILE maladies, physical and mental. al
ways invests the presence of this indica-
ton of mental overstrsin with grave
interest. But a continued course of
excessive mental labor generally mani
tests itself on the mind itself in various
ways, all more or less premonitory of
collapse. The brain-worker
begins to perceive an unwonted want OF
clearness in his ideas work comes
gradually less on him he is alarmed
at sudden awkward failures of memory;
a feeling of surfeit or disgust Will steal
over him in the midst of work he be-
comes unable to fix his attention, and
latterly feels as if all mental energy was
crushed out of him.


If these warnings of an overwrought
brain, now speaking distinctly with the
tongue disease, are disregarded, the
wonder frequently is not that the inevi-
table retribution follows, but that it
should have been SO long delayed.
What particular form the Nemesis shall
assume, whether of physical or mental
will be determined by accidents
partly of personal habit and tempera-
ment and partly of inherited predispo-
sition. 1t is noteworthy, however, that
the common opinion that excessive
mental occupation gravitates toward
does not appear to be verified
by facts. Indeed, one of the foremost
Of living physicians doubts whether
alienation of mind is ever the result of
overstrain. 1t is to physical, not to
mental arrangement, that excessive
work of the brain generally gives rise.
Insanity, he points out, finds the most
suitable material for its development
among our clod-dish uneducated classes;
while the worst forms of physical dis
ease are originated and intensified by
our educated, overstrainning brain
workers. Chambers Journal