NERVES THE MODERN COMPLAINT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 142, 14 June 1909, Page 6

NERVES THE MODERN COMPLAINT.

(By Br Herbert Snow.)

<Late Senior-Surgeon—29 _ years burgeon—Cancer Hospital.) Whatever effect modern civilisation may have uoon our physique—whether it is, or is not, as maaiy now think, producing permanent racial degeneracy—there can be no question that most people daily grow more and more neurotic. That is to say, their nerves become less stable, more unduly sensitive to slight changes in the environment, more easily thrown out of gear. Trivial troubles of all kinds unduly worry, are habitually magnified into big ones, assume an importance quite disproportionate to their real significance. Trivial ailments are found to exert a far greater influence on tern-, per and bodily vigour than they rightly should. They also become more prevalent. One instance of this is the frequency of toothache, and the necessity for incessant visits to the dentist. A friend of mine in that profession, lately remarked to me how seldom working men complain of that malady, which proverbially no philosopher has ever yet been able to bear with patience. You often find a labourer With every tooth in his head more or less decayed, yet this has never apparently caused him tho slightest uneasiness. DIFFERENCE IN NERVEORGANISATION. A fine thing it is to be practically without nerves. In my youthful days, I was house-surgeon at _ a hospital among the iron furnaces in the Midlands." A very common accident was the emission of tiny specks of metal, which flew into the eye of tho operative, and became firmly embedded within the hard horny cornea. It was my task to extract them, and that could rarely ba done in a moment. I constantly marvelled at the insouciance with which a man would fold his hands, and sib with seemingly complete indifference gazing calmly at the ceiling while 1 tediously picked away the source of trouble. Often the process occupied 15 or 20 minutes. Yet, throughout, the patient_ never started, or ever offered to raise his hand. Ho might as well .have been made of wood for any sensitiveness to pain ho showed. The eye was kept widely open, apparently without the slightest effort Of course, cocaine was unknown in those days. On th© other hand, no one with nerves of the modern type could bear, unaided by some local anaesthetic, the faintest approach to a touch on tho eyeball without starting, and winking; however strong his will may be. The action is reflex and wholly involuntary. Most people know what a trouble it is to get away even a speck of dust which lias lodged under the eyelid ; though that never becomes embedded. NATURE'S SWEET RESTORER, BALMY SLEEP. The best test of any individual's nerve-tonicit-y and vitality generally, is the quality of his or her sleep. Those who enjoy vigorous health fall almost instantaneously into the arms of the drowsy god, do not dream, and awake thoroughly refreshed and renovated. Thh neurasthenic or neurotic -on the other hand succumb slowly, are readily aroused by the slightest noise, dream perpetually finally arise more tired than when they went to bed. The bed "pulls hard." They could slumber en for ever they tell jo a. Persons of the former happy class can hardly be awoke before their allotted time has expired by anything less startling than a pistol shot. Then they spring up readily, alert and active. This fine quality is infinitely more important from a health point of view than is quantity. It is unsafe to lay down dogmatic rules as to tho amount required by a given indi-,-idnal; though eight hours may be ,ughly taken as the average period \o? an adult. In tms and in every other health matter, it cannot be too often reiterated that no single sanitary maxim applies indiscriminately to all. CHILDREN'S NERVES. A very largo proportion indeed of the * common rierve-troubles of later .life is duo to bad management in early years, and to various foolish "fads' on tho part of parents or perhaps, more frequently, of nurses. In. many of tne nurseries of the well-to-do there is ny unwritten law as immutable as those of the Medes and Persians, that every infant must be awoke at a fixed hour, no matter whether it has completed its proper rest or not. This is ono of the most important sources of stunted stature, and of physical degenefacy. Every young child should be left,' if possible, to awake spontaneously. There should be no curtailment ofrwihe period nature allots for repairs, and which she accurately modifies to the requirements of tho age and time.

At later stages, the school discipline usually necessitates infraction of this rule to some extent. But even then, especially in our rigorous climate with its protracted winters, 'nothing is gained by dragging boys and girls out of bed at unconscionable hours, more adapted to the purposes of a monastery. Fortunately in these days, most schools exhibit more humanity in this respect than they did a generation ago. THE COLD TUB OR DOUCHE. Much harm is also done to the constitution of delicate youngsters by measures intended to "harden" it, but exerting precisely the opposite effect. Growth is often greatly checked by too frequent baths at an early ago. Zeal for cleanliness is often carried too far. You see little ones who have been noticed to languish, commonly pick up immediately the daily tubbing is renounced. So later on schoolboys are encouraged by athletic preceptors to take a cold bath every morning in the year. Some thrive on the process, but a great many do not, and not infrequently perseverance in the supposed "hardening," process lays the seeds of permanent debility. I knew a boy of 16 who tried .this,, and went on with it for several months. It immediately arrested his growth, and left him perceptibly weaker lor the following five years.

You can really do but little to modify Nature's arrangements, made for us when we begin life. If a, boy or girl is endowed with a vigorous circulation, and quickly attains a reaction after exposure to cold, the cold bath is beneficial and helps to enhance their natural robustness. If, on the ■ether hand, they are chilly, and rarely or never secure a warm after-glow, they are better without the morningtub, except in warm weather, and with proper precautions. No amount of perseverance will transfer them from one class to the ether; or will \ effect approximation; except in the most limited degree. ERRORS IN DIET IN CHILDREN. Mistakes in feeding the child are often accountable for nerve breakdowns later on. The permanent stability of ,a building largely depends on. its foundation. Vegetarian parents won't allow >iieir. offspring meat; and even people who have no vegetarian prejudices commonly limit the supply of animal food. _ No child _ will eat more meat than is good for it; whatever excess it may be prone to in other directions. Nature is here, as everywhere else, a safe guide. On the other hand, numerous maladies of early years are due to insufficient animal food. General mal-nutrition, rickets, scrofula, spinal curvature,even tuberculosis, may bo pointed out as largely owing to errors in diet. Of the- renowned "Tubercle-bacillus," I fear we hear too much in those days of the beast itself, and too little of the soil in which alone 10 can become rooted and breed. Indulgence at too early an age in strong tea and coffee must bq emphatically deprecated. Theformer is a very common cause of restless nights and sleeplessness. The longer we contrive to do without such artificial aids to vitality the better. Cocoa, milk, porridge are free from

objection, and will much better pro- J mote the physical progress ; of the race. LATER YEARS. When childhood is past, numerous other causes tend to deteriorate tho nerves. In youth, a faulty educational system, over-pressure at school, multiplicity of stringent examinations j insisting' on quantity rather than j quality, rank among the chief. Then, when adult years are reached, there follows an increasingly severe struggle for existence, which involves the ! maximum of wear-and-tear, and tends often rather to the survival of the most unscrupulous than of the best and fittest. People are becoming more and more herded together in large towns, and the great majority are compelled to live among more or less insanitary surroundings. The continuous hurry and scurry of city life, unless there bo frequent alterations of relative tranquility, most injuriously affect our nerves. Then two points demand our special consideration. One is resort to tho class of drugs, termed "Narcotics" ; of which alcohol is the most important and most dangerous. The next is the effect of worry and anxiety. ALCOHOL, ETC. The more unstable the _ general nerve-equilibrium of an individual becomes, the greater is the natural tendency to alcoholic drinks. And exactly in like measure does alcohol, indulged in to excess, become a poison. The stolid agriculturist will rarely go to bed sober, and will succeed in living till 80 or 90. The highly-strung financier, or author, or actor, .never becomes actually intoxicated; but dies of Bright's disease —or some similar medical euphemism for whisky-and-Bi>da--at 60 or less. What, then, can be done to prevent the growing strain on people's nerves? First, there is the essential point, above insisted on, of bringing up children so as to reach adult age with their natural physical health, the less the nerve-strain under each and every condition. Secondly, the problem of rendering it easy for all to live, while not neglecting those matters which ensure the higher evolution of the race has to be solved. This is one for the legislature ; and this is not a political article. Thirdly. there is the still more difficult social problem of inviting thirteen (or more) to a banquet prepared only for twelve. But apart from questions such as these, the m,ost important point is to cultivate from early youth the habit of looking at everything from the brightest possible side. Much may be done by trying to cultivate cheerful--ness—failing that, stoicism. And I will conclude with the following quotation from an almost forgotten Agnostic book ('Roots,' by the late Earl of Pembroke). It admirably breathes that stoical spirit eminently required by weak modern nerves in the days of strain and stress, and of anxieties which seem overwhelming. "From the realisation of our blank ignorance ... we learn of necessity a blind trust in God, that makes us'almost smile at the misery we experienced at the outset. We march along the path of life, fearlessly following the conscience He has given us as honestly as we can; feeling that in a great trust we have found peace.