Brain-Pressure.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 916, 20 September 1889, Page 4

Brain-Pressure.

Of course there are some people (says James Payo in the Illustrated London Newsj who are born idlers ; who oan put up thei r legs in a railway carriage, and ‘ think of nothing ’ for twelve hours , or can lie on the beaoh, with their wideawake tilted over their eyes, and drowse away whole after, noons. But, as a rule, it is dangerous TO ADVISE A JADED MAN TO DO NOTHING J after a few days of it, he looks longingly at the. hat-pegs in his lodging at the seaside, and wonders whether his braces will bear him. He must have an occupation of some sort, besides making * duck and drakes ’ in the water with flat stones. One is glad to find that writers on medical matter at last begin to perceive this. Where they are still in darkness is in attributing so much evil to overwork. BRAIN* PRESSURE SELDOM CAUSED BY OVER- ’ WOtlK. Brain-pressure, as they call it, is very seldom caused by overwork. ’ Jfo man who h»3 any brains worth speaking of will endeavour to force work out of them when ex. hausted, anymore than he willspur a panting and stumbling horse ; he knows that it is utterly useless. The picture of a man burning the midnight oil, with a wet towel tied round his head, is THE PORTRAIT OP AN IDIOT. What he does under such conditions is absolutely profitless, besides, of coqrse, being harmful to the last degree. Ret him go to bed, and work in the morning. fiersous even of ordinary intelligence do not outrage nature and common.sense in this way. What brings the brain-worker to the piteous pass in which we so often find him, is NOT OVERWORK, BUT WORRY generally iu the form of the creditor. Physicians are then in vain. He wants the banker (who will see fiim hanged first). The best advice for him—and it is very cold cqmforfi, one mqst admit—is to restrict his expenses ; to take still less out pf his scanty purse, and LIV.E ON pKs£S; He must deny himgelf even the poorest prei tencc pf prosperity—thqt course alone pan reach the seat of his malady. It is to this unhappy wretch that the jovial doctor says, 1 My dear fellow, you must take a holiday ; what is the matter with you is overwork.* It is nothing of the kind j it is the butchey and his unpaid biff,