The Danger of being too Well.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 4

The Danger of being too Well.

‘ When a man’s a little bit poorly ’ then is the time, according to a song which was much in vogue in our grandmothers’ days, that he * makes a fuss ’ and ‘ wants a nurse ;’ but the Lancet, which ought to be a trustworthy guide in such matters, would have ua beware of feeling to wall. The familiar little dialogue, * How are you this morning ?—very well, thank you’—or as our contemporary prefers to put it, * the customary salutation replied to in the usual adverbial manner,’ furnishes, we are assured, ‘no accurate criterion ’ of the state of one’s health, ‘ since a general par*lyticoften feels much better than he ha 3 any physiological right to do.’ ‘Right to be happy ! ’ exclaims Carlyle in one of his contemptuous outbursts against the famous declaration of the Rights of Man—. 1 what right ere now hadat thou even to be ? ’ And how can any of us be sure that in feeling * very well’ we are not exceeding our lawful privileges ? The Lancet writer has evidently more than grave doubts on this point, for he exhorts us to bear in mind that * to feel extraordinary well costs much, and the excessive expenditure of mental force may derange a considerable number of corporeal functions.’ Is there anyone among our readers vi ho under the bracing influences of our present agreeable foretaste of the bright Ootober weather feeis more than usually ready for the heartiest of breakfasts, the most boisterous of games, the toughest of journeys on cycle, foot, or horseback ? If so let him tie up the knocker at once and send for Dr. Jones.—Daily News.