BUSINESS HABITS LEADING TO MADNESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2373, 24 August 1899, Page 56

BUSINESS HABITS LEADING TO MADNESS.

"If people would devote half an hour a •fl a y — S ay, one-sixteenth of the time that they sacrifice to the worship of Mammon — to learning how to keep sane," a distinguished brain specialist recently rera-'iked to a representative, "I should be on the road to the workhouse." It is a melancholy fact that, instead of being able to dispense with some of our already numerous lunatic asylums, we are in urgent need of many more. As civilisation progresses insanity increases, and the reason is not far to seek. Formerly, when we led more leisurely lives and competition was less severe, madness was comparatively rare: its cultivation was retarded by stubborn soil — soil which lacked the dis-ease-nourishing qualities of excitement, worry, and feverish activity, which are so essential to the spread of idiocy. Business men are to-day being driven to the madhouse as they were never driven before. And why? Chiefly because they cannot, or will not, allow themselves time in which to refresh their jaded brains. Nature has equipped us with no more exquisitely complex piece of mechanism than the brain. It is capable of withstanding tremendous strains, but because it does not always cry out, like our limbs, when it is tired', ye are apt to forget there is a limit to its endurance. Like the pirate omnibus horse, it is flogged up hill and down dale until, after mute protests, it finally Collapses. How, then, can we make tolerably sure of keeping sane? This question can be best answered perhaps by citing a few examples of men who have not succeeded in keeping sane. There has lately died in the north of England a well-known accountant who for seven years never took a holiday. In iplendid practice, he was anxious to amass a, fortune and retire early. After being five years in perpetual harness, his brain began to show signals of distress. He was not so quick at figures as he used to be, nor so accurate. It was plain that his mind required rest. He refused to obey the mandate of exhausted nature, however, and stuck to his books. Two years later his brain gave way to such an extent that he was unable to repeat the multiplication table. Subsequently his mind became a total blank; and, though perfectly conscious, he died without even recognising his wife. Even doctors do not invariably keep sane. A popular membei of the profession succumbed to insanity last year. Hi& brain warned him of what was in store for him, but he had jumped into a big practice which brought him big fees. The first indication of mental disturbance was his inability to remember names of patients. Impaired memory is a certain sign of brain exhaustion and want of repose, but thedoctor disregarded it. The result was that he developed into a hopeless idiot. An enormous amount of insanity can be traced to the habit indulged in by business people of taking their work home with them. The men who achieve most success in life and live to enjoy the fruits of their labours are those who, confining their commercial operations strictly to office hours, devote their evenings to their families or to the pursuit of some hobby. The best brain tonic is change of occupation. Yet s=ome or. (he richest men, -while maintaining their bums at conceit pi 1 eh throughout the day, spend thci* uivar <lu-ij&jl hua^b ;m

devising plans for acquiring wealth. The disastrous consequences of their folly they discover when it is too late. One day about five years ago, a city merchant, who boasted that he had never wasted an hour, ordered some soup at a restaurant. Strangely enough, just as he took the first mouthful his brain seemed to snap. From that moment his gold might I have been so many bricks for all the use it was to him, for be starved himself to death. Nature had repeatedly held out the red flag to this persistent money-grubber. For some time he had been unable to fix his attention on any subject : when writing his flow of words was deficient and hia spelling inaccurate; but he preferred to thrash his brain to destruction rather than lose a few sovereigns. Mind wandering is one of the first precursors of mental decay ; but the fault can be remedied by relaxation — by forgetting the cares of business of an evening and bracing the mind with fresh interests. Tradesmen are chronic sinners in. this respect. Engrossed with the one idea of getting ahead of their rivals, as they can scarcely help being in these strenuous days, they unnecessarily employ their evenings in concocting new enterprises, overlooking the fact that the brain is capable of much better things after its fair share of re&t than when it is continually on the move. A prosperous tradesman was placed in an asylum a few months ago after threatening to stab one of his most intimate friends. Is was learned that he had long suffered from headaches, and that for a whole year his mind had been occupied, to the exclusion of everything else, in plotting how he could crush an opposition shop. In one of his sane moments he confessed that the piessure on his brain was such that he felt it could only be relieved by the shedding of blood. No more extraordinary illustration of the danger of overworking the brain — or rather concentrating it on one spot, so to speak, 'for the brain is never overworked if it is engaged on a variety of subjects — could be found than the case of a gifted lady artist who, after, slaving at a picture for months and worrying abotit its ultimate fate at an important exhibition, fell into a deep sleep which lasted nineteen hours. When she awoke her knowledge of art had completely vanished. One of the surest ways of ending one's days in a madhouse is to stimulate a fagged biain by constant " nips " of spirits. Overindulgence in spirits injures the memory to an incredible degree. In years gone by no person who was known to be of intemperate habits was permitted to appear as a witness in the Spanish courts of justice, the authorities maintaining that alcoholism was so prejudicial to the brain that it was unsafe to accept the testimony of an inebriate. There is a singular instance on record of a merchant who grew so accustomed to jogging his brain by brandy drinking thai, unless he could procure a " nip " he was utterly unable to work. Needless to say, he generally left his office in a state of intoxication. The day that his brain collapsed he went home and insisted on putting every member of his family to bed, under the impression that they, too, had drunk not wisely but too well.