A DISEASE OF CIVILISATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2481, 25 March 1893, Page 4

A DISEASE OF CIVILISATION.

In the North American Review for December Dr Henry Smith Williams, Medical Superintendent of the Randall’s Islands Hospital, and an authority on diseases of the brain, had an article on “ General Paresis of the Insane,” which attracted wide and deserved attention. We quote its opening paragraph ; Of all diseases that menace the race, only a few are absolutely fatal. Indeed, there is but one common disease that invariably brings its victims speedily to the grave. This most ruthless of maladies is that terrible form of insanity, technically called general paresis or parotic dementia, and known to the layman as “ softening of the brain.” Its unvarying history entitles it to precedence over consumption, cancer, Bright’s disease; in short, places it peerless in bad preeminence. And as if this were not enough, its malignity is emphasized by the way in which it juggles with its victims before it extinguishes his life. It changes his personality, dethrones reason, almost eliminates the mind, and, steadily weakening the body, leaves towards the last a mere skeletal, vegetative being, scarce recognisable as the vestige of his former self; unknown, unfeeling, mindless ; to his friends at once a tearful memory and a terrible objective presence. Finally death comes in a form horrible enough to be the fitting climax of so awful a disease.

Paresis has numbered among its victims scores of eminent men. It does not strike down the clod, but the active, alert, nervously organised business man, author, actor, statesman, physician, journalist, etc. What is its cause ?

In a word, abuse of function; overactivity of the brain. Who among us does not know of a once brilliant intellect now periodically clouded, or, perchance, brought to an incurable condition by overwork or abuse of certain functions.

We do not wish to unnecessarily harrow up the feelings of the reader. What we desire, is to point out the way of escape. When a man feels that he is losing his grip of business, that his money is failing him, that he tires easily, that his head aches, and that he cannot eat and sleep well, it is high time to call a halt. It is either a question of less business, less self-gratification,or softening of the brain and death. A certain stage of the disease having been reached, death from paresis is just as certain as from an advanced case of consumption. It is, therefore, the part of wisdom, that when a man realises that he is overexerting himself, to put a break on his desires and begin intelligent treatment. Let him not foolishly resort to stimulants, narcotics, drugs, etc., which are but temporary expedients, but to that which will put him on the road to permanent health, Bach an aid is found in Warner’s Safe Cure and Warner’s Safe Nervine. Warner’s Safe Cure will relieve tin engorged kidneys, aid digestion, and assist in making healthy blood, while Warner’s Safe Nervine will bring and sleep to the tired brain and nerves, Thousands have escaped the asylum and premature death by pursuing the course w<3 have outlined, and we beg of you, reader, if SO afflicted, that for your own sake, as well as the happiness of those who are near and dear to you, to be wise in time, and to-day begin that course of living and resort to that help which will lead to a vigorous manhood, with faculties unimpaired and with years of usefulness in store.