AN AWFUL WARNING TO BACHELORS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XV, 9 April 1898, Page 435

AN AWFUL WARNING TO BACHELORS.

MARRY AND ESCAPE INSANITY. So many jokes have been made at the expense of the married man with a. houseful of babies and a mother-in-law, and his consequent disposition to become insane, that matrimony has come to lie looked upon as anything but desirable among many classes of society. But a certain doctor. who is said to lie something of an authority in physiology, comes forward in the face of this Itelief amt announces that figures, compiled with great care, show that the single man has six times as much prospect of becoming insane as the married man when the natural condition of both are alike. Speaking of his views on the desirability of every young man being compelled to marry, t his medical man says:—‘At every age from nineteen up to sixty-five, and even upward, the chances of a single man becoming insane are six times and more greater than the chances of a married man going mad. Between the ages of twenty and twenty-four the ‘odds' against the single man are something like 77 to 10, although they become slightly smaller as the ages increase. ‘As far as women are concerned, the married woman has a marked superiority over unmarried women: but this superiority is far from being so great as that of a married man over a single man. ‘Marriage is everywhere nature's way, and the only safe way to live. A young man without the restraint of marriage develops a general irritation or restlessness. He begins to drink, or, what is worse, begins to smoke cigarettes, to keep late hours. ‘All this causes excessive irritation of the nervous system, which uses up the elasticity of the nerves and dries up the juicy walls in the cells in the front part of the brain, which is the seat of the mind. It is the elastic condition of these cells of the brain which determines a man's balance of mind. The moment the cells become dried up then the mind snaps and the person is a maniac. ‘Another great factor in irritating the nervous organism between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five is the fact that at this age a young man is looking- about to determine into what profession or line of business he must embark for his lifetime. This danger is greater when a man has not the steadying influence of a family. ‘The fact that single women do not. grow insane in the same proportion as single men is explained in the fact, that woman is not allowed by conventionality to smoke and keeji such late hours. If the new woman become at. all common the sex may lose even this advantage. ‘Another thing to be remembered is that worry is noe of the great causes of .insanity. Worrying over anything irritates unnaturally the nervous system. and the abuse of the nervous system is the essential of insanity. A single man will worry over his financial difficulties, over the loss of his relatives or of dear friends, and it. tells alarmingly on his nervous system, but the married man confides in his wife, and the evil effects of the worry are dissipated more or less, and the following consolation prevents the worry from affecting the mind. "Marriage has been said by some cynic to be the doubling of one's duties and the halving of his rights. It certainly doubles his safeguards and divides his dangers. It gives a man the most precious privilege of companionship and confidence. ‘No one can long- be happy or well without some one in whom to confide As Bacon truly said. ‘The greatest thing in all the world is that friend into whose ears von can |K>ur till your troubles.'