NERVOUS PROSTRATION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1137, 15 February 1884, Page 4

NERVOUS PROSTRATION.

There is an-unusual amount of ill'Ttess this autumn of the type known •-as “ nervous prostration” ■ (says the ’Providence Journal). Tt is prevalent among hardworked people who have been deprived cf the needed summer rest and relaxation, men who carry their business home with them every night, and women who are worn out D»y domestic cares and worries. It is : very strange how much we are toldabout food, clothing, ventilation, ■ drainage, exercise, and other things, which have an influence on our health, and how very seldom we think of -rest, And yet, as a remedial -and restorative measure, it is of the first' importance in many cases. Mort i physicians know what to do and when 'to do it, but a good deal ot common sense is required to discover’how not ■ to do something and when to leave the patient alone. A combination Of. drugging and fretting kills more than half the sick people in the world ; a man’s enemies cannot do him near so -much damage us Tiis friends. The world is possessed with the notion; that when a man is taken ill a terrible ■ado snua*; be kept up, an alternation of nursing and fussing, while preternatnvnlly wise and whispering doctors, - sympathising friends, tearful relatives - and chattering nurses add their contributions to the wrong side, and all because somebody is ill and needs chiefly rest. We have not yet, most cf us, gotten rid ot the old notion of the ancients that disease is a personality, a something that is in the air,-that travels about, enters our dwellings and finally seizes hold of us; something akin in the minds •cf the Ignorant to a goblin, ■ghost, fiend, demon, or witch, which ■only pills or potation can exercise, kill or cure. We are confident that many c sensible physician will say, if the patient will let him, that two-thirds of 3.11 the maladies of all the people in ■the world would get well in a few ihours or days if left to themselves, •with no other appliances than such as instinct would suggest or common -sense employ. But patients often esti mate the doctor’s skill by the wonderfully wise look which he assumes and the extent or variety of his presurip ’irons; and a sick man’s friends hate to seem unsyrapathising, and so are apt to be officious. It is to be understood, of course, that that we are not apeaking of extreme cases, but of the treatment of most of the ills which flesh is heir to —the troubles which -come upon rver-worked men and women, so Biany of whom we find .around us in this pushing competitive age. Their best remedy, if they can lake it, is rest. If that be impossible m can only pity them.