WORRY—THE DISEASE OF THE AGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3762, 2 April 1907, Page 3

WORRY —THE DISEASE OF THE AGE.

In the Canadian Magazine Dr. C. W. Saleeby writer- the first article of a s. ries 0:1 t»-..; subjec:. WORRY AND INSANITY. He insists on the established fact that adults a'e much more gravely injured by worry than by fatigue. He greatly questions whether mere mental overwork has ever killed anyone, in spite of the prevalent impression that it is the cause of much insanity. Brain-work in a stuffy workroom will kill you of tuberculosis; brain-work with worry has slain its thousands; both,,with insomnia, have slain its ten thousands; but brain-work alone mav fairly plead Not Guilty. Insanity,’ which Dr. Saleeby does not think is increasing anything like so much as is generally believed, is largely 'the consequence of symptoms of worry. It is especially the “borderland cases” — persons neither distinctly sane or distinctly insane—for which worry is responsible. Often the worry is made much worse by the habit of drug-taking, which is undoubtedly lamentably on the increase. WORRY AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

Another cause tending to the increase of worry is, Dr Saleeby thinks, the constant undermining of the foundations of orthodox belief. In European countries belonging to the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches suicide is rarest, and in Protestant it is highest. The number in Paris is enormous; but Paris is a place apart. The Calvinistic doctrine of predestination may, it has been suggested, be partly responsible for this.

WORRY AND INFECTION. Inasmuch as worry lowers the general state of the health, and inasmuch as a lowered state ot health predisposes to the reception of microbes, worry assists disease other than mental and nervous. The more infection is feared —i.e., worried about —the more likely it is to be taken. Infectious disease tends to pass from those who stand up to face it, and to fasten on those cringing before it. In its doctrine that to worry and to fear must be attributed all ills lies the success of Christian Science. The doctrine is true of so many of these ills that Christian Science reallv cures them. In other words Christian Scientists, with all their quackery, have got hold of a great fundamental truth. The same magazine contains a short article on Mrs Eddy, with a portrait.