NERVOUSNESS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2220, 29 April 1880, Page 3

NERVOUSNESS.

Whal: is nervousness? What is (he cause of nervousness ? Why is nervousness increasing in the general population p These (says the “Lancet”) and other breathless questions of grave practical interest arc just now agitating the public mind. As a matter of sober fact, there is probably as much, or as little, “ nervousness ” —that is to say, nerve weakness and irritability—as there ever was under corresponding conditions. It certainly scorns probable that increased railway travelling and other augmentations of the stress and strain cast on the nervous system will cause, if they have not already produced, a condition of greater mobility and higher cxcitahillity, and, pending any considerable change in the conditions of life, there will he a seeming prevalence of what is called “nervousness.” It will not, however, conduce to the tranquility of average mental organisms, cither hero or in America, to be told that nervousness is largely on the increase. If that were the truth, which wo doubt, the best plan would probably he to say as little as possible about the evil while striving to remove the cause. The fact has been assumed, and as a matter of course, the cause is said to he “drink.” This argument will not stand, because it so happens that the majority of the intellectually minded and busy thinkers and brain-workers of the United States (the very persons alleged to be nervous) arc declared to be cither total abstainers or very moderate drinkers. So marked is this circumstance that if there was to be an rtuL'-toctotal movement it would be open lo its promoters to allege that the “ increase of nervousness ” in America was duo to the “ whisky war.” Of course the argu-

meut would he absurd, but not move so than the use made of a fact which is not a fact, and a “ cause ” which a cause in relation to “nervousness. It is significant that the most recent researches of American neurologists have resulted in the recognition of a peculiar diseascor affection of the spinal cord prevalent among the guards and habitual travellers on the jerky railways and tremulous tramways of America, which disposes to habits of intemperance, and so engenders as a symptom that which has been so hastily set down as a cause.