CHAPTER XVI 



CAUSES OF NERVOUS IMPAIRMENT 



WHEN we look into the faces of men and women as we 

 meet them on the street-cars we are painfully impressed 

 with the widespread prevalence of ill health. The aver- 

 age expression is not one of comfort, hope, and good-will, 

 Iml of depression, anxiety, and absorption in self. The 

 exceptional face which is radiant of strength and benevo- 

 lence is conspicuous in the dreary succession. The temp- 

 tat ion is to pass a harsh judgment upon those who seem 

 so unhappy and unfriendly and to condemn them for not 

 being otherwise. Reflection convinces one that this is 

 unjust. They are the victims of heredity, of malnutrition, 

 of jx)verty, and, not seldom, of voluntary sacrifices. It 

 is not for the casual spectator to say how far they are 

 suffering from personal dereliction which should have 

 been avoided. Whatever the past facts have been, the 

 present difficulty with most of these people is imperfec- 

 tion of nervous equipment. 



A considerable share of this may be charged to neurotic 

 inheritance. Every one can think of families in which, 

 nervous instability is exemplified in various forms by the 

 different members. These are the families which are 

 given to quarreling and recrimination at home, but unite 

 with even greater pugnacity against the outsider who 

 has incurred their displeasure. They make themselves 

 miserable, but seem unable to help it. Where the taint 

 is graver, there is downright neurast henia. I'Yom such 

 stock come certain individuals with marked talent, but 

 hampered by self-consciousness and excessive sensitive- 

 ness. The temperament is not a modern development, 

 as commonly a umed, but as old as the time of Plato, 



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