CAUSES OF NEKVOUS IMPAIRMENT 199 



said that we soon cease to perceive them, and that, there- 

 fore, they do not signify anything of moment. Is this not 

 a dangerous assumption? An odor is the sign of a chem- 

 ical agent working upon the nervous system; we have no 

 right to say that this agent has ceased to act when we have 

 ceased to feel its immediate effects. Such a claim is equiv- 

 alent to the assertion that nothing can influence a sleeper 

 unless it wakes him. 



Less attention is usually paid to the bodily sources of 

 nervous impairment such as we have been discussing than 

 to the influence of occupation, surroundings, and the 

 mental life. Nervous break-downs are most frequently 

 attributed to overwork. But according to the judgment 

 of the ablest specialists work in itself is not often the sole 

 cause of these disasters. Work may be hard and fatiguing, 

 but if it is congenial and at all successful, if it does not 

 encroach upon the hours of sleep, and if it is not a subject 

 of anxiety which the worker cannot easily dismiss, it is 

 not likely to do him harm. If, on the other hand, the 

 work involves worry and discouragement, if it so fills 

 the mind that it cannot be put aside at will, it does become 

 a menace to the poise and efficiency of the nervous system. 



If work is of an unwelcome kind and is performed in a 

 rebellious spirit, so much the worse for the subject. The 

 question may be asked : What of the mill-operatives, with 

 their monotonous and uninteresting tasks, are they 

 particularly subject to nervous disease? One would at 

 first say that they must be so, but there are certain fac- 

 tors which favor their protection against it. 1 They are 

 not obliged to think of their work at all beyond the hours 

 assigned to it. Unless they are doing piece-work they 

 have no ambition to increase speed. Moreover and this 

 is a very important point they do not have at short in- 

 tervals to make choices between different duties which de- 

 mand attention. There is a restful element in having but 

 one definite thing to do and being freed from the anxiety 



1 But see Goldmark, "Fatigue and Efficiency," New York Chari- 

 ties Publication Committee, 1912. 



