444 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The defects and diseases of the brain itself show themselves in many 

 ways, ranging from oddity or folly to the extreme of idiocy or mania. 

 Most of the " psychic phenomena " along " the border land of spirit," 

 which occupy a large part in current discussions, are characters of 

 insanity. The phenomena of hysteria, faith-cure, openness to sug- 

 gestion, subjective imagery, mysticism, are not indications of spir- 

 itual strength, but of decay and disintegration of the nerves. The 

 ecstasy of unbalanced religious excitement and a stupor of a 

 drunken debauch may belong to the same category of mental phe- 

 nomena. Both point toward moral and spiritual decay. There are 

 no occult or " latent powers " of the mind except those which have 

 become useless or which belong to the process of disintegration. If 

 a man crosses his eyes, and is thus enabled to see objects double, we 

 do not regard him as having developed a " latent power " of vision. 

 He has simply destroyed the normal co-ordination of such powers. 

 In like manner, one does not increase the strength of a rope by 

 untwisting its many strands. The effectiveness of life depends upon 

 the co-ordination and co-operation of the parts of the nervous system. 

 Its strands must be kept together. To move in a state of reverie, 

 " to live in two worlds at once," to be unable to separate memory 

 pictures from realities, all these are forms of nervous disintegration. 

 Every phase of them can be found in the madhouse. The end of 

 such conditions is death. The healthy mind should combat all tend- 

 encies toward disintegration. It can be clean and strong only by 

 being true. 



In like manner the influence of all drugs which affect the nerv- 

 ous system must be in the direction of disintegration. The healthy 

 mind stands in clear and normal relations with Nature. It feels 

 pain as pain. It feels action as pleasure. The drug which conceals 

 pain or gives false pleasure when pleasure does not exist, forces a lie 

 upon the nervous system. The drug which disposes to reverie rather 

 than to work, which makes us feel well when we are not well, de- 

 stroys the sanity of life. All stimulants, narcotics, tonics, which 

 affect the nervous system in whatever way, reduce the truthfulness 

 of sensation, thought, and action. Toward insanity all such influ- 

 ences lead; and their effect, slight though it be, is of the same nature 

 as mania. The man who would see clearly, think truthfully, and 

 act effectively, must avoid them all. Emergency aside, he can not 

 safely force upon his nervous system even the smallest falsehood. 

 And here lies the one great unanswerable argument for total absti- 

 nence; not abstinence from alcohol alone, but from all nerve poisons 

 and emotional excesses. The man who would be sane must avoid 

 all nerve excitants, nerve soothers, and " nerve foods," as well as 

 trances, ecstasies, and similar influences. If he would keep his 



