1884.] HEALTH OP THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 141 



stop for repairs, for cleaning and oiling. A maclaine properly run 

 will last for years, and so will the human body, but the engineer 

 will tell us that if a machine is run at the highest rate of power 

 that it is capable of, it will go to pieces almost at once. We can 

 easily see now why the farmer is so often a confirmed dyspeptic; 

 food received by a tired body cannot digest, it becomes an irritant, 

 and the various organs of the body rebel, and the same treatment 

 long continued makes in time a chronic rebellion — like a Spanish 

 republic. We soon find that the system is failing, because not 

 properly nourished. It cannot act on the defensive against 

 disease; the door is open and it is sure to come in some form, 

 breaking the man down both physically and mentally. Insanity 

 is one of the frequent results of this course of life. You have 

 something more than my word for it, for statistics of insane 

 asylums, life insurance companies, and like associations show it 

 the country over. Think of it, insanity produced upon the farm, 

 the place of all others supposed to be and capable of being the 

 most conducive to good mental health. Yes, it is even so. Let 

 me quote from an authority* appearing in the last report of the 

 Board of Health of this State, who says: 



"As a prolific source of insanity, and results injurious to health 

 and constitution, next to alcoholic intemperance comes ' intemper- 

 ance of work; ' that intense, unremitting application which leads 

 to mental and physical strain, directly conducing to insanity or 

 systematic defects which may appear in succeeding generations." 

 And again the same authority says: j 



" There is much corporeal overwork, particularly in the agricul- 

 tural districts. Severe and constant manual labor leaves little 

 time for cultivating the cheerful and better sentiments, or that 

 education which contributes power and stability to mind and 

 character. Years of constant drudgery combined, as is quite 

 commonly the case, with innutritions food, improperly selected or 

 poorly cooked, are so destructive of vital economy that exciting 

 causes, harmless under other circumstances, are sufficient in these 

 to derange the mind. The frequency with which insanity breaks 

 out in farmers' families best illustrates this." 



Now Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am the last person in this 

 State to raise my voice against labor. I recognize the dignity and 



*"IIow can we escape insanity," by Chas. W. Page, M. D. of Hartford Retreat. Page 

 192. t Page 196. 



