INTEMPERANCE IN STUDY. 645 



and in showing how valuable an element in the economy of life, 

 individual and social, is the instinctive impulse toward enjoyment. 

 — Saturday Beview. 



INTEMPEEANCE IN STUDY.* 



By D. hack TUKE, F. R. C. P. 



HAVING met from time to time with cases of brain-fag, and also 

 actual insanity, arising fi-om excessive mental work, I wish to 

 direct attention to-day to this cause of disordered mind, not because 

 it is so widespread a cause as many others, but because for this very 

 reason it is in danger of being treated with indifference, whereas at 

 the present moment I regard it as a serious evil, although comparative- 

 ly restricted in its operation in consequence of the great mass of the 

 people falling under opposite influences ; still I fear that it is in schools 

 and colleges as well as in the cottage of the laborer and manufacturer, 

 among students as well as among those who delve and spin, that we 

 must seek for the causes of mental disturbance if we wish to under- 

 stand them thoroughly. 



It would occupy too much time to detail the cases to which I re- 

 fer ; I must ask you to take them as " read." For my present pur- 

 pose it is sufficient to say that they have taken the form of brain-fag, 

 mental excitement, depression of spirits (sometimes suicide), epilepsy, 

 and chorea. I have recently known a case of acute mania distinctly 

 due to this cause, confinement in an asylum becoming necessary. Of 

 suicidal melancholia I could cite some painful instances, and, as re- 

 gards epilepsy, I could detail the history of some marked cases result- 

 ing from overwork ; and I may state that, at the National Hospital for 

 Epilepsy in London, pupil teachers have been admitted laboring un- 

 der this disease, brought on by mental strain. Two medical officers, 

 resident in the institution at different times, spontaneously drew my 

 attention to the fact. 



I fully admit that, in many instances of mischief from excess of 

 study, this results from anxious worry as well. The subject " preys 

 un the mind," as people say ; but then it was the study of too large a 

 number of subjects or of subjects beyond the power of the student to 

 master within a given time which was to blame for this harass. 



Here I wish to anticipate an objection which may be raised to my 

 own observation and experience on this question. How is it — it may 

 be fairly said — how is it that, if over-mental work is often to blame 

 for attacks of insanity, there are not more statistics at hand to prove 

 it ? To this I would reply : 



* Read in the Psychological Section at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical As- 

 sociation in Cork, August, 1879. 



