go THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



MODERN NERVOUSNESS AND ITS CURE. 



Br Herr Dr. BILSINGEE. 



THE signature of our age is a thin-blooded, nervous genera- 

 tion. Only a few decades ago our women were so healthy 

 that they were able to suffer occasional bloodlettings to counter- 

 act a supposed excess of blood. Now our girls are pale even in 

 their school age, and the general complaint is that the girls are 

 nervous. Not without reason is the age called a nervous one. 

 While our ancestors, living in natural conditions, hardly knew 

 what nerves were, we complain of excited nerves, even among our 

 children ; and adults, especially in the cities, who do not suffer 

 from nervousness are exceptions. There is no doubt that weak- 

 ness of the nerves, or neurasthenia as the doctors call it, is an 

 acquisition of modern civilization, and at this time, or since atten- 

 tion was called to it by the American George M. Beard, as being 

 as it were a new disease, is playing a formidable part with doctors 

 and laymen. 



The term neurasthenia does not so much signify a special 

 affection of the nervous system as it is a fittingly chosen general 

 name for a whole group of disorders the character of which con- 

 sists in the nervous system failing to act properly, on account of 

 a deficiency of normal nerve-substance. Such a condition, or at 

 least a pronounced tendency to it, is in many cases inherited from 

 parents ; and only slightly unfavorable circumstances are required 

 in children thus hereditarily tainted for the development of pro- 

 nounced neurasthenia. There is, besides the hereditary form, an 

 acquired weakness of the nerves, which may be produced by a 

 considerable variety of causes. The blame for the present condi- 

 tion of our society undoubtedly lies in the haste and pressure of 

 the age, with its battle for existence, driving us into morbidity. 

 The increase and crowded condition of lunatic asylums speaks 

 with admonitory plainness in this matter, and it is time that the 

 right meaning was attached to the momentous phenomenon. 

 Even in the country, where the hygienic conditions are relatively 

 favorable, the evil of nervous weakness is gradually making it- 

 self more plain. It is conspicuous in the larger cities, where, with 

 the meeting of great masses of men, the clatter of railroads, and 

 the driving of factories, excitement prevails through day and 

 night, under which the afflicted nerves with great difficulty ob- 

 tain the rest they need. To this haste and excitement in social 

 life are added the schools with their augmented demands, the 

 trial of examinations, and modern business life ; and it is no 

 wonder that only a small fraction of the population escape these 

 attacks on the nervous system. 



