MENTAL OVER-WORK AMONG PUBLIC MEN. H 



the strain and pressure come afterward. The positions acquired 

 solely by favor are themselves the hard examiners. In one case, 

 reported to me by a Washington physician, temporary glycosuria 

 was developed in a man fifty-nine years old, largely as the result 

 of anxiety induced by the fact that he was mentally unfit to make 

 the annual report called for by his high position. 



If ambitious and conscientious, the real mental labor connected 

 with the position of a man high in public position is often very 

 great. Pressing and i:)erplexing committee work, attention to a 

 large correspondence, the preparation of reports, bills, speeches, 

 and points for debate, make incessant demands upon the time 

 and strength of the Senator or Representative. A well-educated 

 lawyer, coming to Congress at thirty-four, raj^idly rose to promi- 

 nence. He did a prodigious amount of work on the floor of the 

 House of Representatives, and by correspondence, but especially on 

 committees. He was taken seriously ill at the close of a session 

 during which his labors had been unusually great even for him, 

 because of the excessive extra work thrown on him by the sickness 

 of another member of one of the important committees on which he 

 was serving. He died at the beginning of the next session of Con- 

 gress. Another reached the speakership of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, only to succumb at forty-nine to the brain work and 

 multifarious cares of his high position. An abstemious New Eng- 

 land Senator, an indefatigable worker, after suffering for long time 

 from dyspepsia, and from insomnia and other nervous symptoms, 

 was suddenly taken down with enteritis, of which he died, 



A special cause of sudden failure in health among public men 

 is the mental over-work, physical fatigue, and excessive emotional 

 excitement attendant upon our political campaigns. In recent 

 years a presidential aspirant was suddenly and seriously stricken 

 during the meeting of the nominating convention. Horace Greeley 

 died insane from brain disease at the conclusion of his unsuccessful 

 campaign. A successful candidate for a high public position de- 



