MENTAL OVER-WORK AMONG PUBLIC MEN. 29 



area of cells and tissues in functional relation with each other, and 

 with a common source of blood, and of regulative vis nervosa, both 

 vaso-motor and trophic. The correlation between the distribution 

 of the arteries and the physiological regions of the brain has been 

 demonstrated by Duret, Heubner, Charcot, and others.' The bear- 

 ing of these and similar researches on the subject in hand is simj^ly 

 this, that it is certainly impossible to over-work any part of the 

 brain without over-working the vessels going to that part ; and it 

 is equally impossible to subject vessels anywhere frequently and re- 

 peatedly to increased intravascular pressure without producing 

 disease of these vessels, or exposing them to danger of rupture if 

 already diseased. 



The occurrence of such acute diseases as pneumonia, erysipelas, 

 hepatitis, enteritis, and glossitis in those mentally over-worked, 

 helps to emphasize still further the fact, which I wish to bring 

 out, that overtaxing the nervous system may be the exciting 

 cause of almost any serious disorder to which chance, accident, 

 imprudence, or infection exposes the individual. One of the three 

 cases of pneumonia occurred in a successful candidate after a cam- 

 paign of mental and physical excitement and toil ; the second came 

 on after slight exposure in an overworked teacher ; the third in one 

 who had for a long time been engaged in laborious literary work. 

 The case of erysipelas occurred in an official after a winter of toil 

 and anxiety, in which his mental powers Avere strained to the ut- 

 most. The cases of hepatitis and enteritis were respectively an 

 overdriven Representative and Senator ; that of glossitis an over- 

 worked department official. 



Just how mental over-work brings about its disastrous effects is not 

 easily explained. We recognize the symptoms of brain tire and brain 

 exhaustion ; we see over-worked men falling by the wayside with this 

 or with that well-known disease; but the exact process in the system 



^ Lectures on Localization of Diseases of the Brain. By J. M. Charcot. 

 Edited by Bourneville, and translated by E. P. Fowler, M. D. W. Wood 

 & Co. New York. 1878. 



