NERVE HYGIENE. 1 



By Dr. Augustus Forel. 

 Professor of Psychiatry in Zurich. 



"Too many nerves and too little nerve," complains Pro- 

 fessor von Krafft Ebing of our generation. What do they mean, 

 "nerves," "nervous," "nervous prostration," neurasthenia, 

 and similar terms ? 



We must first clear away a common mistake, as if all this 

 had reference to the nerves of the skin or of various parts of 

 the body. It is no more these that are "nervous" than the 

 fingers of an amputated arm which cause the pain that the 

 former possessor of the arm imagines he feels there. Arm and 

 fingers dissappeared long ago, were buried after amputation and 

 are now decayed, and yet there is a sensation of pain as if they 

 were still present, the seat of the disease. 



It is nothing but the brain that is " nervous." We make 

 the mistake of attributing its excitement to the so-called sensory 

 nerves of the body, because usually they convey to the brain 

 the impressions of the external world, such as light, warmth, 

 sensation of touch, sound and odors. It is the brain alone that 

 occasions the sprawl, the convulsive twichings of the nervous 

 woman, the deceptive senses of the victim of delirium tremens, 

 the evil conduct of a drunken man, the great deeds of the ge- 

 nius, the indolence of the man who hangs around the saloon, 

 the folly and the pain of insanity, the misdeeds of the criminal 

 and the industry of the sober laborer. 



In health, in the sound working capacity of the brain, lies 

 the chief condition for happiness. Professor Hiltz is certainly 

 right who believes that the happiness ot an individual depends 



I. No apology is necessary for roproducing, in toiiuection with the lliouglittiil 

 article by Dr. Richardson, whose eminence as an alienist will (■oniuiand attention 

 for what he writes, the above selection from the pen of one of the greatest psychi- 

 atrists of Europe. The subject, which is awakening remarkable interest on the con- 

 tinent, has hardly yet attracted merited attention here. Our obligations are to Mary 

 'i. Stuokenberg, whose trau>latioii (with slight uioditicatioii) we borrow. 



