324 ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGY 



month's needs, so there are many people who cannot keep 

 physical capital in their bodies sufficient for forty days 

 ahead. This is the amount that every sound person 

 should have. They expend their energy until they are 

 "worn out" temporarily, or they neglect proper care of 

 their bodies so that the mechanism does not work properly, 

 their energy is diminished, and they become depressed. 

 When one is depressed and exhausted from overwork 

 or improper working of the physical organism, his first 

 care should be to restore the strength. Rest will often 

 accomplish it, but many persons are not wise enough to 

 observe this ; they have a mistaken notion of the nature of 

 stimulants and of the bodily strength. They arouse the 

 nerves to renewed action by taking poisons; activity 

 ensues that leads to expenditure of a part of the precious 

 strength remaining. A drunkard during a period of in- 

 toxication often keeps up this course until his strength is 

 exhausted. He is physically bankrupt; then he stops. 

 After a few weeks or months of soberness, during which the 

 organs have stored up energy again, he begins to apply 

 poisonous stimulants to enable him to use up this strength 

 and becomes physically bankrupt again, thus proving him- 

 self unworthy to have as much capital intrusted to him as 

 is intrusted to other men. 



591. Are Feelings always a Reliable Guide ? Feelings 

 may be deceptive, not only when the nerves are confused 

 by stimulants, but also as the result of bad habits. A man 

 who has stooped over a book or desk all day does not feel 

 like doing muscular work, yet it is the very thing he needs 

 to expand those flattened lungs that brought the feeling of 

 fatigue. If one habitually overeats, it may cause a gnaw- 

 ing at the stomach that gives him a desire to continue 

 the habit. After using alcohol or tobacco, a desire for 

 these worst enemies of the body is implanted. The body 

 seems to acquire injurious habits and desires almost as 



