232 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 



o'clock in the morning, and yet the servants of the estab- 

 lishment not un frequently found that he had risen before 

 them" Such was the alarming state of Davy, that 

 for many weeks his physicians regularly visited him 

 four times in the day; and the housekeeper, Mrs. 

 Greenwood, never retired to bed, except one night, 

 during eleven weeks. In the latter part of'his illness, 

 ' he was reduced to the extreme of weakness, and 

 is mind participated in the debility of his body."* 



Instances occasionally occur of persons exhausted 

 by anxiety and long attendance on others, being 

 themselves attacked by fever, and dying, more from 

 the unfavourable state to which previous exhaustion 

 had reduced them, than from the intensity of the 

 fever itself. 



Nervous disease from excessive mental labour and 

 exaltation of feeling sometimes shows itself in an- 

 other form. From neglecting proper intervals of 

 rest, the vascular excitement of the brain, which 

 always accompanies activity of mind, has never time 

 to subside, and a restless irritability of temper and 

 disposition comes on, attended with sleeplessness 

 and anxiety, for which no external cause can be 

 assigned. The symptoms gradually become aggra- 

 vated, the digestive functions give way, nutrition is 

 impaired, and a sense of wretchedness is constantly 

 present, which often leads to attempts at suicide. 

 While all this is going on, however, the patient will 

 talk or transact business with perfect propriety and 

 accuracy, arid no stranger could tell that any thing 

 ails him. But in his intercourse with his intimate 

 friends or physician, the havoc made upon the mind 

 becomes apparent ; and, if not speedily arrested, it 

 soon terminates, according to the constitution and 

 circumstances of the individual case, in derange- 

 ment, palsy, apoplexy, fever, suicide, or permanent 

 weakness. 



* Paris's Life of Sir H. Davy, p. 183. 



