'EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 233 



As age advances, moderation in mental exertion 

 becomes still more necessary than in early or ma- 

 ture years. Scipion Pinel, in adverting to the evil 

 consequences of excessive moral or intellectual ex- 

 citement, acutely remarks, that while in youth and 

 manhood the wear of the brain thus induced may be 

 repaired, no such salutary result follows over-exer- 

 tion in the decline of life : " what is lost then is lost 

 for ever. At that period we must learn to wait for 

 what the brain is willing to give, and allow it to 

 work at its own time ; to attempt to force it is to 

 weaken it to no purpose ; it becomes excited and 

 quickly exhausted when forced to vigorous think- 

 ing." " Men of exalted intellect perish by their 

 brains, and such is the noble end of those whose 

 genius procures for them that immortality which so 

 many ardently desire."* 



Who can peruse these lines without the fate of 

 Scott instantly occurring to his mind, as a practical 

 illustration of their truth 1 In the vigour of man- 

 hood few ever wrote so much, or with greater ease. 

 But when, on the verge of old age, adversity forced 

 him to unparalleled exertion, the organic waste 

 could no longer be repaired, and perseverance only 

 " weakened the brain to no purpose," till morbid 

 irritability became the substitute of healthy power, 

 and he perished by that brain which had served him 

 so faithfully and so efficiently, but which could no 

 longer withstand the gigantic efforts which he con- 

 tinued to demand from it. 



Where a predisposition to insanity exists, the 

 cerebral excitement induced by excessive activity 

 of mind often leads to disease. Examples of this 

 kind abound in the works of authors. Pinel men- 

 tions several. One of them was the case of a young 

 man, distinguished for his talents and his profound 

 knowledge of chymistry, who was occupied with a 



* Physiologic de I'Homme Alien4, p. 177* 

 U 2 



