May 2-2. 1885.] 



. KNOWLEDGE • 



435 



cistern with its 1 J in. down supply-pipe, gives elegance 

 as well as strength to the whole. The large ornamental 

 brackets for supporting the seat, and the lead safe V)elow, 

 are iniprovements which ought to be followed by every 

 plumber, since they contribute to cleanliness and health in 

 the house. 



NERVOUS EXHAUSTION. 



By Edwin Wootos. 



ROUGHLY dissected, the body shows to the naked eye 

 a brain and spinal cord ; from each of these, con- 

 tinuations or nerves proceeding to various parts of the 

 frame. With the microscope the nerves can be traced 

 until they become lost in the units or cells of which the 

 body is composed. Hence, as I have said elsewhere, " The 

 body of man is in reality a nervous system clothed with 

 other tissues." Now this system has two great functions — 

 elaboration and conduction of a particular form of force. 

 The latter is dependent for its production on the brain, 

 spinal cord, and certain nervous structures in the interior 

 of the body termed " ganglia " ; but as these last are 

 maintained functionally by the power of the two former, it 

 is with these alone we need at present concern ourselves. 

 The nerves are merely conductors of force to the cells of 

 the body in which their ultimate divisions termiuate. 

 While every particle of the animal frame has a life of its 

 own, the millions of such particles of which the body is 

 composed are held under control and governed as an unity 

 or individual by the brain and spinal cord. The brain is 

 the material organ of thought. It is an instrument of the 

 most intricate and elaborate mechanism, used as a medium 

 by a spiritual entity — the soul — which modern researches 

 would lead us to believe is evolved from the nervous force 

 before mentioned, with the development of the body in 

 utero. Using a simile, the brain may be compared to a 

 well constructed organ, and the soul to the musician. 

 The various faculties of the mind have their localised seats 

 of action in this physical apparatus of thought, but not 

 according to the system of Gall and Spurzheim, the plaster 

 heads representing which are doubtless familiar objects to 

 my readers. Any injury to a particular part of this appa- 

 ratus results in an impairment of the fiiculty or faculties 

 having their normal seat in the situation of the lesion. 



The spinal cord, including within the term, for the sake 

 of simplicity, all that part of the cerebrospinal nervous 

 column below the brain proper, is the governing seat of 

 non-mental actions, such as walking, breathing, &c. Beside 

 their special functions alluded to, the brain and cord, like 

 the rest of the nervous apparatus, conduct nerve force. 

 The whole nervous system requires, for the performance of 

 its functions, certain conditions. These are structural 

 and chemical, and, consequent on these, electric and mag- 

 netic. In healthy, quiet-minded people all these conditions 

 are found, and nervousness is due to deviations from these 

 normal physical states. Waste and repair are being carried 

 out in the human body during every moment of existence, 

 and the wa.ste of an organ is in exact proportion to the 

 demand made on its powers. The repair is likewise in 

 proportion to this demand, provided there be the presence 

 in the blood of the materials necessary for such purpose, 

 the result being development. But if the demand on an 

 organ lead to an excels in the amount of material expended 

 over that which can be supplied to it from the blood and 

 elaborated into its structure, the part does not develop ; 

 it is physically injured, and incapable of performing its 

 ordinary functions. 



During the waking state, expenditure is carried on in 

 excess of repair, and hence when healthy, not artificially- 

 induced, sleep is felt to be needed, it is because tlie body, 

 and nervous centres esiiecially, are temporarily exliausti^d. 

 During sleep repair proceeds in excess of expenditure, and 

 the person awakes with his system restored to its normal 

 vigorous condition. Thus a balance is struck daily. 



Life has no station so exalted, intellect no power, and 

 weak h no influence, that their possessors can derive t herefrom 

 happiness, or aught approaching it, if they snfit-r from that 

 dread physical condition we are about to consider. IMany 

 are the hard-headed men of busines-s, who, by the gradual 

 establishment of this wretched state of lieing, have been 

 compelled to relinquish their pursuits, or to carry them on 

 under mental tortures wliich make existence a very curse. 



This disease is essentially one of civilisation ; it is pro- 

 duced by the modes of life found in cities and homes, and 

 is comparatively unknown amongst uncivilised nations. 



The subject, involving as it does the laws governing 

 man's whole mechanism, is one replete with scientific int(!- 

 rest. Experiment and observation have laid bare those 

 hidden cau.ses which were once thought to be beyond the 

 power of human fathoming, and science, with, to some 

 minds, a pitiless and sacrilegious band, but in reality with 

 one that is humane, though all-daring, demonstrates in this 

 year 1885 the physical causation of every morbid thonght, 

 motion, and sensation as clearly as she proves that any two 

 sides of a triangle are, taken together, greater than the 

 third side. 



Nervous exhaustion may be congenital or acquired. The 

 causes of acijuired exhaustion may be considered as active 

 and passive : in the former the usual amount of work on 

 the part of the nerve centres is increased without an 

 additional supply of material necessary for tissue repair ; 

 in the latter the supply of nutritious material in the blood 

 is lessened without any prior alteration in the amount of 

 labour. Remember that by " nutritious " material is 

 meant that capable of being supplied from the blood to the 

 tissues. Very many people who eat much and labour little, 

 whether with mind or body, could throw additional work on 

 their nerve centres without any change in the amount or 

 character of their food being necessary, since in such 

 persons the blood becomes richly stored with organic 

 matter, which, not being required, is excreted in various 

 forms, or stored up as fat. Supply beyond demand is, so 

 far as concerns nutrition, merely waste. 



The brain partakes, with the rest of the body, of this 

 general law of waste and repjair. Every thought, every 

 emotion is accompanied by actual destruction of tissue, and 

 its excretion from the system. So the performance of those 

 functions, whose governing seats are situated in the spinal 

 cord, is accompanied by waste of the latter's tissue, and the 

 equivalence or deficiency of the repair will be governed by 

 the conditions of blood supjdy already mentioned. 



Nervous exhaustion may be divided, according to its 

 causation, into two chief classes: — (1) General and (2) 

 abdominocentral. 



Each of these is capable of subdivision into (1) simple 

 and (2) complex nervous exhaustion. 



The abdomino-central clar-s must be briefly dismissed, as 

 space cannot be afforded for its full consideration. It 

 includes true hysteria and hypochondriasis.* 



General nervous exhaustion. The chief phenomena of 

 the simple division are:— (1) Strong beating of the heart 

 occurring after slight exertion or from emotional causep. 

 The same effect may result fnim lying on the left side. (2) 



* See " Mimoais Inquieta," by the same author in " The Journal 

 of Psychological Medicine," Vol. YIII., Part II. 



