442 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



Muscular pains are not unfrequently mistaken for symptoms of some disease 

 of serious import, but there is no real difficulty in recognising the true nature 

 of the case. The pain is usually spoken of as wearing, aching, burning, or 

 " hot," but is occasionally referred to as a " weakness," or " soreness." In 

 those who have; much bodily fatigue for six days in the week, and a perfect 

 rest on Sunday, the pains are always better if not absent on Monday morning, 

 and very bad on Friday and Saturday. As a general rule muscular pains are 

 absent in the morning, begin about noon, and increase in severity up to bed-time. 

 They commonly cease entirely when the sufferer lies down in bed, but in bad 

 cases they are only renewed by the recumbent posture. The pains are often 

 attended with exquisite tenderness of the skin, so that even the contact of the 

 clothes may be almost unbearable. They are usually traceable to over-work 

 of some kind or other, although the circumstances which suffice to produce them 

 are often apparently very trivial in their nature. 



Having recognised the nature of the complaint, we must proceed to treat 

 it. It is obvious that a disease which has been produced by over-exertion will 

 be most benefited by rest rest of the whole body, and more especially of 

 the affected part. It is easy enough to recommend rest, but we are perfectly 

 aware that in many cases it will be found difficult to carry out our directions. 

 A woman very frequently cannot take sufficient rest, for the household duties 

 fall upon her, and, as she says, ''If I don't look after things, everything goes 

 wrong." You tell a man to rest, and he says " Rest ! I only wish I could. 

 I haven't had a holiday for years. If I don't work, who's to keep the wolf 

 from the door 1 " There are a good many people who cannot rest, but there are 

 a good many people who will not rest. Many women, for instance, are naturally 

 too anxious, active, we might even say too fidgety, to take anything like a 

 real rest. Men, commonly enough, recognise the fact that exhaustion, consequent 

 upon continuous tension, invariably ends sooner or later in restlessness and 

 irritability, but they too often neglect the great vital law of change, which 

 runs through the whole universe, and impels the weary to cease from labour. 

 Strangely enough the well-to-do are often the greatest offenders in this respect. It is 

 the old story of much would have more, and thus we find the man who has a 

 lucrative business, and who is making money fast, is the one most difficult to 

 induce to take the urgently-needed rest. His excuses are innumerable. In vain 

 it is pointed out to him that for his own sake, and for the sake of his family, 

 rest is absolutely necessary. Ambition or the love of wealth leads him on, 

 and he continues the battle until at length a crisis arrives, and then that cessation 

 from work which might have been enjoyed at a convenient season and for a 

 suitable period, is enforced, most probably at a very inconvenient time, upon a 

 bed of pain and amidst sorrowing faces. Rest, to be of much service, must be 

 thorough rest rest, mental and physical. It is of but little advantage for a 

 worn-down mother to go to the sea-side for the benefit of her health if she 

 has to take all her little ones with her ; or for an author to resort to the lake 

 district with his pens, ink, and paper in undiminished array. Equally useless 

 is it for the jaded belle to change the ball-rooms, theatres, concerts, and operas 



