478 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



is, in consequence, an immense amount of latent brain 

 disease, productive of much secret suffering and slight aber- 

 rations of conduct, and which is liable, in sudden stress 

 of circumstances, to break out into permanent mental de- 

 rangement. The price we pay for our high-pressure civili- 

 zation is a fearful increase of cerebral exhaustion and dis- 

 order, and an augmenting ratio of shattered intellects. 

 We are startled when some conspicuous mind, strained be- 

 yond endurance, as in the cases of Hugh Miller, or Admiral 

 Fitzroy, crashes into insanity and suicide, yet these are but 

 symptoms of the prevailing tendencies of modern life. 



And here I call attention to the deep defects of that 

 predominant scheme of culture which not only ignores the 

 human brain, and the sciences which illustrate it, as objects 

 of earnest systematic study, but explodes upon it all the 

 traditional contempt which it cherishes for material nature. 

 *' This hasty pudding within the skull," said Frederick 

 .Robertson, as he epitomized, in a single expression, the 

 stupid prejudice of the prevailing " scholarship." Poor 

 Robertson ! smitten down in the midst of a noble career, 

 by the consequences of overtasking, dying of brain disease 

 in the prime of manhood : how cruelly did Nature avenge 

 the insult ! 



Men admire the steam-engine of Watt and the calcu- 

 lating engine of Babbage ; but how little do they care for 

 the thinking engine of the Infinite Artificer ! They ven- 

 erate days, and dogmas, and ceremonials ; but where is the 

 reverence that is due to that most sacred of the things of 

 time, the organism of the soul ! We speak of the glories 

 of the stellar universe ; but is not the miniature duplicate 

 of that universe in the living brain a more transcendent 

 marvel ? We admire the vast fabric of society and govern- 

 ment, and that complicated scheme of duties, responsibili- 

 ties, usages, and laws which constitutes social order ; but 

 how few remember that all this has its deep foundation in 



