IN HYGIENIC PHYSIOLOGY. 193 



No. It is always a mistake for a man who has led an ac- 

 tive life to withdraw, at once, from all occupation and to resign 

 himself to idleness. A proper degree of functional exercise is 

 as necessary to the perfect health of the mind and the brain as 

 to that of the body. 



43. IVhich is the more exhaustive to the braiu, worry 

 or severe mental application ? 



(See Physiology, p. 331.) 



Worry is far more exhaustive of the vital forces than the 

 severest mental labor, pursued calmly and dispassionately. 



44. Is it a blessing to be beyond the necessity for work ? 



By no means. On the contrary, the "middle-class people," 

 those who do not suffer from actual bodily want, but who are 

 obliged to work in order to procure luxuries, or even comforts, 

 are proverbially happier than those who are born to riches, 

 and who have no incentive to systematic exertion. 



4:5. Shoiv hoiv anger, hate, and the other degrading 

 passions are destructive to the brain. 



The effect of anger upon the brain is to produce first a 

 paralysis, and, afterward, during reaction, a congestion of the 

 vessels of that organ. Passionate people often die suddenly of 

 faintness in the moment of white rage, when the cerebral ves- 

 sels and the heart are paralyzed. Or they may outlive this first 

 stage, only to succumb to the second, when reactive congestion 

 has led to engorgement of the vessels of the brain, and apo- 

 plexy ensues. Intensified hatred acts in a similar manner, but 

 more slowly. The effect on the brain of extreme fear is also 

 akin to that of rage, and may result in sudden death from 

 syncope. 



The more common and permanent effect of fear, however, 

 is an intense irritability, followed by doubt, suspicion, and dis- 

 trust, leading toward or to insanity. From a sudden terror 

 deeply felt, the young mind rarely recovers ; never, I believe, 

 if hereditary tendency to insanity be a part of its nature. 



Of these three passions, anger stands first as most detri- 

 mental to life. He is a man very rich indeed in physical 



