CHAPTER XXIII 



HYGIENE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 



457. It is often remarked in recent years, though per- 

 haps without sufficient evidence, that nervous diseases are 

 rapidly increasing. Cases of insanity, nervous prostra- 

 tion, insomnia, of mental and nervous weakness of various 

 kinds, are at any rate so numerous as to give occasion for 

 anxious inquiry as to the probable future of our race. It 

 is, then, of the utmost importance that we should know 

 how to order our lives so that our nervous systems may 

 be preserved in health and vigor. All the bodily actions 

 are dependent upon the reception of nervous stimulus at 

 the right time, the right place, and in due amount, and 

 when that fails, or is in any way deranged, the whole sys- 

 tem suffers. 



458. Nervousness is not to be understood as a sign of a 

 particularly refined and delicate nervous constitution. It 

 is due to a lack of control by the higher nerve centers and 

 is always an indication of weakness or disease; always to 

 be fought against by all reasonable means, and never to be 

 accepted as a necessary feature of a sensitive organization. 



459. Nutrition of the Nervous System. Skillful and experi- 

 enced physicians tell us that true nervous diseases, that 

 is, disorders attended by actual degeneration or structural 

 changes in nervous matter, are comparatively rare, and 

 when they do occur are due to lack of nutrition rather 



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