2 68 NATURE STUDIES. 



doctors would assure us) for medical advice respecting 

 mind troubles, than commonly arises in the case of 

 corporal troubles among men who pass their days in 

 hard but healthy bodily toils. The saying that every 

 man is either a fool or a physician at forty (thirty 

 would, perhaps, be nearer the mark) may be applied 

 -at least as well to the case of the mind as to that of 

 the body. It is as easy for one who is not the fool of 

 the proverb to understand the signs which indicate 

 mind-mischief, and to minister to the mind when out 

 of sorts (not actually diseased), as it is for him to 

 note the signs of bodily ill-health, and apply the 

 remedies which experience has shown him to be 

 appropriate. And here we would note generally, 

 what ifc is one object of this article to indicate spe- 

 cifically, that the analogy may be carried somewhat 

 further. There are few greater mistakes, so far as 

 the body is concerned, than to imagine every little 

 ailment to be a sign of actual disease, and to have 

 recourse for such slight troubles either to medical 

 advice, or (which may prove more mischievous still) 

 to active medicines or other strong remedies. The 

 physician of the proverb, that is, the man who, not 

 being a fool, has learned to understand his own con- 

 stitution under ordinary conditions, may be watchful, 

 if he so pleases, of even the slightest indications of 

 ill-health, general or local, so long as such watch- 

 fulness does not degenerate into hypochondria. But 

 most of these indications should suggest to him only 

 such changes of diet, exercise, hours of resting, and 



