xxii Appendix. 



able to bear it, and nature is thus thwarted, and her wise counsels defiantly- 

 ignored and set aside. 



Dr. Clark says truly, " No perfect brain ever crowns an imperfectly 

 developed body. "When Michael Angelo reared St. Peter's dome, he made 

 every stone contribute, not only to the use and beauty of the part he put it 

 in, but to the support and power of the dome. The brain must be built up 

 in connection with the building of the rest of the body, always bearing in 

 mind that the imperfections of the latter have a direct influence upon the 

 former." 



The most common forms of disease in the present day are those which 

 affect the nervous system, and we need not look far to find the causes which 

 produce them. The strain to which the nervous system is subject, through 

 the requirements of modern times, makes it far more liable to disease than 

 formerly, and men break down prematurely from overwork and want of 

 rest. Every branch of study is now pushed forward with an amount of 

 vigour unknown to our ancestors, and men who wish to be admired and 

 take a higher place than those around them, see no mode of gaining their 

 end except by the acquisition of knowledge and the toilsome display of it. 



Before civilization had arrived at the high state we now find it in, the over- 

 taxed brain was confined to laborious students in the solitary contemplation 

 of human knowledge. Nervous exhaustion was not the common disorder 

 we now find it. In whatever du*ection a man now turns his attention, he 

 is sure to see competitors who are striving after the same jDrizes. In trade, 

 in commerce, and in art, it is ever the same — no man has the field to him- 

 self. Each one must strain every faculty towards the special object he is 

 studying, and dare not leave his work for a moment for fear of being passed 

 by. His thoughts are ever active and at work, and his brain will not rest, 

 unless other occupations are found, and a new set of organs are called into 

 play. Eest from thought would obviate much of the fatigue and exhaustion 

 of the brain, if it could be adequately carried out, but the cu'cumstances 

 of hfe generally, do not enable a man to avail himself of that change of 

 thought and occupation which would be a safeguard against the terrible 

 evils he is fostering. 



Diseases of the nervous system threaten to be the diseases of the 

 future, as they are of the present day, in spite of any attempt to make it 

 otherwise. Men, however desirous they may be to prevent it, are helplessly 

 drawn into the contest, to struggle on and survive, or faU early and make 

 way for others. If there is any truth in these statements, and I think you 

 will grant that there is, is it surprising that the complex and highly 

 organized structure of the brain and nerves should fail under this continued 

 strain and struggle for existence in the battle of life ? What wonder, then, 



