234 Natural Salvation. 



under improper conditions of study, faulty nutrition, or 

 eye strain, in some cases going on rapidly to complete 

 nervous break-down before the age of twenty is reached, 

 but in most instances impairing clear mentation and induc- 

 ing various phases of ill health before middle age. 



A lamentable number of cases also occur in adults, as 

 middle life is reached, among ambitious, hard-worked 

 business men who may have passed school and college 

 with nervous systems not greatly impaired, but encoun- 

 tering the cares and exigencies of business life, find them- 

 selves uni'ested from day to day, nervously depleted and 

 victims of insomnia. In these cases the kidneys immedi- 

 ately suffer. 



Several of our physiologists. Professor Hodge among 

 the first, have demonstrated the visible, physical effects of 

 fatigue in the nerve cell, the shrinkage in substance and 

 the lack of functional power ; also the direct results of 

 rest and food for the restoration of a tired cell to 

 its normal size and condition of dynamic efficiency. 

 Sleep, with the diurnal darkening of the hemispheres, is the 

 time when all the millions of brain neurons cease acting in 

 their united, corporate capacity and revert each to its own 

 personal, unicellular life. Through the hours of daylight 

 they act together, as a whole, for the good of the entire 

 organism., , But now, when sleep supervenes, the cells let 

 go hands, so to speak, continuity is broken, the resultant 

 self-consciousness stops short, the personality ceases, and 



