356 Insanity and its Difficulties, [June, 
with and reinforced by brain-work and in-door life.” He 
ought, we think, to have here introduced a qualification — 
“ brain work carried on under the influence of anxiety.” 
No one has shown more fully and clearly than has Dr. Beard 
himself that intellectual work is in itself conducive to health 
and long life. Take the case of a man who can enter upon 
a course of scientific research, not depending upon its results 
for his livelihood, not compelled to complete his investiga- 
tions by any fixed date; neither his bodily nor his mental 
health will be endangered ; but compel a man to think, and 
discover, and invent, with the penalty of want hanging over 
him in case of failure, or merely delay, and we need not be 
surprised if his brain gives way. Of all the causes which 
debilitate the nervous system anxiety bears the palm. 
Dr. Beard considers that there are “ five features of the 
nineteenth century civilisation that are peculiar to it, un- 
precedented in history — the printing-press, the telegraph, 
steam-power, the sciences, and the mental activity of 
woman.” He might have added, at least for England, 
“ competitive examination.” All these agencies, by in- 
creasing anxiety and worry, have become causes of insanity. 
“ The telegraph alone has multiplied manifold the friction 
of life.” Standing where we now do, in the last quarter of 
this nineteenth century, it is strangely suggestive to contrast 
the realities around us with the anticipations entertained 
fifty years ago as to the social results of mechanical inven- 
tions. They were to lighten toil, to give men leisure to 
think, in other words leisure to live ; in short to make life 
easier. In the “ Song of the Steam-Engine,” written by a 
poet of the “ Good Time Coming ” school, this wonderful 
product of human ingenuity is made to say — 
“ And soon I intend you may go and play 
While I manage the world myself 1” 
We need not waste ink and paper in showing how com- 
pletely these expectations have been disappointed. But 
concerning the effects of the modern study of Science our 
author seems at times scarcely self-consistent. We find him 
here declaring that “the modern brain must carry and 
endure tenfold more than the ancient, and without a corre- 
lated increase of carrying and bearing force. Whence 
comes insanity, with its train of neuroses.” Again, he 
recommends, among our prime needs for the arrest of the 
multiplication of the insane, “ a partial reversion to the 
calmness and ignorance of our ancestors.” To their calm- 
ness, say we, not merely partially, but totally; but to their 
