( 32 ) 
[January, 
ANALYSES OF BOOKS. 
American Nervousness : its Causes and Consequences. A Sup- 
plement to “ Nervous Exhaustion.” By G. M. Beard, 
A.M., M.D. New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 
We find here, re-arranged and harmonised, ideas with which the 
scientific world has been already more or less familiarised, by the 
author’s memoirs in a variety of American journals, and by 
critiques which have appeared on this side of the Atlantic.* 
Dr. Beard considers “ nervousness,” or, more strictly speaking, 
nervelessness or lack of nerve force, as a characteristic pheno- 
menon of the present age, and most fully developed in the 
northern and eastern portion of the United States. There he 
proposes to study it by that perfectly legitimate scientific artifice 
which bids us investigate every phenomenon by preference where 
it occurs in the highest perfection, But here already there is 
matter of discussion. Dr. Beard uses such language as — “ This 
condition is especially frequent and severe in the northern and 
eastern portion of the United States ; ” — “the greater prevalence 
of nervousness in America — A new crop of diseases has sprung 
up in America of which Great Britain until lately knew nothing 
or but little — “ nervousness and the functional diseases derived 
from it are most frequent in America,” &c. In these and in many 
other passages he states more or less explicitly that the condition 
of defective nerve-power is more common in certain parts of the 
American Union than elsewhere. But Mr. E. C. Towne, writing 
in the “ Popular Science Monthly,” tells us that “ the worn, thin, 
nervous type is fully as common in England as in America, and 
often more extreme here than in America — “ the John Bull 
type is an exceptional one in England.” — “ The impression that 
the English are phlegmatic is a false inference.” — “ Temper, in 
faCt, and nerves are generally very much worse in England than 
in America.” These utterances seem little in accord with the 
opinions of Dr. Beard. Yet both writers know the two countries 
and their inhabitants from personal observation. Still it must be 
noted that Dr. Beard includes among the signs of the nervous 
diathesis “ susceptibility to stimulants and narcotics and various 
drugs, and consequent necessity of temperance.” Mr. Towne 
thinks that there would be little difference between the two 
peoples “ if England had had American abstinence for the past 
fifty years.” He states that the characteristics of the John Bull 
* See Journal of Science, 1877, p. 121, and 1875, p. 130. 
