Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — AMERICAN NERVOUSNESS. [ARTICLE]

AMERICAN NERVOUSNESS.

NO MORE OF THE DISEASE HERE THAN ELSEWHERE. Statistics Show that tha Stamina of th« Race in America Has Shown No Dater-•oration—-Vigor of Our People, He belief in the greater nervousness of the American, writes Dr. Philip C- Knapp, in the Century Magazine, seemß very widespread. The late Dr. Beard, of New York, was one of the first to deacribe nervous prostration, and to give to it its medical name of neurasthenia, so that it has often been spoken of as “the American disease.” In his work on “American Nervousness” he treats chiefly of the causes of the nervousnes, and its symptoms, accepting almost as an axiom the statement that Americans are more nervous than any other race, and that there is a vastly greater amount of nervous disease in this country than in Europe. He admits, however, that the severer forms of organic nervous disease, such as locomotor ataxia and apoplexy, are probably less frequent, the increase being in the so-called functional conditions, neurasthenia, hysteria, and the like. It is probable that the majority of educated people not physcians in this country would admit without a murmur that as a people we are peculiarly subject to nervous disease. Although, as I have said, the statistics are not conclusive, nevertheless such statistics as we have, and the conclusions drawn from various general impressions, absolutely contradict this belief. It is only since the war of 1812 that the American has acquired his reputation for restless energy; before that he was denounced as indolent and sluggish. Up to the period of the Civil War he was also denounced as physically degenerate, inferior in bulk, strength aud endurance to his English cousin. The Civil War put an end to such talk. No armies endured more than ours iu the fiejd; no people endured more than those who stayed behind waiting and helping. The record of the first Kentucky brigade in the Confederate army, almost continuously iu action or on the march for a hundred days.in 18t>4; retreating from their homes, with the hope of success steadily fading away; 1,140 strong at the beginning, sufferingl,B6o fatal or hospital wounds, with only 50 left ’jnwoifdeu, vet mustering 240 at the mil, wit'i less than 10 desertions—such a record lias never been surpassed. 'lheie a'ca woe of the purest American stock.

At about the same time Dr. BrownSepuard found that the American mammals survived injuries that were inevitably fatal to the European, and our surgeons found a surprising percentage of recovery from severe gunshot wounds, greater probably than had ever been observed in Europe. Dr. B. A. Gould found that the American soldier was physically as well developed as the European, and Dr. H. I’. Bowditeh found that the American school-boy was the equal in measurement of the hoys of Eton and Rugby. American life-insurance underwriters, too, have found that the longevity in this country is as great as it is in Europe, or greater. The rise of the South since the Civil War, and the prompt recovery of individual communities, such as Chicago, Boston, and Portland. after great conflagrations, are further instances of the great recuperative power of our people. Since the Civil War our physical condition has greatly improved. The greater interest in athletics, and better cooking, have probably had something to do with this improvement. We have held the America’s cup for nearly fifty years. In shooting, cricket, rowing and tennis we have not been inferior in international contests. In track athletics Yale has recently shown her superiority to Cambridge, and the New York athletes have not only surpassed their London rivals, but have established new world’s records in more than one event. In the famous ride a few years ago between Berlin and Vienna the picked riders and horses of the Austrian and German armies were used up, yet our cavalrymen and express messengers on the plains, with ordinary mounts, have made better records both for time and distance, without the slightest injury to horses or men.