Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1875 — Overwork and Underwork. [ARTICLE]

Overwork and Underwork.

Bo much has been w-ritten on the subject of overwork, that we give place to a paper on the other side of the question, by Dr. Samuel Wilks, Physician to Guy’s Hospital, London: Tlie amount of work which each man or woman is capable of performing is dependent on their temperament and especial powers, and can be gauged by their individual capacities. There are some young men whose brains are so weak that they cannot bear the pressure'which is put upon them by a little sustained thought. Every year 1 see one or two medical students obliged to leave their chosen profession and devote themselves to an out-of-door active life. Apart, however, from these individual cases, which must be judged on their own merits, I am anxious to know- whether medical men generally accept what seems to be a very popular opinion of the day, that society at large is really suffering from an amount of work, physical and mental, which is injurious to the individual, and therefore to the human race. That an opinion of this kind largely prevails I gather from conversation, and from the public prints; but lately I saw quotations from the sermon of a well-known preacher, in which he declared that our asylums were filled with mad people owing to the overwrought state of the nervous system in the present hard-working age. Now, if the question be put thus broadly —Are Deople suffering from overwork? I for one should have no hesitation in saying No; but, on the contrary, if both sexes be taken, I should say the opposite is nearer the truth, and that more persons are suffering from idleness than from exces'sive work. Medically speaking, I see half a dozen persons suffering from want of occupation to one who is crippled by his labors. I have, therefore, very little sjunpathy with the prevalent notion that nervous and other diseases are due to overwork; and, as regards the statement of the preacher above-mentioned, I apprehend he never thought of testing the truth of it by a visit to the public asylum, for he might then have been impressed with the sight of the of the lower classes and the altogether unlettered persons confined therein. As regards the community generally, or at least those of its number who before the medical man on account of their ailments, my belief is that the explanation they offer arises from a delusion; and amongst girls, so far from any studies or otjbfer work being injurious, I could ingfa&fie numerous cases of restoration to,, health on the discovery of an occupation. Very often, when a' business man complains of being overdone, it may be found that his meals are very irregular and hurried, that he takes no exercise, is rather partial to brandy and soda, and thinks it not improper t<> halt poison himself with nicotine every night and morning. The lady in the same way eats no breakfast, takes a glass of sherry at eleven o’clock, and drinks tea all the afternoon; when night arrives she has become ready to engage in any performance to which she may have been invited. When the man of business presents himself with his nerves really overstrained, he is found to be a man of delicate or actual*insane temperament. The rule, however, is that tvhen a pa-

tieut comßs before fee with his nerves unstrung, hypochondriacal, and goes through the whole machinery of liis body to inform me of its working, previously committing all the facts to paper lest an important one should be forgotten,) tllat that man is getting rusty from having no occupation. It is generally admitted that amongst men a want of occupation is so detrimental that no demonstration of the fact is required. They are the bread-win-ners ; and the pursuit after the necessities of life for one’s sell and belongings is believed to be intimately associated with health. But if this be a physiological law, it is equally applicable to women; and it may be shown that a very large number of ailments in girls is due to want of occupation or idleness. We forget sometimes what a formidable machine is the animal body with its force-producing nervous system. The brain is an engine of many horse-power; its energy must be accounted for in some way; if not used for good purposes it will be for bad, and “mischief will be found for idle hands to do.” It is fortunate that with many girls the frivolities of life keep them idly busy, and so, having a safety valve, they are harmless to others and themselves; but let a girl occupy herself neither with what is useful nor with amusement—she falls into bad health, she becomes a prey to her own internal fires or forces and every function of the body is deranged as well as her moral nature perverted. Cases of this kind appear to me of the commonest order, and at the same time very difficult, of cure because the mother’s aid can rarely be gained to assist the doctor, but, on the other hand, her sympathies top3)tten only foster her daughter’s morbid proclivities by insisting on her delicacy and the necessity of various artificial methods for her restoration, as well as her resistance to the doctor’s advice for a more natural life, since she is sure it cannot be undertaken. Her daughter is too delicate for any of the occupations or modes of exercise proposed; what she requires is medical attendance, and to be alcoholized and physicked. It is remarkable, however, what a young lady can do under the power of a stimulus ; as, for example, a gentleman lately expressed his surprise to see how his daughter, who could not walk many yards for a long time owing to a pain in her back, was soon able to walk many miles a day when she procured the support of a lover’s arm. It is from consideration of this kind that, when the superfluity of w r omen, amounting to half a million, doomed to be unmated,,, ask for employment I cannot deny it to them. The human body is made for w'ork, physical and mental; the amount it can do is of course proportionate to the power of the machine; but, unlike all other machines, its strength is only maintained by use, as assuredly it rusts and decays by disuse. Judging from my own experience, the persons with unstrung nerves who apply to the doctor are, not the prime minister, the bishops, judges and liard-working professional men, but merchants and stock-brokers retired from business, Gov- ’ eminent clerks who work from ten to four, women whose domestic duties and bad servants are driving them to the grave, young ladies whose visits to the village schooi or Sunday performance on the organ is undermining their health, and so on. In short, and this is the object of the remarks with which I have troubled your readers, in my experience I see more ailments arise from want of occupation than from overwork, and, taking the various kinds of nervous and dyspeptic ailments which we are constantly treating, I find at least six due to idleness to one from overwork-