Sometimes the intellect and feelings may be confined to one subject so exclusively as to cause mental derangement on that subject when sane in all other respects. This is called a monomania.
The necessity for the equal development of all portions of the brain by an appropriate exercise of all the faculties of mind and body, and the influence of this upon happiness, is the most important portion of this subject, and will be more directly exhibited in another chapter.
The chief causes of debility of nerves, neuralgia, sciatica, and other diseases of the nerves, are exhaustion of the nervous fountain by excess of study, or of labor, or of mental excitement of any kind. All excess of feeling, or of intellectual or physical labor, decreases the nerve centres or fountains of nervous supply. Diseases also, and often medicines, have the same effect.
When the nerves are thus weakened their minute capillaries are not able to send forward the blood, and thus become swollen or congested, and then a change in the nerve substance follows.
The remedy for this is to withdraw the blood from the congested nerves, and this is secured by exercising the muscles, thus drawing the blood from nerves to muscles. When the patient is much debilitated this exercise should be done by an operator, as in the passive exercises of the movement cure; for in such cases the nerves and brain would be still more weakened by voluntary exercise of the patient. This shows the great mistake often made by attempts to remedy weak nerves and brain that need rest, by voluntary exercise of the muscles. It also shows the mischief often done in schools where to high intellectual excitement is added vigorous gymnastic exercises.
The chief benefit of the movement cure, especially as conducted by Dr. George Taylor, of New York City, consists in various apparatus invented by him, by which various parts of the body can be exercised while the brain and nerves of the patient are at rest. By these contrivances the congested blood of the capillaries is drawn from the diseased part and all the healthful functions restored, while the patient is at rest as to any voluntary exertion of brain and nerves. When the strength will permit, voluntary exercises adapted to each case are combined with the passive movement effected by an operator:
The following are the effects of the mechanical and involuntary movements by machinery or by an operator:
They produce increased motion of particles, and so increase of absorption and nutrition.
They increase contractile power in the capillaries, and thus remedy congestion.
They direct nervous energy to defective parts and remove obstructions.