It is almost needless to add that I am oppressed with a sense of my own incapacity for the task which I have here undertaken. But the most ignorant may teach something to the most learned, if he go through life by a different path. My only hope is that, in dealing with a subject about which so little is known, even my observations—conscientious as they are, however faulty—may be of some slight use to the community to which I owe so much.

In preparing this work for the press, I have had the advantage of Mr. Horace Hutchinson’s kind and generous assistance.

C. B.

CONTENTS.

———
[PART I.]
Our Nerves and their Ill-Treatment.
CHAP. PAGE
[I.]INTRODUCTION[23]
[II.]A THIEF IN THE NIGHT[37]
[III.] INEFFECTUAL TREATMENT[47]
[IV.] ERRONEOUS NOTIONS[70]
[V.] OBSERVATION[85]
———
[PART II.]
The Causes of Neurasthenia.
[VI.]INTRODUCTION[101]
[VII.]HEREDITY[104]
[VIII.]IMPERFECTIONS OF OUR SOCIAL SYSTEM[121]
[IX.]AN IMPERFECT SYSTEM OF EDUCATION[142]
[X.]SECONDARY CAUSES OF NERVE-DETERIORATION[161]

PART I.
Our Nerves and their Ill-Treatment.