Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention

by Henry Putnam Stearns

How it is possible that instructors of young persons can suppose that any larger power of intellect, or any greater capacity for usefulness in after-life, can possibly be secured by such treatment, or rather by such abuse of the organ of the mind, or why they have not been more careful to instruct those under their care as to this most important of all subjects to them in their future work, it is not easy to imagine, and can only be accounted for by the supposition that they have not studied the subject carefully enough in its physiological relations.

It should always be borne in mind that excessive use or stimulation of any part or organ of the system can in no sense be considered as education of it, but as a sin against its nature, which will be sure to require retribution. It may be made to accomplish more in a given time, but it must be at a discount on its future activity; there must come a reaction, that is, a condition in which there will be performed less of function than before; and that such a course of treatment has a tendency to produce a condition of instability, and more or less of uncertainty of action.

Within the last twenty years there appears to have come, in some measure, a reaction in reference to exclusive attention to brain discipline, and in favor of more attention to physical exercise during the college curriculum. There have been organized in most of the colleges and academies, boating clubs, base-ball clubs, and other associations with the avowed object of securing a higher state of physical development and education. This has been a step in the right direction, and none too soon have we come to realize the fact that the brain depends very largely upon the health of the body for its exercise of the best thought. The importance of a physical education will be more fully referred to hereafter, but at this stage of the subject it is pertinent to suggest that violent use of the muscles for short periods is generally not the best mode of exercise; that the sudden expenditure of so much nervous force in training and in contests, as is necessary in order to secure the highest attainable power in rapidity, skill, and strength of stroke, during a half or one hour; or to attain the highest skill in throwing a ball, or in receiving it in hand, or in many other of the manœuvres of base-ball playing, which require such quick changes of position, and violent motion of the body, is in great danger of ultimately defeating the very object for which they are ostensibly practised.

The skill and power may be obtained, and the winning crew or club may have the satisfaction of receiving the welcome plaudits or the crowning laurels bestowed on victors, but how far all this will prove to be of service in securing either strength or health of body, may be a question; or rather it will not be a question at all. In nine out of every ten cases there exists almost a certainty that a larger measure of physical health and capacity of endurance in after-life would have been attained by some other course, or method, attended with less stimulation and expenditure of nerve-force. The period of reaction no less surely comes than in cases of other kinds of stimulation, and is frequently manifested in functional or organic derangements of the heart and other organs. Healthy and continuous muscular power comes more surely by the expenditure of a medium amount of nerve-force, and no other method can properly be considered as physical education.

Lest, however, it may be thought I have placed too much importance in this matter of over-study and nervous exertion, and to show that we Americans are not the only ones at fault, I will here introduce some statements from an English physician[6] of the highest authority.

He says: “The master of a private school informs me that he has proof of the effects of overwork in the fact of boys being withdrawn from the keen competition of a public-school career, which was proving injurious to their health, and sent to him, that they might, in the less ambitious atmosphere of a private school, pick up health and strength again. He refers to instances of boys who had been crammed and much pressed in order that they might enter a certain form or gain a desired exhibition, having reached the goal successfully and then stagnated.” He further says: “Too many hours’ daily study, and the knowledge of an approaching examination, when the system is developing and requiring an abundance of good air and exercise, easily accounts for pale and worn looks, frequent headache, disturbed sleep, nightmare, and nervous fears. When the career of such students does not end in graduating in a lunatic asylum, they lose for years, possibly always, the elasticity and buoyancy of spirits essential to robust health. A strong constitution may be sacrificed to supposed educational necessities.”

“Mr. Burndell Carter,[7] in his ‘Influence of Education and Training in Promoting Diseases of the Nervous System,’ speaks of a large public school in London from which boys of ten to twelve years of age carry home tasks which would occupy them till near midnight, and of which the rules and laws of study are so arranged as to preclude the possibility of sufficient recreation. The teacher in a high school says that the host of subjects in which parents insist on instruction being given to their children is simply preposterous, and disastrous alike to health and to real steady progress in necessary branches of knowledge. The other day I met an examiner in the street with a roll of papers consisting of answers and questions. He deplored the fashion of the day; the number of subjects crammed within a few years of growing life; the character of the questions which were frequently asked, and the requiring a student to master, at the peril of being rejected, scientific theories and crude speculations which they would have to unlearn in a year or two. He sincerely pities the unfortunate students. During the last year or two, the public have been startled by the number of suicides which have occurred on the part of young men preparing for examination at the University of London, and the press has spoken out strongly on the subject. Notwithstanding this, the authorities appear to be disposed to increase instead of diminish the stringency of some of the examinations.”

These statements were made as showing a tendency on the part of the prevalent modes of education in England, to produce in its subjects either insanity or a tendency toward it. I here reproduce them as confirmatory of my own views already expressed, and would especially call attention to the fact that though this influence may fail in producing actual insanity, yet it is of such a character as will tend to develop instability of brain tissue, and in the coming generation the insane diathesis. Parents transmit acquired tendencies toward disease as well as, and indeed I think more frequently than, disease itself.

I must beg, however, not to be misunderstood. I think I appreciate the importance of an education for the development and discipline of the brain as profoundly as any one. I believe the lack of brain discipline for those who are to compete in the midst of such a civilization as that of the present, is one of the greatest misfortunes; but I do desire to protest with much emphasis against the system of indiscriminate cramming toward which the schools appear to be so rapidly drifting. It defeats one of the most important ends to be sought. It tends to confusion and weakness of mind instead of strength. Children have so many subjects to learn about, that they do not have time to fully understand subjects studied. The brain is occupied so many hours daily that its energy is exhausted, and there remains little ability to accurately appreciate, discriminate, or fix the attention.

The same conditions result, as there would from the too long and continuous use of the muscles of the arm, when one is learning to execute a piece of delicate work—the drawing of a picture, or making a work of art. In such a case the importance of only limited periods of application would be readily appreciated; great care would be exercised by the teacher lest the pupil should continue the work too long, or after the muscles had become weary and consequently incapable of accurate work.