And the worst you still have survived;
But what torments of mind you endured
From evils which never arrived."
—Lowell.
To-day, the need to eat forces even sensible men to live—and die—at a feverish rate. In bygone days the world was a peaceful place, in which our forefathers were denied the chance of combining exercise with amusement dodging murderous taxis; knew not the blessings of "Bile Beans", nor the biliousness they blessed either; they did not fall victims to "advert-diseases"; and they left the waters beneath to the fishes, and the skies above to the birds.
Withal they were sound trenchermen, who called their few ailments "humours" or "vapours" and knew what peace of mind meant. Sixty years ago there was one lunatic in every six hundred people; to-day there is one in every two hundred.
At the same time, the "neurasthenic temperament" is not altogether a modern product, for Plato described it with great precision, and declared such people to be "undesirable citizens" for his ideal republic.
Neurasthenia is due to exhaustion and poisoning of the nervous system, the chief symptoms of which is persistent neuro-muscular fatigue with general irritability. Its minor symptoms are almost as numerous as the various activities possible in mind and body.
The Predisposing Cause of neurasthenia is inherited nervous instability, but among nervous diseases, neurasthenia seems the least dependent on heredity, this factor playing a less important part than