On failure of brain power (encephalasthenia); its nature and treatment.

  • Althaus, Julius, 1833-1900.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On failure of brain power (encephalasthenia); its nature and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    nowhere scattered in profusion, but are always more or less limited. The competition for necessaries, comforts and luxuries, that is, the struggle for life, has, therefore, more especially in our own time, become much more severe than it ever was before. Darvvin has shown that this struggle goes on amongst all organised beings: in plants, which compete with each other for sunshine and moisture; in animals, which com- pete for food and sexual pre-eminence; and in men, who compete in all the different branches of human activity. 2. Another influence which has further intensified the com- petition already existing I consider to be the decrease of religious feeling, and of a belief in a future life, which was to redress the inequalities and apparent injustice of the present. Those who no longer believe in the immortality of the soul are now generally profoundly dissatisfied with existing condi- tions, and show themselves particularly keen in their avidity for the good things which make this present life of ours worth living. 3. Finally the inventions by means of which the forces of steam and electricity have been utilised for the ordinary pur- poses of life, the facilities for travelling, and the extraordinary development of the newspaper press, have completely revolu- tionised and transformed the mode of living w^hich obtained in the time of our ancestors, and thereby greatly increased the calls which are habitually made upon the power and endurance of the nervous system. The result of the action of these different causes has been that the pace at which we live has become much faster, and the clash of opinions and interests much keener than formerly, more especially in the ceaseless turmoil of great cities, to which by far the larger part of the population is now gradually being attracted. The fierce competition which at present exists, not only between the classes, but also between the sexes, nations and races, has led to a greater wear and tear of life, and entails more liability to a break-down of nervous