'Hurried to death', or, A few words of advice on the danger of hurry and excitement : especially addressed to railway travellers / by Alfred Haviland.

  • Haviland, Alfred, -1903.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: 'Hurried to death', or, A few words of advice on the danger of hurry and excitement : especially addressed to railway travellers / by Alfred Haviland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    before the coachman mounted his box, to see that their luggage was all right. At the cross-road or at the wayside inn, they were generally before the time listening for the horn. If they went by the wagon, they had still less occasion to hurry themselves; and if they posted, then they could choose their own time. Now, all classes enter the same train; all alike hurry to one spot, with one object— to save the train. Everything is changed, even our bodies are changing; omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis ; for all this striving to do certain distances in certain given times has engendered an irritability in our organs which has told upon thousands, and will tell upon thousands more. Many a brain and spinal cord has suffered from the vibratory motion of railway carriages, which sometimes lasts for days after a journey; a limb, the nerves of which have been weakened by disease, often retains a feeling of this motion for many hours after; and severe neuralgia has been known to be the sequel. The action of the heart is often quickened, and the organ becomes more sensitive in some individuals, especially those of a nervo-sanguineous temperament. The stomach is not unfrequently upset in a manner similar to what was experienced on the road when we sat with our backs to the horses. Now, all these things are more or less inevitable, since we cannot do without railway travelling, and railway travelling cannot be accomplished without vibration, whatever improvement in this respect may be accomplished in the course of time. “ To obviate many of the inconveniences which are experienced, the railway traveller should know not only what he ought, but what he ought not to do. We will,