Nerve troubles, causes and cures / [Cecil Webb-Johnson].

  • Webb-Johnson, Cecil, 1879-1930.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Nerve troubles, causes and cures / [Cecil Webb-Johnson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hurry is essential to the busy man or woman. The great men of the centuries past were never in a hurry, and that is why the world will not forget them in a hurry. A man who is always in a state of haste and excitement is an incompetent man and his work will be badly done. In addition, he does not get through the same amount of work in a given time as a man who takes things calmly, but at the same time concentrates. Furthermore, hurry has a clearly debilitating effect upon the tissues, and may in time injure the heart. The business woman should most particularly heed this warning, for her sex has, as a rule, less power of concentration than a man, and is apt to expend its energy on a multitude of channels, diving from one thing to another in an endeavour to cope with the day’s work. Hurry and hustle are the foes, not only of good, satisfactory work, but of the nerves and brain. In his famous address to the students of Yale, Sir William Osier said : ‘ One of the saddest of life’s tragedies is the wrecking of the career of young colle¬ gians by hurry, hustle, bustle and tension—the human machine driven day and night as no sensible fellow would use his motor.’ By a curious paradox, idleness may provoke nerve- disorder as much as work and worry. Women who have nothing to do all day but amuse themselves throng the consulting-rooms of the neurologist. More serious than these cases is that of the elderly business man who has retired. The sudden cessation of activity throws a severe strain on the nervous system and the victim has to consult a nerve specialist. Repressed sexuality is responsible for much of the nervous complaints which are found in high-minded