Essay on the disorders incident to literary men, and on the best means of preserving their health : read before the Royal Society of Literature, Nov. 5, 1834, and dedicated, by permission, to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury / by W. Newnham.

  • Newnham, W. (William), 1790-1865.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on the disorders incident to literary men, and on the best means of preserving their health : read before the Royal Society of Literature, Nov. 5, 1834, and dedicated, by permission, to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury / by W. Newnham. 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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    in proportion to its importance in the animal economy; and to the intimacy or remoteness of its connexion, and of its sympathies with other organs, the general health becomes impaired. Where that over-stimulated organ is the brain, it is manifest that its disorders are important, because of the situation which it holds in itself; and that they become all-important from this consideration—that every organ and function is dependent for its entireness upon receiving a due supply of nervous influence, which it cannot re- ceive, if the brain be inordinately devoted to in- tellectual pursuits ; and yet, without which it must fail, and the general health must suffer. This is precisely the situation of men devoted to literary pursuits; their brain is over-stimulated, and the several organs and functions suffer in consequence. It is often thought that digestion is impaired by the sedentary life of close students ; but the real cause of suffering is, that the nutri- tive system is deprived of its due proportion of nervous energy, and hence digestion is enfeebled. Our first object of attention, therefore, is the brain; our second, the organs dependent upon it for support. B 2