Nervous troubles are conceded to be very prevalent. By nervous troubles the well-informed lay person brings to mind neurasthenia, hysteria, nervous indigestion, insomnia, worries of various kinds, etc. However, physicians find not infrequently that many disorders which are usually considered as being due to some physical impairment are removed often without the aid of drugs, rest, travel, massage and other therapeutic agents commonly employed when a physical error exists. For example, by bringing to light some painful experience of the past, or by solving some problem which is disturbing mental equilibrium, such ills as palpitation of the heart, backache, fainting attacks, some asthmas, some forms of defective vision, hearing, speech, etc., have been cured. Considering the means by which cure was effected in these cases, it is justifiable to place them among impairments as may be of so-called nervous origin.

Nervous troubles differ from physical troubles in many ways. For one thing they cause more unhappiness; as we all know, it is much easier to bear a physical pain than a mental one. Again, physical ills are usually accompanied by some demonstrable change in the organs. For example, if a person develops bulging eyes, tremors, and certain other symptoms, we will generally find that he has an enlargement of the thyroid gland, which will account for his complaints. While some nervous disorders, as locomotor ataxia, are accompanied by disease of the nerves which is demonstrable; and while some forms of nervousness are dependent upon a discoverable, though often unsuspected, error of vision, high blood pressure, etc., most nervous people are free from any organic disease of the nervous structures or physical structures that would account for their symptoms. People do not die from nervousness. Should a nervous person die, say from accident, and were we permitted to perform a post mortem examination, we would discover nothing that would account for the complaints made during life.

There is, of course, a cause for everything. And as far as nervousness is concerned, there are a number of possible explanations. A poor heredity has been much censured; its evils cannot be mitigated but it is probably true that in the causation of ordinary nervous affections it does not play as much of a part as we have thought. Faulty pedagogy deserves considerable blame, and if this universal fault were remedied, it is safe to say that the number of future neurotics would be small. Neglect of personal hygiene, absence of occupation, insufficient recreation, the strenuous life, etc., are factors worthy of more attention than many give them.

Among other causes of nervousness, and physical ills also, unhappy suggestion is important. Some persons live from childhood in an environment where pessimism rules, where slight disorders are magnified, where everything tends to foster self-consciousness. A sensitive disposition, easily wounded by slight affronts, which tends to render the individual very impressionable and too much concerned with self is acquired, and susceptibility to worry and other undesirable traits follows.

Unhappy suggestion may, however, come from within.

Thus, a person, possibly because he has too much spare tune at his disposal, may become unduly concerned with his body's activities, for lack of other occupation. He reads health books unceasingly, and applies every pathological thing he reads about to himself. His heart may palpitate, maybe because of temporary excitement, or going up stairs rapidly. His attention then focuses on the heart. The more he becomes excited the faster his heart beats, and in place of figuring that his emotion is responsible for the palpitation, he reasons that the latter is diseased and responsible for his emotion. A slight pain in the stomach draws his attention there. The more he broods about his digestion the worse his stomach feels. Today it should be common knowledge that worry upsets all proper activity of the physical organs; and unless a person learns to employ only a reasonable concern over his physical welfare he is likely to be the victim of all sorts of impairments, mostly "imaginary." Sometimes, too, persons continue to suffer from an impairment from which they should have recovered speedily. For instance, a person may have had a backache due to muscle strain. He does not respond to treatment, however; secretly he fears that he has kidney disease which he regards as very serious. Until he ceases brooding, which he is apt to once he unburdens his mind to the physician, he will continue to suffer from pain in his back, and to become more harassed mentally and physically' from day to day.

A striking example of the influence of unhappy suggestion is afforded in the case of a young lady who fell from her bicycle a few years ago. Her injury was slight, and there were no permanent injuries received. Yet her state has grown progressively worse. She has become pale, thin, despondent, has no appetite, is a host of worries; apart from occasional hours in a wheel chair, she is practically bed-ridden. The real reason why she has failed to get well is unhappy suggestion from her parents. Day in and out her over-solicitous parents sigh over her, ask visitors in her presence if they don't think she is looking very bad, express the opinion that shell never get well, etc. The young lady has, or had, a bright future before her, and could be appealed to; but all efforts to inspire encouragement are offset by the home suggestions. The patient may be more impressionable than the average, yet it would indeed be a strong-minded individual who, especially when sick, would not succumb to constant pessimism. Nat-urally the parents do not know, and cannot be convinced, of the harm they are doing; and as long as present conditions obtain, it is doubtful if the lady's invalidism and unhappiness will depart.

This sad example should impress upon us the great value of optimism and the evils of pessimism, especially in the presence of the sick. The sick are all ears, and pills and potions will avail them little if antagonized by melancholy. It matters not that the sick one is only a child; it drinks as deeply of gloom as does an adult.