London, and from Eastbourne to Brighton, we travel along the same road as far as Lewes, so all nervous diseases have a common origin in nerve-deterioration which may be repaired. Defective powers of observation bring with them this great evil,--we not only fail to reduce a terrible malady to a minimum, but we mete out unjust censure to those who seem to be responsible for the failure. Whereas the really responsible party is the community at large--in short, ourselves. We blame the doctor; but doctors are after all a small minority, and the minority can only expand and take shape in the direction in which the least pressure is put upon it by the majority. The grotesque modes of treatment resorted to in past times evidently gave satisfaction to all but the enlightened few, just as bad Governments have been tolerated in the countries fitted only to be governed badly. But to be dissatisfied, to mete out blame, to expect a cure, are healthier symptoms than a passive acceptance of the evil and a lazy belief in incurability. Medical science is unlimited. The law of our universe is progress. _PART II._ The Causes of Neurasthenia. “Whoever degrades another degrades me, And whatever is done or said returns at last to me.” --WALT WHITMAN. CHAPTER VI. _INTRODUCTORY._ In individual cases of nerve-trouble, the illness is generally traced to some cause, serious or trivial, real or imaginary, as the case may be. Quite as much harm as good is wrought by the practice. If the patient has suffered from some accident or malady leaving nerve-weakness as its legacy, the large development of the supposed phrenological organ called “Causality” on the part of the patient’s attendants will probably have its uses. The invalid will not then be considered a criminal. If his ailments cannot be cured, at all events he will meet with a certain amount of consideration, and his sufferings will not be aggravated by harshness. But if the cause of the mischief defy investigation, then a false one will assuredly be invented to take its place; the natural love of detraction, constantly recurring in consequence of the feeling of superiority which indulgence in detraction gives us, will find an outlet in action; and the sorrows of the patient, already great enough, will be increased tenfold. Since all intelligent human beings like to know the reason of the phenomena they observe, however imperfectly; since a belief in non-existent causes brings with it disastrous results; it behoves us to open our eyes to the true causes of nerve-deterioration in our community, with a view to removing them as completely as lies in our power.