It is almost needless to add that I am oppressed with a sense of my own incapacity for the task which I have here undertaken. But the most ignorant may teach something to the most learned, if he go through life by a different path. My only hope is that, in dealing with a subject about which so little is known, even my observations--conscientious as they are, however faulty--may be of some slight use to the community to which I owe so much. In preparing this work for the press, I have had the advantage of Mr. Horace Hutchinson’s kind and generous assistance. C. B. CONTENTS. _PART I._ Our Nerves and their Ill-Treatment. CHAP. PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 23 II. A THIEF IN THE NIGHT 37 III. INEFFECTUAL TREATMENT 47 IV. ERRONEOUS NOTIONS 70 V. OBSERVATION 85 _PART II._ The Causes of Neurasthenia. VI. INTRODUCTION 101 VII. HEREDITY 104 VIII. IMPERFECTIONS OF OUR SOCIAL SYSTEM 121 IX. AN IMPERFECT SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 142 X. SECONDARY CAUSES OF NERVE-DETERIORATION 161 _PART I._ Our Nerves and their Ill-Treatment. “None shall rule but the humble.”--EMERSON. Dedicated TO THE _MEDICAL MEN, NURSES, AND OTHERS_, WHO, BY THEIR GENEROUS ASSISTANCE, HAVE SO LARGELY CONDUCED TO THE SUCCESS OF THE AUTHOR’S LABOURS AMONGST OUR EPILEPTIC AND NEURASTHENIC POOR. CHAPTER I. _INTRODUCTORY._ Once there lived a race of men blest with very strong eyesight--so strong that they were unconscious of possessing sight at all, but accepted their marvellous endowment as a matter of course. These men were hunters, who lived on the birds and beasts they shot with their bows and arrows. After a time our hunters learnt other arts besides that of the chase; various implements were invented; industries such as spinning and weaving were established; the primitive huts and sheds were discarded, and commodious dwellings rose in their place. But their progress was not unattended by serious disadvantages. For instance, the weavers, who passed a great deal of their time indoors, began to lose the strength and keenness of eyesight enjoyed by those who followed the chase. At first little attention was paid to this calamity, but when some of the weavers went blind and became a burden on the rest of the community, a meeting was convened in the council-chamber called Public Opinion, the most influential members of the tribe were consulted, and certain conclusions were arrived at.