The Nervous Plague

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 4, 1907

The Nervous Plague

The following interesting note and comment thereon we clip from the Chicago Home Herald (Ram's Horn). The conditions set forth by that journal are not overdrawn. This disease and the many other deadly maladies prevalent to-day, point with unfaltering finger to the end of the rule of sin:—

A cure has been found for the great American malady. Neurasthenia has displaced consumption in its boastful position for first honors. It claims more victims than the “great white plague.” It is the penalty which we suffer for our surrender to the mad rush of present-day civilization. This is a neurotic age. An eminent doctor recently explained how he had studied physical culture to learn to relax his muscles, and then practised self-hypnotism to cure insomnia after a season of overwork. Diseases of the nerves are not confined to America, but we are told they are raging in England and throughout the continent. Dr. T. B. Hyslop, superintendent of the Royal Hospital, London, has been led professionally to give the matter a great deal of study, with a view to discovering the best means of combating what might be called a universal nervous plague. His conclusion is an interesting one, and is most unique, since it bears both a pathological and theological character. He says:—

“As an alienist and one whose whole life has been concerned with the sufferings of the mind, I would state that of all hygienic measures to counteract disturbed sleep, depressed spirits, and all the miserable sequels of a distressed mind, I would undoubtedly give the first place to the simple habit of prayer. Let there be a habit of nightly communion, not as a mendicant or repeater of words adapted to the tongue of a sage, but as a humble individual who submerges or asserts his individuality as an integral part of a greater whole. Such a habit does more to clean the spirit and strengthen the soul to overcome mere incidental emotionalism than any other therapeutic agent known to me.”

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”

The mind that is filled with that conviction will rest undisturbed in the storm of care and trouble. The best cure for sick nerves is a sound religious faith and a daily exercise of the same.