The Penalty of too Much Brain Work.
Dr. PARKER, of New York, delivered a lecture in that city, in which he showed the evils proceeding from the transgression of the limits of their physical powers by literary men, etc. He said: “No man can do head work faithfully for more than four or five or six hours. If that time is exceeded, all the phosphorous is carried off, and the man becomes irritable, broken down, and has softening of the brain. I have seen this overwork in lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and merchants, who have worked the brain for ten hours. They have dropped under the burden. You cannot violate the law of God with impunity. Sir Walter Scott did a large amount of brain work in his day, but he did not overwork himself. In his latter days, however, he became pecuniarily embarrassed, and resorted to his literary pursuits to save himself; but he worked too hard and completely broke himself down. One of the best scholars I ever knew broke himself down in his younger days, but he lived on to seventy, though he could only work some four hours a day. After these hours he engaged in vigorous exercises to keep him out of the house as much as possible, and he continued one of the best professors in the country.”