given women sufferers along this line. I find that as a rule,
women make better progress, at least at first, with complete rest or as
much rest as they can possibly get. I have seen great harm come from
telling a woman afflicted with "The Mysterious Disease"--as it is often
called--to take long walks. I am always extremely careful about telling
such a woman to indulge in vigorous exercise. Some women, of course, are
much stronger than others. My advice to a woman is to walk in the open
air unless she is so ill she cannot walk at all without becoming very
weak. And here again each person must use common sense and decide the
matter herself. But no person with a nervous breakdown should ever work
at any task or take any kind of exercise to the point of exhaustion.

I well remember a man who came to me some years ago suffering from this
malady. He had been trying to get well by doing heavy stunts in a
gymnasium. He was very muscular, in fact he was an athlete, and was
still under twenty-five years of age. His cheeks were ruddy, and to the
ordinary observer he appeared to be in the pink of condition. But he had
that peculiar expression of the eyes that flashed his story to me as
plainly as if blazoned forth by the letters of an electric sign. I told
him at once that he could never hope to cure his nerves by such violent
exercises.

And right here let me advise men in this condition not to run. I receive
many letters of inquiry from young men with broken-down nerves who tell
me they are taking long walks and finishing with a run. To all such I
say: Do not run. I know all about it for I have tried it. I was on my
university football team. And all my life I have been fond of athletics.
I am still fond of this kind of life and always expect to be, but
exercise is frequently overdone by nervous people. Usually, the
physically strong man who breaks down with "nerves" thinks at once of
physical training. But strange as it may seem, you can make such a man's
muscles as hard as iron but that alone will not cure him. And it is true
that many people in this condition do not seem nervous for they are not
at all shaky, as some think an individual should be if he is the victim
of a nervous breakdown.

I well remember that one day when at my worst I could not work nor
concentrate my mind on anything. I chanced to be in Topeka, Kansas, and
passed a shooting gallery. I was a good rifle shot and I had been taking
long walks and shooting Kan