on. I can count many
examples of nervousness which have arisen in this fashion. Perhaps my
warning may not be without good results. Over and over I have made like
statements in one or another form, and the increasing experience of
added years only contributes force to my belief that, in still urging
the matter, I am doing a serious duty. I ought to say also that the care
of these invalids is, even to the well-trained and thoughtful nurse, one
of the most severe of moral and physical trials, and that, in the effort
to satisfy the cravings of these sick people, I have seen the best
nurses crumble as it were in health, and at last give up, worn out and
disheartened. A part of the responsibility of such disasters falls on
the physician who forgets that it should be a portion of his duty to
look sharply after the health of too devoted nurses as well as that of
selfish patients.

I have now said all that I need to say of the causes which, directly or
indirectly, evoke the condition we call nervousness. Many of these are
insidious in their growth. Too often the husband, if she be married, is
immersed in his own cares, and fails to see what is going on. "I am not
ill enough to see a doctor," she says, and waits until she has
needlessly increased the difficulties of his task. Let us suppose,
however, that, soon or late, she is doing, in a merely medical way, all
that he insists upon, what more can she do for herself? She has before
her very likely a long trial, severe in its exactions in proportion to
her previous activity of mind and body. She most probably needs rest,
and now that physicians have learned its value, and that not all ills
are curable by exertion, she is told to lie down some hours each day. If
she cannot get rid of her home duties, let her try at least to secure to
herself despotically her times of real and true rest. To lie down is not
enough. What she needs is undisturbed repose, and not to have to expect
every few minutes to hear at her door the knocks and voices of servants
or children. It is difficult to secure these most needful times of
silent security even in health, as most women too well know. Very often
the after-meal hours are the most available and the more desirable as
times of repose, because in the weak digestion goes on better when they
are at rest. She will find, too, that some light food between meals and
at bedtime is useful, but this is within the doctor's province, and I am
either desirous