Excerpts from George M.
Beard, American Nervousness,
Its Causes and
Consequences (New York, 1881), pp. 96-129.
The causes of American nervousness are complicated, but are not
beyond
analysis: First of all modern civilization. The phrase modern
civilization is used with emphasis, for civilization alone does
not
cause nervousness. The Greeks were certainly civilized, but they
were
not nervous, and in the Greek language there is no word for that
term.
The ancient Romans were civilized, as judged by any standard.
Civilization is therefore a relative term, and as such is
employed
throughout this treatise. The modern differ from the ancient
civilizations mainly in these five elements -- steam power, the
periodical press, the telegraph, the sciences, and the mental
activity
of women. When civilization, plus these five factors, invades
any
nation, it must carry nervousness and nervous diseases along
with it.
Civilization Very Limited in Extent
All that is said here of American nervousness refers only to a
fraction
of American society; for in America, as in all lands, the
majority of
the people are muscle-workers rather than brain-workers; have
little
education, and are not striving for honor, or expecting eminence
or
wealth. All our civilization hangs by a thread; the activity and
force
of the very few make us what we are as a nation; and if, through
degeneracy, the descendants of these few revert to the condition
of
their not very remote ancestors, all our haughty civilization
would be
wiped away ...
... Edison's electric light is now sufficiently advanced in an
experimental
direction to give us the best possible illustration of the
effects of
modern civilization on the nervous system. An electric machine
of
definite horse-power, situated at some central point, is to
supply the
electricity needed to run a certain number of lamps-say one
thousand,
more or less. If an extra number of lamps should be interposed
in the
circuit, then the power of the engine must be increased; else
the light
of the lamps would be decreased, or give out ... The nervous
system of man is the centre of the
nerve-force supplying all the organs of the body. Like the steam
engine, its force is limited, although it cannot be
mathematically
measured -- and, unlike the steam engine, varies in amount of
force
with the food, the state of health and external conditions,
varies with
age, nutrition, occupation, and numberless factors. The force in
this
nervous system can, therefore, be increased or diminished by
good or
evil influences, medical or hygienic, or by the natural
evolutions --
growth, disease and decline; but none the less it is limited;
and when
new functions are interposed in the circuit, as modern
civilization is
constantly requiring us to do, there comes a period, sooner or
later,
varying in different individuals, and at different times of
life, when
the amount of force is insufficient to keep all the lamps
actively
burning; those that are weakest go out entirely, or, as more
frequently
happens, burn faint and feebly -- they do not expire, but give
an
insufficient and unstable light -- this is the philosophy of
modem
nervousness.
The invention of printing, the extension of steam power into
manufacturing interests and into means of conveyance, the
telegraph,
the periodical press, the political machinery of free countries,
the
religious excitements that are the sequels of Protestantism --
the
activities of philanthropy, made necessary by the increase of
civilization, and of poverty, and certain forms of disease --
and, more
than all, perhaps, the heightening and extending complexity of
modern
education in and out of schools and universities, the inevitable
effect
of the rise of modern science and the expansion of history in
all its
branches -- all these are so many additional lamps interposed in
the
circuit, and are supplied at the expense of the nervous system,
the
dynamic power of which has not correspondingly increased.
Necessary Evils of Specialization
One evil, and hardly looked for effect of the introduction of
steam,
together with the improved methods of manufacturing of recent
times,
has been the training in special departments or duties -- so
that
artisans, instead of doing or preparing to do, all the varieties
of the
manipulations needed in the making of any article, are
restricted to a
few simple exiguous movements, to which they give their whole
lives --
in the making of a rifle, or a watch, each part is constructed
by
experts on that part. The effect of this exclusive concentration
of
mind and muscle to one mode of action, through months and years,
is
both negatively and positively pernicious, and notably so, when
re-enforced, as it almost universally is, by the bad air of
overheated
and ill-ventilated establishments. Herein is one unanticipated
cause of
the increase of insanity and other diseases of the nervous
system among
the laboring and poorer classes. The steam engine, which would
relieve
work, as it was hoped, and allow us to be idle, has increased
the
amount of work done a thousand fold; and with that increase in
quantity
there has been a differentiation of quality and specialization
of
function which, so far forth, is depressing both to mind and
body. In
the professions-- the constringing power of specialization is
neutralized very successfully by general culture and
observation, out
of which specialties spring, and by which they are supported;
but for
the artisan there is no time, or chance, or hope, for such
redeeming
and antidotal influences.
Clocks and Watches -- Necessity
of
Punctuality
The perfection of clocks and the invention of watches have
something to
do with modern nervousness, since they compel us to be on time,
and
excite the habit of looking to see the exact moment, so as not
to be
late for trains or appointments. Before the general use of these
instruments of precision in time, there was a wider margin for
all
appointments; a longer period was required and prepared for,
especially
in travelling -- coaches of the olden period were not expected
to start
like steamers or trains, on the instant -- men judged of the
time by
probabilities, by looking at the sun, and needed not, as a rule,
to be
nervous about the loss of a moment, and had incomparably fewer
experiences wherein a delay of a few moments might destroy the
hopes of
a lifetime. A nervous man cannot take out his watch and look at
it when
the time for an appointment or train is near, without affecting
his
pulse, and the effect on that pulse, if we could but measure and
weigh
it, would be found to be correlated to a loss to the nervous
system.
Punctuality is a greater thief of nervous force than is
procrastination
of time. We are under constant strain, mostly unconscious,
oftentimes
in sleeping as well as in waking hours, to get somewhere or do
something at some definite moment. Those who would relieve their
nervousness may well study the manners of the Turks, who require
two
weeks to execute a promise that the Anglo-Saxon would fulfil in
a
moment. In Constantinople indolence is the ideal, as work is the
ideal
in London and New York; the follower of the Prophet is ashamed
to be in
haste, and would apologize for keeping a promise. There are
those who
prefer, or fancy they prefer, the sensations of movement and
activity
to the sensations of repose; but from the standpoint only of
economy of
nerve-force all our civilization is a mistake; every mile of
advance
into the domain of ideas, brings a conflict that knows no rest,
and all
conquests are to be paid for, before delivery often, in blood
and nerve
and life. We cannot have civilization and have anything else,
the price
at which nature disposes of this luxury being all the rest of
her
domain.
The Telegraph
The telegraph is a cause of nervousness the potency of which is
little
understood. Before the days of Morse and his rivals, merchants
were far
less worried than now, and less business was transacted in a
given
time; prices fluctuated far less rapidly, and the fluctuations
which
now are transmitted instantaneously over the world were only
known then
by the slow communication of sailing vessels or steamships;
hence we
might wait for weeks or months for a cargo of tea from China,
trusting
for profit to prices that should follow their arrival; whereas,
now,
prices at each port are known at once all over the globe. This
continual fluctuation of values, and the constant knowledge of
those
fluctuations in every part of the world, are the scourges of
business
men, the tyrants of trade -- every cut in prices in wholesale
lines in
the smallest of any of the Western cities, becomes known in less
than
an hour all over the Union; thus competition is both diffused
and
intensified. Within but thirty years the telegraphs of the world
have
grown to half a million miles of line, and over a million miles
of wire
-- or more than forty times the circuit of the globe. In the
United
States there were, in 1880, 170,103 miles of line, and in that
year
33,255,991 messages were sent over them.
Effect of Noise on the Nerves
The relation of noise to nervousness and nervous diseases is a
subject
of not a little interest; but one which seems to have been but
incidentally studied.
The. noises that nature is constantly producing -- the moans and
roar
of the wind, the rustling and trembling of the leaves and
swaying of
the branches, the roar of the sea and of waterfalls, the singing
of
birds, and even the cries of some wild animals -- are mostly
rhythmical
to a greater or less degree, and always varying if not
intermittent; to
a savage or to a refined ear, on cultured or uncultured brains,
they
are rarely distressing, often pleasing, sometimes delightful and
inspiring. Even the loudest sounds in nature, the roll of
thunder, the
howling of storms, and the roar of a cataract like Niagara
--save in
the exceptional cases of idiosyncrasy -- are the occasions not
of pain
but of pleasure, and to observe them at their best men will
compass the
globe.
Many of the appliances and accompaniments of civilization, on
the other
hand, are the causes of noises that are unrhytbmical,
unmelodious and
therefore annoying, if not injurious; manufactures, locomotion,
travel,
house-keeping even, are noise-producing factors, and when all
these
elements are concentred, as in great cities, they maintain
through all
the waking and some of the sleeping hours, an uninterrnittent
vibration
in the air that is more or less disagreeable to all, and in the
case of
an idiosyncrasy or severe illness may be unbearable and harmful.
Rhythmical, melodious, musical sounds are not only agreeable,
but when
not too long maintained are beneficial, and may be ranked among
our
therapeutical agencies.
Unrhythrnical, harsh, jarring sounds, to which we apply the term
noise,
are, on the contrary, to a greater or less degree, harmful or
liable to
be harmful; they cause severe molecular disturbance. . . A
professional
gentleman whom I know, says that the noise of the elevated
railway
trains in New York city are so harassing to him that he never
goes on
the avenue where these trains run unless compelled to do so; the
effect
he declares is rasping, exasperating, amounting to positive
pain; and
yet this man is not only well, but is remarkably tough and wiry,
capable of bearing confinement and long and severe application
...
Rapid Development and
Acceptance of
New Ideas
The rapidity with which new truths are discovered, accepted and
popularized in modem times is a proof and result of the
extravagance of
our civilization.
Philosophies and discoveries as well as inventions which in the
Middle
Ages would have been passed by or dismissed with the murder of
the
author, are in our time -- and notably in our country -- taken
up and
adopted, in innumerable ways made practical -- modified,
developed,
actively opposed, possibly overthrown and displaced within a few
years,
and all of necessity at a great expenditure of force.
The experiments, inventions, and discoveries of Edison alone
have made
and are now making constant and exhausting draughts on the
nervous
forces of America and Europe, and have multiplied in very many
ways,
and made more complex and extensive, the tasks and agonies not
only of
practical men, but of professors and teachers and students
everywhere;
the simple attempt to master the multitudinous directions and
details
of the labors of this one young man with all his thousands and
thousands of experiments and hundreds of patents and with all
the
soluble and insoluble physical problems suggested by his
discoveries
would itself be a sufficient task for even a genius in science;
and any
high school or college in which his labors were not recognized
and the
results of his labors were not taught would be patronized only
for
those who prefer the eighteenth century to the twentieth.
On the mercantile or practical side the promised discoveries and
inventions of this one man have kept millions of capital and
thousands
of capitalists in suspense and distress on both sides of the
sea. In
contrast with the gradualness of thought movement in the Middle
Ages,
consider the dazzling swiftness with which the theory of
evolution and
the agnostic philosophy have extended and solidified their
conquests
until the whole world of thought seems hopelessly subjected to
their
autocracy. I once met in society a young man just entering the
silver
decade, but whose hair was white enough for one of sixty, and he
said
that the color changed in a single day, as a sign and result of
a
mental conflict in giving up his religion for science. Many are
they
who have passed, or are yet to pass through such conflict, and
at far
greater damage to the nerve centres.
Increase in Amount of Business
in
Modern Times
The increase in the amount of business of nearly all kinds in
modem
times, especially in the last half century, is a fact that comes
right
before us when we ask the question, Why nervousness is so much
on the
increase? Of business, as we modems understand the term, the
ancient
world knew almost nothing; the commerce of the Greeks, of which
classical histories talk so much, was more like play -- like our
summer
yachting trips -- than like the work or commerce of today.
Manufacturers, under the impulses of steam-power and invention,
have
multiplied the burdens of mankind; and railways, telegraphs,
canals,
steamships, and the utilization of steam-power in agriculture,
and in
handling and preparing materials for transportation, have made
it
possible to transact a hundred-fold more business in a limited
time
than even in the eighteenth century; but with an increase rather
than a
decrease in business transactions. Increased facilities for
agriculture, manufactures, and trades have developed sources of
anxiety
and of loss as well as profit, and have enhanced the risks of
business;
machinery has been increased in quantity and complexity, some
parts, it
is true, being lubricated by late inventions, others having the
friction still more increased. . . .
Repression of Emotion
One cause of the increase of nervous diseases is that the
conventionalities of society require the emotions to be
repressed,
while the activity of our civilization gives an unprecedented
freedom
and opportunity for the expression of the intellect; the more we
feel
the more we must restrain our feelings. This repression of
emotion and
expression of reason, when carried to a high degree, as in the
most
active nations, tend to exhaustion, the one by excessive toil
and
friction, the other by restraining and shutting up within the
mind
those feelings which are best relieved by expression. Laughter
and
tears are safety-valves; the savage and the child laugh or cry
when
they feel like it -- and it takes but little to make them feel
like it;
in a high civilization like the present, it is not polite either
to
laugh or to cry in public; the emotions which would lead us to
do
either the one or the other, thus turn in on the brain and
expend
themselves on its substance; the relief which should come from
the
movements of muscles in laughter and from the escape of tears in
crying
is denied us; nature will not, however, be robbed; her loss must
be
paid and the force which might be expended in muscular actions
of the
face in laughter and on the whole body in various movements
reverberates on the brain and dies away in the cerebral cells.
Constant inhibition, restraining normal feelings, keeping back,
covering, holding in check atomic forces of the Americans to
rise out
of the position in which they were born, whatever that may be,
and to
aspire to the highest possibilities of fortune and glory. In the
older
countries, the existence of classes and of nobility, and the
general
contexture and mechanism of society, make necessary so much
strenuous
effort to rise from poverty and paltriness and obscurity, that
the
majority do not attempt or even think of doing anything that
their
fathers did not do: thus trades, employments, and professions
become
the inheritance of families, save where great ambition is
combined with
great powers. There is a spirit of routine and spontaneous
contentment
and repose, which in America is only found among the extremely
unambitious. In travelling in Europe one is often amazed to find
individuals serving in menial, or at least most undignified
positions,
whose appearance and conversation show that they are capable of
nobler
things than they will ever accomplish. In this land, men of that
order,
their ambition once aroused, are far more likely to ascend in
the
social scale. Thus it is that in all classes there is a constant
friction and unrest -- a painful striving to see who shall be
highest;
and, as those who are at the bottom may soon be at the very top,
there
is almost as much stress and agony and excitement among some of
the
lowest orders as among the very highest. . . .
The experiment attempted on this continent of making every man,
every
child, and every woman an expert in politics and theology--is
one of
the costliest of experiments with living human beings, and has
been
drawing on our surplus energies with cruel extravagance for one
hundred
years.
Protestantism, with the subdivision into sects which has sprung
from
it, is an element in the causation of the nervous diseases of
our time.
No Catholic country is very nervous, and partly for this -- that
in a
Catholic nation the burden of religion is carried by the church.
In
Protestant countries this burden is borne by each individual for
himself; hence the doubts, bickerings, and antagonisms between
individuals of the same sect and between churches, most
noticeable in
this land, mind and body, is an exhausting process, and to this
process
all civilization is constantly subjected ...
Domestic and Financial Trouble
Family and financial sorrows, and secret griefs of various
kinds, are
very commonly indeed the exciting cause of neurasthenia. In very
many
cases where overwork is the assigned cause -- and where it is
brought
prominently into notice, the true cause, philosophically, is to
be
found in family broils or disappointments, business failures or
mishaps, or some grief that comes very near to one, and, rightly
or
wrongly, is felt to be very serious.
The savage has no property and cannot fail; he has so little to
win of
wealth or possessions, that he has no need to be anxious. If his
wife
does not suit he divorces or murders her; and if all things seem
to go
wrong he kills himself ...
Habit of Forethought
Much of the exhaustion connected with civilization is the direct
product of the forethought and foreworry that makes civilization
possible. In coming out of barbarism and advancing in the
direction of
enlightenment the first need is care for the future. . . This
forecasting, this forethinking, discounting the future, bearing
constantly with us not only the real but imagined or possible
sorrows
and distresses, and not only of our own lives but those of our
families
and of our descendants, which is the very essence of
civilization as
distinguished from barbarism, involves a constant and exhausting
expenditure of force. Without this forecasting, this sacrifice
of the
present to the future, this living for our posterity, there can
be no
high civilization and no great achievement; but it is, perhaps,
the
chief element of expense in all the ambitious classes, in all
except
the more degraded orders of modern society. We are exhorted, and
on
hygienic grounds very wisely, not to borrow trouble -- but were
there
no discounting of disappointment, there would be no progress. .
.