Part 40 (2/2)
The arts and crafts shops being the basic principle of the ”occupation and exercise cure,” the capitalist was introduced to an efficient and businesslike young woman, the instructress, who explained to hiht choose to interest himself
Here he found his fellow-patients busily and apparently congenially employed In one of the shops a recent aluone a nervous breakdown after graduation, was patiently ha it into a lampshade; a ht years in sanatoriu office with greater activity than she had known before for two decades; two girls, one sixteen and the other twelve, the latter inclined to hysteria and the for the cure in charge of trained nurses, were chattering gayly over a loo; a prominent business man from a Western city, like the New York capitalist broken down froht eventually beco the fashi+onables, who had been leading a life of too strenuous gayety that had told on her nerves, was constructing a stamped leather portfolio with entire absorption; and half a dozen others, , block-printing, tapestry weaving, or basket-, each one of theement
The new patient decided to try his hand at basket-ured out that it would take hiht sell for ten cents, he was soon sothe manual details of the craft that he was disinclined to put the work aside when the ested a horseback ride When, at the advice of the specialist, the capitalist had decided to try the occupation and exercise cure, he did so with little faith that it would restore hiht chance that it ht help him The remedy seemed to hi his energies To his great surprise, he began to iot little sleep, and his dizziness, with the pain in the back of his neck and his apprehensions, continued to recur for weeks, they did so at always increasing intervals
He learned bookbinding, and sent to his library for some favorite volumes, and put them into new dress; he made elaborate waste-paper baskets, and beat brass into ornamental desk-trays, which he proudly presented to his friends in the city as specimens of his skill Work with him, as with the others of the patients, was continually varied by recreation In the su, rowing, fishi+ng, riding, and driving In winter, such outdoor sports as skating, tobogganing, coasting, skeeing, snowshoeing, and lacrosse were varied by billiards, bowling, squash, the medicine ball, and basket and tether ball The capitalist was astonished to discover that he could take an interest in games The specialist, who called upon his patient at intervals, told hireat importance in the cure was that exercise that is _enjoyed_ is alood accomplished as exercise which is a mere mechanical routine of movements made as a matter of duty
The net result was that, after four months of the ”occupation and exercise cure,” the capitalist returned to New York sound in er than he had before in years Complete cures were effected in the cases of the other patients also, which is the less remarkable when the circumstance is taken into consideration that only patients capable of entire recovery are recommended to take the treatment
Of course the institution that has been described is only for the well-to-do, and physicians are endeavoring to bring the ”occupation and exercise cure” within the reach of the poor, and to interest philanthropists in the establishment of ”colony sanatoriums,” such as already exist in different parts of Europe, for those suffering from functional nervous disorders who are without eneral opinion, neurasthenia, particularly a women, is not confined to theto the fact that women have taken up the work of men in offices and trades as well as in -wo down under nervous strain, and many, under present conditions, have little chance for recovery, because they cannot afford the proper treat of the American Medical association declared, ”Idiots and epileptics and lunatics are ether they are less numerous than the victirades of psychasthenic and neurasthenic inadequacy, who become devoted epicures of their own ee share of the attention of every general practitioner and of every specialist”
Scientists declare that this pre to such an extent as to becole for existence a those found in the large centers of industrial and scientific activity, and the steady, persistent work, with its attendant sorrows, deprivations, and over-anxiety for success, are a the most prolific causes--causes which are the results of conditions fro to a leading New York alienist, there has been no possibility of escape
”Especially here in As for which they have never been fitted,” the alienist asserts, ”and especially here are premature demands made upon their nervous systems before they aredeprives many of the workers, in all branches, of the best protection against functional nervous diseases which any person can have, nale for existence by the congenital neuropath or the educationally unfit forces many to the use, and then to the abuse, of stimulants and excitants, and herein we have another i cause This early and excessive use of coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco is especially deleterious in its action upon the nervous systeo to excess in their use
”Therefore, predisposition, aided by the storm and stress of active competition and abetted by the use of stimulants, must be looked upon as the main cause for the premature collapse of nerve force which we call neurasthenia; so it will be found that the majority of neurasthenics are between twenty-five and fifty years of age, and that their occupations are those which are attended by worry, undue excitement, uncertainty, excessive wear and tear, and thus we find mentally active persons more easily affected than those whose occupation is solely physical Authors, actors, school-teachers, governesses, telegraph and telephone operators, are a those most frequently affected, and the increase of neurasthenia a women dates from the modern era which has opened to theenerally into the so-called learned professions But whatever may be the occupation in which persons have broken down, it is never the occupation alone which has been the cause
”This cannot be too often repeated The emotional fitness or unfitness of an individual for his occupation is of the utmost importance as a causative factor, and overwork alone, without any emotional cause and without any errors in mode of life, will never act to produce such a collapse It is therefore not astonishi+ng that this class of functional nervous diseases is not confined to the wealthy, and that the rich and the poor are indiscrireater influence in the one class, while different ones obtain in the other Poverty in itself, with its limitations of proper rest and recuperation, is a very positive cause Years of neurological dispensary work a the poor have convinced me that nervousness, neurasthenia, hysteria, etc, are quite as prevalent a the well-to-do”
Physicians agree that the prime requisite in the treatment of these disorders is the res, where recognition of the existence of actual disease is generally wanting, where the constant ad friends to ”brace up” and to ”exert your will power” force the sick man or woman to bodily and mental over-exertion, and where the worries about a livelihood are always doe alone, however, the experts say, will help but few, for it is being recognized more and more that these functional diseases of the nervous system can receive satisfactory treatment only in institutions, where constant attention may be had, with expert supervision and trained attendants
The ”occupation and exercise cure” is applicable also to epilepsy, and is the therapeutic principle of the Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea, in Livingston County, supported by the State, and that institution furnishes a general ent patients suffering fro Colony was the idea of Dr Frederick Peterson, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and former President of the New York State Coical Society, which he based upon the epileptic colony at Beilefeld, Ger Colony was founded in 1894, and there are now being cared for within its confines more than thirteen hundred patients, who have turned out this year agricultural products, with bricks, soap, and brooms, to the value of 60,000 The colony is na, of Rochester, ith William P
Letchworth, of Buffalo, purchased the two-thousand-acre tract of land on which it is situated from the Shaker colony at Sonyea and presented it to the State, Dr Peterson devoting severalthe institution into working order The first patients were housed in the old Shaker buildings, which ell constructed and fairly well arranged for the purpose, but as additional applications for ads have been erected To-day there are eighty buildings in the colony, but a thousand patients are waiting for adht hundred of who sickness,” is a most difficult malady to treat even in an institution for that purpose, and it is impossible to treat it anywhere else An epileptic in a family is an almost intolerable burden to its other members, as well as to himself The temperamental effect of the disease takes the for frequent and unjust coe so injured the an attack
Then, too, living at hoer , and irritable generally The seizures frequently co, and the patient drops where he stands, often injuring hi Colony records more than four hundred injuries within the year to patients during seizures which required a surgeon's attention, the injuries varying from severe bruises to fractures of the skull
The object of the Craig Colony is to remove the burden of the epileptic in the fa the patient to the hardshi+p of confinement with the insane ”Very few epileptics suffer permanent insanity in any form except dementia,” says the medical superintendent of the Colony ”Acute mania and maniac depressive insanity not infrequently appear as a 'post-convulsive' condition, that generally subsides within a few hours, or at most a few days Rarely the state may persist a month Melancholia is extremely infrequent
Delusions of persecution, hallucinations of sight or hearing, systematized in character, are almost never encountered in epilepsy”
Only from six to fifteen per cent of epileptics are curable, and hence the work of the Craig Colony is largely palliative of the sufferings of the patients Each individual case is studied with the utiven their choice of available occupations
The Colony is not a custodial institution There are no bars on the s, no walls or high fences about the fares, s soe of each of these families are a man and his wife, who utilize the services of some of the patients in the performance of household work, while the others have their duties outside Kindness to the unfortunates under their care is impressed upon every employee of the Colony, and an iron-bound rule forbids them to strike a patient even in case of assault
Besides the agricultural work in the Craig Colony, and that in the soap and brooht blacks, shoe, and sloyd work It is insisted on that all patients physically capable shall find employment as a therapeutic measure The records show that on Sundays and holidays and on rainy days, when there is athe patients, their seizures double and sometimes treble in number Few of the patients kno to perform any kind of labor when they enter the Colony, but many of them learn rapidly It has been repeatedly dee can spend two years in the sloyd shop and leave it fully qualified as cabinet-es
There are about two hundred children in the colony of epileptics at Sonyea, irls As children subject to epileptic seizures are not received in the public schools of the State, the only opportunity for any education a these afflicted little ones whose parents are unable to teach them themselves or provide private tutors for them is in the schools of the Colony Soht scholars, while the attempt to teach others seeirl ninety days to learn to lay three sticks in the fore recreation a Colony, both children and adults The men have a club of 250 azines and newspapers The boys have their baseball and football, and playteairls play croquet, tennis, and other outdoor gaives a concert once a week, and there are theatricals and dancing, with occasional lectures by visiting celebrities As the Colony, with the medical staff, nurses, and other employees, has a population of 2,000, there is always an audience for any visiting attraction Thethe State 225,000 the present year
Since the founding of the Craig Colony similar institutions have been established in Massachusetts, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kansas, and other States are preparing to follow their exahout the country similar to the one in Westchester County, where the nervous or neurasthenic patient who is well-to-do may obtain relaxation and supervision, but there is no place at all to-day where thefroo for treatazine)_
Five illustrations: tash drawings by Andre Castaigne showing mono-rail trains in the future, five half-tone reproductions of photographs of the car on its trial trip, and one pen-and-ink diagrayroscopes
THE BRENNAN MONO-RAIL CAR