The Bismarck Tribune

Signed letters pertaining to personal health and hygiene, not to disease diagnosis, or treatment, will be answered by Dr. Brady if a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Letters should be brief and written in ink. No reply can be made to queries not conforming to instructions. Address Dr. William Brady, in care of this newspaper.

Shakespeare came nearer to the truth about neurasthenia than Dr. Beard himself or Freud and his followers, when the poet said that conscience makes cowards of us all. So you are nervous, are you? Well, what are you afraid of?

It is a common expression to say that a person has just been working on his nerve, or keeping up on his nerve, and consequently his collapse or complete breakdown is natural.

But that doesn't mean a thing actually. A person can no more work on his nerve or keep up on his nerve than he can do so on his bone or his muscle or his lung. If he happens to attempt any feat of endurance his nerve is subjected to no more strain than is his heart or his liver. He is no more to be admired or excused for working on his nerve than he is for working on his muscle.

Remember, please, that I am speaking in scientific terms and not in street parlance.

Recently a prominent banker under indictment fled from a hospital or sanitarium where he was confined, and attempted suicide. According to a newspaper report, one of the physicians who had attended the man announced that the patient had been seriously ill for several years with a kidney lesion and disease of the blood vessels. The blood vessel disease had involved the brain structure and brought about impairment of memory, judgment and ability to transact business. The arteriosclerosis later developed a severe coronary thrombosis—these medical terms need not detain us—everybody knows arteriosclerosis means hardening of the arteries, and a few of the older boys know that coronary thrombosis means clotting of blood in one of the main arteries that carry blood to the heart muscle itself—which had culminated in an attack of angina pectoris a few months before the banker's indictment.

All that is straight and above-board. But the doctor who issued the statement to the press managed to inject a bit of characteristic hokum into it, for what purpose we may conjecture. Where he explained that the arteriosclerosis had involved the brain structure and brought about impairment of memory and judgment, the doctor interjected his trick phrase, to wit, "coupled with his great business anxiety." He might as well have said, "O, jury, please let us down easy."

I know nothing of the case other than the news told. From this viewpoint it seems that the humorous phrase injected by the doctor is an effort to gain the sympathy of the neurotic world.

It is quite characteristic of general arteriosclerosis that, as the patient's memory and judgment become impaired, his obstinacy and his refusal to defer to the better judgment or advice of physicians or other persons become accentuated. Unfortunately there is no test which will determine definitely when these brain functions are sufficiently impaired to make the man incompetent to handle his own or another's business or estate. The law prefers to wait until he has committed some serious breach.

Here is a typical instance of progressive organic disease (arteriosclerosis) producing effects which the public and too often the physician, would ascribe to "nervous strain."

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Modern Surgery

Feel I would not be doing my duty if I did not tell you of the highly satisfactory result from removal of hemorrhoids by the injection method which you recommended. Not only hemorrhoids but other associated disturbances were completely cured by this treatment without one bit of inconvenience to me ... (Mrs. G. K. C.)

Answer—Thank you. The injection treatment, which does not incapacitate the patient from ordinary occupation, is proving uniformly successful, but we regular doctors are nothing if not backward about having truck with these newfangled methods, and it will be a long time yet before the medical profession at large is prepared to deal with such conditions in the modern way.

Tragic Wedding

Is there a law forbidding T.B. patients from marrying? (Mrs. I. C.)

Answer—I believe in some states it is illegal for a person to contract marriage knowing he has tuberculosis.

Forty Winks After Lunch

I am 50 years old, in the plumbing business. I generally take a nap for 20 minutes after my noon lunch. A friend says this is bad practice, that it is hard on the heart to get up and go to work after such a nap. (H. J. W.)

Answer—I should say a stroll out