shocks cause lasting nervousness. I knew a stout young clerk who was
made tremulous, cowardly, sleepless, and, in the end, feeble, from
having at a funeral fallen by mishap into an open grave. I have seen a
strong woman made exquisitely nervous owing to the fall of a wall which
did her no material damage. Earthquakes cause many such cases, and bad
ones, as we have had of late sad occasion to know. The sudden news of
calamity, as of a death or financial disaster, has in my experience made
vigorous people nervous for months. A friend of mine once received a
telegram which rather brutally announced the disgrace of one dear to
him. He had a sense of explosion in his head, and for weeks was in a
state of nervousness from which he but slowly recovered. There is
something in cases like his to think about. The least preparation would
have saved him, and we may be sure that there is wisdom in the popular
idea that ill news should be gently and guardedly broken to such as must
bear it. To be forewarned is to be forearmed we say with true wisdom.

Prolonged strain of mind and body, or of both, is another cause apt to
result in health failures and in nervousness as one attendant evil. The
worst one I know is to nurse some person through a long disease. Women
are apt to think that no one can so well care for their sick as they.
Intrusion on this duty is resented as a wrong done to their sense of
right. The friend who would help is thrust aside. The trained nurse
excites jealous indignation. The volunteer gives herself soul and body
to the hardest of tasks, and is rather proud of the folly of
self-sacrifice. How often do we hear a woman say with pride, "I have not
slept nor had my clothes off for a week." She does not see that her very
affection unfits her for the calm control of the sick-room, and that her
inevitable anxiety is incompatible with tranquil judgment. If you tell
her that nursing is a profession, and that the amateur can never truly
fill the place of the regular, she smiles proudly, and thinks that