WEAR AND TEAR.

OR

HINTS FOR THE OVERWORKED.


Many years ago[1] I found occasion to set before the readers of
_Lippincott's Magazine_ certain thoughts concerning work in America, and
its results. Somewhat to my surprise, the article attracted more notice
than usually falls to the share of such papers, and since then, from
numerous sources, I have had the pleasure to learn that my words of
warning have been of good service to many thoughtless sinners against
the laws of labor and of rest. I have found, also, that the views then
set forth as to the peculiar difficulties of mental and physical work
in this country are in strict accordance with the personal experience of
foreign scholars who have cast their lots among us; while some of our
best teachers have thanked me for stating, from a doctor's stand-point,
the evils which their own experience had taught them to see in our
present mode of tasking the brains of the younger girls.

[Footnote 1: In 1871.]

I hope, therefore, that I am justified in the belief that in its new and
larger form my little tract may again claim attention from such as need
its lessons. Since it was meant only for these, I need not excuse myself
to physicians for its simplicity; while I trust that certain of my
brethren may find in it enough of original thought to justify its
reappearance, as its statistics were taken from manuscript notes and