skies above to the birds.

Withal they were sound trenchermen, who called their few ailments "humours"
or "vapours" and knew what peace of mind meant. Sixty years ago there was
one lunatic in every six hundred people; to-day there is one in every two
hundred.

At the same time, the "neurasthenic temperament" is not altogether a modern
product, for Plato described it with great precision, and declared such
people to be "undesirable citizens" for his ideal republic.

Neurasthenia is due to exhaustion and poisoning of the nervous system, the
chief symptoms of which is persistent _neuro-muscular fatigue with general
irritability_. Its minor symptoms are almost as numerous as the various
activities possible in mind and body.

The Predisposing Cause of neurasthenia is inherited nervous instability,
but among nervous diseases, neurasthenia seems the least dependent on
heredity, this factor playing a less important part than

Exciting Causes which are the sparks that fire explosive trains laid by the
living, and often by the dead.

Worry in any form (especially when accompanied by excess of brain-work),
Accident-shock,
Sexual abuse,
Abuse of drink, drugs or tobacco,
Lack of exercise,
Exhausting diseases,
Menopause, and diseases of the womb,