Brain-work and overwork / edited by George Black.

Date:
[1888?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Brain-work and overwork / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a glass of ale, may afford the often-needed sustenance during the labor of a protracted speech, or of an ex- citing political or military contest. It seems to me very important to the advocate that he should never spend many hours in court without light but sustain- ing food. Indeed, it should always be a guiding principle, when physical labor and mental labor go hand in hand, always to take simple food at not too long intervals. I certainly have seen injury from the habit of going from breakfast to a late dinner without food, or only with a very light lunch. Tea or coffee is to many, if not to the majority of persons, a better stimulant to mental effort than alco- hol, and certainly far safer. The abuse of them is very much less perilous than is that of whiskey or brandy, but it certainly does increase the penalty to be paid for the excess of labor. Coffee is perhaps more apt to produce unpleasant symptoms than is tea, though individual peculiarities here play an important part. Both to the paroxysmal and steady brain-worker it is important to be able to perceive the indications of the coming storm, and so avert evil. The forewarn- ings of nervous breakdown are sometimes very plain, and sometimes so obscure, as to be read only by the most skilful physician. To discuss them at all satis- factorily, would carry one far beyond the bounds and