cases. The digestion is poor and slow and constipation accompanies it.
Sometimes there is neuralgia of the stomach. The sexual organs are
seemingly affected, many men are "almost scared to death" and they use all
sorts of quack remedies to restore their sexual vigor. Spermatorrhea is
their bugbear. They usually get well if they stop worrying. In women there
is the tender ovary and the menstruation may be painful or irregular. The
condition of the urine in these patients is important. Many cases are
complicated with lithaemia (sand-stone in the urine). It is sometimes also
increased in quantity.

[NERVOUS SYSTEM 281]

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Nervous Prostration.--The patient must be
assured and made to believe that the disease is curable, but that it will
take time and earnest help on the part of the patient. Much medicine is
not needed, only enough to keep the system working well. Encouragement is
what is needed from attendants. Remove the patient from the causes that
produce the trouble, whether it be business, worry, over-study, too much
social duties, or excesses of any kind. The patient must have confidence
in the physician, and he must be attentive to the complaints of the
patient. It is the height of foolishness and absurdity for a physician to
tell such a patient before he has thoroughly examined him or her that the
troubles are imaginary. I believe that is not prudent in the majority of
cases. I have heard physicians talk that way to such patients. I thought,
what fools! The patient needs proper sympathy and sensible encouragement.
You must make them believe they are going to get well. If you do not wish
to do this, refuse such cases, or you will fail with them. If there are
any patients that need encouragement and kindly, sympathetic, judicious
"cheering up," these patients are the ones, and they generally are
"laughed at and made fun of" by people who should know better. Remember
their troubles are real to them, and are due to exhaustion or prostration
of the nervous system and this condition, as before described, produces
horrid feelings and sensations of almost every part of the body. The
patient must be made to believe that he may expect to get well; and he
must be told that much depends upon himself, and that he must make a
vigorous effort to overcome certain of his tendencies, and that all his
power of will will be needed to further the progress of the cure.

[282 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

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