which cause nervousness. As a rule, they rarely suffer; but we are
neatly ballasted, and some well people are nearer to the chance of being
so overturned than it is pleasant to believe. Thus it is that what for
lack of a better name we call "shock" is at times and in some people
capable of inflicting very lasting evil in the way of nervousness.

We see this illustrated in war in the effects of even slight injuries on
certain people. I have known a trivial wound to make a brave man
suddenly timid and tremulous for months, or to disorder remote organs
and functions in a fashion hard to understand. In the same way, a moral
wound for which we are not prepared may bring about abrupt and prolonged
consequences, from which the most robust health does not always protect
us; and which is in proportion disastrous if the person on whom it falls
is by temperament excitable or nervous. I have over and over seen such
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