canoeing, rowing, fishing, riding, and driving.  In winter, such outdoor sports as skating, tobogganing, coasting, skeeing, snowshoeing, and lacrosse were varied by billiards, bowling, squash, the medicine ball, and basket and tether ball.  The capitalist was astonished to discover that he could take an interest in games.  The specialist, who called upon his patient at intervals, told him that a point of great importance in the cure was that exercise that is enjoyed is almost twice as effective in the good accomplished as exercise which is a mere mechanical routine of movements made as a matter of duty.

The net result was that, after four months of the “occupation and exercise cure,” the capitalist returned to New York sound in mind and body, and feeling younger than he had before in years.  Complete cures were effected in the cases of the other patients also, which is the less remarkable when the circumstance is taken into consideration that only patients capable of entire recovery are recommended to take the treatment.

Of course the institution that has been described is only for the well-to-do, and physicians are endeavoring to bring the “occupation and exercise cure” within the reach of the poor, and to interest philanthropists in the establishment of “colony sanatoriums,” such as already exist in different parts of Europe, for those suffering from functional nervous disorders who are without means.  Contrary to the general opinion, neurasthenia, particularly among women, is not confined to the moneyed and leisure class; but, owing to the fact that women have taken up the work of men in offices and trades as well as in many of the professions, working-women are continually breaking down under nervous strain, and many, under present conditions, have little chance for recovery, because they cannot afford the proper treatment.  As a speaker at the last annual meeting of the American Medical Association declared, “Idiots and epileptics and lunatics are many; but all together they are less numerous than the victims of nervousness—­the people afflicted with lesser grades of psychasthenic and neurasthenic inadequacy, who become devoted epicures of their own emotions, and who claim a large share of the attention of every general practitioner and of every specialist.”

Scientists declare that this premature collapse of nerve force is increasing to such an extent as to become a positive menace to the general welfare.  The struggle for existence among the conditions of modern life, especially among those found in the large centers of industrial and scientific activity, and the steady, persistent work, with its attendant sorrows, deprivations, and over-anxiety for success, are among the most prolific causes—­causes which are the results of conditions from which, for the large mass of people, according to a leading New York alienist, there has been no possibility of escape.