Our brain, body and nerves / by Andrew Wilson.

  • Wilson, Andrew
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our brain, body and nerves / by Andrew Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    161/170 page 147
    It is much the same when those persons who, animated by a war-fever, burst forth into songs, odes, and epics in the columns of the daily press. In each case there is a nerve storm generated in the brain cells, and if it finds no vent in some form of physical activity, it expends itself among the brain cells, and produces disastrous effects, varying from a mere explosion of temper or hysteria, to a fit. The use of pen, ink and paper blows off the mental steam, and the individual feels he has done his duty to himself and his fellow- men. It is the same with a man’s hobby, it provides him with change of occupation, turns the working of his brain cells into another channel, liberates his nerve energy in fresh directions, and by probably instituting new connections between the groups of brain cells, makes the brain a more efficient instrument for the governance and control of the body. Therefore it is that I strongly advocate the cultivation of a hobby by every person. The late Lord Salisbury, we are told, was in private life a very efficient chemist, and I know men who, in what may be called the leisure time of their lives, have made themselves efficient book- binders, turners, and amateur engineers. Here-
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