"
Here the writer would put in a plea for the increasing multitudes of
nervous sufferers not confined to a sick-room, and yet exposed to all
the varied sources of pain incident to an exhausted nervous system,
which often cause more intolerable and also more wearing pain than
other kinds of suffering.
"An exceeding acuteness of the senses is the result of many forms of
nervous disease. A heavy breath, an unwashed hand, a noise that would
not have been noticed in health, a crooked table-cover or bed-spread
may disturb or oppress; and more than one invalid has spoken in my
hearing of the sickening effect produced by the nurse tasting her food,
or blowing in her drinks to make them cool. One woman, and a sensible
woman too, told me her nurse had turned a large cushion upon her bureau
with the back part in front. She determined not to be disturbed nor
to speak of such a trifle, but after struggling _three hours_ in
vain to banish the annoyance, she was forced to ask to have the cushion
placed right."
In this place should be mentioned the suffering caused to persons of
reduced nervous power not only by the smoke of tobacco, but by the
fetid effluvium of it from the breath and clothing of persons who
smoke.
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