QUAKERS AND NERVOUSNESS.
[TO THE EDITOR Or TVs " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The following quotation may be interesting to you and your readers. It appears on p. 185 of a book by Dr. John
Kearsley Mitchell, a son worthy to bear the name of his honoured father, Dr. Weir Mitchell, entitled "Self-Help for Nervous Women," and published by Lippincott, Philadelphia :—
" It is not in my memory that a professing Quaker ever came into my hands to be treated for nervousness. If the opinion I have already stated so often is correct, namely, that want of control of the emotions, and the over-expression of the feelings, are prime causes of nervousness, then the fact that discipline of the emotions is a lesson early and constantly taught by Friends would help to account for the infrequency of this disorder among them, and add emphasis to the belief in such causation."
Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.
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