Star.
London, England, 1831-05-09 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, MAY 9, 1831.

THE BEST AND MOST DURABLE HATS IN THE
KINGDOM.
nOWDEN, Waterproof Hat Maker, 17. and '27, Hi?th !
Street, Bloomsbury, most respectfully informs his numerous
Customers and Friends he has opened the House (17) nearly opposite '
St. Giles's Church, partly in consequence of the increasing d.:inand for
Hats of kis manufacture, and pattly to counteract an opposition forming
by some individuals known by the cognomen of Jews, who have crept '
into the trade and dubbed themselves Hat Makers, vending an Article
which the unsuspecting Purchaser might imagine, from a casual survey,
to be intrinsically good, and thereby materially injuring the long.esta-
blished fame he has enjoyed, from the circumstance of many occasional
customers not being acquainted with the precise situation of his houses.
BOWDEN needs only to add, that from the extensive patronage he
has already received, (and which be with gratitude views daily extend. •
ed) he is convinced dist all articles purchased at his houses have given
that satisfaction which it ever has and shall be his study to deserve ;
asking as a favour from the public, and his more immediate friends,
that they will please to observe his Establishments are only Two in
that Street, viz. 17 and 27, which Houses he has endeavoured to ten-
der conspicuous, thereby to avoid disappointment.
CI Old Hats covered with Silk from Gs. to Bs.
N.B.—Shopkeepers and Country Dealers supplied on the most ad-
vantageous terms.

PRICE 7n.

imagination has beet too little attended to. It la a subject pregnant
with imhortaucs, and well deserving serious attention. The origin of
the fin :he influence of the ittia4int•,,,i nt'. r tha body, is coeval
with our earinlit rncords. It is unnecessary for no. .0 antion the
contrivance vtliclt the patriarch Jacob is repr..sen•ed to h..ve rupt..y. d
to order to attgm-nt the number of limb., anti kids, whirr!,
smirching to the agreement !.etween ',than aad ilins-elf, were to tall to
his share. The tyrant Dionysius, who was dc. armed hi.. self, in order
that he multi have a comely issue, is said :o have always had a beauti-
ful picture set before his w fe in the bed-chamber, that, by the 'Mee of
fancy and ht.:Oration. she might c,onc:ir.. a likeness of it. It appears
that the notion of the influence of the imaginaiinn of the mother over the
frame in uteru was most geber el among the ancients. Sir Evntard I Lome
has, in our own dines, attempted tat revive this nm inn. Sit Retraid.,
with the assi.iance of a very powerful microscope, has detected nerves
in the placenta, and he endeavours to prove that the brain of the
ten her and that of the fcetus is connected by the medium of nerves hi the
plactnta, and on this data he argues that any agitation of the motkier's
mind must necessarily effect the foetus.
I there be a nervous coinmualcatinn between the brala of the tnother
and Farms, a thing which I am not at present inclined to admit, there
would be no difficulty in suppordng Sir E Home's theory. Every
idea which enters the mind must be preceded by an action of the
nervous system ; sensations must he transmitted by the nerves to the
sensorium, in which organ perception takes place. The agitation in
the nervous system is in proportion to the strength of the idea which
enters the mind. If the individual is agitated by any frightful idea, a
violent commotion takes place in the nervous system ; and it, as Sir E.
H wishoi to prove, there is a nervous communication between the
mother and child, there cannot be much difficulty in supposirg that a
violent agitation of the passions or imagination of the mother should
cause a corresponding agitation in the nervous system of the child; and
as the due performance of the exhalent arteries, which deposit the
nutritious matter, depend upon a healthy action of the nerves, every
derangement in the nervous actions must necessarily modify, and in,
some degree, affect the corporeal frame of the infant.
A very exaaortlinary case is related by Sir W. Scott, in his
" Let.ers on Demonology and Witchcraft.," exemplifying, in a power.
ful degree, the influence of the imagination over the body. Tice pa-
dent, after his health had been ruined, and his constitution under-
mined, confessed, with great reluctance, that the cause of his illness
was owing to his having beet constantly haunted by some imaginary
apparition. Every thing was done by his physicians to eradicate his
morbid sensations, but all to no effect. The patient sunk into deeper
and deeper dejection, and died in the same distress of mind in which
he hail spent the latter months of his life, his case remaining, to use
the language of Sir W. Scott, .• a melancholy instance of the power
of the imagination to kill the body, even when its fantastic terrors can-
not overcome the intellect of the untintunate persons who suffer under
them."

My views on the influence of the passions on the body are simply
these. The passions I divide into those that rouse or excite, and those
that depress the system. The passions, such as fear, love, anxiety, and
all the depresaing passions, ought to be carefully avoided by those
labouring under diseases, either caused by a debilitated state of the
constitution, or in which debility is the principal symptom. These
depressing passions act by exhausting the nervous energy, and, there-
for:, must materially weaken the organic functions, as their healthy
state depends on a proper supply of the principle, which, for want of
' a better name, we call nervous. Therefore, in those maladies which
depend upon a low state of the nervous system, nothing acts so bene.
ficially am stimulus applied to the mind : its effects upon the physical
health is astanishing.
Mr. Madden, in his Narrative to the East, says, " In Alexandria
have seen whole troops of negro soldiers carried off, after a kw days'
sickness, from the effect of cold. in this mortality, however, moral
depressieg causes had much to do ; the Arab had no resource within
himself to resist a hardship of which he had no previous knowledge;
the nepo had no moral courage to invigorate or revive him, when the
chime'. of dollar matte him Bak, or the sea breeze niaete him shiver •
and nothing but the strong exertion of mental energy can counteract the
ill effects o: a vicissitude of climate on the feeble frame of man. In my
own ptactice among Europeans I have had painful expetience of the
fatal effects of mental exhaustion, of irritability of temper, and of timi-
dity of spirit."
Those predisposed to inflammatory complaints, to apoplexy, and other
diseases arising from, or aggravated by, a plethoric state of the consti-
tution, should carefully avoid all the exciting passions, such as anger,
fright, terror, &c. which excite an inordinate action in the nervous
system, which frequently gives rise to inflammatory diseases. All
' inflammatory complaints are caused by an unusual quantity of nervous
fluid being sent to a particular part : this causes an increased action
of the arteries, and the other phenomena of inflammation. Now it
stands to reason that any thing calculated to propel an increased
quantity of nervous principle to a part already too much excited,
must cause an aggravation of the disease. Inflammatory fevers, apo-
plexy, hemorrhage, and local inflammations, have heen known to arise
in consequence of great mental excitement. On the other hand, typhus
fever, intermittent fever, and otner maladies depending for their exist.
epee on a low ewe of the vital powers, are aggravated by those passions
which depress the nervous system. These passions, I consider, whe.
thee depressing or exciting passions, to act upon the corporeal frame
through the medium of the nervous system. The vascular system, I
consider to be greatly influenced by the state of the nervous system,
and that a perfect state of health depends upon an equilibrium being
established between the two systems. It is the abuse and not •he use of
the passions that acts thus injuriously upon the constitution. While the
impressions made upon the nervous system by the passions are mode-
rate and restrained within bounds, by a natural gratification of the
passions, guided and contioled by reason, the effect produced upon
the system is rather of a beneficial than a pernicious nature. The
passions strengthen muscular motion, keep up the circulation of the
blood, proinote the natural secretions, and excite a man to such exer-
cises and actions calculated to promote the health and life of the indi-
vidual