, 1864-07-11
IrRoM WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS. I
The Hvpochoudriac.


chOly, in many instances, they are-Of that
connection being of SO intimate a nature,
and depending upon such fine and subtle
MEDIA, that the ordinary affections of the
two arc ISUipuvvdted Win the greatest reg
ularity and precision, while their derange-
ments, diseases, and extraordinary excite
ments. produce mutual effects which are
| rot only disastrous and terrible, but SO va
ried and unexpected that they mock all
our anticipatiOns Of the results of their ex-
citing causes. For all those changes which
affect the entireness Of the mind, We are
naturally led to look to diseases and inju-
rics affecting the brain itself; while, for
those again which mark decrease Of its
energies, We may resort to the ample field
of bodily ailments, the most Of whieh-and
there are thousands that flesh is heir t"
extend their tear and wear" to the seat
of thought and feeling; and, though they
cannot break, weaken and wear out the no.
bic powers whose arrogated superiority is
sometimes doomed to this humiliation.
Yet there are occasional diseases Of the
body (not to our senses organically affect
ing the brain) which produce changes on
the faculties of the mind different from the
general mental weakness incident to most
states of prOtracted bodily suffering. Ger
tain affections of the lungs, for instance,
while they reduce the body to the state Of
living skeleton, supply such an addition
to the oil Of the lamp Of hope" that the
deluded victim sees its bright coruscations
through the eye that is in the act of being
fixed and glazed by death. In some seor-
butte affections, again. the mind increases
in strength in proportion as the body ad-
vahces to state Of putrescency; as if the
soul, rejoicing in its victory over the flesh,
that had struggled with it and mastered it,
Knocked the vain dreams Of the iufidel ma
terialist, by making its last act its brightest.
while that. Of the body is its Eeakest.s In
that great viseus or laboratory Of bile, the
liver, there, however, often occurs disease,
named by the aneients, from the seat Of
its primary action, hypOchondriasis, which
exercises an influence over the mind beyond
oil the powers Of the most painful and fatal
diseases that do not affect the brain itself
This action. like thatOf the diseased lungs
] lisalmost alWaysof one particular kind and
| it is curious to contemplate the difference
between the effects Of the two diseased Wis
cera--the one, namely, the diseased lungs,
producing hope and confidence; and the
other, the diseased liver, filling the mind
with fear and apprehension. Il is no part
Of my purpose to speculate on these extra
ordinary facts; otherwise might enter on
the fine question, which has been 50
strangely overlooked by metaphysicians-
namely, What is the pfinoiple Of the con-
neetion between those feelings Of hope and
fear produced by metaphysical excitement,
and the ideas Of the particular objects Of
the feelings which accompany themi The
trembling hypochOndriac has forever in
his nervous eye his peculiar object Of ter
ror, either real or Imaginary and just in
proportion as his terror iswithout founda-
ton, does he adhere to the imaginary cause
Of it with greater asperity and determine
tiOn, resisting, with the greatest pertinacity,
every effort to make him believe the fact
that he dreams Of imaginary ills, end that
even the bright star Of worldly prosperity
is in the ascendant aud shining 50 bright
that no one who is not blind or unwilling to
see eau escape its light.
The objects Of the bypcchondriac's fears
are as numerous and extraordinary as the
whims and caprices tf the most pregnant
fancy-ccmprehendiug the case Of the
DutchmSh, Nht, blinking himself a pea ot
grain, was Uhder continual fear Of being
picked up bg birds; that Of the residenteF
at Elgin, Who, conceiving himself to be q
sack Of chat, was in hourly terror Of being
sat upon and smothered by his visitors
that Of an individual Of Edinburgh, who
was under the greatest alarm at the sight
Of a cloud, lest it should fall upon him and
kill him; and that Of the familiar oman ol
glass r-all Of which are apt TO excite in vi
a smile, in little accordance with the misery
Of the unhappy victims ;-yot the most or
binary form Of the hypochondriae's appre
hensiOn is a sick, melancholy despcndeney
and despair, resulting from, or producing
an imaginary embarrassment Of his pecuni
airy Affairs; he sees IN the womb Of faturity
all the dreadful forms whichpoFerty, clothed
with rags and gnawed with hunger, assuliles
in the lives Of unfortunate men and IS i'm.
pressed with the conviction, which all his
own or his friends efforts cannot subdue
that such a fate=privation, contempt, dis
grace, the scorn Of the world, and death BY
starvation under hedge, or in ditch bs
the way-side-awaits him inevitably at nc
diftant day.
OF all the eases that hat6 come under
my personal observation-and there have
Il been manv n,ore or Ioos markad with sfrik