Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-12-14
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF TEARS.

Weeping Shows That Grief Centers Are
Being Relieved of Sensibility.
Fear, grief and joy, to say nothing of
pathos and anger, bring tears to the
eyes. They are said to come from the
heart; and this is true, for no one ever
reasoned himself into weeping without
a first appeal through the imagination
to some emotion. Tears are e. nat
ural outlet of emotional tensio nahey
are the result of storm In the s.al
nervous system, giving rise to changes
in the vascular terminals of the tear SEA
creting glands. These changes induce
profuse excretion of water and weeping
results. In mild degree some excre-
tion is always in process, to bathe the
eye and clear it of foreign matter.
The controlling center is at distance,
though the secretion may be kept up by
the small trace of saline substance that
is present in the tears themselves. The
lachrymal glands lie between the nerv-
Gus center and the mucuous surface of
the eyeball. Tears afford a good illus
tration of the way in which nervous
fbers are capable of conveying to Sc
creting organ exciting impulses from
both sides of gland lying in their
course. Afferent and efferent communi-
cations bring about u similar result. In
ternal nervous vibrations and external
excitation or reflex action cause flow
Of tears. In both instances the exciting
impulse is a vibration.
Niobe, 'all tears" and the unfortu-
nate pedestrian with minute particle
of steel from the rail of an elevated road
in his eye, are unwilling exponents of q
similar process. They weep the same
kind of briny fluid, in exactly the same
way, though from widely different
causes. Imagination is at times sufi-
cient to excite the nervous system into
the production of tears without exter-
nal aid or reflex. Writers and readers
of good fiction weep over it alike, and
the actor loses himself so entirely in the
exigencies of dramatic art that he sheds
real tears and the audience shed tears
with him. Of truth the man who
never weeps has hard heart, and the
quality of his intellect may also be ques-
toned.
Emotion, then affection, grief, anxiety,
incite to tears; not pain or discomfort
The pangs of maternity are fearless,
though the influence of ether or chloro-
form may cause some emotional dream
that results in weeping. In the earlier
days of surgery patients might scream
and utter such pitiful cries as to sicken
the bystanders, might even faint with
pain, yet there were seldom any tears.
These being pure waves of emotion and
relief to the heart are almost power
less to mitigate pain. Perhaps one who
weeps from pain does so from uncon-
scious though selfish rity-in other
words, from emotion.
For the fearful change of scene, men
tai diversion and outdoor life are the
best remedies. The author quoted OBJ
jects to alcohol as fearfully injurious.
It disturbs and unbalances the nervous
system, keeps up maudlin and pitiful
sentimentaliGy and sustains the evil.
Alcohol is the mother of sorrow. An
opiate, however, prescribed at night,
soothes and controls and really disci-
plines rebellious nerve centers. Sleep
cures tears. And so does time-the re-
storer.
Persons subject to many and repeated
griefs forget how to weep, and the old,
as compared to the young, are almost
fearless. Tears have their value in the
life of humanity not as tears, but as
signs. They show that grief centers are
being relieved Of their sensibility, and
that the nervous organization is learn
ing how to bear up against sorrow
Asclepiad,