Crawford avalanche., 1892-09-22

THE USE OF TEARS.
A Natural Outlet which Relieves the
Nervous system of Many Strains.

~NChNoaH oyotchh VI &AAhy othothos
This subject Is considered in a
bright and interesting paper recently
published In the Asclepaid. Fear,
grief, and JOY, TO say nothing of pa
thOs 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 first appeal through the
imagination to some emotion. Tears
are the natural outlet of emotional
tension. They are the result of a
storm in the central nervous system,
giving rise TO changes in the vascular
terminals of the tear secreting glands
These changes induce profuse excre-
tion of water, and weeping results.
In a mild degree some excretion Is al
ways I'm process TO bathe the eye and
clear 1t OF foreign matters. The con-
trolling center is at distance though
the secretion may be kept up 10y the
small trace OF saline substance that
is present In the tears themselves.
The lachrymal glands lie between the
nervous center and the mucous sur
face Oh the eyeball. Tears afford a
good illustration Of the way in which
nervous fibers are capable of convey
ing TO secreting organ exciting i'm
pulses from both sides of a gland ly-
ing in their course. Aiferent and
efferent communications bring about
similar result. Internal nervous
vibrations and external excitatiOn or
reflex action cause u flow of tears. In
both instances the exciting impulse
is vibration. Niobe, all tears, and
the unfortunate pedestrian with a
minute particle OF steel from the rail
Of an elevated road in his eye are un-
willing eXponents of similar pro-
cess. They weep the same kind Of
briny fluid, in exactly the same way,
though from widely different causes.
Imagination is at times sufficient to
excite the nervous system into the
production of tears without external
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 a truth the
man who never weeps has a hard
heart, and the quality of his intellect
may also be questioned.
Emotion, then affection, grief, anX-
iety, incite to tears, not pain or dis
comfort. The pangs of maternity are
fearless, though the influence OF ether
or chloroform may cause some emo
tional dream that results in weeping.
La the earlier days Of surgery patients
might scream and utter such pitiful
cries as to sicken the bystanderss
might even faint with pain, vet there
we're seldom any tears. These, being
pure waves OF emotion and a relief to
the heart, are almost pOwerless to
mitigate pain. Perhaps one who
weeps from pain does so from un-
conscious though selfish pity-in other
words, from emotion.
For the fearful, change of scene,
mental diversion and out door life
are the best remedies. The author
quoted objects to alcohol as fearfully
injurious. ltdisturbs and unbalances
the nervous system. keeps up maud
lin and pitiful sentimentality and
sustains the evil Alcoho. is the
mother of sorrow. An opiate, how
ever, prescribed at night soothes and
controls and really disciplines rebel
ious nerve centers. Sleep cures tears.
And so docs Time, the restOrer Per-
sons subjected to many and repeated
griefs forget how to weep, and the
old as compared to the young are al
most 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 the sensi-
bility, and that the nervous Organiza-
tion is learning how to bear up against
sorrow.-New York Medical Journal