The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1892-05-26
VALUE OF A WOMAN'S TEARS.
More Soothing than Cup of Tea and q
Most Potent Argument.

There is no subject on which so much
that is sentimental. brutal, unkind,
sarcastic, and appreciative as wom-
ans tears has been written Adlect-
ives the most various have been used
to express the qualities of tears. They
have been called hot" cold" Ian
guild" "briny," gushing" round,
"glittering, dull, "~silent, ""wearied,
awanton," and know not what else.
They are waves of emotion, and as
general expression they are said to
spring always from the heart-an eX-
preston singularly truthful, for no
one ever wept from the head; that Is,
no one ever reasoned himself into tears
except through an appeal back to emo
ton.
The poets have dealt with what NAV
be considered from their point of view,
chemistry of tears. They have writ
ten about salt tears" crystal tears,
poisonous tears" ~honeyed tears,
and the like. They are to some eN-
tend correct in their poetic guesses.
Tears are saline, for they carry trace
of the chloride of sodium or common
salt which exists in the blood; they
may be poisonous, for in persons I'M
der the influence of soluble poison,
like a salt of anthony, they may con-
yey an infinitesimal dart of such pois-
onous material; they may be honeyed,
for in diabetes the tears do sometimes
become saccharine, like the other fluid
secretionS.
But this sort of thing is exceptional.
In general way, tears are made up OF
pure water holding trace of saline
matter and nothing more; the glands
which secrete them are purest wells of
pure water in the body. Tears are the
result of nervous storm IL the GEN.
trail nervous system, under which
there is such change in the vascular
terminals of the. tear secreting glands
that the excretion of water from the
glands is profuse. Some eXcretlon IS
always in progress, in order that the
surface of the eye may be layed and
| cleared of foreign matter which may
come in contact with it, but the con-
trolling center is at distance.
As the muscular power that extends
| or fieXes a finger is at distance from
| the part moved, so the excitement to
| tears is from an irritation in a distant
| nervous ctHleI, anu Il ItlnONtu W Hell
| the nervous center is either soothed or
| exhausted. The persons who weep say
| that tears afford relief. Nothing is
| more perfectly true, nothing more
| clear, when the facts are understood.
| The relief comes not from the mere es-
| cape of tears, which is only a symptom,
| but from the cessation of the storm in
| the nervous chain.
If the storm be Gained by soothing
measures, as when we soothe a child
/ that is weeping from fear, annoyance,
| or injury, we quiet the nervous CEN
| tiers, upon which the effect ceases. In
| children the soothing method succeeds,
| and sometimes it succeeds in adults,
| although in adults the cessation of
| tears is more commonly due to actual
exhaustion following Il period of nerv-
| Gus activity. But after absorbing all
| this varied and abstruse information
| the only thing an average woman
| thinks about her tears is that they are
greater relief than q cup of tea,
and the most potent argument she can
| employ.