The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-08-18
Medical Notes.

The mind is the cause Of many morbid
conditions of the body 1t is easy to
understand that continual nervous ex-
citation, by causing chronic irritation
Of the nervous centers may at length
modify the general sensibility. Moreover
the nervous system in reality holds the
rein over all others. 1t is not uncom-
mon to hear that violent terror or sud-
den anguish have, SO to speak, broken
the heart, suspended respiration, or have
caused the hair to turn white within al
short time. Grief and sadness often lead
to disease of the heart, and some saw
to cancer, if the person is already pre-
disposed thereto. Excessive fright caused
by the sight of a dead body has been
known to bring on epilepsy. Discourage
ment and remorse also endanger slow
consumptive diseases, and violent pas
sions act upon the system like corrosive
polsons. 1t is easy to see, therefore, how
difficult it is to separate these two ele-
ments of the duplex man and to isolate
the physical from the psychical. Irrita-
ton of the spine or Of the brain, as
everyone knows, may lead TO most
serious diseases of the nervous system,
even mania and imbecility The history
is well known, at least In name, of the
religious hysteria which was notorious
during the Middle Ages and it is not so
very long ago that a terrible infectious
mania of suicide occurred, like an cpl
demic in Germany, after the publication
OF Goetne'S Werther. On the other hand
the mind may be affected passively, so
that, as is common among hypochon-
drlacs, the patient dies of fear of dying
John Hunter, It is said, died from an
gina pectoris, due to fear Of being af-
fiicted with hydrophobia a disease in
which it is certain that fear plays an
important part in the manifestation of the
results Hysteria often follows unre-
Quilted love, and chorea, or ST. GUYS
dance, often follows violent and sudden
emotion.
Not only do nervous shocks cause
nervous diseases, but tney affect the
functions and even the secretions of the
body and its organs. Emotional jaundice
Is proof of this. Jaundice often ap-
pears a few minutes after some sudden
mental surprise, as in condemned Grim
mails hearing that their execution has
been postponed, or in wealthy men who
suddenly lose their fortune or in the
ambitious suddenly deprived of or dis
appointed in their hopes
Sadness and depression are not only
common symptoms of anaemia but they
are common causes. Not only does the
blood lose it's color, but the color of the
hair changes as we'll and may lead to
premature decrepitude in a snort time
this being the reason why there are so
many old young people. Anger causes
fever or, as 1t Is popularity said, and
correctly, at that, ''heats the blood :"
The heart, once known as the affective
center, cannot now claim this title undis-
puted but none the less 1t suffers from
counter shocks from joyful or sad violent
or tender sentiments. People say that
the heart bleeds with anguish, leaps with
JOY, trembles with hope, thus expressing
the influence of mental impression To
say that moral disturbances cause
organic disease of the heart would be to
advance an impossibilfty and an untruth
there is no clinical evidence to prove that
this has ever occurred even in a single
case. Mental shock at first induces only
a state Of nervousness manifested in the
heart by palpitation, but If the cause Is
continued enlargement of the heart and
analogous LESSONS may occur. All the
passions react on the nervous system
1t Is a popular saying that violent grief
breaks the heart" while extreme sad
ness, as well as sudden joy, may cause
pain over and around the heart, even
causing hemorrhage and often causing
fa1nting. In fact all great passions lead
to oppression of the heart whether they
|. be passion of play, politics, ambition etc.
Corvisart a noted heart specialist, as
signed great Importance to social excite
ment in the causation of heart disease
and during mis- period, that of the revolu-
! ton in France, the greater part of his
patients were ariStocrats who had been
deprived of their noble position Politi-
cal life with it's quarrels, its anxieties its
constant uneasiness and uncertainty, has
fatal action upon the heart especially
if the politician is naturally plethoric or
rheumatic. No further proof of this is
needed than the mournful list OF states
men who, during the last few years, have
succumbed to angina pectoris, or other
heart diseases.
The medical profession, highly emotion
al in their character, as a rule, also
furnishes many victims and 1t is a COM
mon expression, even among physicians
themselves, that one of their number
who expects to reach a mature age in
practice, must be without sympathy and
without heart. Among actors aneurism
as an enlargement of am artery is called
is common as a result of emotional ten
sion a number of anatomical prepara-
lions in the museum at London proving
this. Talma's heart, preserved at Dupuy-
trens museum, shows a remarkable dila-
tation Of the heart Moliere died almost
upon the stage of a sudden hemoptysis
probably due to an affection of the heart
The effects of mental shock upon d.
gestion are commonly known and often
experienced. The simple remembrance of
disgusting sight or thing may cause
vomiting. The stomach, moreover, is fire.
quently affected by overstudy, tension or
Intellectual preoccupation of any kind,
brain work Of prolonged duration. Dys-