The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1914-05-29
Love Ag IN Disease.

That 'lOve-SickneSS" ID no mere DO
etical fancy, but real malady lis the
procurement of an editorial writer
in The British Medical Journal Non-
DOM. Everone knows that the re
jected lover may suffer lossaof appe-
tite, waste of tissue, and depression
Of spirits. Burton, in his Anatomy
Of Melancholy"-that pondrous tome
Of which many have, heard, but which
few read-treats at length of the pc
culiar variety of melancholy due to
despised love, and recounts its symp-
toms by the DOZENS ACCORDING to.
Plato, Empedocies, the philosopher,
who was present at the cutting up
of one that died for love, reported
that his heart was eombust, his liver
smoky, his lungs dried up, insomuch
that he verify believed his soul was
either sodden or roasted through the
vehemency, Of loves fire" The Eng
lish writer goes on to say:
From an Italian medical journal
OF recent date we learn that Dr. r.
Barrett, whom we are unable to 1den-
tify, and to whose work no reference
il given, holds that love il an i'm
toxication or the nervous cenrers.
The circulatory system may be affect
ed, especially if the patient is young
and Is suffering from "a M first attack
This recalls to US Galen's story Of
how he diagnosed the case of a young
girl who was thought by her anxious
parents to be dying. Believing that
nothing more than lpye-siekness was
the matter, the astute physician had
the suspected object brought into her
presence, meanwhile, n keeping his
hand on her wrist The sight OF the
young man quickened the maiden
pulse to a rate that left no doubt in
Galen's mind as to the cause of her
indisposition. DR. Barrett, we are
told, has made 3 researches on the
people in love, and has found marked
| leucocytosis. If the disease is not
speedily cured, love may lead to neu-'
rasthenia, and even insanity; it also
lpredisposes to tuberculosis. tits high.
time, he concludes, that we should
think of devisingn purely medical
treatment for love. What form i
this To take?- The bacillus of love
has not vet been discovered and
therefore no vaccine Iis available for
the cure OF the disease. Montaigne
also thought that love should be
treated by medicine. As translated,
by John Florio. he says: Philosophy
thinketh she hath not il Employed hir
meanes, having yielded the sovereign
rule of our mind, and the authoritie
to restraine our appetites, unto rea-
son. Amongst which, those who
Judge there is none more violent than
those which love begetteth, have this
for. their opinion, that they holde
both. of body and souleS and man is
wholly possessed, with them; so that
health is self depended on them, and
physick is sometimes constrained to
serve 'themt We are left in the dark,
by DR.. Barrett as to the exact line of
purely medical treatment to be.
adopted for the cure OF love, and we
venture to think that 1T will laugh
at physic as II. -proKerbially- does at
loeksmiths. IT II probable that none
Ok the many - methods described in
Ovid's -Ramedia AmOris,H has ever.
cured any lover, of hi disease. ay The
chief difficulty in the way or success
fun treatment lies in the fact that
the patient, as a. rule, does not wish
to be cured."-Iiterary Digest.