The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-11-09
EXPECTS OF EMOTIONS ON FLOW OF BIL1

Cholera, cholera rhorbus, cholera infantum. summer cholera or sun cholera, are all common terms. A choleric individual is irascible, easily excited to anger. The word anger is derived from the same root as is the word angina. which means choking. Melancholy means liter ally black bile. You see, all these common words were coined by the ancients who vhad fantastic notions of anatomy and physiology, even as customers of .quackery have today. We can't blame the ancients for their ignorance, but .wiseacres today lay back their long ears and glory in their ignorance of such things pretend it is rather low to know anything about "in'ards."
 Nevertheless the world moves Today even a college graduate knows the bile is not the cause or source of anger or irascibility. But who knows what influence anger has upon the How of bile? We doctors do.
 Dr E. Wittkower made a number of experi- ments upon human subjects by means of the duodenal tube, which is a thin tube, smaller than p.ll and, well, nearly as easy to swallow, such commonly employed by physicians for analysis and for the injection of predigested food or medicines directly into the duodenum. The investigator would collect the bile that spontaneously came through the tube in a pe- riod of five minutes. Then he contrived to arouse in the subject some primary emotion, joy, sorrow, anxiety or anger. Might seem su- perfiuous to the uninitiated to have to arouse anxiety in the soul of one with tube right down in his midst and the precious bile escap- ing through it into the scientists test-tube. But believe it or not some patients wear duodenal
 
 the most ghastly jokes about it. We'll, ladies and gentlemen, in more than twenty such experiments this German physi- clan found that joy, sorrow and anxiety, con- trary to what should expect, actually in- creased the flow of bile Git must be clearly un- derstood this refers only to the election of bile from the bladder and bile passages into the loudenum, and not to the amount or character of the bile secreted in the liver). Anger on the other hand, caused almost complete cessation of the flow of bile.
 Wittkower endeavored to learn whether this effect of anger was due to spasm of the biliary passages or the sphincter muscle about the opening of the common bile duct into the duo- denum, or whether perhaps it was due to dim- nished secretion of bile. From the special tests he made (too technical for a layman's under standing) he concluded the effect of anger is due to spasm of the biliary passages.
 Can that vague sensation of knotting in the abdominal northwest, which one sometimes feels when very angry, be explained as associ- ated with this spasm? Perhaps.
 Anyway we know that the digestion of one in anger Is affected much the same as IS the digestion of one with obstructive 5aundice.
 The ancients had it wrong end to- Anger causes stoppage of bile and possibly even a "jaundiced eye.
 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
 Strychnine Poisoning
 If n child swallows some sugar-coated pills child under chlorofom till the conyuls,ons are over? Is chlorofcrm the best antidote for strychnine poisoning? (IE. WI
 Answer-Chloroform is an antidote and may be necessary to use. Better antidates for strych- nine poisoning are apomorphine (not mor- phine) and pheno- -barbital sodium. know of no effective antidote for strychnine which a lay man can administer. except emetics. The quick est emetic in such an emergency is one two grains of copper sulphate dissolved in spoon full or two of water.
 Severe Asthma
 have had what Is called asthma for over four years, and my breathing is always difficult and wheczy. You say true asthma occurs in seizures with intervals of complete freedom from trouble. (S. A. FL
 7 Answer-Yes. Your difficulty is more likely the shortness of breath due to chronic bron- hcitis or emphysema or bropchectasis. Of course a patient may have any of these condi- tions and also have asthma. Whatever the trou- ble artificial fever offers a good prospect of bringing relief. Artificial fever produced by hot baths, by diathermy or radio thermy has brought considerable relief to patients suffering with intractable asthma.
 The Coxswain Speaks
 Your ignorance of the subject of artificial respiration is appalling, since you claim mcd- icai agree. Allow mo to quote from the Amer ican Red Cross bridged textbook. Cox swain No Boat Crew..
 Answer--And what sweet debutante wrote tho textbook? cite Schafer, the discoverer of the method of performing artificial respiration. as my authority. Who's yours son?