Evening star., 1940-06-13
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas R. Henry.
NEW YORK, June 13-The weather
has profound effect on mans mind.
Evidence that the condition of the
insane changes markedly with meteoro-
| logical changes was presented before
| the American Medical Association here
yesterday by DR.. William F. Petersen Of
the University of Illinois and DR.. Hans
| H. Reese of the University Of Wis
| conSin.
The phenomenon is due, they con-
cluded, to differences in oxygen tension
| in the tissues, which in turn Is af-
| fected by the kind of air breathed.
| The central nervous system, including
the brain, they said is especially sus-
| ceptible to such minute differences.
In the insane. whose nervous systems
are off balance anyway, change that
would make no apparent difference to
a normal person may cause extreme
| excitement or stupor.
Weather" they said, will bring into
relief latent hereditary dispositional
anu SOilotlbuIlOIldi bCluClIClCo Ill tllC
general psychopathic population. What
may be only vague emotional disability
may be augmented into full-fledged
mental illnesses by changes in weather"
Nearly everybody, they pointed out,
is aware of inexplicable changes in
mood from day to day. These are
popularity believed to have something
n In uyith L,,t
no obvious correlation. One may be
depressed on fine day and feel fit
to fight a dozen wildcats on a rainy
day.
Actually, the two physicians said,
weather changes are only one factor
and oxygen tension changes are not
necessarily reflected in the weather
which one observes. But these moods,
they insisted, can be identified with
changes in the chemistry of the blood
whose effects depend on the type of
build of the Individual
Human beings can be divided roughly
into two physical types, the asthenic
and the pyknic. The first is slender
and the other stocky in relation to
height The majority falls somewhere
close to the middle line.
1t is well known, it was explained.
that the short, stocky person frequently
has periods of greater energy, restless
ness and exuberance when there is an
increase in the alkalinity of the blood.
Such an increase makes little differ
ence to a slender person who is, how
ever. apt to be greatly depressed by
reduction of alkalinity below the
normal level.
To test their theory, the two doc
tors checked the day-by-day record of
the changes in an insane person with
the exact weather record. This pa
tient had occasional violent outbursts.
followed by extreme stupor, after which
he swung back very close to normal.
They found that the excitement al
ways followed very shortly after
period of cold and high barometric
pressure. The stupor followed the pas
sage of warm-air mass, following
the cold one
Records of mental hospitals, they
said, show that the victim of dementia
precox, usually slender individual,
is more subject to acute attacks in the
spring. The patient with manic-de-
pressiVe psychosis, usually stocky in
dlvloual, has his outbreaks of violence
in the summer and autumn
There apparently is no way to es-
cape these effects, they concluded. Even
though patient is kept quiet in bed,
he still must breathe the air that is
available and it hardly would be feasi-
BILE to change its barometric pressure.
The eczema -asthma-ha fever per-
sonality" was described to the physi-
clans today by DR.. John H. Stokes
Philadelphia skin specialist.
Over many years, he said, he has
observed that these maladies, all due
to an extreme sensitivity to some sub
starre in nature, occur most frequently
In persons with a certain tempera-
ment. They have in common, he said,
"a feeling of insecurity and inferiority,
aggressiveness and disposition to DOM
mate, an intrinsic kinetic drive, a type
OF reactivity that knows no compro-
mise approach to problems or reac-
tons to stimuli, and higher than aver
age intelligence"
1T will be easily evident" he con-
tlnued, that characteristic makeup
such as this is certain of a tempestu-
Gus existence in which repercussions
on the gastro-intestinal secretary and
motor mechanisms are to be expected
Such person has an abundant basis
for conflict between the disposition to
dominate and the need to seek over
dependence and over r-solicitude because
OF the feeling of insecurity, it appears.
"The adult E-A-H-F personality will
have trouble growing up, with his need
for dependence that is fatty incom-
patible with his driving urge to domi-
nate. The peculiar irritative reaction
of his I-sensitiveness to the human
competitor and his inability to accept
second place for himself in anything
makes competitive activity particularly
hard on him. Often with peculiar
and poisonous joy, capable of winding
him up to the breaking point, he pur-
sues with ardor the competitive activi-
ties and destjnationisnn that are his