MA.RKS **** CONJT.GTIIRAL IHQOIR 1 " ' MlflD AND STOMACH* TK"E M-frFn; m± Columbia SJntonsitp mtljeCtipoOtegork College of iptjpsficians anb burgeons Hibrarp Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Open Knowledge Commons http://www.archive.org/details/conjecturalinquiOOmark CONJECTURAL INQUIRY INTO THE RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE MIND AND STOMACI .ifeURAr BY ELIAS MARKS, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH-CAROLINA. " There is such a reciprocal connexion and consent between the particular Thoughts and Affections of the Mind and the Body, that a change in one will tlways produce a change in the other " Bokrhaave NEWYORK: TRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY VAN WINKLE & WILEY . «.*♦♦♦«.♦♦♦** 1815. -CJ 77/ • /P/t AN INAUGURAL DISSERTATION; BEING A CONJECTURAL INQUIRY INTO THE RELATIVE INFLUENCE OP THE MIND AND STOMACH: SUBMITTED TO THE PUBLIC EXAMINATION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, IN THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, SAMUEL BARD, M. D. PRESIDENT, FOB. The Degree of Doctor of Medicine, On the 2d day of May, 1315, PRELIMINARY "Les conjectures," (says a celebrated wri- ter,*) •' sont le degre de certitude le plus eloigne de Levidence ; mais ce n'est pas une raison pour les rejeter. C'est par elles que toutes les sciences et tous les arts out commence : car nous entre- voyons la verite avant de la voir ; et l'6vidence ne vient souvent, qu' apres la tatonnement." The best-attested systems of the day have had their origin in conjecture, which has been gradu- ally strengthened by observation, and confirmed by successive experiment. Yet, speculation has its limits, beyond which the mind wanders in the region of shades, conjuring up forms of its own creation, and giving " to empty nothings a local habitation and a name." Science, so far from considering imagination as, within certain limitations, a needful auxiliar, has viewed her agency as ever prejudicial. She has been beheld, with fearful jealousy, as a Circe* tending only to lure the reason astray — an Ata- lanla, for ever strewing her golden fruit in the pathway of the pursuer. Yet, were the dawn of many well-attested systems observed, we should find them ushered in amidst that twilight of the mind, when the mists of fancy, as yet, hover around the presentations of reason. Thus arose the philosophy of a Newton, and the incipient reasonings of a Colon. The fall of a few venial * Oondillac de l'Art de Raisonner, torn, iv, p. 184. 2 blossoms led the way to the doctrines of gravita- tion, and some reeds, wafted by the billows of the ocean, gave strength to the imaginings of the Gen< >ese. Hypothesis, in mounting upwards, from effects, my deduce its conclusions from mere possibilities ; yet such deductions, as they cannot meet positive confutation, so will they ever remain stationary, without making nearer advances to truth. Such is the splendid geological dream of Darwin,* and such the doctrines of the vital principle. Com- parative reasoning, and that founded on rational inference, from probabilities, though far short of direct evidence, will yet claim a hold on our cre- dence, where they may either gain accessions, from progressive discovery or be disproved and reject- ed by after experience. In conjectural inquiry, we are duly aware, eccentricity does not more imply talent, than ser- vile adherence to prescription implies reasoning — that original paradox may proceed from fallacy of judgment, as dull correctness from mental cow- ardice. Yet with the adventurer, essaying on subjects, void in many points, of collateral aidance, something, perhaps, is to be allowed ; nor should it so much be sought wherein he has failed, as in what he has succeeded. Such a one will surely incur greater chance of failure, than the cautious scholiast, never adventuring beyond the precincts of syllogism. The former dates his la- bours from that point at which the latter* cautious-- ly desists. While the one pushes his discoveries amidst unexplored regions, the other resigns him- * Vide Botanical Garden. self tcTthe electing from their results ; and, through an assiduity unsolicited by the witcheries of ima- gination and feeling, arrives at a greater share- of correctness. The contributions of the last, how- ever, are, at best, but those of a compiler, whilst the first may compensate for occasional trespasses against reason, by extending the domains of her empire. CONJECTURAL INQUIRY, &c. PART I. Sect. I. The moral faculty intimately connected with bodily sense. Ascending in the scale of inquiry, causes and their effects appear so enlinked, that the discove- ry of one series gives us but the effects of others, still stretching onward in progression, until they have terminated in principles, which, from their inexplicability, we term ultimate. Many, bewil- dered in the pursuits of these successive operative causes, have, in their despondency, condemned all attempts, having such a tendency. Yet when we revert to the knowledge deduced from them, and the access of pleasure, flowing in upon the feelings from their successful results, the condem- nation will appear premature. Science is pro- gressive ; we may compare it to a ladder, in the ascending of which, we in succession rest on those points which, a few moments before, were beyond our reach. Physiologists have not been more opposed to each #ther, on the economy of animal life, than meta- 10 physicians, on the operations of the human mind. Both appear to have, occasionally, erred, from not sufficiently adverting to the intimate connexion of mind and body. Metaphysics has busied herself, from the days of the Stagyrite, in attending, too much, to the mind in the abstract. Even the familiar biogra* pher, in portraying the moral and intellectual fea- tures of genius, and animadverting upon their combinations, has estimated the mind as exclu- sively her own, and not, like the monarchy of Sparta, holding another confederate in rule. Phi- losophy, mostly prone to extremes, has either be- wildered herself in the mazes of idealism,* or, de- scending to a groveling materialism, has rendered every thing incorporate with matter. The estimate, at various periods, given of the human mind has much varied. Locke and D' \lembert have made it a mere receptacle de- pendent on the senses ; while the German philoso- phers have considered it as possessing faculties part- ly intuitive. The Mallebranchistes, by rendering all its actions immediately referable to its creator, have rendered the human being an automaton ; and it has, again, been viewed as bearing the same re- lation to body as motion does to matter.f " Tout croient juger d'apres ce qu'ils sentent : mais cette diversite d'opinions prouve qu'ils ne savent pas tous, interroger le sentiment."J In the following brief inquiry, the human mind is considered as an essence, intrinsically immateri- al, but, relatively, material. * Vide Phil of Berkley. f Mi. proposed by Hailer, be granted, still this will con- stitute but a. means, and the modus operandi remains to be explained. When we attend to the phe- nomena which animal life offers, it will be some- what difficult for the observer to discriminate be- tween a nervous and muscular action. " There is no muscular fibre, however minute, in which we are not obliged to admit the existence of a small nervous filament." " The animals which have no distinct nervous systems, possess, at once, in all * Bacon, Novum Organum, p. 107, 20 their parts, sensibility and contractibility."* Thus ? although the elementary fibre be considered dis- tinct from the nervous, yet, to account for the mo- tive nature of the one, it becomes necessary to sup- pose the presence of the other. Observe how Haller vacillates on this subject : " Are these fibres hollow ? Are they continuous with the arteries ? Does the difference betwixt muscular and tendinous fibres consist in the lat- ter being rendered solid by being compressed, and having the fluids expelled? That the blood is not concerned is proved by the slenderness of the fibres, which are smaller than the blood globules."! What is, then, the -vis insita of Haller? Is it a motive power, resident in the ultimate muscular, fibre, independent of the sensorium ; or, does this fibre bear the same relation to the nerve, as the mi- nute fibriculi of the leaf do to the stem ? If so, are the vis insita and nervous power one and the same ? But, says Haller, the vis insita arises H from the nervous liquor forcing the elementary particles of the muscular fibre to approach each other. "J Now, admitting the agency of this nervous li- quor in producing the vis insita, a transudation must take place ; a circumstance which he himself, in another place, has denied ever to supervene.^ According to his own position, wherever a nervous fluid exists, there must be a nerve. The thing resolves itself, then, in this ultimatum: a nervous agency being admitted as the principle of the vis insita, it must be resident in the nervous fibre of Kicherand, accompanying the muscular fibre, or i * Richerand, Phys. f Aph. 399. J Phy. Aph. 408o $ Aph. 379. 21 this muscular fibre is no other than a continuation of the nerve* Nature ever accomplishing her pur- poses by the simplest means, the latter inference appears most rational. This, no doubt, will be thought a bold as- sumption, a Lilliputian spear hurled against doc- trine proofed in the armour of authority. It is in- deed so ; but if truth speed the weapon, it may reach its mark. " Philosophers" (says Home Tooke) " have calculated the difference of velocity between sound and light, but who would attempt to calculate the difference between speech and thought ?" In like manner we would ask, who will attempt to calculate the velocity with which sensation is communicated from the sentient ex- tremities of the nerves, and the consequent reac- tion of the sensorium. From observing what is termed the irritability of muscle, and its seemingly instantaneous action, from stimuli applied, appa- rently without the interference of the brain, phy- siologists have been willing to render this action independent of its liege sovereign, the sensorium^ giving it, as it were, a dynasty of its own. Sect. VII. Does this proximate cause consist in a prin- eiple of tension and relaxation of the ultimate fibre f The animal economy presents this characteris- tic — that a tendon of the alimentary fibre gives an increment, as its relaxation gives a decrement, of tone in the parts where either exists. As in the ap- plication of cold, which, by imparting a tension to the fibre, communicates an energy ; and in that of heat, which, by producing a relaxation, abstracts 22 from that energy. But, as this ultimate fibre is subjected to the influence of the sensorium, we ob- serve the affections of the mind producing corres- pondent results. Whatever excites the former, imparts a similar excitation to the latter; as what- ever depresses the one prostrates the powers of the other. The maniac, propelled by some fantasy of the brain's creation, " finds each petty artery in his body, As hardy as the Nemeean lion's nerve." While the dastard Dolon, as described by Homer, " Against the trembling wood, The wretch stood propp'd, and quiver'd as he stood; A sudden palsy seized his turning head, His loose teeth chatter'd, and his colour fled." An inferrible evidence, also, of the identity of the muscular and nervous fibre, is their evin- cing, in some measure, a similarity of action. Dr. Darwin has shown that the retina, which is consi- dered a continuation of the optic nerve, manifests the character of a muscle in having its flexors and extensors, and being susceptible of fatigue and in- stauration.* That the brain, notwithstanding its medullary and apparent inelastic nature, does possess many of the properties of muscularity, will be induced from a like observance. Like the nerves to which it gives origin, (if the medulla spinalis be admit- ted a continuation,) it appears possessed of a prin- ciple of tension and relaxation. Reasoning, then, from effects, instead of pro- * Vide Zoonomia, B. 1 . 23 ceeding from principles, we, discover it evincing deducible evidences of this property. " Tandis que Tame s'en occupe, les organs du cerveau sont dans une mouvement plus ou moins fort, dans une tension, plus ou moins grande ; ces mouve- mens fatiguent la moelle nerveuse, cette sub- stance si tendre, se trouve apres une longue me- ditation aussi epuisee que Pest un corps ro= buste apres une exercise violente. Quiconque a pense fortement, une fois dans sa vie, a fait cette experience sur soi-meme ; et il n'y a point d'hom- me de lettres qui ne soit sorti plusieurs fois de son cabinet avec un violent mal de tete et beau- coup de chaleur dans cette partie, ce qui depend de l'etat de fatigue et d'echauffement dans lequel la moelle du cerveau se trouve ; I'empreinte de cette fatigue se fait aussi appercevoir dans les yeux, et si l'on considere un homme plonge dans la me- ditation, on voit que tous les muscles de son visage sont tendus, ils paraissent meme quelquefois."* The brain, then, appears like a muscle ; 1st. Susceptible of excitement and exhaustion ; of fatigue and instauration ; 2d. It is liable to convulsive motion, as in deli- rium ; or, to spasmodic action, as in mania. 3d. It appears possessed of flexors and exten- sors ; for when fatigued with one species of employ- ment, it is relieved, by having recourse to another. 4th. Mechanical pressure affects it, producing paralysis; which affection, when taking place in the brain, from this or any other cause, is termed Coma. * La Sante de Gens de- Lettres. 24 Beet. VIII. Will this principle apply to the connexion of the brain and stomach ? If it be conceded, that the muscularity of the brain is at least deducible from probable reasoning, cannot the relative influence which the brain and stomach have over each other, be accounted for, on the principle of a tension and relaxation of the ele- mentary fibre ? Can this principle be more ge- nerally applied to the communication existing be- tween the sentient extremities and the cerebral organs ?* The brain chiefly distinguishes animal from sim- ple organic existence, and is the prime exciter. The nerves constitute the medium of communi- cation between it and the other functions. As the cerebral organ imparts motion and sensation to the rest, so it is, in turn, subject to the reaction of these ; among which the alimentary organs, in which the nutrient principle of animal life resides, has the most wonderful ascendancy. Indeed, when the ancients assigned a soul, as re- sident in the nutrient organ, it was from perceiv- ing this close alliance and nice reaction. Most of the morbid affections of the mind, not arising from a moral cause, may, generally, be traced to some peculiar state of the primes via ; whilst f The reason assigned by Haller, in objection to the ex- istence of a principle of tension, in the nervous fibre, is its apparent softness. But has he not made use of the term soft in a relative, rather than a strictly logical sense? As sub- ject to our sensations, it may, indeed, be considered as such : yet can it be objected that the coherent particles of which it is composed, may not, as they respect each other, maintain a certain proximity and distance, constituting tension orjelax- fition 1 25 the potent influence of the passions and emotions of the mind over the latter is but too evident. If the energy or prostration of the cerebral and alimentary functions be for the most part correla- tive, and proceed from a tension or relaxation of the elementary fibre, muscular energy is not so much the result of an aggregation of fibre, as of a modification of it, termed tension ; in like mannei% debility is not the product of a paucity of fibre, but of a relaxation of it. This will appear, in attending to the animal economy, where we observe prostra- tion often existing with great muscular aggrega- tion ; and energy often combined with an apparent deficiency of solid. In the action of the brain and stomach on each other, that a tension or relaxation of fibre in the one exists, analogous to what takes place in the other, we would further deduce from the position, that no communication can take place betwen two things without some correspondent property in each. When we see amaurosis proceeding from a sto- machic affection, we will naturally infer that some correspondent property does exist in relation to the stomach and retina. We observe in both an impairment of contractability and dilatability ; and we hence infer a common morbid affection of the elastic elementary fibre. In like manner, when, from an untoned and vitiated condition of the prima via, a morbid affection of the mind occurs, we would conclude that the relaxation of the ulti- mate fibre, observable in the alimentary functions, extends to the organs of sense. The dejection, gloom, and mental aberrations produced from such affections were not unnoticed by the ancients. Observing the efficacy of purga- tives in removing the melancholic lowerings of 26 the mind, and oppression of its faculties, they at- tributed these to the presence of an atrabilis, or black choler, in the alimentary organs. A high estimation was attached to the melamponium, in these affections, as acting specifically; and Me- lampus, a Greek, (from whom it received its name,) cotemporary with the Argonautic expedition, is said, by its use, to have cured the daughter of Poems, King of Argos, of an obstinate mental malady. Can the effect wrought be attributable to a recovery of tension in the muscular fibre ? An inquiry which has much interested physi- ologists, and involved much hypothesis, is that in- stituted into the modus operandi of the narcotic principle, on the faculties of the mind and functions of the body. There exists not, perhaps, a more apposite illustration of the prompt and intimate sympathy of the stomach and brain than that which here takes place. While some have ascribed the effects to a principle taken into the circulation, others have referred it to an impression made on the nerve. May the moral and physical phenomena here be attributed, in the first place, to a tension given the elementary fibre ; followed, secondly, by a propor- tionable relaxation ? Do those high exhilarations of mind, succeeded by languor and depression, act in the same manner ? Cold, to a certain degree, produces an increase, and, as it were, a concentration of sensorial power. Heat, beyond a certain extent, acts conversely, by enfeebling the cerebral force. Are these phenome- na ascribable to the causes assigned above ? If so, will not this account for the characteristic cerebral energy of the inhabitants of the temperate zone f 27 PART II. Sect. I. Influence of the Mind on the Physical Func- tions, We can, perhaps, make no nearer advance to the knowledge of the motive principle, than in the probable supposition that there exists in the hu- man being a determinate proportion of sensorial power, (the excitability of Brown,) and that inas- much as it has a derivable tendency to the functions of the body, or the faculties of the mind, is their respective energy of action. By a parity of rea- soning we would infer, that from the close alliance of these, there is always a reciprocity of action in health and disease. Where the greatest equanimity of mind exists, the performance of the bodily functions is, for the most part, uniform ; nor is the animal economy subject to those morbid actions which constitute disease. The observation of cheerfulness and good nature being combined with obesity is, for the most part, correct ; the latter is the result of the former. In nations, as in individuals, we observe a pe- culiar bodily temperament induced by peculiar conformation of mind. The Italians, possessed of much irritability and sensibility, with passions ar- dent and easily excited, have not that unmeaning rotundity of countenance assignable to the inhabi- tant of northern Europe. One has only to revert to the portraits of that people to be assured of this. 28 To this cause may be attributed their excellence in the pictorial and sculptural arts, which find among them the most striking exemplars. In their mus- cular proportions they evince a point and angula- rity, the effects of repeated flexion of muscle and tension of fibre, produced by mental agitation* The German, a thinking, yet phlegmatic being, with amenity of disposition, and passions by no means easily excited, has a curvature and aggrega- tion of muscle, characteristic of his comparative moral inaction. The same eiFect wrought on the animal func- tions by the affections of the mind, may be sup- posed to take place in the natural functions. When an over-proportion of the nervous influ- ence is determined to any one order of functions, it will always be at the expense of the rest. In idiots, where the cerebral action is feeble, the other functions derive an increase of power. There is an increment of muscular quantity, as also of di- gestive power, in proportion to the decrement of cerebral action. The partial cessation of mind during sleep, will explain the restoration which the animal functions then undergo, and the sensible increase of \he func- tions of digestion. The now undivided current of sensorial fluid flows almost exclusively to these. Nor is it less deducible, that as the sensorial power, when directed to many parts, must, by this division, necessarily become weakened ; so, when concentrated in a greater quantity than ordinary, in any particular organ, the function of that organ must acquire an increased energy. Hence the ab- scission of one sense, imparts a greater excellence to another, Most deaf people have a certain in- 29 telligence in their eyes, truly characteristic. In blindness there is often a partial translation of the sensorial current to the organ of touch. Laertes recognises the Ithacan sage, in passing his lingers over his countenance. Where the organs of a sense are twofold, the ob- literation of one adds to the power of the other. By the annihilation of a sense, the sum of sensorial power is increased, in the expenditure being di- minished. The waste of sensorial power in the exercise of vision is greater than that of the rest of the senses combined. Hence, by the deprivation of sight, the amount of cerebral energy is augment- ed. The bard of antiquity thus speaks of the Minstrel Demodocus : — " The sacred master of celestial song : Dear to the Muse ! who gave his days to flow With mighty blessings, mix'd with mighty wo ; With clouds of darkness quench'd his visual ray, But gave him skill to raise the lofty lay." In perceiving how the various dispositions of mind and body consentaneously influence, and are influenced by each other, one cannot help observing the triple alliance between our materials moral, and intellectual natures ; and the necessity there is of preserving that due exercise of each, whose result constitutes that happiness which de- volves as the portion of humanity. u Beatum dicamus hominem eum ; qui fortunae muneribus utatur, non serviat. Hunc necesse est sequunter gauduum inconcussum et sequabile, per- petua tranquillitas et libertas, pax animi et magni- tudo."* * Senec. De Beat. c. 24, 5 30 Let it not be supposed here, that we would ren* der physical causes paramount in our being, and, by such a dangerous concession, adjudge all ac* tion as their necessary result. Our sole object is to evince, that the connexion to which we have al- luded, may subserve to, or retard, the furtherance of the governing motive. Indeed, while superficial observation points out peculiar dispositions, affections, actions, and even characters, resulting from organic tendencies, it will be vain that arguments, deduced from principles, are arrayed in opposition. Such reasonings, al- though rational, cannot look down facts. Sect, II. Influence of the Mind on the Digestion. But the limits of a Dissertation, like the present, will not permit us, were we even possessed of the requisites, to enter into all the important bearings which the subject would maintain. We shall, how- ever, revert to one, not only interesting in a patho- logical point of view, but as connected with a class of beings, whose posthumous honours are, for the most part, purchased by a life of bodily privations, and of mental sufferings. Were we possessed of a correct knowledge of the temperament of genius, there would be exhi- bited an apposite illustration of the sympathetic converse of the mind and stomach. The former, acting primarily on the latter, which, in turn, re- acting, maintains a morbid correspondence. Tissot, in his Essay Sur les Maladies de Gens de Jjettres, has, indeed, upheld a portraiture gloomy enough to affright into quiescence all literary am- bitioiio 31 Genius, Which would deduce its origin from hea- ven, and ascribe its energies to nothing short of inspiration, must, nevertheless, in a measure, suc- cumb to physical influences, which can depress the most vigorous intellect, and enfeeble the spring of the most buoyant imagination. Having traced its genealogy to the skies, it would fain, as a spiritual emanation, deem itself superior to bodily influen- ces. Yet it appears a melancholy truth, that none hold more intimate communion with the physical evils of life than the beings allied to it. When we speak of physical causes, we would not only confine ourselves to those arising from a tempera- ment of body, original, or induced ; but would particularly advert to that peculiar morbid confor- mation of stomach assignable to constitution. The affections of the alimentary functions^ resulting from a constitutional intenseness of feeling, have not only been attributed to the ascendancy which the operations of the mind have over the epigastiric centre, but to the sedentary nature of literary avocations. The latter circumstance has been too much dwelt upon.* "On voit" (says Tissot) "tresfrequemment des sots boire et man- ger beaucoup, sans s'incommoder, quiconqu'ils menent une vie sedentaire, et qu'ils ne soient pas d'une constitution plus robuste que d'autres. Com* bien ya-t-il, au contraire, de gens d'esprit dont leg digestions sont penibles et laborieuxquoiq'ils soient d'un bon temperament et qu'ils fassent de l'ex- ercise." Dr. Darwin has also noticed and object- ed to this excess of importance attached to the necessity of exercise. When we observe those w Motus corporis non omnes, omnibus convemunt." SennerUis, Instit. Med, Mb. iv. p. 404. 32 whose lives are, for the most part, sedentary, but. whose passions are feebly excited, and who are seldom solicited to mental exertion, enjoying an excellent health, with unimpaired digestive pow- ers, are we not led to conclude, that too little has been attributed to the influence which the mind excites over the nutrient organs, and too much to the agency of physical causes ? The mechanical doctrines of Pitcairn, in ac- counting for the phenomena of digestion, as well as the doctrines of those who would ascribe it to attrition, agitation, or solution, have been long ex- ploded. Why, then, is agitation deemed so essen- tial to its performance ? Is it not rather necessary as tending to maintain the peristaltic motion, and aid dejection ? When the constitutional habits of persons having active occupations, are adduced as illustrative of the essentiality of exercise, it should be recollected that with these there is the least cerebral activity; whereas the lives of literary men are those of " laborious ease." " Qui pense le plus, digere le plus mal ;" for that sensorial power is, in a measure, ex- pended in the operations of the mind, which should be distributed to the respective functions of the animal economy, in proportion to their indi- vidual exigence. <' It is in the region occupied by the semilu- nar ganglion," (says Richerand,) " in which the great sympathetic nerves unite, and which is to be considered as the centre of the system, form- ed by their union, that we refer all our agreea- ble sensations; there it is that we feel a sad- ness, a constriction, which is commonly refer- red to the heart. Hence, in the sad emotion* 33 of the soul, seem to originate those painful irra- diations which trouble and disorder the exercise of all the functions."* Thus, those passions, for ever undulating (if the expression be admissible) through our feeble frame, during existence, urging us forward in our destined career, by constant irritations; or arousing our wearied and desponding being by livelier gusts ; those passions have their termination, for the most part, in the natural functions ; as their operations are also demonstrable in the superficies of the ani- mal solid. It was not, then, in the language of mere metaphor, that the first writers, who drew their ideas from the original source, referred their sen- sations of passion and emotion to the alimentary function. The " bowels leaping with joy," and " yearning with commiseration," were real sensa- lions. The morbid affection of stomach of the literary recluse, proceeding originally from a mental cause, reacts, in turn, on the mind. The association acquires such a preternatural nearness and sensible bearing, that their minutest actions are, as they respect each other, either effi- cient or consequential* So intimately blended are the respective condi- tions of the mind, stomach, and skin, that, as the affections of the cerebral and alimentary functions are most commonly indicative of each other, so the state of the cuticular excretion is assignable to both. A remission of the latter, is, for the most part, attended with a prostration or vacillation of the mental powers. * Phys. p. 57, From the combination of these physical causes, there arise those moral sufferings which so power- fully appeal to our sympathy. Amidst the sombre broodings of mind, cloistered, as it were, from all which might otherwise impart enthusiasm, the most incongruous associations proceed. Imagina- tion, ever on the alert, like a timid out- scout, sees ambushed around nought but danger. Appre- hensions the most fantastic are conjured up, and the mind seems fertile in resources, tending to its own undoing. The dark catalogue of human miseries pass in gloomy procession, while fancy mimics the individual portraitures. " A grizzly troop are seen, The painful family of death, More hideous than their queen. This racks the joints — this fires the vein, That every lab'ring sinew strain. Lo, poverty ! to fill the band, That numbs the soul with icy hand, And slow consuming age." There is, indeed, a total surrender of self to the illusions of sensation, and the faculty is incapable of attending to aught, save that which holds it in durance ; either lost in a wild vacuity, or alert in detecting every passing feeling. Among the unhappy martyrs to this deranged state of the alimentary functions, and, perhaps, in no small degree, consequent affection of mind, none have more powerfully called forth emotions of the most deep-wrought and tender interest, than the virtuous and feeling Cowper. The melancholy wreck of such powers, the distortion imparted to the most amiable of feelings, the profound dejec- tion, which, like a blasting night-shade, withered 33 every unfolding bud of happiness ; render him, of authors, the peculiar object of our sympathy. "During his residence in Norfolk," (says his biographer,) "the process of digestion never pass- ed regularly in his frame." This, inducing a ma- lignant affection of skin, was no doubt the cause of much of his mental indisposition. Dr. Currie, of Liverpool, alike distinguished for his professional and literary talents, has, in his life of Burns, adverted to an affection somewhat simi- lar. " Though of an athletic form," says that cele- brated physician, " Burns had in his constitution, the peculiarities and the delicacies that belong to the temperament of genius. He was liable, from a very early period of life, to that interruption in the process of digestion which arises from deep and anxious thought, and which is sometimes the effect and sometimes the cause of depression of spirits. Connected with this disorder of the sto- mach, there was a disposition to head-ach, affecting more especially the temples and eye- balls, and frequently accompanied with irregular and violent movements of the heart. Endowed by nature with great sensibility of nerves, Burns was, in his corpo- real, as well as in his mental system, liable to in- ordinate impression ; to fever of body as well as of mind." These symptoms were, no doubt, unhappily accelerated by those frequent excesses, proceeding, to use the poet's own language, from that " mad- dening play of pulse," characteristic of such pe- culiar and original powers. But when it is recol- lected how many possessed of far weaker consti- tutions, indulge with impunity in greater extremes 36 of dissipation, and nevertheless attain longevity ; the decayed digestion which preceded the prema- ture fate of the bard, will not wholly be ascribed to adventitious circumstances. Sect. III. Influence of Diet on the Mind. In proceeding to an illustration of the mutual re- lations of the mind and stomach, were we to in- dulge ourselves in detail, exemplification would be far from scant. Literary history, and the general phenomena of life, present a copious resource. From the various occupations of men, their ha- bits, peculiarities of constitution, and diet, varying results take place, having a relation to the subject in question. Though we dare differ from the il- lustrious author of Zoonomia, in believing that it is not so much the quality as the quantity of the food indulged in, which affects most the constitu- tions of health and disease ; as, also, the operations of the mind ; yet, no doubt, the qualities of the various aliments taken into the stomach, have, at a definite point, their influence on the moral and in- tellectual character. From the watery aliments of the Dutch, the piquant ragouts and light wines of the French, the animal food and beer of the English, some correspondent effects may, perhaps, be traced in the mental characters of the different people. Yet, in nations, as in individuals, it is the quantity, rather than the qualities of diet, to which we must advert, in accounting for the agency which the stomach maintains on the mind. Plutarch has acquiesced to the imputation of stu- pidity, preferred against his countrymen, the Boeo- tians ; but he has, at the same time, assigned as a 37 cause, their profuse indulgence in animal food, which he gravely tells us, tends to the defedation of intellect.* But this fanciful opinion in dietics has been too long indulged, and ought to give place to a more intimate acquaintance with the animal economy. The light viands of the Py- thagoreans, the "cichorea levesque malvae" of the poet, furnish, indeed, a simple refection; but it will be doubtful whether they impart a more ethereal sustenance than an animal diet. Were even these indulged in an undue quan- tity, it will likewise be questionable whether the results would not be correlative with a less pas- toral cheer. Rather let us revert to what a more enlightened era in medicine offers to our notice. The English, perhaps, use a greater quantity of animal food than any other European people, yet that country has produced a Bacon, Newton, and Locke, in philoso- phy ; and a Shakspeare and Milton in poesy ; and its inhabitants have been characterized as a thinking people. The East-Indians, and other oriental nations, who subsist, for the most part, on a vegetable ali- ment, are not remarkable for any moral or intel- lectual excellence. From what reasonings a priori, and a knowledge of the process of digestion and assimilation offer, it is not probable that a specific effect is produced by the use of any particular kind of food. Why, then, we would infer a peculiar mental character, from the use of a vegetable or animal diet, does not appear. Is it not more accordant with the laws. * Vide Symposiacs. 6 38 which the general economy of the animal being exhibits, to ascribe the difference wrought by the use of either, to the degree of nutrition they re- spectively impart? Madame de Stael informs us that the inhabitants of Vienna pride themselves on the quantity of food brought into and consumed within the metropo- lis. Can a better cause be given for that paucity of intellectual effort attributable to the Vienneans ? As Erasistratus ascribed most diseases to excess, so might we impute it to many of those mental affections, referred, often wrongly, to moral causes. Dr. Moffet, a celebrated and learned English physician, who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century, has both humorously and af- fectingly adverted to this subject. " Would you see" (observes the doctor) " the discommodities of excess ? Why then imagine you saw Polyphe- mus stript of wit and memory, Cleomenes, king of Lacedemonia, playing at cherry-pit with chil- dren ; and Timotheus, who having the night pre- ceding supped with Plato, exclaiming next morn- ing, 'How truly sweet are Plato's suppers.' " A repletion in diet manifests itself on the intel- lect, in producing an obtusion and aberration of its powers ; as, also, on the moral faculty, in irregular and moody appetites, fatuity of feeling, and irritableness of passions. To this cause, also, with its occasional consequents, surfeit, indiges- tion, and interrupted perspiration, much of that gloom and periodical depression of spirits may be attributed, which have been falsely ascribed to other sources, and which have been received under names, designative of causes which are, in the main, supposititious. 39 Nature, in her wise economy, has so bountiful- ly disposed " the form of things," as everywhere with the useful to have combined the agreeable. Thus, in the physical, as in the moral man, she has rendered the just indulgence of his appetites, whose employment are essential to his existence, or well- being, a source of individual gratification; as pain and misery are ever consequent to their per- version. In this, as in all the operations of cre- ation, wisdom, and benevolence are allied* Accordingly, as the just precincts of rational re. fection are overstepped, the faculties of the mind, sympathizing with the physical functions, are op- pressed and interrupted ; and it is eventually by such excesses that its energies become so blunted and enfeebled, and so benumbed for want of due action, that the soul may be said to blend itself and be incorporated with the body. Sect. IV. The peculiar Influence of the Stomach on the reasoning and imaginative faculties, and on morals* Beside the influence which diet has on the va- rious affections of the mind, through the agency of the stomach, it will be observed to have a more peculiar ascendency over some of its powers than others. As it regards the just exercise of the reasoning faculty, how necessary is it to those devoted to avocations, requiring sober and patient research, and mature deliberation, to be aware of this organic ascendency. In reverting to those ornaments of our species, who, by affixing the seal of their ge- nius to the records of humanity, have given vali- dity to our pretensions above the residue of ere- 40 ation ; we shall see them not disdaining those con- tinent observancies so essential to the successful pursuance and attainment of knowledge. Such were those who have founded distinct epochs in sci- ence — a Pythagoras, a Newton, and a Franklin. Secondly — Of the powers of the mind, none are more susceptible to the action of the digestive function than those of imagination, which, to have their free scope, must be as unfettered as possible by physical causes. Fancy imps her noblest da- rings in those moments when least restringed by the operations of bodily sense. The moral faculty, also, as subjected, in a mea- sure, to the influence of organic tendencies, is, in some degree, through the modifications of diet, acted upon by the alimentary functions. It was from attending to this important result, that dietics were made to occupy so prominent a situation in the legislative code of the ancients. The historians who have handed down to us the lives of a ViteDius, Domitian, and Caligula, had given us a sufficient estimate of their characters, had they merely recorded their gluttony. When Horace informs us that the son of the ac- tor iEsopus,* dissolved a pearl worth one million of sesterces for a draught, and that the sons of Quintus Arrius dined ordinarily upon nightin- * " Filius JEsopi detractam ex aure Metellae, Scilicet ut decies solidum exsorberet, aceto Diluit insignem baccam, qui sanior, ac si Illud idem in rapidum flumen jaceretve cloacam ? Quinti progenies Arri par nobile fratrum, Hequitia et nugis, pravorum et amore gemellum Luscinias soliti impenso prand^re coemptas." Sat. 3. Lib. % 41 gales, at great expense, he has represented to us every thing. The conscientious physician, who is enabled to trace existing mental, as well as physical, affec- tions to such sources, has yet a remaining duty, the most delicate in the routine of his practice ; to assume the character of moralist, and to attack those propensities which have gradually and deep- ly enrooted themselves in the habit. The perform- ance of this will, to such a one, present no difficul- ties with whom professional interest will ever yield to conscious duty. " Praecipium ergo quod medicus potest adferre, consistit in bono regimine afFectuum, et de tali me- dico Hippocrates dixit, medicum philosophum Deo esse similem ; philosophi nomine non intelli- gens physicum et nos hodie, sed moderationem morem qui homines ex malo in bonum flectit, eos- que confirmat."* - Boerhaave, de Morb. Nervorum, Tom. 2, p. 395. 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