476 INFLUENCE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ON THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 



doing sealed its fate. In a few minutes the infant left off sucking, became restless, panted, 

 and sank dead upon its mother's bosom. The physician who was instantly called in, found 

 the child lying in the cradle, as if asleep, and with its' features undisturbed ; but all his re- 

 sources were fruitless. It was irrecoverably gone.' : * In this interesting case, the milk must 

 have undergone a change, which gave it a powerful sedative action upon the susceptible 

 nervous system of the infant. 



b. The following, which occurred within the Author's own knowledge, is perhaps equally 

 valuable to the Physiologist, as an example of the similarly-fatal influence of undue emotion 

 of a different character; and both should serve as a salutary warning to mothers, not to 

 indulge either in the exciting or depressing passions. A Lady having several children, of 

 which none had manifested any particular tendency to cerebral disease, and of which the 

 youngest was a healthy infant a few months old, heard of the death (from acute hydroce- 

 phalus) of the infant child of a friend residing at a distance, with whom she had been on 

 terms of close intimacy, and whose family had increased almost contemporaneously with 

 her own. The circumstance naturally made a strong impression on her mind ; and she 

 dwelt upon it the more, perhaps, as she happened, at that period, to be separated from the 

 rest of her family, and to be much alone with her babe. One morning, shortly after having 

 nursed it, she laid the infant in its cradle, asleep and apparently in perfect health ; her atten- 

 tion was shortly attracted to it by a noise; and, on going to the cradle, she found her infant 

 in a convulsion, which lasted for a few minutes, and then left it dead. Now, although the 

 influence of the mental emotion is less unequivocally displayed in this case than in the last, 

 it can scarcely be a matter of doubt; since it is natural that no feeling should be stronger in 

 the mother's mind under such circumstances, than the fear that her own beloved child 

 should be taken from her, as that of her friend had been ; and it is probable that she had 

 been particularly dwelling on it, at the time of nursing the infant on that morning. 



c. Another instance, in which the maternal influence was less certain, but in which it was 

 not improbably the immediate cause of the fatal termination, occurred in a family nearly 

 related to the Author's. The mother had lost several children in early infancy, from a con- 

 vulsive disorder; one infant, however, survived the usually-fatal period; but whilst nursing 

 him. one morning, she had been strongly dwelling on the fear of losing him also, although 

 he appeared a very healthy child. In a few minutes after the infant had been transferred 

 into the arms of the nurse, and whilst she was urging her mistress to take a more cheerful 

 view, directing her attention to his thriving appearance, he was seized with a convulsion-fit 

 and died almost instantly. Now although there was here unquestionably a predisposing 

 cause, of which there is no evidence in the other cases, it can scarcely be doubted that the 

 exciting cause of the fatal disorder is to be referred to the mother's anxiety. This case offers 

 a valuable suggestion, which, indeed, would be afforded by other considerations, that an 

 infant, under such circumstances, should not be nursed by its mother, but by another woman 

 of placid temperament, who had reared healthy children of her own. 



628. Other Secretions are in like manner vitiated by mental Emotions, al- 

 though the influence is not always so manifest. Thus, the halitus from the 

 lungs is sometimes almost instantaneously affected by bad news, so as to pro- 

 duce fffitid breath. A copious secretion of foetid gas not unfrequently takes 

 place in the intestinal canal, under the influence of any disturbing emotion ; 

 or the usual fluid secretions from its walls are similarly disordered. The 

 tendency to defecation which is commonly excited under such circumstances, 

 is not, therefore, due simply to the relaxation of the sphincter ani (as com- 

 monly supposed) ; but is partly dependent on the unusually stimulating cha- 

 racter of the faeces themselves. The same may be said of the tendency to 

 micturition, which is experienced under similar conditions : the change in its 



* Dr. Von Ammon, in his treatise " Die ersten Mutterpflichten unddie erste Kindespflege," 

 quoted in Dr. Combe's excellent little work on the Management of Infancy. Similar facts 

 are recorded by other writers. Mr. Wardrop mentions (Lancet, No. 516), that having re- 

 moved a small tumour from behind the ear of a mother, all went well, until she fell into a 

 violent passion; and the child, being suckled soon afterwards, died in convulsions. He was 

 sent for hastily, to see another child in convulsions, after taking the breast of a nurse who 

 had just been severely reprimanded; and he was informed by Sir Richard Croft, that he had 

 seen many similar instances. Three others are recorded by Burdach (Physiologic, 5'22) ; 

 in one of them, the infant was seized with convulsions on the right side, and hemiplcgia on 

 the left, on sucking immediately after its mother had met with M>me distressing occurrence. 

 Another case was that of a puppy, which was seized with epilepsy, on sucking its mother 

 after a fit of rage. 



