876 INFLUENCE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



abundant, was completely arrested by this emotion, are detailed by Sir A. 

 Cooper. " Those passions which are generally sources of pleasure, and 

 which, when moderately indulged, are conducive to health, will, when carried 

 to excess, alter, and even entirely check, the secretion of milk." 



723. There is even evidence that the Mammary secretion may acquire an 

 actually poisonous character, under the influence of violent mental excite- 

 ment ; for certain phenomena which might otherwise be regarded in no other 

 light than as simple coincidences, appear to justify this inference, when in- 

 terpreted by the less striking but equally decisive facts already mentioned. 

 "A carpenter fell into a quarrel with a soldier billeted in his house and was 

 set upon by the latter with his drawn sword. The wife of the carpenter at 

 first trembled from fear and terror, and then suddenly threw herself furi- 

 ously between the combatants, wrested the sword from the soldier's hand, 

 broke it in pieces and threw it away. During the tumult, some neighbors 

 came in and separated the men. While in this state of strong excitement, 

 the mother took up her child from the cradle, where it lay playing, and in 

 the most perfect health, never having had a moment's illness; she gave it 

 the breast, and in so 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 laying in the 

 cradle, as if asleep, and with its features undisturbed ; but all his resources 

 were fruitless. It was irrecoverably gone." l 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. The following, which occurred 

 within the Author's own knowledge, is perhaps equally valuable to the Phys- 

 iologist, 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 in the depressing passions. A lady 

 having several children, of which none had manifested any particular ten- 

 dency to cerebral disease, and of which the youngest was a healthy infant a 

 few months old, heard of the death (from acute hydrocephalus) 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 attention 

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

 her infant in a convulsion, which lasted a few moments and then left it dead. 

 Now, although the influence of the mental emotion is less unequivocally dis- 

 played 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 



1 Dr. Von Animon, in his treatise, Die ersten Mutterpflichten und die erste Kin- 

 despflcge, quoted in Dr. A. Combe's excellent little w<>rk on The Management of In- 

 finicy. Similar facts are recorded by other writers. Mr.Wardrop mentions (Lancet, 

 No f>l<>), that having removed a small tumor from behind the ear of a mother, all 

 went well, until she Jell into a violent passion ; and the child, being suckled soon 

 afterwards, died in convulsions. He was sent for hastily to see another child in con- 

 vulsions, 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, \ f>'2'l) ; in one of them, the in- 

 fant was seized with convulsions on the right side and hemiplegia on the left, on 

 sucking inirnediati-ly after its mother had met with some distressing occurrence. 

 Another case was that of a puppy, which was seized with epileptic convulsions, on 

 sucking its mother after a fit of rage. 



