INDUCED DISEASE, ETC. 6^ 



feverish and feeble ; and at last he either sinks into chronic despond- 

 ency and irritability, or rushes hastily to the performance of some 

 act which indicates disordei-ed mind. 



The effects of fear are all but indentical with those of rage, and 

 like rage grow in force with repetition. The phenomena are so easily 

 developed in the majority of persons, they may actually be acquired 

 by imitation, and may be intensified and perhaps induced by listening 

 to the mere narratives of events which act as causes of fear. I am 

 daily more and more convinced that not half the evils resulting from 

 what may be called the promptings of fear in the young and the 

 feeble are duly appreciated, and that fear is the worst weapon of phys- 

 ical torture the thoughtless coward wields. The organs upon which 

 fear exerts its injurious influence are, again, the organic nervous chain, 

 the heart, and the brain. 



Permanent intermittency of the heart is one of the leading phe- 

 nomena incident to sudden and extreme terror. One example, sufii- 

 ciently characteristic, will illustrate this fact: 



A gentleman of middle age was returning home from a long voyage 

 in the most perfect health and spirits, when the vessel in which he was 

 sailing was struck from a collision, and, hopelessly injured, began to 

 sink. With the sensation of the sinking of the ship and the obvious 

 imminence of death five minutes was the longest expected period of 

 remaining life this gentleman felt his heart, previously acting ve- 

 hemently, stop in its beat. He remembered then a confused period 

 of noise and cries and rush, and a return to comparative quiet, during 

 which he discovered himself being conveyed, almost unconsciously, 

 out of the sinking vessel on to the deck of another vessel that had 

 rendered assistance. When he had gained sufficient calmness he 

 found that periods of intermittent action of his heart could be counted. 

 They occun-ed four and five times in the minute for several days, and 

 interfered with his going to sleep for many nights. On reaching land 

 the intermittency decreased, and when the patient came to me, soon 

 afterward, there were not more than two intermittent strokes in the 

 minute, all the intervening strokes being entirely natui-al and the 

 action of the heart and the sounds of it being simply perfect. In this 

 gentleman the intermittent pulse became a fixed condition, but so 

 modified in character that it was endurable. At his last visit to me he 

 was not conscious of the symptom except he took it objectively from 

 himself, by feeling his own pulse or listening to his own heart. 



The effect of fear on the brain may be to the extent of that which 

 is produced by extremity of rage, so that even sudden death, from 

 syncope, may ensue. I have known two such instances as these, but 

 the more common effect is an intense irritability, followed by doubt, 

 suspicion, and distrust, leading toward or to insanity. From a sud- 

 den terror deeply felt the young mind rarely recovers, never, I believe, 

 if hereditary tendency to insanity be a part of its nature. A man, 



