EMOTIONS VERSUS HEALTH IN WOMEN. 507 



we generally find either a lack of will-power or a deficiency in reason 

 and judgment, and our common expression for that condition is that 

 such an individual is not well balanced. 



It is possible that some of us have heard it suggested that woman 

 is a less reasonable being than man. It has, indeed, been whispered 

 that she — regarding her as a type, not as an individual — is less logical, 

 less temperate in her judgments, more easily controlled by appeals to 

 the feelings. In the recent article by Ouida in the " North American 

 Review," speaking of the character of a woman's mind, she says : 

 "The female mind has a radical weakness, which is often also its 

 peculiar charm ; it is intensely subjective ; it is only reluctantly forced 

 to be impersonal." Such opinions are not entirely unfamiliar to any 

 of us. 



We are in no wise concerned for the final judgment of mankind 

 upon the mind of woman, nor do we imagine that it requires cham- 

 pionship. But it is easily apparent that this very grace of her nature 

 may be turned to bad account through undue stimulation, and that, 

 through inheritance and the influences we have briefly suggested, she 

 may acquire a tendency toward an unduly subjective type of mind — a 

 tendency which threatens the loss of a just intellectual sense of propor- 

 tion, and which, therefore, can not conduce to sound mentality. 



The old meaning of the word emotion — commotion — is opposed to 

 the best mental growth and health. In repose, in the quiet harmoni- 

 ous performance of its functions, the mind grows into vigorous ma- 

 turity, and the constant unrest and commotion of nerve-elements, 

 which accompany violent emotional disturbances, and repeated strain 

 upon other than its reasoning faculties, can not fail to disturb the 

 quiet, natural evolution of its powers. Can this tendency in woman's 

 ti'aining be shown to affect her bodily health ? Physicians and meta- 

 physicians answer. Yes ! 



The intimate relation which exists between the mind and the body 

 is a matter of familiar knowledge to us all. The tear that starts from 

 the eye when grief disturbs the mind is a common instance of the 

 effect which an intangible mental emotion has upon the physical basis 

 of the lachrymal gland. The loss of consciousness and the heart-fail- 

 ure which may follow great mental shock, and the deleterious effect 

 which mental anxiety may exercise upon digestion, are, unfortunately, 

 matters of common experience. Even the poetical allusion to the 

 hair which grows white in a single night has its basis in physiological 

 fact. The miracles claimed by the faith-curers are in the same line of 

 argument, for they indicate how far sedation of the mind may be an 

 adjuvant to the cure of the body. 



Says Maudsley : " It may be questioned whether there is a single 

 act of nutrition which emotion may not affect, infecting it with feeble- 

 ness, inspiring it with energy, and so aiding or hindering recovery 

 from disease. It is certain that joy or hope exerts an animating effect 



