1826.] On Hypochondriasis. 41 
nerves (varying in different persons), by which false impressions are 
Shiitted’ tothe brain, inthe manner of the soldier above-iéntioned 
‘who had lost his‘legs) ~~ ‘ Bs qari 
“8 Persons having’ their nervous system so constituted as tobe susceptible 
of Strong impressions from slight causes—having, in short, what is usually 
‘ealled-a nervous temperament, have always been regarded as particulatly 
‘4iable’ to this disease. Rousseau and Cowper may be taken as good 
‘Hkiastrations—men who were unable by any degree of temperarice’ to’ 
“istarve themselves into tranquillity and cheerfulness. Indeed, it is eon- 
» sistent with general observation, that pursuits leading to the cultivation 
~6f' the faney or indulgence of feeling are powerful auxiliaries in the 
“developement of morbid nervous irritability. Among the various ¢lasses 
“ofvartists, for example, musicians are perhaps the most subject to those 
wayward fancies which mark the hyphochondriac ; witness Viotti, 
Sacchini, Mozart, and others; while the effect of music upon minds 
~ gifted with undue sensibility is strikingly illustrated by the melancholy 
“and passionate desire of revisiting their native country, produced on 
‘Swiss soldiers on hearing the Ranz des Vaches. Yet I apprehend it 
would be very difficult to shew in what manner the stomach was affected 
‘by their sounds. Shakspeare, who was a tolerably correct observer of 
nature, speaks of the “soul-inspiring drum,” the “ ear-piercing fifé,” 
‘and even attributes certain nameless effects to the bag-pipe “ singing in 
the nose”—but so far as I know, mentions no music which held aty 
sympathy or communion with the stomach. ' 
~The fact is, as it appears to me, that the stomach is of a very jealous 
disposition, and will not work unless attended to; take off the mind too 
frequently and too long, no matter in what way, and the dissention 
is proportionally affected; the individual becomes melancholy” oF ¢a- 
pricious, in vulgar language, hipped,—the indigestion being obviously 
the effect, not the cause of the mental affection; hence it is that men of 
studious habits generally become dyspeptic and not unfrequently hypo- 
chondriacal. It is very consolatory, however, for those who are thus 
affected, to be able to refer their bodily infirmities to their mental 
“superiority ; and as a quotation from any old author is always very 
~useful in an argument, and of course one from a Latin or Greek writer 
‘doubly so, I would remind them that Aristotle asks “cur homines qui 
-ingenio claruerunt et in studio philosophiz vel in republica admifiis- 
‘tranda vel in carmine fingendo vel in artibus exercendis melancholicos 
“omnes fuisse videramus ?” — 
Women are said to be less liable to the disease than men, which niay 
be accounted for either by the fact of their prudently abstaining frém 
‘the fatigue of very profound meditations; or, by supposing the same 
causes to produce a different train of phenomena, constituting hysterics, 
“a complaint, however, so analogous to the subject of this paper, that 
many have regarded them as the masculine and feminine of the sate 
“species. ‘Talking of the ladies, I may remark, that a French writer’ of 
“some celebrity (M. Falret), argues that the abdominal viscera eahnot be 
~ the’seat‘of hypochondriasis, because the disease does not prevail among 
whis fair countrywomen, who, according to his insinuation, wear stays ‘so 
ut “underrating the sacrifices made“by ‘the French Jadies inthe 
‘ ‘of fashion, ‘we may be allowed to question whether the sufferings 
of the male sex‘in this country have not for some years been quite-as 
M.M. New Serics.—Vo u. I. No. 7. G ; 
* 
. ot sae “as té produce: great compression “sur le’ bas ventre.” “Now, 
“weause 
