766 OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



and soon forget the affront; whilst those who make little or no display of anger, 

 are very apt to brood over and cherish their feelings of indignation, and may 

 visit them upon the unfortunate object of them when some favorable opportunity 

 happens to occur, long after he had supposed that the occurrence which had 

 given rise to them was forgotten. There is an instinctive restlessness, or tend- 

 ency to general bodily movement, in some individuals, when they are suffering 

 under emotional excitement ; the indulgence of which appears to be a sort of 

 safety-valve for the excess of nerve-force, whilst the attempt at its repression is 

 attended with an increase in the excitement. Most persons are conscious of the 

 difficulty of sitting still, when they are laboring under violent agitation, and of 

 the relief which is afforded by active exercise ; and this is particularly the case 

 when the movements are such as naturally express the passion that is excited. 

 Thus the combative propensities of the Irish peasant commonly evaporate speedily 

 with the free play of the shillelagh ; many irascible persons find great relief in 

 a hearty explosion of oaths, others by a violent slamming of the door, and others 

 (whose excitement is more moderate, but less transient) in a prolonged fit of 

 grumbling. 1 So, again, if a ludicrous idea be suggested to our consciousness, 

 occasioning an impulse to laugh, a hearty cachinnation generally works off the 

 excitement, and we may be surprised a short time afterwards that such an 

 absurdity should have provoked our risibility; but, if we restrain the explosion, 

 the idea continues to " haunt" us, and is continually perturbing our trains of 

 thought until we have given free vent to the expression of it. It is well known, 

 again, that the depressing emotions are often worked off by a fit of crying and 

 sobbing; and the " relief of tears" seems manifestly due to the expenditure of 

 the peni-up nerve-force, in the production of an increased secretion. It is 

 noticed in this case, too, that the absence of any such external manifestations of 

 the depressing emotions gives them a much greater influence upon the course 

 of thought, and upon the bodily state of the individual. Those who really 

 " die of grief" are not those who are loud and vehement in their lamentations, 

 for their sorrow is commonly transient, however vehement and sincere while it 

 lasts; but they are those who have either designedly repressed any such 

 manifestations, or who have experienced no tendency to their display; and their 

 deep-seated sorrow seems to exert the same kind of anti-vital influence upon the 

 organic functions that is exercised more violently by " shock;" producing their 

 entire cessation without any structural lesion. 3 



1 This view is most fully confirmed by certain phenomena of Insanity. It is a doctrine 

 now generally received among practical men, that paroxysms of violent emotional excite- 

 ment are much more likely to subside, when they are allowed to "work themselves off" 

 freely, without any attempt at mechanical restraint ; and maniacal patients are now placed, 

 in all well-managed Asylums, in padded rooms, in which their movements can do no injury 

 to themselves or others. The following case was related to the Author by his friend Dr. 

 Howe, of Boston, N. E., the instructor of Laura Bridgrnan. A half-idiotic youth in the 

 Lunatic Asylum of that place was the subject (like many in his condition) of frequent and 

 violent paroxysms of anger ; and with the view of moderating these, it was suggested that 

 he should be kept for some time every day in rather fatiguing exercise. Accordingly he 

 was employed for two or three hours daily in sawing wood, to which task he made no ob- 

 jection; and the paroxysms of rage never displayed themselves except on Sundays, when 

 his employment was intermitted. It having been considered, however, that it was better 

 for him to spend part of that day in sawing wood than to be irascible during the whole of 

 it, his occupation was continued through the whole week, when he became completely 

 tamed down, and never gave any more trouble by his passionate displays. This case ap- 

 pears to the author a most valuable confirmation of the doctrine laid down in the text ; 

 which is one whose practical bearings are most important. 



2 The Author once heard the following singular case of this kind. One of two sisters, 

 orphans, who were strongly attached to each other, became the subject of consumption; 

 she was most tenderly nursed by her sister during a long illness ; but on her death the 

 other, instead of giving way to grief, in the manner that might have been anticipated, 

 appeared perfectly unmoved, and acted almost as if nothing had happened. About a 



