ON THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 947 



perversion of the influence of the Sympathetic System, than to that of the 

 Cerebro-spinal, would appear from the fact noticed by Magendie and Longet, 

 that destructive inflammation of the eye ensues more quickly after division of 

 the Trigeminal nerve in front of the Grasserian ganglion, than when the division 

 is made through the roots of the nerve, between that ganglion and the brain ; 

 the sympathetic filaments which exist largely in this nerve being interrupted in 

 their course to the tissues in the former case, but not in the latter. And this 

 inference would be supported by the fact that increased secretion of tears and 

 mucus from the eye, and increased redness of the conjunctiva, are ordinary con- 

 sequences of extirpation of the superior cervical ganglion of the sympathetic in 

 dogs ; and also with the general result of observation, that atrophy of parts 

 supplied by the spinal nerves is much greater when the sensory as well as the 

 motor roots are involved, than when the latter alone are paralyzed it being 

 through the ganglia, and connecting filaments of the former that the true Sym- 

 pathetic fibres become incorporated with the Cerebro-spinal nerves. 



953. The influence of the state of expectant attention, in modifying the pro- 

 cesses of Nutrition and Secretion, is not less remarkable than we have already 

 seen it to be in the production or modification of Muscular movements ( 923). 

 It seems certain that the simple direction of the consciousness to a part, inde- 

 pendently of emotional excitement, but with the expectation that some change 

 will take place in its organic activity, is often sufficient to induce such an altera- 

 tion ; and would probably always do so, if the concentration of the attention 

 were sufficient. The most satisfactory exemplification of this principle has 

 been given by the experiments of Mr. Braid, who has succeeded in producing 

 very decided changes in the secretions of particular organs, by the fixation of 

 the attention upon them in the " hypnotic" state ( 827). Thus he brought 

 back an abundant flow of milk to the breast of a female who was leaving off 

 nursing from defect of milk, and repeated the operation upon the other breast 

 a few days subsequently, after which the supply was abundant for nine months; 

 and in another instance he induced the catamenial flow on several successive 

 occasions, when the usual time of its appearance had passed. It is not requi- 

 site, however, to produce the state of Somnambulism for this purpose, if the 

 attention can be sufficiently drawn to the subject in any other mode; thus Mr. 

 Braid has repeatedly produced the last-named result on a female who possessed 

 considerable power of mental concentration, by inducing her to fix her thoughts 

 upon it for ten or fifteen minutes, so as to bring on a state of reverie. Now 

 the effects which are producible by this voluntary direction of the consciousness 

 to the result, are doubtless no less producible by that involuntary fixation of 

 the attention upon it, which is consequent upon the eager expectation of benefit 

 from some curative method in which implicit confidence is placed, or, on the 

 other hand, upon that anticipation of unpleasant results in which some in- 

 dividuals are led to indulge by the morbid state of their feelings. It is to 

 such a state that we may fairly attribute most, if not all, the cures which 

 have been worked by what is popularly termed the "imagination." The 

 cures are real facts, however they may be explained; and there is scarcely 

 a malady in which amendment has not been produced not merely in the 

 estimation of the patient, but in the more trustworthy opinion of medical 

 observers, by practices which can have had no other effect than to direct the 

 attention of the sufferer to the part, and to keep alive his confident expectation 

 of the cure. The " charming-away" of warts by spells of the most vulgar kind, 

 the imposition of royal hands for the cure of the "evil," the pawings and strok- 

 ings of Valentine Greatrakes, the manipulations practised with the " metallic 

 tractors," the invocations of Prince Hohenlohe, et hoc genus omne not omit- 

 ting the globulistic administrations of the Infinitesimal doctors, and the manipu- 

 lations of the Mesmerists, of our own times have all worked to the same end, 



