INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 255 



If, however, the lower feelings be in great activ- 

 ity, and the mind be at variance with itself, and 

 filled with designs and emotions repulsive to our 

 moral sentiments ; or if it be oppressed with grief, 

 anxiety, or remorse, the stimulus which it commu- 

 nicates is far from beneficial, being no longer in 

 accordance with the conditions designed by the 

 Creator. It is in such circumstances, accordingly, 

 that bad health is so often seen to arise from the 

 state of the mind, and that suffering is produced 

 which no art can relieve till the primary cause be 

 removed. 



The same result follows over-exercise of intellect, 

 and the non-activity of the feelings. From the con- 

 centration of vital action in one part of the brain, 

 the stomach and other organs are unprovided with 

 the requisite nervous stimulus, and become impaired 

 in their functions ; and hence the dyspeptic and 

 hypochondriacal symptoms which so often render 

 life a burden to literary men. Persons so situated, 

 when advised to attend to diet, often answer that it 

 is in vain, and that, while at times nothing can be 

 digested, at other times, perhaps within a few hours 

 or days, nothing comes amiss, the power of diges- 

 tion varying thus quickly, according to their mental 

 condition. Whereas, when indigestion arises from 

 a primary affection of the stomach, the least devia- 

 tion in the way of indulgence proves injurious. In 

 both instances, attention to diet is beneficial, but in 

 the one it is less rigidly important than in the other. 



The influence of the brain on the digestive organs 

 is so direct, that sickness and vomiting are among 

 the earliest symptoms of many affections of the 

 head, and of wounds and injuries of the brain ; 

 while violent emotions, intense grief, or sudden 

 bad news sometimes arrest at once the progress 

 of digestion, and produce squeamishness or loathing 1 

 of food, although an instant before the appetite was 



