ON THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 317 



427. No secretion so evidently exhibits the influence of the depressing 

 Emotions as that of the Mammae ; but this may be partly due to the fact, that 

 the digestive system of the Infant is a more delicate apparatus for testing the 

 qualities of that secretion than any which the Chemist can devise ; affording 

 proof, by disorder of its function, of changes in the character of the Milk, which 

 no examination of its physical properties could detect. The following remarks 

 on this subject are abridged from Sir A. Cooper's valuable work on the Breast. 

 " The secretion of milk proceeds best in a tranquil state of mind, and with a 

 cheerful temper ; then the milk is regularly abundant, and agrees well with 

 the child. On the contrary, a fretful temper lessens the quantity of milk, 

 makes it thin and serous, and causes it to disturb the child's bowels, producing 

 intestinal fever and much griping. Fits of anger produce a very irritating 

 milk, followed by griping in the infant, with green stools. Grief has a great 

 influence on lactation, and consequently upon the child. The loss of a near 

 and dear relation, or change of fortune, will often so much diminish the secre- 

 tion of milk, as to render adventitious aid necessary for the support of the 

 child. Anxiety of mind diminishes the quantity, and alters the quality, of 

 the milk. The reception of a letter which leaves the mind in anxious sus- 

 pense, lessens the draught, and the breast becomes empty. If the child be ill, 

 and the mother is anxious respecting it, she complains to her medical attend- 

 ant that she has little milk, and that her infant Is griped, and has frequent 

 green and frothy motions. Fear has a powerful influence on the secretion of 

 milk. I am informed by a medical man, who practices much among the poor, 



you assert that the appetite is unrestrainable, and act upon that assertion." Nothing 

 tends so much to increase the desire, as the continual direction of the mind towards the 

 objects of its gratification. The following observations, which the Author believes to be 

 strictly correct, are extracted from a valuable little work (anonymous) entitled, "Be not 

 deceived," addressed to Young Men ; they are directed to those who maintain that, the 

 married state being natural to man, illicit intercourse is necessary for those who are 

 prevented by circumstances from otherwise gratifying the sexual passion. "When the 

 appetite is naturally indulged, that is, in marriage, the necessary energy is supplied by 

 the nervous stimulus of its natural accompaniment of love before referred to, which pre- 

 vents the injury which would otherwise arise from the increased expenditure of animal 

 power: and in like manner also, the function being in itself grateful, this personal at- 

 tachment performs the further necessary office of preventing immoderate indulgence, by 

 dividing the attention, through the numerous other sources of sympathy and enjoyment 

 which it simultaneously opens to the mind. But when the appetite is irregularly indulged, 

 that is, in fornication, for want of the healthful vigour of true love, its energies become 

 exhausted; and from the want of the numerous other sympathetic sources of enjoyment 

 in true love, in similar thoughts, common pursuits, and above all in common holy hopes, 

 the mere gross animal gratification of lust is resorted to with unnatural frequency, and 

 thus its powers become still further exhausted, and, therefore, still more unsatisfying, 

 while, at the same time, a habit is thus created, and these jointly cause an increased crav- 

 ing; and the still greater deficiency in the satisfaction experienced in its indulgence fur- 

 ther, continually, ever in a circle, increases the habit, demand, indulgence, consequent 

 exhaustion, diminished satisfaction, and again demand, till the mind and body alike 

 become disorganized." Such considerations as these may, to some persons, appear mis- 

 placed in a Physiological Treatise yet the Author feels sure that, by his well-judging 

 readers he will not be blamed for adverting to this subject, or for introducing the above 

 quotation from a writer, of whom he has no personal knowledge, but whose object must 

 be confessed by all to be laudable. There seems to be something in the process of train- 

 ing young men for the Medical Profession, which encourages in them a laxity of thought 

 and expression on these matters, that generally ends in a laxity of action and of princi- 

 ple. It might have been expected that those, who are so continually witnessing the melan- 

 choly consequences of the violation of the Divine law in this particular, would be the 

 last to break it themselves; but this is unfortunately very far from being the caxe. The 

 Author regrets to be obliged further to remark, that some recent works which have issued 

 from the Medical press, contain much that is calculated to excite, rather than to repress, 

 the propensity; and that the advice sometimes given by practitioners to their patients, is 

 immoral as well as unscientific. 



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