ON THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 319 



which lasted for a few moments and then left it dead. Now, although the 

 influence of the mental emotion is less unequivocally displayed in this case 

 than in the last, it can scarcely be a matter of doubt ; since it is natural that 

 no feeling should be stronger in the mother's mind, under such circumstances, 

 than the fear that her own beloved child should be taken from her as that of 

 her friend had been ; and it is probable that she had been particularly dwell- 

 ing on it at the time of nursing the infant on that morning.* 



429. Other Secretions are in like manner vitiated by mental emotions, 

 although the influence is not always so manifest. Thus, the halitus from the 

 lungs is sometimes almost instantaneously affected by bad news, so as to pro- 

 duce fcetid breath. A copious secretion of foetid gas not unfrequently takes 

 place in the intestinal canal under the influence of any disturbing emotion ; 

 or the usual fluid secretions from its walls are similarly disordered. The ten- 

 dency to defecation which is commonly excited under such circumstances, is 

 not, therefore, due simply to the relaxation of the sphincter ani (as commonly 

 supposed), but is partly dependent on the unusually stimulating character of 

 the faeces themselves. The same may be said of the tendency to micturition, 

 which is experienced under similar conditions ; the change in its character 

 becomes perceptible enough among many animals, in which it acquires a pow- 

 erfully disagreeable odour under the influence of fear; and thus answers the 

 purpose which is effected in others by a peculiar secretion. It is a prevalent, 

 and perhaps not an ill-founded opinion, that melancholy and jealousy have a 

 tendency to increase the quantity and to vitiate the quality of the biliary fluid; 

 perhaps the disorder of the organic function is more commonly the source of 

 the former emotion than its consequence ; but it is certain that the indulgence 

 of these feelings has a decidedly morbific effect by disordering the digestive 

 processes, and thus reacts upon the nervous system by impairing its healthy 

 nutrition. On the influence of mental emotion in the Mother, on the Foetus 

 in utero, some remarks will be offered hereafter ( 768). 



* Another instance, in which the maternal influence was less certain, but in which it 

 was not improbably the immediate cause of the fatal termination, occurred in a family 

 nearly related to the Author's. The mother had lost several children in early infancy, 

 from a convulsive disorder; one infant, however, survived the usually fatal period; but 

 whilst nursing him one morning, she had been strongly dwelling on the fear of losing 

 him also, although he appeared a very healthy child. In a few minutes after the infant 

 had been transferred in^p the arms of the nurse, and whilst she was urging her mistress 

 to take a more cheerful view, directing her attention to his thriving appearance, he was 

 seized with a convulsion fit, and died almost instantly. Now although there was here 

 unquestionably a predisposing cause, of which there is no evidence in the other cases, it 

 can scarcely be doubted that the exciting cause of the fatal disorder is to be referred to 

 the mother's anxiety. This case offers a valuable suggestion, which, indeed, would 

 be afforded by other considerations, that an infant, under such circumstances, should 

 not be nursed by its mother, but by another woman of placid temperament, who had 

 reared healthy children of her own. 



