466 



SECRETION. 



and separated the men. While in this state 

 of strong excitement, the mother took up her 

 child from the cradle, where it lay playing 

 and in the most perfect health, never having 

 had a moment's illness ; she gave it the breast 

 and in so doing sealed its fate. In a few 

 minutes the infant left off sucking, became 

 restless, panted, and sank dead upon its 

 mother's bosom. The physician who was 

 instantly called in, found the child lying in the 

 cradle as if asleep, and with its features un- 

 disturbed ; but all his resources were fruitless. 

 It was irrecoverably gone."* Such a case 

 might be regarded as a mere coincidence if it 

 stood alone ; but several others of similar 

 character are upon record. Mr. Wardrop 

 mentions f that having removed a small tu- 

 mour from behind the ear of a mother, all 

 went well until she fell into a violent passion, 

 and the child being suckled soon afterwards, 

 died in convulsions. He was sent for hastily 

 to see another child in convulsions, after 

 taking the breast of a nurse who had just been 

 severely reprimanded ; and he was informed 

 by Sir Richard Croft that he had seen many 

 similar instances. Burdach cites two cases 

 of a similar kind ; in one of which the infant 

 put to the breast of its mother, just as she 

 had received some very alarming intelligence, 

 died in her arms before the eyes of the mes- 

 senger ; \\hilst in the other, the child having 

 been nursed when the mind of the mother 

 was in violent agitation, suddenly became 

 extremely pale, and after some hours was 

 attacked with paralysis on the right side, and 

 convulsions on the left. Another of a very 

 similar character has been more recently put 

 on record. " A woman while suckling her 

 child became violently excited by the loss of 

 some article which had been stolen from her. 

 She gave her child the breast while in a state 

 of violent passion. The child at first re- 

 jected it, but subsequently took a quantity of 

 milk. Soon afterwards violent vomiting 

 supervened. In the course of some hours, 

 the child took the other breast, when it was 

 attacked with violent convulsions, and died 

 in spite of medical aid." J 



It will not be requisite to enter into similar 

 details in regard to other secretions, the in- 

 fluence of emotional states on which is a 

 familiar fact. Thus the flow of saliva is 

 stimulated by the sight, the smell, the taste, 

 or even by the idea, of food ; whilst it may 

 be entirely arrested by strong emotion, as is 

 shown by the well known test often resorted 

 to in India for the discovery of a thief among 

 the servants of a family. All the parties 

 being compelled to hold a certain quantity of 

 rice in the mouth during a few minutes, the 

 offender is generally distinguished by the com- 

 parative dryness of his mouthful at the end of 

 the experiment. The gastric secretion is 

 greatly influenced by the emotional states 



* Dr. A. Combe's Treatise on the Management of 

 Infancy, p. 222., quoted from Dr. Von Ammon, " Die 

 ersten Mutterpflichten und die erste Kinderspflege." 



t Lancet, No. 516. 



I Caster's Wochenschrift, 1845, S. 204 



being usually increased by moderate exhilara- 

 tion, and diminished by depression of the feel- 

 ings. Any very strong emotion, however, usually 

 suspends it for a time. The lachrymal secretion, 

 which is continually being formed to a small 

 extent for the purpose of bathing the surface 

 of the eye, is poured out in great abundance 

 under the moderate excitement of the emo- 

 tions, either of joy, tenderness, or grief. It 

 is checked, however, by violent emotions : 

 hence in intense grief the tears do not flow. 

 It is a well known proof of moderated sorrow 

 when the flow returns : tears, however, do 

 not bring relief, as commonly supposed, but 

 they indicate that the violence of the emotion 

 has passed off. The odoriferous secretion 

 from the skin, which is much more powerful 

 in some individuals than in others, is increased 

 under the influence of certain mental emo- 

 tions, such as fear or bashfulness, and com- 

 monly also by sexual desire.* That the 

 formation of this secretion is due to changes 

 occurring in the blood itself, and that the 

 function of the cutaneous glandulae is rather 

 to eliminate than to produce it, would appear 

 from the fact that the characteristic smell of 

 different animals may be detected in their 

 blood when it is treated with sulphuric acid. 

 The influence of fear or of sexual desire on 

 the odoriferous secretions of many of the 

 lower animals is well known ; the emission of 

 a powerful and disgusting smell being not un- 

 frequently a chief means of defence. The 

 odoriferous matter is sometimes poured into 

 the internal cavities, and discharged with the 

 normal excretions, imparting to them its 

 peculiar scent: thus the urine of a cat, voided 

 under the influence of alarm, possesses a 

 strong and disagreeable smell, which is with 

 difficulty got rid of. The halitus from the 

 lungs is in some persons so affected .by mental 

 emotions, that a piece of bad news shall 

 almost instantaneously produce foetid breath. 

 A copious secretion of foetid gas not un- 

 frequently takes place in the intestinal canal, 

 under the influence of any disturbing emo- 

 tion ; or the usual liquid secretions from its 

 walls are similarly disordered. The tendency 

 to defalcation, which is commonly excited 

 under such circumstances, is not simply due 

 therefore to relaxation of the sphincter ani, as 

 commonly supposed, but is partly dependent 

 on the unusually stimulating character of the 

 fasces themselves. It is a prevalent, and, 

 perhaps, not an ill-founded, opinion, that me- 

 lancholy and jealousy have a tendency to in- 

 crease the quantity, and to vitiate the quality, 

 of the biliary fluid ; and amongst the causes 

 of jaundice are usually set down the indul- 

 gence of the depressing emotions, or an access 



* A series of glandulae in the axillary region, 

 bearing a general resemblance to the sudoriferous 

 glands, but of larger size, have been supposed by 

 Prof. Homer (Amer. Journ. of Med. Sci. Jan. 1846), 

 and by M. Robin (Gaz. Med. Sept. 13. 1845), to be 

 specially concerned in the elimination of the pecu- 

 liar odoriferous secretion of this region. These 

 glandular have been shown by Prof. Homer to be 

 unusually large in the negro, whose axillary odour 

 is peculiarly strong. 



