954 INFLUENCE OF THE MIND ON 



internal organs are congested with dark venous 

 blood, which was called black bile by the an- 

 cients, who regarded it as the cause of the me- 

 lancholic temperament. They also knew that 

 happy emotions induce a bright arterial hue of 

 the blood ; for Homer speaks of 'florid joy, and 

 Hippocrates of black melancholy. Respiration is 

 no less certainly diminished, and the vital proper- 

 ties of the blood impaired, by the depressing 

 passions, than by the influence of an impure at- 

 mosphere, an impoverished diet, too much or too 

 little exercise, intemperance in the use of spiri- 

 tuous liquors, and mercurial salivation, as proved 

 by the experiments of Dr. Prout. 



The natural consequence of such a state of 

 things is, that all the secretions are deranged; and 

 the nutritive properties of the blood being dimi- 

 nished, it unites imperfectly with the solids ; so 

 that a portion of the caloric which ought to be 

 employed in that process, and in maintaining the 

 secretions, is given out in the free state, causing 

 a low fever, and more or less debility of the 

 brain, stomach, bowels, and of all the organs. 

 In this way is laid the foundation of dyspepsia,* 



* The great mistake of Abernethy and many other modern 

 Pathologists, was in supposing that dyspepsia is a primary dis- 

 ease, and that all the complicated symptoms attending it, are 

 owing to sympathy of different parts of the body with some de- 

 ranged condition of the stomach, which has been aggravated in 

 many thousand cases by the blue pill, black draught, and other 

 pernicious drugs. It is true that the disease is frequently brought 



