158 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



others that have been stated, appears sufficient 

 to account for the diminished capability of the 

 constitution to withstand an exposure to cold. 



CLXXVIL There are certain states of the mind 

 which tend powerfully to counteract the effects 

 of cold. Agreeable sensations, or the strong ex- 

 citing passions of the mind, act exclusively upon 

 the nerves appropriated to respiration ; and, by 

 improving the frequency of this function, or by 

 changing the two actions of which it is compos- 

 ed, the blood is invariably better oxygenated, and 

 distributed throughout the system with greater 

 regularity and force. It therefore follows, that 

 the debilitating effects of cold are counteracted as 

 long as the action of the heart is increased by 

 these means, and as long as it continues to circu- 

 late blood possessing such qualities. 



In a violent paroxysm of insanity, the body is 

 little affected by external agents. In attending 

 the interesting lectures of M. ESQUIROL, at the 

 hospital Saltpetriere, Paris, I had frequent op- 

 portunities of observing the powers which the 

 body seems to acquire, during mental aberration, 

 of resisting those agents which, in the natural 

 state of the mind, never fail to be accompanied 

 by painful feelings or evident effects. There are, 

 indeed, several cases on record, in which indivi- 

 duals are stated to have escaped from confinement 

 when affected with insanity, during the greatest 

 severity of winter, without the protection of even 



