AND ANIMAL LIFE. 283 



nal viscera, possess more of the sanguineous fluid 

 than is consistent with the proper performance 

 of their office; and, therefore, the connexion 

 between these important organs is rendered highly 

 susceptible to slight alterations occurring in the 

 general circulation. Mental emotions, fatigue 

 of mind or body, or internal functional disor- 

 ders, by disturbing still more the quantity or 

 quality of blood transmitted from the lungs to 

 the heart, derange the contractions of the latter 

 organ. If the quantity of blood which is sent to 

 the heart be greater than usual, its powers are 

 oppressed, or, from the urgent circumstances in 

 which it is placed, it is unable to circulate the 

 blood it receives with ordinary regularity, and its 

 convulsive motion or irregular action is the con- 

 sequence of this inability. Palpitation, in such 

 instances, arises therefore from the general cause, 

 an overcharged state of the lungs. 



CCC1V. In the nervous temperament the 

 pulse is frequent and small. The heart contracts 

 in frequency and force, cceteris paribus, propor- 

 tionately to thedegree of stimulus which the blood 

 possesses. In this state of the system the blood 

 is deficient in its usual stimulating qualities from 

 the causes mentioned in CCCI. Consequently, 

 the heart neither dilates nor contracts so fully as 

 in the state of health : but the necessity of propel- 

 ling the blood is great ; it is, therefore, compelled 



