660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



found depression whose effects, if oftentimes repeated, differ not from 

 those of concentrated resentment or pent-up hate. The man who is 

 given to outbursts of anger is sure to experience a rapid change of the 

 organs, in case he does not die in a fit of rage. 



Death under such circumstances is of frequent occurrence. Sylla, 

 Valentinian, Nerva, Wenceslas, and Isabeau of Bavaria, all died in 

 consequence of an access of passion. The medical annals of our own 

 time recount many instances of fatal effects following the violent 

 brain-disturbance caused by anger. The symptoms usually are pul- 

 monary and cerebral congestions. Still such fatal accidents as these 

 are exceptional : as a rule, the passions of hate and anger deteriorate 

 the constitution by slow degrees, but surely. 



How, then, do we explain those morbid phenomena which have 

 their origin in misplaced affection, in disappointed ambition, in hatred, 

 or in anger, and which culminate either in serious chronic maladies, or 

 in death or suicide ? They all seem to start from an impairment of 

 the cerebro-spinal centres. The continual excitation of these by ever- 

 present emotions determines a paralysis of the central nerve-substance, 

 and thus affects its connections with the nerves extending out to the 

 various organs. These nerves next degenerate by degrees, and soon 

 the great functions are compromised. The heart and the lungs cease 

 to act with their normal rhythm, the circulation grows irregular and 

 languishing. Appetite disappears, the amount of carbonic acid ex- 

 haled decreases, and the hair grows white, owing to the interruption 

 of the pigmentary secretion. This general disturbance in nutrition 

 and secretion is attended w 7 ith a fall of the body's temperature and 

 anaemia. The flesh dries up and the organism becomes less and less 

 capable of resisting morbific influences. At the same time, in conse- 

 quence of the reaction of all these disturbances on the brain, the psy- 

 chic faculties become dull or perverted, and the patient falls into a 

 decline more or less complicated and aggravated by grave symptoms. 

 Under these conditions he dies or makes away w T ith himself. 



Two organs, the stomach and the liver, are often affected in a pe- 

 culiar and characteristic way in the course of this pathological evolu- 

 tion. The modifications produced in the innervation, under the influ- 

 ence of cephalic excitement, cause a disturbance of the blood-circula- 

 tion in the liver. This disturbance is of such a nature that the bile, 

 now secreted in larger quantity, is resorbed into the blood instead 

 of passing into the biliary vesicle. Then appears what we call jaun- 

 dice or icterus. The skin becomes pale, then yellow, owing to the 



also by cold. Darwin explains this horripilation — as it is called — by the action of the 

 nervous system on certain minute involuntary muscles called arredores pill, recently dis- 

 covered by Kolliker, in connection with the capsules at the base of the separate hairs 

 and feathers. The excitation of these little muscles, which are very numerous over the 

 entire body, determines, by reflex contraction, the erection of which we speak, and af- 

 fords one of the most characteristic signs of fright, rage, and anger, in animals. 



