THE PATHOLOGY OF THE PASSIONS. 661 



presence in the blood of the coloring matter of the bile. This 

 change in the liver is usually developed slowly : sometimes, however, 

 jaundice makes its appearance suddenly. Villeneuve mentions the 

 case of two youths who brought a discussion to an end by grasping 

 their swords ; suddenly one of thern turned yellow, and the other, 

 alarmed at this transformation, dropped his weapon. The same author 

 speaks of a priest who became icterical (jaundiced) on seeing a mad 

 dog jump at him. Whatever may be said of these cases, we must 

 reckon painful affections of the soul among the efficient causes of 

 chronic diseases of the liver. 



The digestion, says the author ,of a work published some years 

 ago, is completely subjected to the influence of the moral and intellect- 

 ual state. "When the brain is wearied by the passions, appetite and 

 digestion are almost gone. Whatever causes grief or fright affects 

 the stomach more or less. In times of epidemic, or of civil war, and 

 in all social conjunctures when any extraordinary peril threatens the 

 masses, dyspepsia becomes more frequent, and assumes a more serious 

 aspect. This affection commonly prevails amid the various symptoms 

 of depression and decline produced by moral suffering. The direct 

 pathological consequences of disordered nutrition, whose chief symp- 

 tom is dyspepsia, are of the most serious nature, and there is no 

 doubt that among them we must reckon cancer. Hence it is that An- 

 toine Dubois located the cause of cancer in the brain. 



IV. 



As a vibrating chord determines vibration in a neighboring chord, 

 so a passion produces in those who are the witnesses of it a passion or 

 a tendency to a passion of the same kind. The infant by a smile re- 

 sponds instinctively to its mother's smile, and it is difficult to contem- 

 plate attentively the portrait of a smiling person, especially if we ob- 

 serve that the face wears a smile, without our own faces assuming a 

 like expression. "We cannot," says Leon Dumont, "reflect on any 

 mode of expression, but our countenances will have a certain tendency 

 to conform itself to it." A fortiori it will so conform itself when, 

 instead of merely reflecting on the expression, we see it. Yawning, 

 hiccoughing, and sighing, are as contagious as laughter. 



All passions, whether good or bad, are contagious. Esquirol 

 seems to have been the first to discern and characterize moral conta- 

 gion, which he defines to be that property of our passions whereby 

 they excite like passions in others who are more or less predisposed to 

 them. The contagion of good example is manifest, and it is certain 

 that the worship of the saints is one of the wisest and most powerful 

 instrumentalities devised by the Catholic religion. Unfortunately, 

 depraved passions too have their imitators, and in this case the imita- 

 tion is so prompt, so thorough, and in some sort so automatic, as often 

 to appear irresistible. An able psychological physician, M. Prosper 



