ON SYMPATHY AND FASCINATION. 



233 



place. The woorara, perhaps a species of tieunas, with which the Indians 

 of Guiana poison the points of their arrows, produces the same effect, when 

 inserted into a wound, as aconite juice introduced into the stomach : it ope- 

 rates almost entirely upon the organ of the brain, and more rapidly than it 

 could arrive there by the course of the circulation. The upas Antiar, the 

 anthiar Toxicaria of Leschenaut, on the contrary, one of the most fatal vege-^ 

 table poisons of the island of Java, produces death when inserted into a 

 wound, not by affecting the brain, but, like the infusion of tobacco in the 

 stomach, by destroying the action of the heart. 



In like manner, the poison of the cerastes, or horned snake, though so fatal 

 in a few hours, often in a few minutes when received by a wound, seems to 

 produce little or no effect when tasted and swallowed. " It is clear," says 

 Bruce, " the poison has no activity, till through some sore or wound it is 

 admitted into circulation.* And a German physician (continues he) was 

 bold enough to distil the pus or putrid matter flowing from the ulcer of a per- 

 son infected by the plague, and taste it afterward without bad consequences." 



Of the immediate cause or nature of this diversity of influence — this dis- 

 crepancy of action between remote organs, we know no more than we do of 

 the cause or nature of gravitation, of magnetism, or electricity. It has been 

 denominated, indeed, sympathy, fellow-feeling, or consent of parts, in the gene- 

 ral language of physiological writers ; and so long as we employ these terms 

 merely to import a definite kind or peculiarity of impulse, they may have 

 their use and convenience ; but they convey no knowledge, and ought not to 

 be allowed, as I am afraid they sometimes are, to supply the place of know- 

 ledge. That the muscles of the jaw-bone sometimes associate in their action 

 with the muscles of the hand or foot ; the organ of the left shoulder with 

 that of the liver ; and the stomach, under some kinds of stimulus, with the 

 brain ; under others with the heart ; and under a third sort, as all those that 

 excite nausea, with the skin ; while the skin, in return, associates very gene- 

 rally with the action of the kidneys, are ascertained and well-establishfid 

 facts ; but why they should be facts, or by what power or medium the asso- 

 ciation is maintained, we are altogether ignorant. 



When the circulation of the blood was first discovered, it was supposed 

 that all these anomalies might fall within the range of this admirable me- 

 chanism, and might be explained by its operation. Not one of them, however, 

 is capable of such an explanation. Nor is even the diffused redness which 

 uniformly takes place around the nucleus of an inflamed part in any degree 

 more intelligible or more referrible to this principle ; since, in consequence of 

 the device of a circulating system, the vessels in the immediate vicinity of 

 each other are as much cut off from all direct communication as those at the 

 remotest distance ; and only, so far as we are able to trace by ocular expe- 

 riment, associate by the common current of the blood. That they do, in fact, 

 associate by other means we know ; but it is by means altogether concealed 

 from us : it is by what, as already observed, we call sympathy or fellow- 

 feeling ; but what we only call so to express a peculiarity of action, the cause 

 of which we are incapable of penetrating. 



There is one curious and highly important discovery in the animal economy, 

 however, that has been made, or rather completely established, within the 

 last two or three years, which seems to show that such associate action of 

 parts, at a distance from each other, may be the result of a direct intercourse 

 or medium of communication, though the connecting channel is too subtfle 

 for pursuit : for it seems now to be ascertained, as it had, indeed, been long 

 suspected, though without the proof of actual experiment, that a variety of 

 substances pass from the stomach into the kidneys, apparently without en- 

 tering into the circulation of the blood, by an unknown and even a much 

 shorter course. Now, to the eye of the anatomist, there are no organs more 

 distinct from each other ; they not only lie far remote in situation, but even 

 in different cavities, and are separated by a strong, stout membrane, called 

 the peritoneum. 



* Appendix to Travela, p. 301, 8ro. edition 



