XIV. CEREBRAL PHYSIOLOGY
By means of the nervous system, an intimate relation is maintained between mind and body, for nervous energy superintends the functions of both. The fibres of nervous matter are universally present in the organization, uniting the physical and spiritual elements of man's being. Even the minutest nerve-rootlets convey impressions to the dome of thought and influence the intellectual faculties. We recognize muscular force, the strength of the body, molecular force, molecules in motion, as heat, light, chemical force, electricity, and nervous force, a certain influence which reacts between the animal functions and the cerebrum, thus connecting the conditions of the body with those of the mind. We cannot speak of the effects of mind or body separately, but we must consider their action and reaction upon each other, for they are always associated. There are many difficulties in understanding this relationship, some of which may be obviated by a study of the development of nervous matter, and its functions in the lower orders of organization.
Within the plant-cells is found a vital, vegetable substance termed bioplasm, or protoplasm; which furnishes the same nutritive power as the tissues of the polyp and jelly fish. Many families of animals have pulpy bodies, and slight instinctive motion and sensibility, and in proportion as the nervous system is developed, both of these powers are unfolded. Plants have a low degree of sensibility, limited motion, respiratory and circulatory organs. Animals possess quicker perceptions and sensibilities, the power of voluntary motion, and, likewise a rudimental nervous system. Some articulates have no bony skeleton, their muscles being attached to the skin which constitutes a soft contracting envelope. One of the simplest forms of animal life in which a nervous system is found, is the five-rayed star-fish. In each ray there are filaments which connect with similar nerve-filaments from other rays, and form a circle around the digestive cavity. It probably has no conscious perception, and its movements do not necessarily indicate sensation or volition. In some worms a rudimentary nervous system is sparingly distributed to the cavities of the thorax and abdomen, and, as in the star-fish, the largest nerve-filament is found around the esophagus, presiding over nutrition.
A higher grade of organization requires a more complete arrangement of nervous substance. Stimulus applied to one organ is readily communicated to, and excites activity in another.
The nervous system of some insects consists of two long, white cords, which run longitudinally through the abdomen, and are dilated at intervals into knots, consisting of collections of nerve-cells, called ganglia. They are really nerve-centers, which receive and transmit impulses, originate and impart nervous influence according to the nature of their organic surroundings. The ganglia situated over the esophagus of insects correspond to the medulla oblongata in man, in which originate the spinal accessory, glosso-pharyngeal, and pneumogastric nerves. The latter possess double endowments, and not only participate in the operations of deglutition, digestion, circulation, and respiration, but are also nerves of sensation and instinctive motion. The suspension of respiration produces suffocation. In insects, these ganglia are scarcely any larger than those distributed within the abdomen, with which they connect by means of minute, nervous filaments. Insects are nimble in their movements, and manifest instinct, corresponding to the perfection of their muscular and nervous systems. When we ascend to vertebrates, those animals having a backbone, the amount of the nervous substance is greater, the organic functions are more complex, and the actions begin to display intelligence.
Man possesses not only a complete sympathetic system, the rudiments of which are found in worms and insects, and a complete spinal system, less perfectly displayed in fishes, birds, and quadrupeds, but, superadded to all these is a magnificent cerebrum, and, as we have seen, all parts of the body are connected by the nervous system. The subtle play of sensory and motor impulses, of sentient and spiritual forces, indicates a perfection of nervous endowments nowhere paralleled, and barely approached by inferior animals. This meager reference to brainless animals, whoso knots of ganglia throughout their bodies act automatically as little brains, shows that instinct arises simultaneously with the development of the functions over which it presides. Here begins rudimentary, unreasoning intelligence. It originates within the body as an inward, vital impulse, is manifested in an undeviating manner, and therefore displays no intention or discretion. While Dr. Carpenter likens the human organism "to a keyed instrument, from which any music it is capable of producing can be called forth at the will of the performer," he compares "a bee or any other insect to a barrel organ, which plays with the greatest exactness a certain number of tunes that are set upon it, but can do nothing else." Instinct cannot learn from experience, or improve by practice; but it seems to be the prophetic germ of a higher intelligence. It is nearly as difficult to draw the dividing line between instinct and a low grade of intelligence, as it is to distinguish between the psychical and psychological[4] functions of the brain.
The intimate relation of instinct to intelligence is admirably illustrated in the working honey-bee. With forethought it selects a habitation, constructs comb, collects honey, provides a cell for the ova, covers the chrysalis, for which it deposits special nourishment, and is disposed to defend its possessions. It is a social insect, lives in colonies, chastises trespassers, fights its enemies, and defends its home. It manifests a degree of intelligence, but its sagacity is instinctive. Reason, though not so acute as instinct, becomes, by education, discerning and keenly penetrative, and reveals the very secrets of profound thought. We recall the aptness of Prof. Agassiz's remark: "There is even a certain antagonism between instinct and intelligence, so that instinct loses its force and peculiar characteristics, whenever intelligence becomes developed." Animals having larger reasoning powers manifest less instinct, and some, as the leopard, exercise both in a limited degree. This double endowment with instinct and low reasoning intelligence, is indicated by his lying in ambush awaiting his prey, the hiding-place being selected near the haunt of other animals, where nature offers some allurement to gratify the appetite.
Simple reflex action is an instinctive expression, manifesting an intuitive perception, almost intelligent, as shown by the contraction of the stomach upon the food, simply because it impinges upon the inner coats, and thus excites them to action. A better illustration, because it displays sympathy, is when the skin, disabled by cold, cannot act, and its duties are largely performed by the kidneys. Though reflex action is easily traced in the lower organic processes, some writers have placed it on a level with rational deliberation. Undoubtedly, all animals having perception have also what perception implies--consciousness--and this indicates the possession, in some degree, of reason. Compound reflex action extends into the domain of thought. Simple reflex action, or instinct, answers to the animal faculties, such as acquisitiveness, secretiveness, selfishness, reproductiveness, etc., and accomplishes two important purposes; self-preservation and the reproduction of the specie. With many persons, these appear to be the chief ends of life!
The psychical functions connect, not only with animal propensities, but also with the highest psychological faculties. Instinct is the representative of animal conditions, just as the highest spiritual faculties are indicative of qualities and principles. The consistent mean of conduct is an equilibrium between these ultimate tendencies of our being. The psychological functions render the animal nature subservient to the rule of purity and holiness, and deeply influence it by the essential elements of spiritual existence. The psychical organs sustain an intermediate relation, receiving the impressions of the bodily propensities, and, likewise, of the highest emotions. Obviously, these extreme influences, the one growing out of animal conditions, the other, the result of spiritual relations, pass into the psychical medium and are refracted by it, or made equivalent to one force. The body requires the qualifying influences of mind. The tendencies of the animal faculties are selfish and limiting, those of the emotive, general, universal. The propensities, like gravity, expend their force upon matter; the emotions pour forth torrents of feeling, and produce rhapsodies of sentiment. The propensities naturally restrict their expression to a specific object of sense; the emotions respond to immaterial being. The tendencies of the former are acquisitive, selfish, gratifying; of the latter, bestowing, expanding, diffusing. The one class is restricted to the orbits of time and matter, the other flows on through the limitless cycles of infinity and immortality. The former is satiated in animal gratification, the latter in spiritual beatification. The one culminates in animal enjoyment, the other expands to its ultimate conceptions in the perfections of Divine Love.
In the present life, mind and body are intimately connected by nervous matter. In this dual constitution, the spiritual mental, and animal functions are made inseparable, and modify one another. The ultimate tendencies of each extreme exist, not absolutely for themselves, but for qualifying purposes, to establish a basis for the deeper economy of life. By the employment of reason, animal and spiritual experiences are mutually benefited, and the consciousness rendered accountable. The bodily and mental workings are in many senses one, and help to interpret each other.
Every fact of mind has many aspects. A brain force, which results in thought, is simultaneously a physiological force, if it influences the bodily functions. Likewise, spiritual conceptions take their rise in the same blood that feeds the grosser tissues. This vital fluid is momentarily imparting and receiving elements from all the bodily organs, and these, in turn, must influence the process of thought, and, in a degree, determine its quality. The delicate outline, yea, even the substance of an idea, may depend upon the condition of the animal organs. Thought is subject to the laws of biology, and, therefore, is a symbol of health. Morbid conditions of the system hang out their signs in words and utterances. Words which express fear are as true symptoms of functional difficulty as is excessive palpitation. The organ representing fear sustains a special relation to the functions of the heart both in health and disease. Bright hopes characterize pulmonary complaints as certainly as cough. Exquisite susceptibility of mind indicates equally extreme sensibility of body, and those persons capable of fully expressing the highest emotions are especially susceptible to bodily sensations. Tears are physical emblems of grief, and fellow-feeling calls forth sympathetic tears. Excessive anxiety of mind produces general excitability of body, which soon results in chronic disease. Pleasurable emotions stimulate the processes of nutrition, and are restorative. This concomitance of mental and bodily states is very remarkable. Joy and Love, as well as jealousy and anger, flash in the eye and mould the features to their expression. Grief excites the lachrymal, and rage the salivary glands. Shame reddens the ears, drops the eyelids, and flushes the face; but profligacy destroys these expressions. The blush which suffuses the forehead of the bashful maiden betrays her love, and maternal love, stirred by the appeals of an idolized infant, excites the mammary gland to the secretion of milk. The sigh of melancholia indicates hepatic torpor, thus showing a special relation between the liver and respiratory organs. These conditions of mind and body react upon one another. Even the thought of a luscious peach may cause the mouth to water. The thought of tasting a lemon fills the mouth with secretions, and a story with unsavory associations may completely turn the stomach.
The relationship of mental and physical functions may be illustrated by entirely removing the spleen of an animal, as that of a dog. An invariable result of its extirpation is an unusual increase of the appetite, for at times the animal will eat voraciously any kind of food. The dog will devour, with avidity, the warm entrails of recently killed animals, and thrive in consequence of such an appetite. Another symptom, which usually follows the removal of the spleen, is an unnatural ferocity of disposition. Without any apparent provocation, the animal will attack others of its own, or of a different species. In some instances, these outbursts of irritability and violence are only occasional, but the experiments show quite conclusively that the spleen moderates combativeness, restrains the appetite, and co-operates with the will and judgment in controlling them.
We shall briefly consider the practical question whether the elements of mind can be ideally arranged and presented, so as to more completely reveal their relations to, and disclose their effects upon the bodily functions. Modern philosophers conceive that mind consists of a triad of essentials; Intellect, Emotion, and Volition. Physiologists assign to the cerebrum its functions, and neurological, as well as phrenological writers, have located them as represented in Fig. 68. True, there is no structural division between the parts of the cerebrum to indicate this diversity of function, nor is there any perceptible limit between the sensory and motor filaments of the game nerve. As no one has any reason for denying that separate portions of the brain may manifest distinct functions of the mind, we shall assume it as a conceded proposition. The regions of the cerebrum, thus ideally represented, occupy but little more than half of the arc of a circle, whereas it is evident that the base of the nervous mass is not idle, and is equally entitled to our consideration. In the posterior chamber of the skull is the cerebellum, anterior to, and below which, is the medulla oblongata, connecting with the spinal cord and sympathetic system. These various parts are essential to the harmonious blending of mind and body. To this end, two conditions are necessary. (1.) All the nervous forces must be so related that action and reaction may be fully established. (2.) A complete nervous circuit is requisite for the reciprocal influence of mind and body.
Nature answers to mind in physical correspondences. The planetary system is fashioned after a circle. Life itself springs from a spherule of forces. The perfection of an idea, or the completeness of a conception may be expressed by a circle. The elements of Science, Astronomy, Geology, and Natural History, are pictorially represented in this manner. How appropriately and logically can a fragment of natural history, this epitome of all nature and science--the mind--be illustrated by a simple circle! Every element must act and react, and be equal and opposite. Thus may the existence of the opposing energies and functions of each faculty be equally represented. The contrast aids us in understanding their ultimate tendencies, and enables us to correctly value and define their nature. Faculties of kindred qualities may be grouped together, and their antagonisms represented in the opposite arc of the circle. Let us employ a circle to represent mind. The conception of the abstract quality of good, requires contrast with one of a converse nature, bad, (see Fig. 69). Opposite faculties may be portrayed in the same manner. The functions of the cerebrum and spinal system may be symbolically represented as those of the highest and lowest organs, thus giving rise to the positive and negative extremes of feeling. The writer conceives of no other way in which the widely contrasted facts of human experience can be so perfectly symbolized. Good (Fig. 69) may represent moral faculties, and bad, their opposites. Undoubtedly, nature is not so arbitrary in her arrangements as we are in shadowing forth our imperfect conceptions, yet is not this a decided improvement in determining cerebral faculties and their relations? We observe how scholars and philosophers confound the noblest and most exalted emotions with the animal propensities instead of distinguishing between them. "The emotions are a department of the feelings, formed by the intervention of intellectual processes. Several of them are so characteristic that they can be known only by individual experiences; as Wonder, Fear, Love, Anger." See Logic: Deductive and Inductive, by Alexander Bain, LL. D., page 508, (1874).
This is not an exceptional, but a common example of classifying Love, the highest and purest of the emotions, with Anger, an animal propensity. Is it not more practical and philosophical to group the emotional faculties together, and upon an opposite arc represent their antagonistic energies, the ultimate tendencies of which are criminal? Both groups are mutually modifying and restraining; the one relates instinctively to the bodily wants, the other to the requirements of mind, and each is essential to a consistent life. Accordingly, we deem it philosophical to consider words as symbols of mental faculties, and to classify together such spiritual unities as joy, hope, faith, and love, the tendencies of which are to quicken and transform the ultimates of carnal life into the rudiments of an immortal one, the beginning of heaven on earth. These restrain those opposites, which lead to crime and death. Love and Hate are as antagonistic as heat and cold, and the usefulness of both depends upon their proper temperament. Fig. 70 represents the antagonism of the Intellectual faculties to the Animal, the Emotional to the Criminal, the Volitive to the Enfeebling. It is not essential to discover in the nerve-substance the precise power from which an impulse originates. We may reasonably interpret the functions of the brain, and yet be unable to disclose the duties of any ganglionic corpuscle composing it. We may foretell what each season of the year will bring forth, when we cannot forecast the history of a blade of grass or a single grain of any kind. We may predict the amount of rain for a month, and be unable to prognosticate correctly, the character of any storm, or give the history of a special drop of water. Although we cannot follow the movements of individuals in a battle, yet we may predict the result of the combat; and thus, we judge of the functions of the brain without the ability to reveal the actions of one of the organic molecules of which it is composed. We aim to give a general, reasonable, and popular description of cerebral functions and their bearing upon health and disease.
REGIONAL DIVISIONS.
The anterior portion of the cerebrum is devoted to intellectual processes, which freely expend the vital energies. The Intellectual faculties are classified as represented in Fig. 71. The lower portion of the brain, bounded exteriorly by the superciliary ridge, corresponds to the Perceptive, the middle region to the Recollective, and the upper to the Reflective faculties. (See also Fig. 65, b.) If we divide the forehead by vertical lines, as shown in Fig. 71, the divisions thus formed represent respectively, the Active, Deliberative, and Contemplative departments of the intellect, all the processes of which are sustained by vital changes, the transformation of organized materials. No mental effort can be made without waste of nervous matter. The gardener's hoe wears by use, and so does every part of the animal organism. Otherwise, nutrition would be unnecessary for the adult. The production of thought wears away the cerebral substance. In ordinary use, the brain requires one-fifth of the blood to support its growth and repair. Great mental efforts are attended by a corresponding expenditure of vital treasures, which are abstracted from the total forces available for the necessities of the system. To repair the losses thus occasioned, materials are appropriated from the blood, which furnishes supplies in proportion to the demands made by the mental activities. The production of thought wears away the gray matter of the cerebrum as surely as the digging of a canal wears away the iron particles of the spade. The brain would soon wear out did not the nutritive functions constantly make good the waste. The intellect, whether engaged in observation, generalization, or profound study consumes the brain and blood, hence intellectual activity implies VITAL EXPENDITURE. Expenditure is an emphatic word because all functions are essential to the production of this nerve-energy, which returns to the system no equivalent. Physical exercise, although attended by structural waste, is advantageous to the circulation of the blood, nutrition, secretion, and, in fact, beneficial to all the organic processes. This is not true of vigorous and prolonged mental labor, which is not attended by any of these incidental advantages. If a child attends a school in which mental development supersedes physical culture, an inordinate ambition sways the youthful mind, and its baneful effects upon the health soon become manifest. Rigorous application of the intellectual faculties consumes the blood, exhausts the vital forces, weakens the organic functions, while pallor covers the face, and the eyes sparkle with a hectic radiance. The family physician pronounces the condition Anæmia (a deficiency of red corpuscles in the blood), and this change in the quality of the blood is owing to the undue appropriation by the brain. Conversely, if the blood be destroyed, or its vitality reduced, in the same proportion will the mental energies be weakened and all the functional powers of the physical system enfeebled. In brief, if the intellect be unduly exercised, the red corpuscles of the sanguine fluid will be gradually destroyed, and the serum allowed to predominate. The blood becomes weak and watery, the subject is nervous, dropsical, consumptive and derangement of the important functions follows almost invariably. Excessive intellectual activity often produces weak state of the system, and the person thus affected becomes languid, spiritless, and an easy prey to disease. This mental cause and its bodily results may be classified in the following order. Mental Cause: EXCESSIVE MENTAL EXERTION, which produces waste of the brain substance and blood.
/ VITAL EXPENDITURE, Bodily results: { ANÆMIA, \ A WEAK CONDITION.
This kind of waste is best summed up in the words, VITAL EXPENDITURE. Upon the forehead, as represented in Fig. 72, we will therefore inscribe INTELLECT, ACTIVITY, and VITAL EXPENDITURE. Intellectual employment is usually accompanied by sedentary habits, neglect of healthful exercise, and a deprivation of pure air, to all of which ill health may be attributed. Were the intellectual expenditure arrested, and the forces turned into recuperative channels, many a person would become beautiful with the ruddy glow of health. Without health there is no use for thought; cultivation of the mind is just as natural and essential as the culture of the body, and the trained development of both is needed for mutual improvement.
EMOTIVE FACULTIES.
What results follow the natural and the excessive exercise of the EMOTIVE FACULTIES? AS distinct organs of the body have diverse functions, so, in like manner, different parts of the brain perform the separate operations of the mind. It is easier to discriminate between the products of these dissimilar endowments than to determine the location of the faculties. The intellect deals with concrete subjects, and the emotions with abstractions; the intellect is exercised with material things, the emotions dwell upon attributes; the intellect considers the forces of matter, the emotions, the powers of the soul; the former deliberates upon the truths of science, the latter is concerned with duties, obligations, or moral responsibilities; the first is satisfied only with new truths, original ideas, and rational changes, the last rest securely on fundamental principles, moral certainties, and the absolute constancy of perfect love. The intellectual faculties are wakeful, questioning, mistrustful; the emotions are blind, hopeful, confiding; the one reasoning, exacting, demonstrating; the other, believing, inspiring, devout. The intellect sees, the emotions feel; and, though these functions may blend, the one can never supersede the other.
The quality of the emotional faculties is represented by Benevolence, Sympathy, Joy, Hope, Confidence, Gratitude, Love, and Devotion, all of which are the very antitheses of the attributes of animal feeling, described as Melancholy, Fear, Anger, Hate, Malevolence, and Despair. To the emotions we refer the highest qualities of character, while their opposites represent the animal or baser impulses. True, the emotions modify the propensities, as sympathy softens grief. They may subdue and refine the animal feelings, and thus veil them with a delicacy characteristic of their own purity; but the unrestrained influences of grief find vent in loud lamentations, and the bitter disappointments of the selfish faculties are passionate and violent.
The Emotive Faculties--the organs of spiritual perceptions--are impersonal, outflowing, bestowing. The function represented by Benevolence, is willing, giving. Devotion expresses dedication, consecration; Gratitude manifests a warm and friendly feeling toward a benefactor.
"The depth immense of endless gratitude."--MILTON.
Love flames toward its object, is out-pouring, blessing; indeed, all the emotions are gushing, effusive, impetuous, and profusely flowing; grand, torrent-like, overwhelming; employing ideal, immaterial, spiritual expressions, developing principles and perfections while aspiring to happiness and immortality. Though beginning with humanity, they embody the Divine. They expand to their ultimate conceptions in the sublime attributes: the perfections of the God of Love; associating with mortality a divine destiny commencing on earth, extending through time, pausing not at the portals of death, the gateway to eternity, but flowing onward into the realms of eternal day.
We may consider their counteracting influences, for, without doubt, by checking the selfish tendencies and restraining the animal propensities, they assist in controlling the sensual passions, and thus balance the mind and body. Such an equilibrium we call happiness. If the emotions be acute and vehement, they will absorb all other impressions and revel in their culminating and delightful experiences. They exhaust all the bodily energies, and a functional suspension, termed ecstasy, follows. It is a swooning, or fainting, a temporary loss of sensation and volition, accompanied by involuntary movements of the arms, smiting of the hands, sighing, and short ejaculatory expressions of rapture. This condition, occasioned by excessive emotion, as in praying, singing, exhortations, and sympathetic appeals, is contagious, often spreading with mysterious rapidity. Its culmination, ecstasy, is popularly termed "the power." When gradually induced, it is called trance, and each state is regarded by many as supernatural, caused by the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit. The explanation is this: when the emotive faculties are suddenly and powerfully excited, they quickly expend the organic forces, so that the individual swoons from sheer exhaustion. Undue expenditure of this class of brain functions not only consumes the bodily powers, but exhausts and prevents other mental operations. The sudden collapse of all voluntary functions resembles the fainting produced by blood-letting. We may sum up this rapid expenditure of energy in one expressive word, EXHAUSTION, which results in Ecstasy, or trance, and which, if carried a degree further, terminates in death. Beginning with the natural exercise of the emotions, we may state the order of sequences thus:
Ordinary exercise leads to CALMNESS. Proper exercise " " HAPPINESS. Increased exercise " " ECSTASY. Excessive exercise " " SYNCOPE. Prolonged exercise " " TRANCE. Fatal exercise " " MORTALITY. Their tendencies are EXHAUSTIVE.
VOLITIVE FACULTIES.
What are the physiological and morbid results attending the ordinary and the immoderate exercise of the VOLITIVE FACULTIES?
The generic term will, comprehends those faculties, the action of which is termed volition. The faculties of the will are Determination, Firmness, Decision, Ambition, Authority, and Vigilance, all of which indicate strength and continuity of purpose. Bordering upon the emotions are Patience and Perseverance, while adjoining the animal faculties are Power, Coarseness, and Love of Display. The former exhibit moral, the latter animal heroism. A sense of power urges forward, whether it be higher or lower, just as the sense of greatness makes a man great by inspiring him with confidence to put forth exertion. Nature is truthful in her aspirations. We know that courage, assurance, and conscious power are necessary for the fulfillment of purpose, because intention precedes action. Will-power is an indication of HEALTH, and the constant exercise of these mental faculties exerts a steady, regular, and strengthening influence over the bodily functions. We translate mental energies into physiological industry. These faculties impart tone to the system, sustain the processes of nutrition, circulation, assimilation, secretion and excretion, and their distinguishing characteristics are vigor, tension, and elasticity. They temper each element of character, as well as every vital act. They infuse the organism with a resisting power which renders it proof against the influence of miasma and malaria, and overcomes that passivity and impressionability so favorable to disease. Firmness expresses a physiological cohesiveness which strongly binds together the fibers of the tissues, and renders the organization compact and powerful. He, who can skillfully employ these energies, is already master of half of the diseases incident to mankind, and wields an indispensable adjunct to medicine, in the practice of the healing art. It is the key to success, for it unlocks difficulties and opens wide the door which leads to favorable results.
Surplus energy sustains the circulation, increases capillary action, as if the excess of nerve-power were discharged from the distant extremity of each nerve and pervaded every tissue. The voluntary muscles indicate their participation in this energy, and, indeed, the whole organism is exalted by the influence of the mental faculties. They oppose the tendencies of Feebleness, Relaxation, and Derangement, and modify their proclivities to Disease. The will is the servant of the intellect, emotions, and propensities, and the executive agent of all the faculties. When the volitive faculties are in excess, they may overdo the other functions, prematurely break down the bodily organs, and, by overtaxing the system, subject it to pain and disorder.
VOLITIVE FACULTIES.
The natural effect of FIRMNESS is physiological stability. The exercise of the volitive faculties displays both mental and bodily ENERGY.
/ TEMPERANCE, Their tendencies are to { SANITY, \ HEALTH.
ANIMAL FACULTIES.
Under this generic term we will group those cerebral powers which are common to the inferior animals, and closely allied to bodily conditions and necessities. As denoting a group of animal faculties they relate not only to the organic functions and self-preservation, but combat the action of the intellect, oppose the evolution of new ideas, resist investigation, and discredit the value of truth. Adhesiveness, being blindly conservative, clings to old ideas and traditionary opinions. The animal faculties tend to stifle investigation, and put authority above truth and science. Having a fixity of nature, a stationary attachment, they treat all intellectual developments as absurd. When these faculties predominate, thought is obscured, intolerance of disposition is manifested, and mental progress is arrested. Thus they evince their conservative nature, and, since they relate to individual interests, they represent the elements of instinct. Such are the functions of Acquisitiveness, Secretiveness, Selfishness, and Combativeness, as well as the Generative powers. If these faculties predominate, all intellectual advancements are treated as experiments or theoretical novelties, and rejected as evanescent and worthless. If the promptings of these be followed, there will be no innovation, and the orthodoxy of the dark ages will remain the standard for all time. The animal faculties coincide with Lethargy, Sleep, and Nutrition, thus favoring organic restoration. The intellectual faculties are wakeful, active, irrepressible, while the animal powers tend to repose, sleep, and renovation, and thus suspend the activities of thought, sense, and motion. The intellect expends the energy of the sensorial centers, induces fatigue and suffering, whereas the animal faculties overcome the vigils of thought, and produce refreshing slumber. Dr. Young styles sleep "tired nature's sweet restorer." Swedenborg declared that, "in sleep the brain folded itself up, and the soul journeyed through the body, repairing the wastes of the previous day." When sleep is natural, the insane are in a fair way to recovery, the sick become convalescent, ulcers granulate, and lesions are made whole.
The animal faculties are skeptical, stubborn, and dogmatic, readily combining with those of the violent class, the ultimate tendencies of which are criminal. They are likewise conceited, assuming, and clannish. Any person distinguished by them, will cling to old associations, perpetuate the status of existing parties, be a stickler for creed, ceremonies, and stale opinions, and adhere to ancient orthodoxy in medicine and religion. The animal faculties, since they are staid and regular, are naturally antagonistic to genius, sensibility, and originality. Their mental tendencies have been fairly described and their physiological results may be represented as follows:
/ RESTRAINT, / SLEEP, The animal faculties produce { NUTRITION, \ RESTORATION, \ CONSERVATION.
BASILAR FACULTIES.
The ultimate tendencies of the faculties, represented by the posterior base of the cerebrum, are violent and criminal. Being contiguous to the junction of the cerebrum and spinal system, they are subject to the influence of animal experiences. A large development of these faculties is indicated by an unusual breadth and depth of the back part of the base of the brain, and a full, thick neck, both of which denote good alimentary and digestive powers. Active nutrition, plethora of the circulation, vigorous secretion, a well developed muscular system, a large heart and lungs, are accessory conditions. We do not associate corpulence or surplus of vitality with a long, slender neck. The character of cerebral manifestations is represented by the baser faculties of mind, such as Combativeness, Destructiveness, Desperation, Turbulence, Hatred, and Revenge. If unrestrained, these culminate in violent and criminal acts; if regulated, they are employed in personal defense. When unduly excited, they lead to dissipation, obscenity, swearing, rowdyism, and licentiousness; when perverted, they are the source of recklessness, quarrels, frauds, falsehoods, robberies, and homicides. They are unlike instinct, inasmuch as they are not self-limiting. The intimate relation which they sustain to the stomach and nutritive functions is strikingly displayed in the habit of alcoholic intoxication. Spirituous drinks deprave the appetite, derange and destroy the stomach, poison the blood, and pervert all the functions of mind and body; and their injurious influence upon the nerves and basilar faculties is equally remarkable. They excite combativeness, selfishness, irritability, and exaggerate the influence of the animal organs. Intemperance results in disputes, fights, brawls, and murders--the legitimate consequences of which are misunderstandings, suits at law, criminal proceedings, imprisonment, and the gallows. It is, therefore, evident that the ultimate tendencies of these faculties are tyrannical, cruel, violent, and atrocious. They are opposed to the noble, moral faculties--Faith, Love, and Devotion--and, whenever temptation inordinately allures, the course of life is likely to be characterized by dishonorable, deceptive, and treacherous conduct.
The pangs of hunger cause soldiers to act more like ravenous beasts, than rational beings. It is animal instinct which impels the soldier to seek first for the gratification of his appetite. Some persons, instigated by carnivorous desires, yearn for raw meat, and will not be satisfied unless their food is flavored with the flesh of animals. Their bodies increase and thrive, even to repletion. Contrast these individuals with pale, lean, anæmic people, who crave innutritious articles of diet, and eat soft stones, slate, chalk, blue clay, and soft coal. Such perversions of the appetite are manifested only when there is either a diminution in the volume of blood, deficient alimentation, defective assimilation, or a general depravity of the nutritive functions. Morbid conditions generate vitiating tendencies and destroy the natural appetite.
While alcoholic stimulants affect the medulla oblongata principally, opium acts chiefly on the cerebrum, and excites reverie, dreamy ideality, optical delusions, and the creative powers of the imagination; some of these hallucinations are said to be grotesquely beautiful and enjoyable. The effects of this agent differ from those of alcoholic intoxication by not deadening the moral sensibilities, or arousing the animal propensities. Opium smokers are dreamy and abstracted, not quarrelsome or violent. Those who use ardent spirits lose their moral delicacy, their intellect becomes dull, the reason cloudy, and the judgment is overruled by appetite. It is conceded that the trophic center is principally in the medulla oblongata; the cerebellum and lower cerebral ganglia, however, favorably influence the nutritive functions, and, when these organs are large and active, a plethoric condition is the natural consequence. Redundancy of blood in the body indicates preponderance of the basilar organs. These faculties being vehement in character, an excess of animal characteristics produces those conditions which result in acute and inflammatory diseases. We may express these conditions of the system as follows:
The Animal Faculties correspond to the lower instinctive manifestations.
/ ACQUISITIVENESS, The elements of character are { SELFISHNESS, \ COMBATIVENESS
They tend to / TURBULENCE, \ CRIME.
/ ALIMENTATION, They relate especially to the { SECRETION, functions of \ NUTRITION, \ REPRODUCTION.
/ VITALITY, A large development of them { PLETHORA, indicates \ HYPERAEMIA (congestion).
These naturally give rise to the following diseases: Inflammation, Rheumatism, Gout, Convulsions, etc., which, in these conditions, pursue a violent course.
REGION OF FEEBLENESS.
Although the middle lobe of the cerebrum, at the base of the brain, does not denote decided force of character, or energy of constitution, yet it has a certain sphere of normal action which is essential to the harmony of mind and body. If this region is largely developed, the constitution is languid, inefficient, sensitive, and abnormally disposed. But if it be deficient, the volitive energies preponderate, and there is a lack of those susceptibilities of constitution, which prevent excessive waste. The cerebral faculties are Fear, Anxiety, Sensibility, Servility, Relaxation, and Melancholy, and their excessive predominance indicates a weak, vacillating, irresolute character, and the existence of those bodily conditions which produce general excitability and chronic derangement. A full development of this portion of the brain indicates that the person is naturally dependent, inferior, and subservient to stronger characters. Such a one is fearful, fretful, complaining, irritable, dejected, morose, and, sooner or later, becomes a fit subject for chronic disease.[5] The ultimate result of excessive fear, excitability, and irritability, is functional or organic derangement,--the morbid conditions represented by the word Disease. The medulla oblongata and portions of the middle lobe of the brain, the functions of which represent Excitability, Anxiety, Fear, and Irritability (symbols of physical profligacy), are located just between the ears (see Fig. 60). Inferior animals distinguished for breadth between the ears are not only cunning and treacherous, but very excitable and irritable. The head of the Fox is remarkable for its extreme width at the region of Fear. He is proverbially crafty and treacherous, always excitable, and so variable in temper that he can never be trusted. He is a very timid thief, exceedingly suspicious, irregular in habits, and frequently driven by hunger into mischievous depredations.
The organ of alimentiveness, located directly in front of the ear, indicates the functional conditions of the stomach, which, when aroused by excessive hunger, exerts a debasing influence upon this and all of the adjacent organs, and is demoralizing to both body and mind. In obedience to the instinct of hunger, children will slyly plunder gardens and orchards, displaying profligate, if not reckless tendencies in the gratification of the appetite. In this regional division we include the medulla, the posterior and middle portions of which give rise to the pneumogastric nerve. This nerve receives branches from the spinal accessory, facial, hypoglossal, and the anterior trunks of the first and second cervical, and its filaments are distributed to the lungs, stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, and gall bladder (see Fig. 60, with explanation) Its agency is necessary to maintain the circulation, and the respiration, since, as the medium of communication, it conveys from the brain large supplies of nervous force to sustain these vital functions. It likewise instantly reports the impressions of these physiological processes to the brain, and especially to those parts which, by analogy of functions. It likewise instantly reports the impressions of these physiological processes of the brain, and especially to those parts which, by analogy of functions, are intimately related to the stomach. Hence, we observe that the conditions of the stomach give rise to reflex impulses, which involuntarily excite the animal faculties to the gratification of the appetite. That the stomach has an intimate connection with the rest of the organism is evident from the fact that when it is inflamed the body is completely prostrated.
We have already alluded to the perverting tendencies of alcoholic stimulants. Their peculiar influence upon the cerebellum causes the subject to reel and stagger, as though a portion of that organ were removed; the group of energetic faculties is stupefied, and mental as well as corporeal lethargy is the result. The reaction, which inevitably follows, is almost unbearable, and relief is sought by repeating and increasing the poisonous draughts, the primary influence of which is stimulating, the ulterior, depressing. Alcoholic stimulants unduly excite the nervous centers, the heart, and the arteries, and, consequently, the blood is carried to the surface of the body, where it counteracts the influence of cold and exposure, the frequent attendants upon drunkenness. The use of alcoholic beverages perverts the appetite, interrupts habits of industry and destroys all force of character. Pecuniary, physical, and mental ruin, therefore, are sure to follow as the consequences of habitual, alcoholic intoxication.
That ordinary alimentation, which includes the process of digestion, the subsequent vital changes involved in the conversion of food into blood, and its final transformation into tissue, causes mental languor and dullness, as well as bodily exhaustion, is attested by universal experience. A torpid condition of the liver, one of the most inveterate of chronic derangements, is indicated by sullenness, melancholy, despondency, loss of interest in the affairs of life, sluggishness, etc., and the ultimate tendency of this morbid state is towards suicide. A broad and deep development of the middle lobe of the brain, shown by a fullness under the chin, and of the adjacent portion of the neck, denotes tendencies to somnambulism, delirium, and insanity. If such characteristics of the organization do not culminate in mental derangement, they exhibit childishness, helplessness, and great dependence. Age abates the vigor of the executive faculties, and old people manifest not only bodily infirmities, but the relaxing and enfeebling influences proceeding from the lower portions of the brain. They totter about in their second childhood, mentally and physically enervated. Those who become dissipated by the use of intoxicating beverages are not only weak, trifling, and foolish, but walk with an unsteadiness which betrays their condition. These illustrations show that this part of the brain is destitute of energy. Diseases of the digestive organs also indicate it. Cholera, whether induced by invisible animalcules in the air, or in water, takes the route of the alimentary canal, opens the vital gates, and myriads of victims are swept down to death. It proves remarkably fatal to those having this cerebral conformation. Perhaps enough has been said to indicate the relaxing and enfeebling tendencies of this region of the brain. They may be classified as follows:
REGION OF FEEBLENESS.
/ SERVILITY, / CAUTIOUSNESS, / FEAR, Cerebral Functions: { ANXIETY, \ SENSIBILITY, \ CUNNING, \ PROFLIGACY.
/ ATONIC, Physiological conditions / EXCITABILITY, and tendencies: { RELAXATION, \ FEEBLENESS, \ DISEASE.
This classification shows their tendencies to chronic disease, functional derangement, insanity, and suicide.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
Before the structure of the brain was understood, Buffon spoke of it as a "mucous substance of no great importance." Its functional significance was so slightly appreciated that some people hardly suspected they had any brains, until an accident revealed their existence. Latterly, however, it is generally understood that the perfection of an animal depends upon the number and the development of the organs controlled by the nervous system, the sovereign power of which is symbolized by a grand cerebrum, the throne of Reason. That animal which is so low in the scale of organization as to resemble a vegetable, belongs to an ascending series ending in man. The lowest species have no conscious perception, and their movements do not necessarily indicate sensation or volition. Instinct culminates in the Articulates, especially in Insects; while created intelligence reaches its acme in man, the highest representative of the Vertebrates.
"All things by regular degrees arise-- From mere existence unto life, from life To intellectual power; and each degree Has its peculiar necessary stamp, Cognizable in forms distinct and lines."--LAVATER.
Man, in the faculties of mind, possesses more than a complement for instinct; some of the lower animals, however, seem to share his rational nature, and to a certain degree become responsible to him. Finally, the manifestations of mind bear a relation to the development of cerebral substance, and to the bodily organization which supplies the brain with blood. Fig. 76 shows the relative amount of brain matter in the lower animals, compared with that of man; the peculiarities of each agreeing with its cerebral conformation. It is easier to measure the capacity of skulls in different races than to procure and weigh their brains. The following table has been published.
CRANIAL CAPACITY OF HUMAN RACES.
Race. CUBIC INCHES.
Swedes,................. 100.00 Anglo-Saxons,............ 96.60 Finns,................... 95.00 Anglo-Americans,......... 94.30 Esquimaux,............... 86.32 North America Indians,... 84.00 Native Africans,......... 83.70 Mexicans,................ 81.70 American Negros,......... 80.80 Peruvians and Hottentots, 75.30 Australians,............. 75.00 Gorilla, adult,.......... 34.50 Idiot,................... 22.57
Mr. Davis, of England, having a collection of about eighteen hundred cranial specimens obtained from different quarters of the globe, ascertained the relative volume of brain in different races, by filling the skulls with dry sand. He found that the European averaged 92 cubic inches, the Oceanic 89, the Asiatic 88, the African 86, the Australian 81. Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, had a collection of over one thousand skulls, and his conclusions were that the Caucasian brain is the largest, the Mongolian next in size, the Malay and American Indian smaller, and the Ethiopian smallest of all. The average weight of brain, in 278 Europeans, was 49.50 oz., in 24 White American soldiers, 52.06 oz., indicating a greater average for the American brain.
OUNCES The brain of Cuvier, the celebrated naturalist, weighed 64.33 Ruloff, the murderer and linguist, 59.00 Dr. Spurzheim--phrenologist, 55.06 Celebrated philologist, 47.90 Celebrated mineralogist, 43.24 Upholsterer, 40.91
The weight of the human brain varies from 40 to 70 oz.; that of idiots from 12 to 36 40 oz. The average of 273 male European brains was 49½ oz., while that of 191 females was 44 oz. If we compare the weight of the female brain with that of the body, the ratio is found to be as 1:36.46, while that of the male is as 1:36.50; showing that, relatively, the female brain is the larger. It appears that neither the absolute nor relative size of the cerebrum, but the amount of gray matter which it contains, is the criterion of mental power. Although a large cerebrum is generally indicative of more gray matter than a small one, yet it is ascertained that the grey substance depends upon the number, and depth of the convolutions of the brain, and the deeper its fissures, the more abundant is this tissue. It is this substance which is the source of thought, while the white portion only transmits impressions.
We do not wish to underrate any attempt heretofore made to classify the functions of mind and assign to them an appropriate nomenclature. It is not unusual for scientists to give advice to phrenologists and point out the fallacies of their system; but it is hardly worth while to indulge in destructive criticism, unless something better is offered, as the day has passed for ridiculing endeavors to understand and interpret the physiology of the brain. The all important question is, not whether phrenologists have properly located and rightly earned all the faculties of mind, but have their expositions been useful in the development of truth. While endeavoring to connect each mental power with a local habitation in the brain, the system of phrenology may be chargeable with some incongruous classification of the faculties, and yet it has furnished an analysis of the mind which has been of incalculable service to writers upon mental philosophy. Phrenology, in popularizing its views, has interested thousands in their own organizations and powers, who would otherwise have remained indifferent. It has called attention to mental and bodily unities, has served as a guide to explain the physical and psychical characteristics of individuals, and has been instrumental in applying physiological and hygienic principles to the habits of life, thus rendering a service for which the world is greatly indebted. Samuel George Morton, M.D., whose eminent abilities and scholarship are unquestionable, employs the following language:
"The importance of the brain as the seat of the faculties of the mind, is pre-eminent in the animal economy. Hence, the avidity with which its structure and functions have been studied in our time; for, although much remains to be explained, much has certainly been accomplished. We have reason to believe, not only that the brain is the center of the whole series of mental manifestations, but that its several parts are so many organs, each one of which performs its peculiar and distinctive office. But the number, locality, and functions of these several organs are far from being determined; nor should this uncertainty surprise us, when we reflect on the slow and devious process by which mankind has arrived at some of the simplest physiological truths, and the difficulties that environ all inquiries into the nature of the organic functions."
We may here allude to the recent experimental researches with reference to the functions of various portions of the brain, prosecuted by Dr. Ferrier, of England. He applied the electric current to different parts of the cortical substance of the cerebrum in lower animals which had been rendered insensible by chloroform, and by it could call forth muscular actions expressive of ideas and emotions. Thus, in a cat, the application of the electrodes at point 2, Fig. 77, caused elevation of the shoulder and adduction of the limb, exactly as when a cat strikes a ball with its paw; at point 4, corrugation of the left eye-brow, and the drawing inward and downward of the left ear; when applied at point 5, the animal exhibited signs of pain, screamed, and kicked with both hind legs, especially the left, at the same time turned its head around and looked behind in an astonished manner; at point 6, clutching movement of the left paw, with protrusion of the claws; at point 13, twitching backward of the left ear, and rotation of the head to the left and slightly upward, as if the animal were listening; at point 17, restlessness, opening of the mouth, and long-continued cries as if of rage or pain; at a point on the under side of the hemisphere, not shown in this figure, the animal started up, threw back its head, opened its eyes widely, lashed its tail, panted, screamed and spit as if in furious rage; and at point 20, sudden contraction of the muscles of the front of the chest and neck, and of the depressors (muscles) of the lower jaw, with panting movements. The movements of the paws were drawn inward by stimulating the region between points 1, 2, and 6; those of the eyelids and face were excited between 7 and 8; the side movements of the head and ear in the region between points 9 and 14; and the movements of the mouth, tongue and jaws, with certain associated movements of the neck, being localized in the convolutions bordering on the fissure of Sylvius (B), which marks the division between the anterior and middle lobes of the cerebrum. Dr. Ferrier made similar experiments on dogs, rabbits, and monkeys. The series of experiments made on the brain of the monkey is said to be the most remarkable and interesting, not only because of the variety of movements and distinctly expressive character of this animal, but on account of the close conformity which the simple arrangement of the convolutions of its brain bears to their more complex disposition in the human cerebrum. It is premature to say what import we shall attach to these experiments, but they have established the correctness of the doctrine, advanced on page 105, that thought, the product of cerebral functions, is a class of reflex actions. The cerebrum is not only the source of ideas but also of those co-ordinate movements which correspond to and accompany these ideas. Certain cerebral changes call forth mental states and muscular movements which are mutually responsive. They indicate that various functions are automatic, or dependent upon the will, and, as we have seen, experiments indicate that the electric current, when applied to the cerebrum, excites involuntary reflex action. We cannot say how far these experimental results justify the phrenological classification of the faculties of mind, by establishing a causative relation between the physical and psychical states. This short and unsatisfactory account furnishes one fact which seems to support the claim of such a relation: the apparent similarity between the motor center of the lips and tongue in lower animals, and that portion of the human cerebrum in which disease is so often found to be associated with Aphasia, or loss of voice. While these experiments are by no means conclusive in establishing a theory, yet they favor it.
It is wonderful that nervous matter can be so arranged as not only to connect the various organs of the body, but at the same time to be the agent of sensation, thought, and emotion. It is amazing, that a ray of light, after traversing a distance of 91,000,000 miles, can, by falling upon the retina, and acting as a stimulus, not only produce a contraction of the pupil, but excite thoughts which analyze that ray, instantly spanning the infinitude of trackless space! The same penetrative faculties, with equal facility, can quickly and surely discern the morbid symptoms of body and mind, become familiar with the indications of disease, and classify them scientifically among the phenomena of nature. The symptoms of disease which follow certain conditions as regularly as do the signs of development, and mind itself is no exception to this uniformity of nature. Thoughts result from conditions, and manifest them as evidently as the falling of rain illustrates the effect of gravity. The perceptive and highest emotive faculties of man depend upon this simple, but marvelously endowed nervous substance, which blends the higher spiritual with the lower physical functions. The functions of the body are performed by separate organs, distinguished by peculiar characteristics. To elucidate the distinctions between dissimilar, mental faculties, we have assigned their functions, with characteristic names, to different regions of the head. As they unquestionably influence the bodily organs, we are sustained by physical analogy, in our classification. Our knowledge of the structure and functions of the nervous system is yet elementary, and we are patiently waiting for scientists to develop its facts, and verify them by experimental investigations and such researches as time alone can bring to perfection. While real progress moves with slow and measured foot-steps, the inspirations of consciousness and the inferences of logic prepare the popular mind for cerebral analysis. No true system can contradict the facts of our inner experience; it can only furnish a more complete explanation of their relation to the bodily organs. It should be expected that such careful and pains-taking experiments, as are necessary to establish a science, will be preceded by intuitive judgments and accredited observations, which may be, for a time, the substitutes of those more abstruse in detail.
We have, in accordance with popular usage, treated the organs of thought as having anatomical relations. The views which we have presented in this chapter may seem speculative, but the facts suggesting the theory demand attention, and we have attempted to gather a few of the scattered fragments and arrange them in some order, rather than leave them to uncertainty and greater mystery. It is by method and classification that we are enabled to apply our knowledge to practical purposes. Possibly, to some, especially the non-professional, an allusion to the fact that cerebral physiology contributes to successful results in the practice of medicine, may seem to be an exaggerated pretension. None, however, who are conversant with the facts connected with the author's experience, will so regard this practical reference, for the statement might be greatly amplified without exceeding the bounds of truth. Physicians generally undervalue the nervous functions, and overlook the importance of the brain as an indicator of the conditions of the physical system, because they are not sufficiently familiar with its influence over the bodily functions. Pathological conditions are faithfully represented by the thoughts, and words, when used to describe symptoms, become the symbols of feelings which arise from disease. How few physicians there are who can interpret the thoughts, and glean, from the expressions and sentences of a letter, a correct idea of the morbid conditions which the writer wishes to portray! Each malady, as well as every temperament, has its characteristics, and both require careful and critical analysis before subjecting the patient to the influence of remedial agents.
In a treatise by Dr. J.R. Buchanan, entitled "Outlines of Lectures on the Neurological System of Anthropology," are presented original ideas pre-eminently useful to the physician. His researches, and those of later writers, together with our own investigations, have greatly increased our professional knowledge. It is by such studies and investigations that we have been prepared to interpret, with greater facility, the indications of disease, and diagnose accurately from symptoms, which have acquired a deeper significance by the light of cerebral physiology. We are enabled to adapt remedies to constitutions and their varying conditions, with a fidelity and scientific precision which has rendered our success in treatment widely known and generally acknowledged. We annually treat thousands of invalids whom we have never beheld, and relieve them of their ailments. This has been accomplished chiefly through correspondence. When patients have failed to delineate their symptoms currently, or have given an obscure account of their ailments, we have been materially assisted in ascertaining the character of the disease by photographs of the subjects. The cerebral conformation indicates the predisposition of the patient, and enables us to estimate the strength of his recuperative energies. Thus we have a valuable guide in the selection of remedies particularly suited to different constitutions. In the treatment of chronic diseases, the success attending our efforts has been widely appreciated, not only in this, but in other countries where civilization, refinement, luxurious habits, and effeminating customs, prevail. This fact is mentioned, not only as an illustration of the personal benefits actually derived from a thorough knowledge of the nervous system, but to show how generally and extensively these advantages have been shared by others.
A careful study of cerebral physiology leads us deeper into the mysteries of the human constitution, and to the philosophical contemplation of the relations of mind and body. Self-culture implies not only a knowledge of the powers of the mind, but also how to direct and use them for its own improvement, and he who has the key to self-knowledge, can unlock the mysteries of human nature and be eminently serviceable to the worlds For centuries the mind has been spreading out its treasury of revelations, to be turned to practical account, in ascertaining the constitution, and determining better methods of treating disease. Since comparative anatomists and physiologists have revealed the structure of animals and the functions of their organs, from the lowest protozoan to the highest vertebrate, the physician may avail himself of this knowledge, and thus gain a deeper insight into the structure and physiology of man. An intimate acquaintance with the physical, is a necessary preparation for the study of the psychical life, for it leads to the understanding of their mutual relations and reactions, both in health and disease.
Consciousness, or the knowledge of sensations and mental operations, has been variously defined. It is employed as a collective term to express all the psychical states, and is the power by which the soul knows its own existence. It is the immediate knowledge of any object whatever, and seems to comprise, in its broadest signification, both matter and mind, for all objects are inseparable from the cognizance of them. Hence, the significance of the terms, subjective-consciousness and objective-consciousness. People are better satisfied with their knowledge of matter than with their conceptions of the nature of mind.
THE NATURE OF MIND.
Since this subject is being discussed by our most distinguished scientists, we will conclude this chapter with an extract from a lecture delivered by Prof. Burt G. Wilder, at the American Institute:
"There now remains to be disposed of, in some way, the question as to the nature and reality of mind, which was rather evaded at the commencement of the lecture. The reason was, that I am forced to differ widely from the two great physiologists whom I have so often quoted this evening. Most people, following in part early instruction, in part revelation, in part spiritual manifestations, and in part trusting to their own consciousness, hold that the human mind is a spiritual substance which is associated with the body during the life of the latter in this world, and which remains in existence after the death of the body, and forms the spiritual clothing or embodiment of the immortal soul; and that the individual, therefore, lives after death as a spirit in the human form; that of this spiritual man, the soul is the essential being, of which may be predicted a good or evil nature, while the mind, which clothes it as a body, consists of the spiritual substances, affections, and thoughts, which were cherished and formed during the natural life.
Together with the above convictions respecting themselves, most people, when thinking independently of theological sublimations, feel willing to admit that animals have, in common with man, fewer or more natural affections and thoughts which make up their minds, but that the inner and immortal soul, which would retain them as part of an individual after death of the body, is not possessed by the beasts that perish. In short, the vast majority of mankind, when thinking quietly, and especially in seasons of bereavement, feel well assured of the real and substantial existence of the human mind, independently of its temporary association with the perishable body.
But in antagonism to this simple and comforting faith, stand theological incomprehensibilities on the one hand, and scientific skepticism on the other. The former would have us believe that the soul is a mere vapor, a cloud of something ethereal, of which can be expected nothing more useful than 'loafing around the Throne,' while the latter asks us to recognize the existence of nothing which the eyes cannot see and fingers touch; to cease imagining that there is a soul, and to regard the mind as merely the product of the brain; secreted thereby as the liver secretes bile. Let us hear what the two leading nervous physiologists, of this country, have to say upon this point:
'The brain is not, strictly speaking, the organ of the mind, for this statement would imply that the mind exists as a force, independent of the brain; but the mind is produced by the brain substance; and intellectual force, if we may term the intellect a force, can be produced only by the transmutation of a certain amount of matter; there can be no intelligence without brain substance.'--FLINT.
'The mind may be regarded as a force, the result of nervous action, and characterized by the ability to perceive sensations, to be conscious, to understand, to experience emotions, and to will in accordance therewith. Of these qualities, consciousness resides exclusively in the brain, but the others, as is clearly shown by observation and experiment, cannot be restricted to that organ, but are developed with more or less intensity, in other parts of the nervous system.'--HAMMOND.
Thus do the two extremes of theology and science meet upon a common ground of dreamy emptiness, and we who confess our comparative ignorance are comforted by the thought that some other things have been 'hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes.' Yet, while feeling thus, it must be admitted that the existence of spirit and of a Creator do not yet seem capable of logical demonstration. The denial of their existence is not incompatible with a profound acquaintance with material forms and their operations; and, on the other hand, the belief in their existence and substantial nature, and in their powers as first causes, have never interfered with the recognition of the so-called material forces, and of the organisms through which they are manifested. At present, at least, these are purely matters of faith; but although the Spiritualist (using the term in its broadest sense as indicating a belief in spirits), may feel that his faith discloses a beauty and perfection in the union, otherwise imperceptible by him, there is no reason why this difference in faith should make him despise or quarrel with his materialist co-worker, for the latter may do as good service to science, may be as true a man, and live as holy a life, although from other motives.
The differences between religious sects are mainly of faith, not of works, and the wise of all denominations are gradually coming to the conviction that they will all do God more service by toleration and co-operation than by animosity and disunion. And so I hold that, until the spiritualist feels himself able to demonstrate to the unbeliever the existence of spirit and of God, as convincingly as a mathematical proposition, there should be no hard words or feelings upon these points. For the present they are immaterial in every sense of the word; and so long as he bows to the facts and the laws of Nature, and deals with his fellow men as he would be done by, so long will I work with him, side by side, knowing, even though I cannot tell him so, that whether or not he joins me in this world, we shall meet in the other world to come, where his eyes will be opened, and where his lips will at least acquit me of bigotry and intolerance."
* * * * *
XV. THE HUMAN TEMPERAMENTS
Organization implies vital energy, since there can be no organization without it. The sperm cell, as we have previously seen, exists before the initiation of the life of every individual organism. The early history of this fertilizing cell, which is composed of infinitesimal molecules which contain the embryo powers of life, is only partially written. It is a fact, authenticated by Faraday, that one drop of water contains, and may be made to evolve, as much electricity as, under a different mode of display, would suffice to produce a lightning-flash. Chemical force is of a higher order than physical, and vital force is of a still higher order. Within the microscopic compass of the sperm cell are a great number of forces acting simultaneously, which require the answering conditions of a germ cell, and are so blended as to occupy a minimum of space. The union of these subtle elements through the agency of their physical, chemical, and vital forces, constitutes the initiation of life. Elementary matter is transformed into chemical and organic compounds, by natural forces, upon the cessation of which, it is liberated by nature's great destroyer, and re-appears in the world of elements. Thus, man is formed out of the very dust by means of energies which reconstruct the crude, inert matter, and to dust he returns when those energies cease.
When we enter upon the consideration of the temperaments, we should bear in mind one peculiarity of life: that it combines, in a small space, many complex powers. In the process of reproduction, there is a complex combination of organic elements. Structures differ as greatly as their functions. So likewise do animals vary in their nature and organization, and individuals of the same species are, in some respects, dissimilar. Yet the characteristics which have distinguished the races of mankind, are fundamental and faithfully maintained. Time does not obliterate them. Within race-limits are found enduring peculiarities, and, although each individual is weaving out some definite pattern of organization, it follows the type of the race, as well as the more immediate, antecedent condition.
What then is a Temperament but a mixing together of these determining forces, a certain blending manifested in the constitution by signs, or traits, which we denominate character. The different races of mankind must have their several standards of temperament, for the peculiarities of one are not fully descriptive of, and applicable to the other.
The term temperament is defined by Dunglison, as being "a name given to the remarkable differences that exist between individuals, in consequence of the variety of relations and proportions between the constituent parts of the body.
For its simplicity and scope, we prefer the following definition, suggested by our friend, Orin Davis, M.D.: A TEMPERAMENT IS A COMBINATION OF ORGANIC ELEMENTS SO ARRANGED AS TO CHARACTERIZE THE CONSTITUTION.
This leads us to consider some of the elements, conditions and forces which give character to the organization. External circumstances supply necessary conditions to inward activity, for without air, food, or sunlight all living animals would perish. Everywhere, life is dependent upon conditions and circumstances; it is not self-generating. But the conditions of reproduction are very complex. External forces are transformed, and, in turn, become vital or formative powers. Development is a transmutation of physical and chemical forces into vital energy. Although unable to compute the ultimate factors of life, yet we may illustrate their reproductive possibilities and results by comparing them with those of a lower order.
Animal structures are mainly composed of four elements: oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. Other constituents, such as phosphorus, sulphur, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, enter into their composition, but are found in much smaller quantities. From these elements is fabricated an organism which manifests peculiar properties and marvelous functions. If the proportion of these chemical elements be varied, the organic compound will be changed, or, the proportions remaining the same, if the grouping of the elements be altered, different compounds will be produced, showing that the properties of organized substances depend upon the molecular constitution of matter.
Rising in the scale of organization, we observe that every variation of the physical and chemical processes implies a corresponding modification of the vital. This is verified by the peculiarities of the several races of mankind. Individual differences are likewise modifications of these processes. Dynamical or vital differentiation depends upon these modifications for the display of vital energy, and is always associated with molecular changes. But it should be borne in mind that an effect may not resemble its cause in properties, and the qualities of a chemical compound may be quite different from those of its individual constituents. Organic matter, although more complex, may exhibit properties, both like and unlike its constituent elements. Within certain boundaries, the elements seek to satisfy their affinities. We discover that there are limits between the genera of animals, as well as the races of mankind. Not less really, though perhaps not as absolutely, are there individual precincts within the sphere of the human temperaments, which cannot be passed.
If we cannot satisfactorily explain, we can at least discover a reason for temperamental limitation. It is not designed to circumscribe healthful reproduction, but to serve as an effectual hindrance to abnormal deviations. We may state our belief in more positive terms: that the temperamental variations are essential to genesis and fertility, and indispensable to health and normal development.
Every individual is susceptible to impressions which dispose to action. Impressions which excite or increase this disposition, are called stimuli. Vital change implies the existence of stimuli and susceptibility to stimulation. The stimulus may not be furnished because the conditions on which it depends are wanting; again, susceptibility may exist at one time and not at another. Stimuli and susceptibility may be present in different degrees, but for the purpose of healthful reproduction they must not be impaired. No single class of foods, albuminous, starchy, saccharine, or mineral, is sufficient for the nutrition of the body, but the food must contain substances belonging to each of the different classes. If an animal be fed exclusively upon albumen, though this substance constitutes the largest part of the bodily mass, exhaustion will rapidly follow, since the food does not contain all the essential, nutritive elements. Again, when the solids of the body have been wasted, they lose their susceptibility to stimuli, and the food does no good. Thus patients become emaciated during acute attacks of disease, upon the cessation of which they are too feeble to recover, simply because they have lost the power to digest and assimilate their food.
In inanimate bodies, as in crystals, forces come to rest, but the very idea of life implies action and continual change. Hence diversity of constitutions and different temperaments are essential in order that marriage may result in the reproduction of vigorous beings.
VITAL AND NON-VITAL TEMPERAMENTS.
In the preceding chapter, we attempted to illustrate the unique blending of mind and body by means of the nervous system, and we now propose to exemplify the physical conditions of the organism by certain correspondences, observed in the development and conditions of that system. If nature answer to mind in physical correspondences, she will observe the same regularity in physical development. The simplest classification of the temperaments is represented in Fig. 78. Not only is mental activity dependent upon a vital activity in the brain, but the development of the cerebrum is dependent upon the supply of blood. The growth of the intellect requires the same conditions that aided in the development of Vulcan's right arm: waste and supply; disintegration and reparation of tissue. Our modern iron forges produce many an artisan whose great right arm proclaims him to be a son of power as well as of fire. Thus the fervid intellect, while forging out its thoughts, increases in size and strength. The difference between the development of the two is this; that the exercise of the blacksmith's right arm quickens the activities of all the bodily functions, whereas the employment of the intellect does not offer any healthy equivalent. Physical exercise is a hygienic demand, but intellectual employment exerts no salutary influence on the body, while it is constantly expending the nutritive energies of the blood. The emotions, likewise, make exhaustive draughts upon nutrition to supply the waste of brain substance, just as certainly as physical labor causes muscular change, and demands reparation. One expends cerebral, the other, muscular substance. The one is healthful in its general tendencies, the other, comparatively wasteful and destructive.
/ DISINTEGRATING, The intellectual faculties are { EXPENDING, \ DERIVING.
/ ENGROSSING, The emotive faculties are { EXHAUSTING, \ DEVITALIZING.
These nervous forces are transformed into spiritual products.
The base of the anterior lobes of the brain belong to the atonic region--the source of those languid, deranging influences which coincide with morbidity and disease. A disturbance of the corporeal organs, which especially influence this portion of the brain, naturally tends to the development of insanity or imbecility. Morel has traced, through four generations, the family history of a youth who was admitted to the asylum at Rouen while in a state of stupidity and semi-idiocy. The following summary of his investigations illustrates the natural course of degeneracy as it extends through successive generations: immorality, depravity, alcoholic excess, and moral degradation, in the great-grandfather, who was killed in a tavern brawl; hereditary drunkenness, maniacal attacks, ending in general paralysis, in the grandfather; sobriety, but hypochondriacal tendencies, delusions of persecutions, and homicidal tendencies in the father; defective intelligence in the son. His first attack of mania occurred at sixteen, and was followed by stupidity, and finally ended in complete idiocy. Furthermore, there was probably an extinction of the family, for the son's reproductive organs were as little developed as those of a child of twelve years of age. He had two sisters who were both defective physically and morally, and were classed as imbeciles. To complete the proof of heredity in this case, Morel adds that the mother had a child while the father was confined in the asylum, and that this child exhibited no signs of degeneracy. Statistics show that multitudes of human beings are born with a destiny against which they have neither the will nor the power to contend; they groan under the worst of all tyrannies, the tyranny of a bad organization, which is theirs by inheritance. We may represent the tendencies of the anterior portion of the brain by Fig. 79. The functional exercise of the anterior and superior portions of the cerebrum is disintegrating and devitalizing, while the anterior and inferior portions coincide with mental and physical derangement, unless counteracted by opposing forces. It is therefore evident that in any organization, upon which is entailed a perverted or excessive action of this portion of the cerebrum, the tendencies are NON-VITAL, i.e., unfavorable to fertility and physical health.
If the antagonizing regions are well developed, the tendencies are favorable to life.
/ SANITY, The volitive organs promote { TEMPERANCE, \ HARDIHOOD.
/ NUTRITION, The animal organs tend to { RESTORATION, \ CONSERVATION.
/ SECRETION, The basilar faculties instigate { CIRCULATION, \ VITALITY.
/ ENERGY, The combined action of these { HEALTH, faculties express \ REPRODUCTION.
If this portion of the brain indicates a full development, we say of such a temperament that it is VITAL, because the functions of its nerve-centers are favorable to evolution. As degeneration observes conditions, so endurance and development conform to certain laws, and it is the duty of all truthful inquirers, who believe not only in the progress of human intelligence, but in physical improvement from generation to generation, to ascertain and comply with these essential conditions. When the anterior and middle lobes of the brain are fully developed at their inferior surfaces, it is regarded as an insane temperament, i.e. containing the germs of mental and bodily derangement.
How shall we distinguish the combination of organic elements, if not by the manner in which they characterize the constitution? Every human being is distinguished by natural peculiarities, both mental and physical. These are indicated not only by the color of the eyes, hair, and skin, and the mental expressions, but in the conformation and capabilities of the corporeal system. The color, form, size, and texture of a leaf indicate to the expert pomologist the nature of the fruit which the tree will bear, but how much more important is it to understand the harmonies of human development. If Prof. Agassiz could determine the form and size of a fish by seeing its scales, and Prof. Owen outline the skeleton of an unknown animal by viewing a portion of its fossil, why should not the physician understand the language of temperaments, since it opens to him the revelations of human development? The sculptor blends character with form, the artist endows the face with natural expression, the anatomist accurately traces the nerves and arteries, the physiognomist reads character, which the novelist delineates and the actor personates, because there are facts behind all these, the materials wherewith to construct a science. In organization there are permanent forces which operate uniformly, thus revealing the order of nature.
THE TEMPERAMENTS CLASSIFIED.
We propose to speak of four constitutional variations entitled to separate consideration; the lymphatic, the sanguine, the volitive, and the encephalic. The brain controls all the voluntary, and modifies the involuntary functions of the body. A particular cerebral development modifies the functions of all the bodily organs, and thus tempers the constitution. We shall, therefore, base our classification of temperaments upon the mental and physiological characteristics, which are portrayed by cerebral development. Such an arrangement is illustrated by Fig. 80.
THE LYMPHATIC TEMPERAMENT.
The lymphatic temperament predominates when the anterior base of the brain and the middle lobe are developed so as to exert a preponderating influence over the bodily functions. The character of this influence we have described in cerebral physiology. It is difficult to state precisely the normal influences and nerve-forces which arise from these faculties, but it is evident that they are specially related to nutritive attraction, in opposition to volitive repulsion. It is only their excessive influence which produces worthless, miserable, morbid characters. A constitution marked by this development is indolent, relaxative, and an easy prey to epidemics. This treatment is also characterized by a low grade of vitality or resistance. When life is sustained by the volitive powers, it is distinguished by a softness of the bodily tissues, and the prevalence of lymph. The fact that all the organic functions are performed indolently, indicates lack of vital power. An excellent illustration of this temperament is found in Fig. 81, which represents a Chinese gentleman of distinction. In the lower order of animals, as in sponges, absorption is performed by contiguous cells, which are quite as effortless as in plants. Because of their organic indolence, sponges are often classed as vegetables. A body having an atonic or a lymphatic temperament is abundantly supplied with absorbent organs, which are very sluggish in their operations. In the lymphatic temperament, there seems to be less constructive energy, slower elaboration, and greater frugality. Lymph is a colorless or yellow fluid containing a large proportion of water. It is not so highly organized as the blood, but resembles it, when that fluid is deprived of its red corpuscles. In the sanguine temperament, circulation in the blood-vessels is the most active, in the lacteals next, and in the lymphatics the least so, but in the lymphatic temperament, this order is reversed.
Dr. W.B. Powell has observed that a lymphatic man has a large head, while a fat man has a small one, and also that fat and lymph, are convertible, one following the other, i.e., "a repletion consisting of fat may be removed, and one of lymph may replace it, and vice versa." He could not account for these alternations. The bear goes into his winter quarters sleek and fat, and comes forth in the spring just as plump with lymph, but he loses this fat appearance soon after obtaining food. This simply indicates that, during lymphatic activity, the digestive organs are comparatively quiescent. But when these are functionally employed again, lymphatic economy is not required. It is the duty of the lymphatics to slowly convert the fat by such transformation, that when it reaches the general circulation, it may there unite with other organic compounds, the process being aided by atmospheric nitrogen, introduced during the act of respiration. In this way it may become changed into those chemically indefinite, artificial products, called proteid compounds. This view is supported by the disappearance of fat as an organized product in the lymph of the lymphatic vessels, indicating that such transformation has occurred. In this way, by uniting with other organic compounds, it appears that lymph may serve as a weak basis for blood; that atmospheric nitrogen is also employed in forming these artificial compounds, is indicated by the fact that there is sometimes less detected in arterial than in venous blood.
This temperament is indicated by lymphatic repletion, soft flesh, pale complexion, watery blood, slow and soft pulse, oval head, and broad skull, showing breadth at its base. Fig. 82 illustrates this temperament combined with sanguine elements. In all good illustrations of this temperament, there is a breadth of the anterior base of the skull extending forward to the cheek bones. There is likewise a corresponding fullness of the face under the chin, and in the neck, denoting a large development of the anterior base of the cerebrum. The cerebral conformation of the Hon. Judge Green indicates mental activity, and we have no reason to suppose that lymph was particularly abundant in his brain.
While this description of the lymphatic temperament is correct, when illustrated by the civilized races of men who are accustomed to luxury, ease, and an abundance of food, it does not apply with equal accuracy to the cerebral organization of the American Indian. His skull, though broad at its anterior base, and high and wide at the cheek bones, differs from the European in being broader and longer behind the ears. Fig. 83 is an excellent representation of a noted North American Indian. While a great breadth of the base of the brain indicates morbid susceptibilities, yet these, in the Indian, are opposed by a superior height of the posterior part of the skull. Consequently, he is restless, impulsive, excitable, passionate, a wanderer upon the earth. The basilar faculties, however, are large, and he is noted for instinctive intelligence. His habits alternate from laziness to heroic effort, from idleness and quiet to the fierce excitement of the chase, from vagabondism to war, sometimes indolent and at other times turbulent, but under all circumstances, irregular and unreliable. In this case, lacteal activity is greater than lymphatic, as his nomadic life indicates. Nevertheless, he manifests a morbid sensibility to epidemic diseases, especially those which engender nutritive disorders and corrupt the blood. Figs. 84 and 85 represent the brain of an American Indian, and that of a European, and show the remarkable difference in their anatomical configuration. Evidently it is a race-distinction. Observe the greater breadth of the brain of the Indian, which according to cerebral physiology indicates great alimentiveness, indolence, morbid sensibility, irritability, profligacy, but also note that it differs materially in the proportion of all its parts, from the European brain. Judging the character of the Indian from the aforesaid representation, we should say that he was cunning, excitable, treacherous, fitful, taciturn, or violently demonstrative. His constitution is very susceptible to diseases of the bowels and blood. His appetite is ungovernable, and his love of stimulants is strong. Syphilitic poison, small-pox, and strong drink will annihilate all these tribes sooner than gunpowder. Their physical traits of constitution are no less contradictory than their extremes of habit and character, for while there is evidence of lymphatic elements, yet it is contradicted by the color of the hair, eyes, and skin. This peculiar organization will not blend in healthful harmony with that of the European, and this demonstrates that the race-temperaments require separate and careful analytical consideration.
By physical culture and regulation of the habits, the excessive tendencies of this temperament may be restrained. Solid food should be substituted for a watery diet. If it be limited in quantity, this change will not only diminish the size, but increase the strength of the body. The body should be disciplined by daily percussion until the imperfectly constructed cells, which are too feeble to resist this treatment, are broken and replaced by those more hardy and enduring. Add to this treatment brisk, dry rubbing, calisthenic exercises, and daily walks, which should be gradually extended. Continue this treatment for three months, and its favorable effects upon the temperament will surprise the most skeptical; if continued for a year, a radical alteration will be effected, and the hardihood, health, and vigor of the constitution will be greatly increased.
This temperament may be improved physiologically, by being blended with the sanguine and volitive. The offspring will be stronger, the structures firmer, the organization more dense. Nutrition, assimilation, and all the constructive functions will be more energetic in weaving together the cellular fabric of the body. The sanguine temperament will add a stimulus to the organic activities, while the volitive will communicate manly, brave, and enduring qualities. When this temperament is united with the encephalic, if such a union does not result in barrenness, it adds expending and exhaustive tendencies to the enfeebling'ones already existing, and, consequently, the offspring lacks both physical power and intellectual activity.
The peculiarities of this temperament are observed in the diseases which characterize it. It is specially liable to derangements of digestion, nutrition, and blood-making. The blood is easily poisoned by morbid products formed within the body, as well as by those derived from the body of another. This is seen in pyæmia, produced by the introduction of decomposing pus, or "matter," into the blood. This condition is most likely to occur when the vital powers are low and the energies weak, for then the fibrin decreases, the red corpuscles diminish in number, the circulation becomes languid, the pulse grows fluttering and weak, and this increases until death ensues. An individual of this temperament is more easily destroyed than any other "by the poison of syphilis, small-pox, and other contagious diseases. If the blood has received any hereditary taint, the lymphatic glands not only reproduce it but often increase the virulency of the original disease. This temperament indicates a necessity for the employment of stimulating, alterative, and antiseptic medicines. The torpid functions need arousing, the blood needs depuration, i.e., the elimination of corrupting matter, and the system requires alteratives to produce these salutary changes. The secretions need the correcting influence of cleansing remedies for the purification of the blood.
Persons of this temperament are more liable to absorption of morbid products within the body, which are in a state of decomposition, producing an infection of the blood, technically termed septicæmia. The fatal results which so suddenly follow child-bed fever are thus produced. This kind of poisoning sometimes takes place from the absorption of decomposed exudation in diphtheria, and, though rarely, from decomposing organic products collected in the lungs. Whenever the absorption of poison does take place, fatal consequences usually follow.
This passive temperament is more likely to sink under acute attacks of disease, especially alimentary disorders, such as diarrhea, dysentery, and cholera. It quickly succumbs to their prostrating effects, such as depression, congestion, and fatal collapse which rapidly succeed one another. Venesection and harsh purgatives are contra-indicated, and the physician who persists in their employment kills his patient. How grateful are warmth and stimulating medicines! The most powerful, diffusible, and nervous stimulants are required in cholera, when the system is devastated by the disease, as the plain is laid waste by the fierce tornado.
THE SANGUINE TEMPERAMENT.
Lymph is the characteristic of the lymphatic temperament, and its specific gravity, temperature, and standard of vitality are all lower than that of red blood. In the sanguine temperament all the vital functions are more active, the blood itself has a deeper hue, its corpuscles carry more oxygen, the complexion is quite florid, and the arterial currents impart to every faculty a more hopeful vigor. The blood-vessels are the most active absorbents, eagerly appropriating nutritive materials for the general circulation, while the respiration adds to it oxygen, that agent which makes vital manifestation possible. This temperament exhibits greater sensibility, the conceptions are quicker, the imagination more vivid, the appetite stronger, the passions more violent, and there is found every display of animal life and enjoyment.
A full development of the basilar faculties, indicated by an unusual breadth and depth of the base of the brain, accompanies this temperament. Its cerebral area includes the posterior and inferior portions of the cerebrum, the entire cerebellum, and that part of the medulla which connects with the spinal cord, all of which sustain intimate relations to vital conditions. Accordingly, such a development indicates good digestion, active nutrition, vigorous secretion, large heart and lungs, powerful muscles, and surplus vitality. The violent faculties, such as Combativeness, Destructiveness, and Hatred, are natural adjuncts, and their excess tends to sensuality and crime. They are not only secretive, appropriative, selfish, and self-defensive, but when redundant are aggressive and tend to destructiveness, the gratification of animal indulgence, intemperance, and debauchery. The correspondence between the cerebral conformation and the physical development is very obvious. Lower orders of animals possess these faculties, and their spontaneous exhibition is called instinct. They possess the acquisitive, destructive, and propagative propensities, which lead them to provide for their wants and secure to themselves a posterity. The exercise of their bodies causes a continual waste which demands incessant reparation, and they are governed measurably by these animal impulses.
All of these lower psychical faculties have a physiological significance. Acquisitiveness functionally expresses assimilation, accretion, animal growth, and tends to bodily repletion. Secretiveness expresses concealing, separating, withdrawing, and functionally signifies secretive action. Secretion is the separating and withdrawing from the blood some of its constituents, as mucus, bile, saliva, etc. This latter process indicates complex conditions of organization, so that the higher and more complex the tissue, the greater the number of secretory organs. Unrestrained selfishness, while it naturally conserves the individual interests, in its ultimate tendencies, is the very essence of human depravity. Without qualification, clearly, it is crime, for blind devotion to the individual must be in utter disregard for the good of others. The ultimate tendencies of these faculties are, therefore, criminal.
Exaggerate the faculty of acquisitiveness, and it becomes avariciousness. Develop secretiveness and selfishness, and they become cunning and profligacy, desperation and crime. Their functional development tends to produce physical disorder and violent disease. All of these faculties are vehement, contentious, thriving by opposition. Life itself has been called a forced state, because it wars with the elements it appropriates, and transmutes their powers into vitality.
We find men and women of this temperament, who are models of character and organization. George Washington is an excellent illustration. The impression that his presence made upon the Marquis de Chastellux, is given in the following words: "I wish only to express the impression General Washington has left on my mind; the idea of a perfect whole, brave without temerity, laborious without ambition, generous without prodigality, noble without pride, virtuous without severity." Gen. Scott, Lord Cornwallis, Dr. Wistar, Bishop Soule John Bright, Jenny Lind Goldsmidt, and Dr. Gall are good representatives of this temperament. Fig. 86 is an excellent illustration of it, finely blended and well balanced, in the person of Madame de Stael. This temperament requires fewer tonics and stimulants than the lymphatic. This constitution is best able to restore vital losses. It is a vital temperament, in other words, it combines favorably with all the others, and better adapts itself to their various conditions. Some regard it as the best adjusted one in all its organs and tissues, and as the most satisfactory and serviceable.
Excess of nutrition tends to plethora, to animal indulgence, and gross sensuality. Not only do the propensities rouse desire, but they excite the basilar faculties, and portray their wants in the outlines of the face, mould the features to their expression, and flash their significance from the eye. Who can mistake the picture of sensuality represented by Fig. 87? It is enough to shock the sensibility of a dumb animal, and to say that such a face has a beastly look, is an unkind reflection upon the brute creation. A large neck and corresponding development of the occipital half of the brain indicate nervous energy, yet nutrition is not absolutely dependent upon it, for the nutritive processes are active before a nervous system is formed. The lower faculties of the mind exert a remarkable influence over nutrition, secretion, and the molecular changes incident to life. Anger or fear may transmute the mother's nourishing milk into a virulent poison. The following incident, taken from Dr. Carpenter's Physiology, illustrates this statement: "A carpenter fell into a quarrel with a soldier billeted in his house, and was set-upon by the latter with his drawn sword. The wife of the carpenter at first trembled from fear and terror, and then suddenly threw herself between the combatants, wrested the sword from the soldier's hand, broke it in pieces, and threw it away. During the tumult, some neighbors came-in and separated the men. While in this state of strong excitement, the mother took up her child from the cradle, where it lay playing, and in the most perfect health, never having had a moment's illness; she gave it the breast, and in so doing sealed its fate. In a few minutes the infant left-off sucking, became restless, panted, and sank dead upon the mother's bosom. The physician who was instantly called-in, found the child lying in the cradle, as if asleep, and with its features undisturbed; but all resources were fruitless. It was irrecoverably gone. In this interesting case, the milk must have undergone a change, which gave it a powerful sedative action upon the susceptible nervous system of the infant."
Anxiety, irritation, hatred, all tend to the vitiation of the disposition and bodily functions, perverting the character and constitution at the same time. Depravity of thought and secretion go together. Degradation of mind and corruption of the body are concomitants. There is a very close affinity between mental and moral perversion and physical prostitution, of which fact too many are unconscious. Nervous influence preserves the fluidity of the blood and facilitates its circulation, for it appears that simple arrestment of this influence favors the coagulation of the blood in the vessels; clots being found in their trunks within a few minutes after the brain and spinal marrow are broken down. Habitual constipation is the source of many ills. Perversion of the functions of the stomach, and of the circulation of the blood, produce general disaster.
Diseases which characterize this temperament are acute, violent, or inflammatory, indicating repletion and active congestion; intense inflammation, burning fevers, severe rheumatism, a quick, full pulse, great bodily heat, and functional excitement are its morbid accompaniments. These diseases will bear thorough depletion of the alimentary canal, active, hydragogue cathartics being indicated. Sedatives and anodynes are also essential to modify the circulatory forces, and to relieve pain. Violent disturbance must be quelled, and among the remedial agents required for this duty we may include Veratrum, Ipecac, Digitalis, Opium, Conium, and Asclepias. While equalizing the circulatory fluids, restoring the secretions, and thoroughly evacuating the system, and thus endeavoring to remove disturbing causes, we find that the conditions of this temperament are exceedingly favorable for restoration to health. True, many chronic diseases are obstinate, yet a course of restorative medication persistently followed, promises a fortunate issue in this tractile temperament.
Hygienic management of the lymphatic and sanguine temperaments consists in the vigorous toning of the former, while restraint of the latter will greatly exempt it from the anxieties, contentions, and vexations which excite the mind, disturb the bodily functions, and end in chronic disease. People of the latter organization love mental and physical stimulants, are easily inflamed by passion, and their excitability degenerates into irritability, succeeded by serious functional derangements, which prematurely break down the individual with inveterate, deep-seated disorder. Serenity, hope, faith, as well as firmness, are natural hygienic elements. It is a duty we owe ourselves to promptly relinquish a business which corrodes with its cares, and depresses with its increasing troubles. Constant solicitude, and the apprehension of financial disaster, frustrate the bodily functions, disconcert the organic processes, and lead to mental aberration as well as physical degeneracy. Melancholy is chronic, while despair is acute mania, whose impulses drive the victim desperately toward self-destruction. The chronic derangement of these organs exerts with less force the same morbid tendency. Hence the necessity for exercising those hygienic and countervailing influences born of resolution, assurance, and confident trust, and the belief which strengthens all of the vital operations.
Doubtless, this temperament is the source of the reproductive powers. It is the corner-stone essential to the foundation of all other temperaments. It has been supposed by some that the cerebellum is the seat of sexual instinct. The fact appears that an ample development of the posterior base of the cerebrum and the cerebellum indicates nutritive activity, which is certainly a condition most favorable to the display of amativeness. In a double sense, then, this temperament is a vital one; both by nutritive repletion, and by reproduction. It is the blood-manufacturing, tissue-generating, and body-constructing temperament, causing growth to exceed waste, and promptly repairing the wear which follows continual labor.
While the sleazy structures of the lymphatic temperament are favorable to the functions of transudation, exhalation, and mutual diffusion of liquids, the sanguine, as its name indicates, is adapted to promote the circulation of the blood, to favor nutrition and reproduction. The former temperament does not move the world by its energies, or impress it vividly with its wisdom, and the latter is more enthusiastic, enjoyable, and quickening. Each temperament, however, possesses salient qualities and advantages.
THE LIFE LINE.
Dr. W.B. Powell, in his work on "The Human Temperaments," announces the discovery of a measurement which indicates the tenacity of life, and the vital possessions of the individual. He has observed that some persons of very feeble appearance possess remarkable powers of resistance to disease, and continue to live until the machinery of life literally wears out. Others, apparently stronger and more robust, die before the usual term of life is half completed. He also noticed that some families were remarkable for their longevity, while others reached only a certain age, less than the average term of life, and then died. He remarked also that some patients sank under attacks of disease, when, to all appearances, they should recover, and that others recovered, when, according to all reasonable calculations, they ought to die. He, therefore, not only believed that the duration of human life was more definitely fixed by the organization than is supposed, but he set himself to work to discover the line of life, and the measure of its duration. He made a distinction between vital vigor, and vital tenacity. Vital vigor he believed to be equivalent to the condition of vitality, which is indicated by the breadth of the brain found in the sanguine temperament; and vital tenacity to be measured by the depth of the base of the brain. Dr. Powell was an indefatigable student of nature, and followed his theory through years of observation, and measured hundreds of heads of living persons, in order to verify the correctness of the hypothesis. His method of measuring the head may be stated as follows: He drew a line from the occipital protuberance on the back of the head to the junction of the frontal and malar bones, extending it to a point above the center of the external orbit of the eye, near the termination of the brow. Then he measured the distance between this line and the orifice of the ear and thus obtained the measure indicating the vital tenacity or duration of, life. Fig. 88 is a representation of the skull of Loper, who was executed for murder in Mississippi. He might have attained a great age, had not his violent and selfish faculties led him into the commission of crime. In this illustration, B represents the occipital protuberance, and A the junction of the frontal and malar bones at the external angle of the eye. The distance between this line (A B) and the external orifice of the ear, is the measure of the life-force of Loper at the time of his: execution.
The tenacity of an individual's life, Dr. Powell determined by the following scale of measurements: three-fourths of an inch from the orifice of the ear to the life-line, is the average length in the adult, and indicates ordinary tenacity of life. As the distance decreases to five-eighths, one-half, or three-eighths of an inch, vital tenacity diminishes. If the distance is more than three-quarters of an inch, it denotes great vital endurance, excellent recuperative powers, and is indicative of longevity. If it measures less than half an inch, it shows that the constitution has a feeble, uncertain hold upon life, and an acute disease is very likely to sunder the vital relations. Dr. Powell contended that "life force and vital force are not equivalent terms, because much more vital force is expended upon our relations, than upon our organization in the preservation of life. Every muscular contraction, every thought, and every emotion requires an expenditure of vital force." He asserted that we inherit our life force or constitutional power, and that we can determine by this life-line, the amount which we so receive. And he believed that it could be increased by intellectual effort, just as we can increase vital force by physical exercise. Fig. 89 represents the skull of a man who died, at nearly the same age as Loper, of consumption, in the Charity Hospital, at New Orleans. The measurement of the skull in this case gives a space between the life-line and the orifice of the ear of one-sixteenth of an inch, showing that the consumptive had lived the full term of his life. Dr. Powell contended that the depth of a man's brain may be increased after maturity; muscular effort, mental activity, and a sense of responsibility being favorable to longevity, while idleness and dissipation are adverse to it. In justice to the Doctor, we have stated fully his theory and his method of determining the hardihood and endurance of the constitution, and we bespeak for it a candid examination. Without doubt it embodies a great deal of truth. Hereafter we shall endeavor to indicate by cerebral configuration, a better system of judging of the vital tenacity, hardihood, and constitutional energies, both inherited and acquired.
THE VOLITIVE TEMPERAMENT.
By reference to Figs. 72 and 80, the reader will be able to locate the region of the volitive faculties, previously described under the generic term will. This temperament is characterized by ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, decision, vigilance, self-control, arrogance, love of power, firmness, and hardihood. These faculties express concentration of purpose and their functional equivalents are power of elaboration, constructiveness, condensation, firmness of fiber, compactness of frame, and endurance of organization. The pulse is full, firm, and regular, the muscles are strong and well marked, the hair and skin dark, the temporal region is not broadly developed, the face is angular, its lines denoting both power of purpose and strength of constitution, with resolution and hardihood blended in the expression. The volitive temperament is distinguished by height of the posterior, superior occipital region, called the crown of the back head, and by corresponding breadth from side to side. The rule given by Dr. J.R. Buchanan applies not only to the convolutions, but to the general development of the brain; length gives power, or range of action, and breadth gives copiousness, or activity of manifestation. Thus a high, narrow back head indicates firmness and decision, but it is not as constant and copious in its manifestation as when it is associated with breadth. An individual having a narrow, high head, may determine readily enough upon a course of action, but he requires a longer period for its completion than one whose head is both high and broad. Such a cerebral conformation cannot accomplish its objects without enjoying regular rest, and maintaining the best of habits. Breadth of this region of the brain indicates ample resources of energy, both psychical and physical. It denotes greater vigor of constitution, one that continually generates volitive forces, and its persistency of purpose may be interpreted as functional tenacity. Inflexibility of will and purpose impart their tenacious qualities to every bodily function. The will to recover is often far more potent than medicine. We have often witnessed its power in restraining the ravages of disease. The energetic faculties, located at the upper and posterior part of the head, are the invigorating, or tonic elements of the constitution, imparting hardy, firm, steady, and efficient influences, checking excess of secretion, repressing dissipation, and tending to maintain self-possession, as well as healthy conditions of life. Fig. 90 is a portrait of U.S. Grant, which shows a well-balanced organization, with sufficient volitive elements to characterize the constitution.
The old term bilious temperament might possibly be retained in deference to long usage, did it not inculcate a radical error. Bilious is strictly a medical term, relating to bile, or to derangements produced by it, and it was used originally to distinguish a temperament supposed to be characterized by a predominance of the biliary secretion. In the volitive temperament, the firm, tenacious, toning, and restraining faculties repress, rather than encourage biliary secretion, and hence the necessity for administering large doses of cholagogues, remedies which stimulate the secretion of bile. When the system is surcharged with bile, from a congested condition of the liver, we use these agents in order to obtain necessary relief. In this temperament there is moderate hepatic development, lack of biliary activity, deficiency in the secretion of bile, and a sluggish portal circulation. Therefore, to apply the term bilious to this temperament is not only unreasonable, but it is calculated to mislead. The condition of the bowels is generally constipated, the skin dark and sometimes sallow. For these and other obvious reasons, we dismiss the word bilious, and substitute one which is more characteristic.
We will not dwell upon the volitive as psychical organs, except to show that, when their influence is transmitted to the body, they act as physiological organs, and thus demonstrate that all parts of the brain have their physiological, as well as mental functions. When Andrew Jackson uttered with great emphasis the memorable words, "BY THE ETERNAL," the effect was like a shock from a galvanic battery, thrilling the cells in his own body, and paralyzing with fear every one in Calhoun's organization. This is an illustration of the power or range of action of these faculties. Breadth or copiousness is illustrated in Gen. Grant's reply, "I PROPOSE TO FIGHT IT OUT ON THIS LINE, IF IT TAKES ALL SUMMER." Such a temperament has a profusion of constitutional power, great durability of the life-force, and, in our opinion, the combined height and breadth of this region correctly indicate the natural hardihood of the body and its retentiveness of life. No one need doubt its influence upon the sympathetic system, and, through that system, its power over absorption, circulation, assimilation, and secretion, as well as the voluntary processes. Mental hardihood seems wrought into concrete organization. It checks excess of glandular absorption, restrains the impulses of tumultuous passion, tones and regulates the action of the heart, and helps to weave the strands of organization into a more compact fabric. The toning energies of the volitive faculties are better than quinine to fortify the system against miasma or malaria, and they co-operate with all tonic remedies in sustaining organic action. Fig. 91 is a portrait of Prof. Tyndall, the eminent chemist, whose likeness indicates volitive innervation, showing great strength of character and of constitution; he is an earnest, thorough, and intense mental toiler; ambitious, but modest; brilliant, because persevering; diligent in scientific inquiry, and who follows the star of truth, whithersoever it may lead him. The expression of his countenance indicates his honest intentions, and displays strength of conscientious purpose; his physical constitution may be correctly interpreted in all of its general characteristics by the analysis of his energetic temperament, the great secret of his strength and success.
We desire to offer one more illustration of a marvelous blending of this temperament with large mental and emotional faculties. Fig. 92 is a representation of the martyred President Abraham Lincoln. During an eventful career, his temperament and constitution experienced marked changes, and while always distinguished for strength of purpose and corresponding physical endurance, he was governed by noble, moral faculties, manifesting the deepest sympathy for the down-trodden and oppressed, blending tenderness and stateliness without weakness, exhibiting a human kindness, and displaying a genuine compassion, which endeared him to all hearts. He was hopeful, patriotic, magnanimous even, while upholding the majesty of the law and administering the complicated affairs of government. The balances of his temperament operated with wonderful delicacy, through all the perturbating influences of the rebellion, showing by their persistence that he was never for a moment turned aside from the great end he had in view; the protection and perpetuation of republican liberty. His life exhibited a sublime, moral heroism, elements of character which hallow his name, and keep it in everlasting remembrance.
We have treated the brain, not as a mass of organs radiating from the medulla oblongata as their real center, but as two cerebral masses, each of which is developed around the great ventricle. We have freely applied an easy psychical and physiological nomenclature to the functions of its organs, knowing that there is no arbitrary division of them by specific number, for the cerebrum, in an anatomical sense, is a single organ. The doctrine of cerebral unity is true, and the doctrine of its plurality of function is true also. Whatever effect an organ produces when acting in entire predominance, is regarded as the function of that organ and is expressed by that name. Although our names and divisions are arbitrary and designed for convenience, yet they facilitate our consideration of the psychical, and their corresponding physiological functions. Every cerebral manifestation denotes a psychical organ, and in proportion as these acts are transmitted to the body it becomes a physiological organ. We have ventured to repeat this proposition for the sake of the non-professional reader, that he may be able to distinguish between' the two results of the manifestation of one organ. The transmission of the influence of the brain into the body enables the former to act physiologically, whereas, if its action were confined within the cranium, it would only be psychical. In the language of Prof. J.R. Buchanan, "every organ, therefore, has its mental and corporeal, its psychological and physiological functions--both usually manifested together--either capable of assuming the predominance." We have already seen to what degree the Will operates upon the organism, or how "the soul imparts special energy to single organs, so that they perform their functions with more than usual efficiency," and thus resist the solicitations of morbific agents. Doubtless our best thoughts are deeply tinged by the healthful or diseased conditions of such organs as the stomach, the lungs, the heart, or even the muscular or circulatory systems, and these impressions, when carried to the sensorium, are reflected by the thoughts, for reflex action is the third class of functions, assigned to the cerebrum. These reflex actions are either hygienic and remedial, or morbid and pernicious. Hence, it is philosophical not only to interpret the thoughts as physiological and pathological indications, but to consider the cerebrum as exerting real hygienic and remedial forces, capable of producing salutary reparative, and restorative effects. When a boiler carries more steam than can be advantageously employed, it is subjected to unnecessary and injurious strain, and is weakened thereby; so, when the body is overtasked by excessive pressure of the volitive faculties, it is prematurely enfeebled and broken down. There are many individuals who need to make use of some sort of safety valve to let off the surplus of their inordinate ambition; they need some kind of patent brake to slacken their speed of living; they should relieve the friction of their functional powers by a more frequent lubrication of the vital movements, and by stopping, for needed refreshment and rest, at some of the many way-stations of life.
THE ENCEPHALIC TEMPERAMENT.
The encephalic temperament is distinguished by prominence and breadth of the forehead, or by a full forehead associated with height and breadth at its coronal junction with the parietal bones, and extending toward the volitive region. (See Fig. 10, the space between 1 and 2 represents the coronal region, 1 indicating the frontal bone, and 2 the parietal). Prominence and great breadth of the forehead display analytical, i.e., scientific powers applicable to concretes, whereas a fair intellect, associated with a preponderating development of the coronal region, indicates analogical powers, i.e., faculties to perceive the relation and the agreement of principles. The former classifies and arranges facts, the latter invests them with moral and spiritual import. The one treats of matter, its physical properties, and chemical composition, the other of thoughts and intentions which involve right and wrong, relating to spiritual accountability. The intellect is employed upon an observable order of things, while the emotive faculties arrange the general laws of being into abstract science.
Fig. 93, a portrait of Prof. Tholuck, is a remarkable example of an encephalic organization. Figs. 72 and 79 fairly indicate the effects of undue mental activity, the intellect causing vital expenditure resulting in the devitalization of the blood. While the intellect displays keen penetration, subtle discrimination, and profound discernment, the emotions exhibit intense sensitiveness, acute susceptibility, and inspirational impressibility. The encephalic temperament is characterized by mental activity, great delicacy of organization, a high and broad forehead, expressive eyes, fine but not very abundant hair, great sensitiveness, refined feelings, vividness of conception, and intensity of emotion. If the brain is developed on the sides, there is manifested Ideality, Modesty, Hope, Sublimity, Imagination, and Spirituality. If the brain and forehead project, the Perceptive, Intuitive, and Reasoning faculties predominate. If it rises high, and nearly perpendicularly, Liberality, Sympathy, Truthfulness, and Sociability are manifested. When the emotive faculties are large, Faith, Hope, Love, Philanthropy, Religion, and Devotion characterize the individual. It is an artistic, creative, and aesthetic temperament, beautiful in conception and grand in expression, yet its sensitiveness is enfeebling, and its crowning excellence, when betrayed by the propensities, trails in defilement. Its purity is God-like, its debauchment, Perdition!
Fig. 94 is the likeness of Prof. George Bush. His forehead is amply developed in the region of Foresight, Liberality, Sympathy, Truthfulness, and Benevolence; his mouth expresses Amiability and Cheerfulness, and the whole face beams with Kindness and Generosity. This philanthropist, who is both a preacher and an author, has published several works upon theology, which distinguish him for great research and originality.
Fig. 95 represents the sanguine-encephalic temperament, the two elements being most happily blended. The portrait is that of Emmanuel Swedenborg, the great scholar and spiritual divine. The reader will observe how high and symmetrical is the forehead, and how well balanced appears the entire organization. He was remarkable for vivid imagination, great scientific acquirements, and all his writings characterize him as a subtle reasoner.
When the encephalic predominates, and the sanguine is deficient in its elements, we find conditions favorable to waste and expenditure, and adverse to a generous supply and reformation of the tissues. A child inheriting this cerebral development is already top-heavy, and supports, at an immense disadvantage, this disproportionate organization. The nutritive functions are overbalanced; consequently there is a predisposition to scrofulous diseases and disorders of the blood, various degenerating changes taking place in its composition; loss of red corpuscles, signified by shortness of breath; morbid changes, manifested by cutaneous eruptions; exhaustion from lack of nourishment, etc., until, finally, consumption finishes the subject.
Harmony is the support of all institutions, and applies with special cogency to the maintenance of health. When the mind dwells on one subject to the exclusion of all others, we call such a condition monomania. If we have an excessive development of mind, and deficient support of body, the result is corporeal derangement. It is unfortunate for any child to inherit unusually large brain endowments, unless he is possessed of a vigorous, robust constitution. Such training should be directed to that body as will encourage it to grow strong, hearty, and thrifty, and enable it to support the cerebral functions. The mental proclivities should be checked and the physical organization cultivated, to insure to such a child good health. Cut off all unnecessary brain-wastes, attend to muscular training and such invigorating games and exercises as encourage the circulation of the blood; keep the skin clean and its functions active, the body warm and well protected, the lungs supplied with pure air, the stomach furnished, with wholesome food, besides have the child take plenty of sleep to invigorate the system, and thus, by regular habits, maintain that equilibrium which tends to wholesome efficiency and healthful endurance.
TRANSMISSION OF LIFE.
As has been already stated in the chapter on Biology, reproduction of the species depends upon the union of a sperm-cell with a germ-cell, the male furnishing the former and the female the latter. It is a well-known fact that the marriage of persons having dissimilar temperaments is more likely to be fertile than the union of persons of the same temperaments; consanguineous marriages, or the union of persons nearly related by blood, diminish fertility and the vigor of the offspring. Upon this subject Francis Galton has given some very interesting historical illustrations in his well-known work, entitled "Hereditary Genius." The half-brother of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I, King of Egypt, had twelve descendants, who successively became kings of that country, and who were also called Ptolemy. They were matched in and in, but in nearly every case these near marriages were unprolific and the inheritance generally passed through other wives. Ptolemy II married his niece, and afterwards his sister; Ptolemy IV married his sister. Ptolemy VI and VII were brothers, and they both consecutively married the same sister; Ptolemy VII also subsequently married his niece; Ptolemy VIII married two of his sisters in succession. Ptolemy XII and XIII were brothers, and both consecutively married their sister, Cleopatra. Mr. Galton and Sir Jas. Y. Simpson have shown that many peerages have become extinct through the evil results of inter-marriage. Heiresses are usually only children, the feeble product of a run-out stock, and statistics have shown that one-fifth of them bear no children, and fully one-third never bear more than one child. Sir J.Y. Simpson ascertained that out of 495 marriages in the British Peerage, 81 were unfruitful, or nearly one in every six; while out of 675 marriages among an agricultural and seafaring population, only 65 were sterile or barren, or a little less than one in ten.
While the marriages of persons closely related, or of similar temperaments are frequently unfruitful, we would not have the reader understand that sterility, or barrenness, is usually the result of such unions. It is most frequently due to some deformity or diseased condition of the generative organs of the female. In the latter part of this work may be found a minute description of the conditions which cause barrenness, together with the methods of treatment, which have proved most effectual in the extensive practice at the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute.
The temperaments may be compared to a magnet, the like poles of which repel, and the unlike poles of which attract each other. Thus similarity of temperament results in barrenness while dissimilarity makes the vital magnetism all the more powerful. Marriageable persons moved by some unknown influence, have been drawn instinctively toward each other, have taken upon themselves the vows and obligations of wedlock, and have been fruitful and happy in this relation. Alliances founded upon position, money, or purely arbitrary considerations, mere contracts of convenience, are very apt to prove unhappy and unproductive.
Men may unconsciously obey strong instinctive impulses without being conscious of their existence, and by doing so, avoid those ills, which otherwise might destroy their connubial happiness. The philosophy of marriage receives no consideration, because the mind is pre-occupied with newly awakened thoughts and feelings. Lovers are charmed by certain harmonies, feel interior persuasions, respond to a new magnetic influence and are lost in an excess of rapture.
If the parties to a marriage are evenly balanced in organic elements, although both of them are vigorous, yet it is physiologically more suitable for them to form a nuptial alliance with an unlike combination. The cause of the wretchedness attending many marriages may be traced to a too great similarity of organization, ideas, taste, education, pursuits, and association, which similarity almost invariably terminates in domestic unhappiness. The husband and wife should be as different as the positive and negative poles of a magnet. When life is begotten under these circumstances we may expect a development bright with intelligence.
* * * * *
XVI. MARRIAGE
LOVE.
"Love is the root of creation; God's essence; worlds without number Lie in his bosom like children; he made them for this purpose only. Only to love and to be loved again, he breathed forth his spirit Into the slumbering dust, and upright standing, it laid its Hand on its heart, and felt it was warm with a flame out of heaven."
--LONGFELLOW.
Love, that tender, inexplicable feeling which is the germinal essence of the human spirit, is the rudimental element of the human soul. It is, therefore, a Divine gift, a blessing which the Creator did not withdraw from his erring children, when they were driven from a paradise of innocence and loveliness into a world of desolation and strife. He left it as an invisible cord by which to draw the human heart ever upward, to a brighter home--the heavenly Eden. Love is the very essence of Divine law, the source of inspiration, even the fountain of life itself. It is spontaneous, generous, infinite. To its presence we are indebted for all that is good, true, and beautiful in Art and Nature. It endows humanity with countless virtues, and throws a mystic veil over our many faults. It is this feeling, this immutable law, which controls the destiny of the race. From its influence empires have fallen, scepters have been lost. Literature owes to Love its choicest gems. The poet's lay is sweeter when Cupid tunes the lyre. The artist's brush is truer when guided by Love. Greece was the cradle of letters and art. Her daughters were queens of beauty, fitted to inspire the Love of her noblest sons.
The materialism of the nineteenth century has sought to degrade Love; to define it as purely physical. The result has been a corresponding degradation of art, and even literature has lost much of its lofty idealism. Nudity has become a synonym of vulgarity; Love, of lust. "Evil be to him who evil thinks." True Love never seeks to degrade its object; on the contrary, it magnifies every virtue, endows it with divinest attributes, and guards its chastity, or honor, at the sacrifice of its own life. It increases benevolence by opening the lover's heart to the wants of suffering humanity. Ideality is the canvas, and imagination the brush with which Love delineates the beauties of the adored. Love heightens spirituality, awakens hope, strengthens faith, and enhances devotion. It quickens the perceptions, intensifies the sensibilities, and redoubles the memory. It augments muscular activity, and imparts grace to every movement. The desire to love and to be loved is innate, and forms as much a part of our being as bone or reason. In fact, Love may be considered as the very foundation of our spiritual existence, as bone and reason are the essential bases of our physical and intellectual being. Every man or woman feels the influence of this emotion, sooner or later. It is the Kadesh-barnea of human existence; obedience to its intuitions insures the richest blessings of life, while neglect or perversion enkindles God's wrath, even as did the disobedience of the wandering Israelites.
The one great fact which pervades the universe is action. The very existence of Love demands its activity, and, hence, the highest happiness is attained by a normal and legitimate development of this element of our being. The heart demands an object upon which to lavish the largess of its affection. In the absence of all others, a star, a flower, or even a bird, will receive this homage. The bird warbles a gay answer to the well-known voice, the flower repays the careful cultivator by displaying its richest tints, the star twinkles a bright "good evening" to the lonely watcher, and yet withal there is an unsatisfied longing in the lover's heart, to which neither can respond; the desire to be loved! Hence, the perfect peace of reciprocated love. If its laws are violated, nature seeks revenge in the utter depression or prostration of the vital energies. Thus has the Divine Law-giver engraven His command on our very being. To love is, therefore, a duty, the fulfillment of which should engage our noblest powers.
This emotion manifests itself in several phases, prominent among which is filial affection, the natural harmonizer of society. Paternal love includes a new element--protection. Greater than either, and second only in fortitude to maternal affection, is
CONJUGAL LOVE.
"He is blest in Love alone Who loves for years and loves but one."--HUNT.
With Swedenborg, we may assert, "that there is given love truly conjugal, which at this day is so rare, that it is not known what it is, and scarce that it is." The same author has defined this relation to be a union of Love and Wisdom. The fundamental law of conjugal love is fidelity to one love. God created but one Eve, and the essential elements of paternal and maternal love pre-suppose and necessitate, for their normal development, the Love of one only. Again, Love is the sun of woman's existence. Only under its influence does she unfold the noblest powers of her being. Woman's intuitions should therefore be taken as the true love-gauge. If she desire a plurality of loves, it must be a law of her nature; but is communism the desire of our wives and daughters? No! Every act which renders woman dear to us, denounces such an idea and reveals the exclusive sacredness of her Love. As condemning promiscuity in this relation, we may cite the lovers' pledges and oaths of fidelity, the self-perpetuity of Love itself, the common instincts of mankind, as embodied in public sentiment, and the inherent consciousness that first love should he kept inviolable forever. Again, Love is conservative. It clings tenaciously to all the memories connected with its first object. The scenes consecrated to "Love's young dream" are sacred to every heart. The woodland with its winding paths and arbors, the streamlet bordered with drooping violets and dreamy pimpernel, the clouds, and even "the very tones in which we spoke," are indelibly imprinted on the memory. There is also the "mine and thine" intuition of love. This sentiment is displayed in every thought and act of the lover. Every pleasure is insipid unless shared by the beloved; selfish and exacting to all others, yet always generous and forgiving to the adored. "Mine and thine, dearest," is the language of Conjugal Love.
The consummation desired by all who experience this affection, is the union of souls in a true marriage. Whatever of beauty or romance there may be in the lover's dream, is enhanced and spiritualized in the intimate communion of married life. The crown of wifehood and maternity is purer, more divine, than that of the maiden. Passion is lost; the emotions predominate.
The connubial relation is not an institution; it was born of the necessities and desires of our nature. "It is not good for man to be alone," was the Divine judgment, and so God created for him "an helpmate." Again, "Male and female created He them;" therefore, sex is as divine as the soul. It is often perverted, but so is reason, aye, so is devotion.
The consummation of marriage involves the mightiest issues of life. It may be the source of infinite happiness or the seal of a living death. "Love is blind" is an old saying, verified by thousands of ill-assorted unions. Many unhappy marriages are traceable to one or both of two sources, Physical Weaknesses and Masquerading. Many are the candidates for marriage who are rendered unfit therefor from weaknesses of their sexual systems, induced by the violation of well-established physical laws.
We cannot too strongly urge upon parents and guardians the imperative duty of teaching those youths who look to them for instruction, in all matters which pertain to their future well-being such lessons as are embraced in the chapter of this book entitled, "Hygiene of the Reproductive Organs." By attending to such lessons as will give the child a knowledge of the physiology and hygiene of his whole system, the errors into which so many of the young fall, and much of the misery which is so often the dregs of the hymeneal cup, will be avoided.
Masquerading is a modern accomplishment. Girls wear tight shoes, burdensome skirts, and corsets, all of which prove very injurious to their health. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, our young ladies are sorry specimens of womankind, and "palpitators," cosmetics, and all the modern paraphernalia of fashion are required to make them appear fresh and blooming. Man is equally to blame. A devotee to all the absurd devices of fashion, he practically asserts that "dress makes the man." But physical deformities are of far less importance than moral imperfections. Frankness is indispensable in love. Each should know the other's faults and virtues. Marriage will certainly disclose them; the idol falls and the deceived lover is transformed into a cold, unloving husband or wife. By far the greater number of unhappy marriages are attributable to this cause. In love especially, honesty is policy and truth will triumph.
HISTORY OF MARRIAGE.
POLYGAMY AND MONOGAMY. We propose to give only a brief dissertation on the principles and arguments of these systems, with special reference to their representatives in the nineteenth century. Polygamy has existed in all ages. It is, and always has been, the result of moral degradation or wantonness. The Garden of Eden was no harem. Primeval nature knew no community of love. There was only the union of two "and the twain were made one flesh." Time passed; "the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." The propensities of men were in the ascendant, and "God repented Him that He had created man." He directed Noah to take into the ark, two of every sort, male and female. But "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," and tradition points to Polygamy as the generally recognized form of marriage among the ancients. The father of the Hebrew nation was unquestionably a polygamist, and the general history of patriarchal life shows that a plurality of wives and concubines were national customs. In the earlier part of Egyptian history, Menes is said to have founded a system of marriage, ostensibly monogamous, but in reality it was polygamous, because it allowed concubinage. As civilization advanced, the latter became unpopular, and "although lawful, was uncommon," while polygamy was expressly forbidden. Solomon, according to polygamous principles, with his thousand women, should have enjoyed a most felicitous condition. Strange that he exclaimed "A woman among all these have I not found." According to the distinguished Rabbi, Maimonides, polygamy was a Jewish custom as late as the thirteenth century. When Cecrops the Egyptian King, came to Athens (1550, B.C.) he introduced a new system, which proved to be another step toward the recognition of Monogamy. Under this code a man was permitted to have one wife and a concubine. Here dawned the era of Grecian civilization, the glory of which was reflected in the social and political principles of Western Europe. During the fourth and fifth centuries B.C., concubinage disappeared, but, under the new regime, the condition of the wife was degraded. She was regarded as simply an instrument of procreation and a mistress of the household, while a class of foreign women, who devoted themselves to learning and the fine arts, were the admired, and often the beloved companions of the husbands. These were the courtesans who played the same role in Athenian history, as did the chaste matron, in the annals of Rome. When Greece became subject to Rome and the national characteristics of these nations were blended, marriage became a loose form of monogamy. In Persia, during the reign of Cyrus, about 560 B.C., polygamy was sustained by custom, law, and religion. The Chinese marriage system was, and is, practically polygamous, for, from their earliest traditions, we learn that although a man could have but one wife, he was permitted to have as many concubines as he desired.
In the Christian era the first religious system which incorporated polygamy as a principle was Mohammedanism. This system, which is so admirably adapted to the voluptuous character of the Orientals, has penetrated Western Europe, Asia, and Africa. Hayward estimated the number of its adherents to be one hundred and forty millions. The heaven of the Mohammedan is replete with all the luxuries which appeal to the animal propensities. Ravishing Houris attend the faithful, who recline on downy couches, in pavilions of pearl. On the Western Continent a system of promiscuity was practiced by the Mexicans, Peruvians, Brazilians, and the barbarous tribes of North America.
The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith, and professes to be in harmony with the Bible and a special revelation to its leading Saint. According to the Mormon code, "Love is a yearning for a higher state of existence, and the passions, properly understood, are feeders of the spiritual life;" and again, "nature is dual; to complete his organization a man must marry." The leading error of Mormonism is that it mistakes a legal permission for a Divine command. The Mormon logic may be premised as follows: the Mosaic law allowed polygamy; the Bible records it; therefore, the Bible teaches polygamy.
A Mormon Saint can have not less than three wives but as many more as he can conveniently support. The eight fundamental doctrines of the Mormon Church are stated as follows: 1. God is a person with the flesh and form of a man. 2. Man is a part of the substance of God and will himself become a god. 3. Man is not created by God but existed from all eternity. 4. Man is not born in sin, and is not accountable for offenses other than his own. 5. The earth is a colony of embodied spirits, one of many such settlements in space. 6. God is president of the immortals, having under Him four orders of beings: (1.) Gods--i.e., immortal beings, possessed of a perfect organization of soul and body, being the final state of men who have lived on earth in perfect obedience to the law. (2.) Angels, immortal beings who have lived on earth in imperfect obedience to the law. (3.) Men, immortal beings in whom a living soul is united with a human body. (4.) Spirits, immortal beings, still waiting to receive their tabernacle of flesh. 7. Man, being one of the race of gods, became eligible, by means of marriage, for a celestial throne, and his household of wives and children are his kingdom, not only on earth but in heaven. 8. The kingdom of God has been again founded on earth, and the time has now come for the saints to take possession of their own; but by virtue, not by violence; by industry, not by force. This sect has met with stern and bitter opposition. It was successively located in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, from the last of which it was expelled by force of arms, and in 1848 established in Utah. Its adherents number, at the present time, more than two hundred thousand.
Another organization, differing from the Mormons, in many of its radical principles, is that of the "Communists," popularly termed "Free Lovers." It is located at Lennox, Madison Co., N.Y. Its members advocate a system of "complex marriage" which they claim is instituted with a conscientious regard for the welfare of posterity. They disclaim "promiscuity," and assert that the tie which binds them together is as permanent and as sacred as that of marriage. Community of property is commensurate with freedom of Love. They define love to be "social appreciation," and this element in their code of civilization, which they deem superior to all others, is secondary to "bodily support." The principles upon which their social status is founded may be briefly summarized as follows: "Man offers woman support and love (unconditional). Woman enjoying freedom, self-respect, health, personal and mental competency, gives herself to man in the boundless sincerity of an unselfish union. State--, Communism." In this, as in all forms of polygamous marriages, love is made synonymous with sexuality, and its purely spiritual element is lost. In every instance this spiritual element should constitute the basis of marriage, which, without it, is nothing more than legal prostitution. Without it, the selfish, degrading, animal propensities run rampant, while the emotions with all their boundless sweetness lie dormant. Woman is regarded as only a plaything to gratify the animal caprice.
That Monogamy is a law of nature is evident from the fact that it fulfills the three essential conditions which form the basis of true marriage: (1.) The development of the individual (2.) The welfare of society. (3.) The reproduction of the species.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
PHYSICALLY. Reciprocated love produces a general exhilaration of the system. The elasticity of the muscles is increased, the circulation is quickened, and every bodily function is stimulated. The duties of life are performed with a zest and alacrity never before experienced. "It is not possible for human beings to attain their full stature of humanity, except by loving long and perfectly. Behold that venerable man! He is mature in judgment, perfect in every action and expression, and saintly in goodness. You almost worship as you behold. What rendered him thus perfect? What rounded off his natural asperities, and moulded up his virtues? Love mainly. It permeated every pore, so to speak, and seasoned every fiber of his being, as could nothing else. Mark that matronly woman. In the bosom of her family, she is more than a queen and goddess combined. All her looks and actions express the outflowing of some or all of the human virtues. To know her is to love her. She became thus perfect, not in a day or a year, but by a long series of appropriate efforts. Then by what? Chiefly in and by love, which is specifically adapted thus to develope this maturity." But all this occurs only when there is a normal exercise of the sexual propensities. Excessive indulgence in marital pleasures deadens all the higher faculties, love included, and results in an utter prostration of the bodily powers. The Creator has endowed man and woman with passions, the suppression of which leads to pain, their gratification to pleasure, their satiety to disgust. Excessive marital indulgence produces abnormal conditions of the generative organs and not unfrequently leads to incurable disease. Many cases of uterine disease are traceable to this cause.
MORALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY. In no country where the polygamous system prevails do we find a code of political and social ethics which recognizes the rights and claims of the individual. The condition of woman is that of the basest slave, a slave to the caprice and tyranny of her master. Communism raises her from the slough of slavery, but subjects her to the level of prostitution. An inevitable sequence of polygamy is a decline of literature and science. The natural tendency of each system is to sensualism., The blood is diverted from its normal channels and the result is a condition which may be appropriately termed mental starvation. Sensualism is in its very nature directly opposed to literary attainments or advancement. Happily there is a golden mean, an equalization of those elements which constitutes the acme of individual enjoyment.
THE WELFARE OF SOCIETY.
The general law of ethics, that "whatever is beneficial to the individual, contributed to the highest good of society and vice versa," applies with equal force to the hygienic conditions of marriage. Each family, like the ancient Roman household, is the prototype of the natural government under which it lives. Wherever the marriage relation is regarded as sacred, there you will find men of pure hearts and noble lives. Of all foreign nations the Germans are celebrated for their sacred regard of woman, and the duties of marriage, and all scholars from the age of Tacitus to the present day, have concurred in attributing the elevation of woman to the pure-minded Teutons. In America, the law recognizes only Monogamy; but domestic unhappiness is a prominent feature of our national life; therefore, argues the would-be free-lover, monogamy does not accord with the best interests of mankind. The fallacy lies in the first premise. Legally, our marriage system is monogamous but socially and practically it is not! Prostitution is the source of this domestic infelicity. The "mistress" sips the sweet nectar that is denied to the deceived wife. Legislators have battled with intemperance, but have done comparatively little to banish from our midst this necessary (?) evil. They recoil with disgust from this abyss of iniquity and disease. Within it is coiled a hydra-headed monster, which invades our hearthstones, contaminates our social atmosphere, and whose very breath is laden with poisonous vapors, the inexhaustible source of all evil.
The perverted appetites of mankind are mistaken for the natural desires and necessities of our being; and, accordingly, various arguments have been advanced to prove that monogamy is not conducive to social developement. It is curious that no one of these arguments refers to the health and well-being of the individual, thus overlooking, perhaps willfully, the great law of social economy. Even a few medical writers sometimes advocate the principles of this so-called liberalism. In a recently published work, there are enumerated only two demerits of polygamy and six of monogamy. These six demerits which the author is pleased to term a "bombshell," he introduces on account of his moral convictions no less than humanitarian considerations. The same author terms monogamy a "worm-eaten and rotten-rooted tree." The worm that is devastating the fairest tree of Eden and draining its richest juices is what our contemporary thinks, may be "plausibly termed, a necessary evil." It is claimed that monogamy begets narrow sympathies and leads to selfish idolatry. The fallacy of this argument lies in the misapprehension of the term selfishness. Self-preservation is literally selfishness, yet who will deny that it is a paramount duty of man. If perverted, it may be vicious, even criminal; but selfishness, in so far as it is generated by monogamy, is one of the chief elements of social economy; furthermore, it favors the observance of the laws of sexual hygiene. As we have said elsewhere, true love increases benevolence, and correspondingly expands and develops the sympathies. Selfish idolatry is preferable to social neglect. This argument will not bear a critical examination; for it is asserted that in a happy union, "love is so exclusive that there is hardly a liking for good neighbors, and scarcely any love at all for God." If the "good neighbors" were equally blessed, they would not suffer from this exclusiveness, and it is practically true that there is no higher incentive to love and obey our Maker than the blessing of a happy marriage.
THE PERPETUATION OF THE SPECIES.
The third essential object of marriage is the perpetuation of the species. The desire for offspring is innate in the heart of every true man or woman. It is thus a law of our nature, and, as such, must have its legitimate sphere. The essential features of reproduction proclaim monogamy to be the true method of procreation. Promiscuity would render the mother unable to designate the father of her children. Among lower animals, pairing is an instinctive law whenever the female is incapable of protecting and nourishing her offspring alone. During at least fifteen years, the child is dependent for food and clothing upon its parents, to say nothing of the requisite moral training and loving sympathy, which, in a great measure, mould its character. Fidelity to one promotes multiplication. It has been argued by the advocates of polygamy that such a system interferes with woman's natural right to maternity. Of the many marriages celebrated yearly, comparatively few are sterile. The statement that many single women are desirous of having children, would apply only to a very limited number, as it is seldom that they would be able to support children without the aid and assistance of a father. Promiscuity diminishes the number and vitiates, the quality of the human products. "Women of pleasure never give to the world sons of genius, or daughters of moral purity."
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XVII. REPRODUCTION
Every individual derives existence from a parent, which word literally means one who brings forth. We restrict the meaning of the term reproduction, ordinarily, to that function by which living bodies produce other living bodies similar to themselves. Production means to bring forth; reproduction, the producing again, or renewing. To protract individual existence, nutrition is necessary, because all vital changes are attended by wear and waste. Nutrition is always engaged in the work of reparation. Every organism that starts out upon its career of development depends upon nourishing materials for its growth, and upon this renewing process for its development. Nutrition is all the while necessary to prolong the life of the individual, but at length its vigor wanes, its functions languish, and, finally, the light of earthly life goes out. Although the single organization decays and passes away, nevertheless the species is uninterruptedly continued; the tidal wave of life surges higher on the shores of time, for reproduction is as constant and stable as the attractive forces of the planetary system.
It is a fact, that many species of the lower order of animals which once existed are now extinct. It has been asserted and denied, that fossil remains of man have been found, indicating that races which once existed have disappeared from the face of the earth. The pyramids are unfolding a wonderful history, embracing a period of forty-five hundred years, which the world of science receives as literally authentic, and admits, also, that fifty-four hundred years are probably as correctly accounted for. The extinction of races is not at all improbable. At the present time, the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent seem to be surely undergoing gradual extinguishment! It, therefore, seems to be possible for a weaker race to deteriorate, and finally become extinct, unless the causes of their decadence can be discovered and remedied. All people are admonished to earnestly investigate the essential conditions necessary for their continuance, for the rise and fall of nations is in obedience to natural principles and operations. Viewed from this standpoint, it is possible that a careful study of the human temperaments and their relations to reproduction may be of greater moment than has hitherto been supposed, and a proper understanding of them may tend to avert that individual deterioration, which, if suffered to become general, would end in national disaster and the extinction of the race.
Until recently, even naturalists believed that descendants were strictly like their parents in form and structure. Now it is known that the progeny may differ in both form and structure from the parent, and that these may produce others still more unlike their ancestry. But all these peculiar and incidental deviations finally return to the original form, showing that these changes have definite limits, and that the alterations observe a specific variableness, which is finally completed by its assuming again the original form. (See page 16, Figs. 2 and 3).
Reproduction may be sexual or non-sexual. In some plants and animals it is non-sexual. The propagation of species is accomplished by buds. Thus the gardener grafts a new variety of fruit upon an old stock. The florist understands how to produce new varieties of flowers, and make them radiantly beautiful in their bright and glowing colors. The bud personates the species and produces after its kind. Some of the annelides, a division of articulate animals, characterized by an elongated body, formed of numerous rings or annular segments, multiply by spontaneous division. A new head is formed at intervals in certain segments of the body. (See Fig. 97).
Something similar to this process of budding, we find taking place in a low order of animal organization. Divide the fresh water polyp into several pieces, and each one will grow into an entire animal. Each piece represents a polyp, and so each parent polyp is really a compound animal, an organized community of beings. Just as the buds of a tree, when separated and engrafted upon another tree, grow again, each preserving its original identity, so do the several parts of this animal, when divided, become individual polyps, capable of similar reproduction.
The revolving volvox likewise increases by growth until it becomes a society of animals, a multiple system of individuals. There are apertures from the parent, by which water gains a free access to the interior of the whole miniature series. This monad was once supposed to be a single animal, but the microscope shows it to be a group of animals connected by means of six processes, and each little growing volvox exhibits his red-eye speck and two long spines, or horns. These animals also multiply by dividing, and thus liberate another series, which, in their turn, reproduce other groups.
Generation requires the concurrence of stimuli and susceptibility, and, to perfect the process, two conditions are also necessary. The first is the sperm, which communicates the principle of action; the other is the germ, which receives the latent life and provides the conditions necessary to organic evolution. The vivifying function belongs to the male, that of nourishing and cherishing is possessed by the female; and these conditions are sexual distinctions. The former represents will and understanding; the latter, vitality and emotion. The father directs and controls, the mother fosters and encourages; the former counsels and admonishes, the latter persuades and caresses; and their union in holy matrimony represents one; that is, the blending of vitality and energy, of love and wisdom,--the elements indispensable to the initiation of life under the dual conditions of male and female,--one in the functions of reproduction.
Let us consider the modes of Sexual Reproduction, which are hermaphroditic and dioecious.
HERMAPHRODITIC REPRODUCTION.
We have said that two kinds of cells represent reproduction, namely, sperm and germ-cells. These may be furnished by different individuals, or both may be found in one. When both are found in the same individual, the parent is said to be a natural hermaphrodite. A perfect hermaphrodite possesses the attributes of both male and female--uniting both sexes in one individual. Natural hermaphroditic reproduction occurs only among inferior classes of animals, and naturalists inform us that there are a greater number of these than of the more perfect varieties. These are found low in the scale of animal organization, and one individual is able to propagate the species. In the oyster and ascidians no organs can be detected in the male, but in the female they are developed. Polyps, sponges, and cystic entozoa, may also be included among hermaphrodites.
It is only very low organisms indeed in which it is a matter of indifference whether the united sperm-cells and germ-cells are those of the same individual, or those of different individuals. In more elaborate structures and highly organized beings, the essential thing in fertilization is the union of these cells specially endowed by different bodies, the unlikeness of derivation in these united reproductive centers being the desideratum for perpetuating life and power.
In other classes, as entozoa, there appear to be special provisions whereby the sperm-cells and germ-cells may be united; i.e., the male organs are developed and so disposed as to fecundate the ova of the same individual. Sexual and non-sexual modes of reproduction are illustrated by that well-defined group of marine invertebrate animals, called cirripedia Fig. 98 represents one of this genus.
Some of these are not only capable of self-impregnation, but likewise have what are called complemental males attache to some of the hermaphrodites. In the whole animal kingdom, it may be doubted if there exists another such class of rudimentary creatures as the parasitic males, who possess neither mouth, stomach, thorax, nor abdomen. After exerting a peculiar sexual influence, they soon die and drop off; so that in this class of animals may be found the sexual distinctions of male, female, and perfect hermaphrodites.
There is a class of wheel-animalcules termed rotifera, of which the revolving volvox is one example. They have acquired this name on account of the apparent rotation of the disc-like organs which surround their mouths and are covered with cilia, or little hairs. They are minute creatures, and can best be viewed with a microscope, although the larger forms may be seen without such assistance. They are widely diffused on the surface of the earth, inhabit lakes as well as the ocean, and are found in cold, temperate, and tropical climates. The rotifera were once supposed to be hermaphrodites, but the existence of sexes in one species has been clearly established. The male, however, is much smaller, and far less developed than the female. In some of these species, germ-cells, or eggs, are found, which do not require fecundation for reproduction or development, so that they belong to the non-sexual class.
The third variety of hermaphrodites embraces those animals in which the male organs are so disposed as not to fecundate the ova of the same body, but require the co-operation of two individuals, notwithstanding the co-existence in each of the organs of both sexes. Each in turn impregnates the other. The common leech, earth-worm, and snail, propagate in this manner.
Unnatural hermaphrodism is characteristic of insects and crustaceans, in which the whole body indicates a neutral character, tending to exhibit the peculiarities of male or female, in proportion to the kind of sexual organs which predominates. Half of the body may be occupied by male, the other half by female organs, and each half reflects its peculiar sexual characteristics. Some butterflies are dimidiate hermaphrodites; i.e. one side of the body has the form and color of the male, the other the form and color of the female. The wings show by their color and appearance these sexual distinctions. The stag-beetle is also an example. We have accounts of dimidiate hermaphrodite lobster, male in one half and female in the other half of the body.
Among the numerous classes of higher animals, which have red blood, we have heard of no well-authenticated instance of hermaphrodism, or the complete union of all the reproductive organs in one individual. True, the term hermaphrodite is often applied to certain persons in whom there is some malformation, deficiency, or excess, of the genital organs. These congenital deformities consisting of combined increase or deficiency, supernumerary organs, or transposition of them, which usually render generation physically impossible, have been called bisexual hermaphrodism and classed as monstrosities. We have many published accounts of them, hence, further reference to them here is unnecessary. We would especially refer those readers who may desire to make themselves further acquainted with this interesting subject, to the standard physiological works of Flint, Foster, Carpenter, Bennett, Dalton, and others equally eminent in this particular branch of science.
Certain theories have been advanced concerning conditions which may influence the sex of the offspring. One is that the right ovary furnishes the germs for males, the left for females that the right testicle furnishes sperm capable of fecundating the germs of males, and the left testicle, the germs of the left ovary, for females. That fecundation sometimes takes place from right to left and thus produces these abnormal variations. We merely state the hypothesis, but do not regard it as accounting for the distinction of sex, or as causing monstrosities, though it is somewhat plausible as a theory, and is not easily disproved. In the lower order of animals, as sheep and swine, one of the testicles has been removed, and there resulted afterward both male and female progeny, so that the theory seems to lack facts for a foundation.
We sometimes witness in the child excessive development, as five fingers, a large cranium, which results in dropsical effusion, or deficient brain, as in idiots; sometimes a hand or arm is lacking, or possibly there is a dual connection, as in the case of the Siamese twins; or, two heads united on one body. It is difficult to give any satisfactory explanation of these abnormal developments. From age to age, the type is constant, and preserves a race-unity. The crossings of the races are only transient deviations, not capable of perpetuation, and quickly return again to the original stock. This force is persistent, for inasmuch as the individual represents the race, so does his offspring represent the parental characteristics, in tastes, proclivities, and morals, as well as in organic resemblances. This constancy is unaccountable, and more mysterious than the occasional malformation of germs in the early period of foetal life. If to every deviation from that original form and structure, which gives character to the productions of nature, we apply the term monster, we shall find but very few, and from this whole class there will be a very small number indeed of sexual malformations. If the sexes be deprived of the generative organs, they approach each other in disposition and appearance. All those who are partly male and partly female in their organization, unite, to a certain extent, the characteristics of both sexes. When the female loses her prolific powers, many of her sexual peculiarities and attractions wane.
DIOECIOUS REPRODUCTION.
Dioecious is a word derived from the Greek, and signifies two households; hence, dioecious reproduction is sexual generation by male and female individuals. Each is distinguished by sexual characteristics. The male sexual organs are complete in one individual, and all the female organs belong to a separate feminine organization. In some of the vertebrates, impregnation does not require sexual congress; in other words, fecundation may take place externally. The female fish of some species first deposits her ova, and afterwards the male swims to that locality and fertilizes them with sperm.
In higher orders of animals, fecundation occurs internally, the conjunction of the sperm and germ cells requiring the conjugation of the male and female sexual organs. The sperm-cells of the male furnish the quickening principle, which sets in play all the generative energies, while the germ-cell, susceptible to its vivifying presence, responds with all the conditions necessary to evolution. The special laboratory which furnishes spermatic material is the testes, while the stroma of the ovaries contributes the germ-cell. Several different modes of reproducing are observed when fecundation occurs within the body, which vary according to the peculiarities and organization of the female.
MODES OF DIOECIOUS REPRODUCTION.--A very familiar illustration of one mode is found in the common domestic fowl, the egg of which vivified within the ovarium, is afterward expelled and hatched by the simple agency of warmth. This mode of reproduction is called oviparous generation.
The ovaries, as well as all their latent germs, are remarkably influenced by the first fecundation. It seems to indicate monogamy as the rule of higher sexual reproduction. The farmer understands that if he wishes to materially improve his cows, the first offspring must be begotten by a better, purer breed, and all that follow will be essentially benefited, even if not so well sired. Neither will the best blood exhibit its most desirable qualities in the calves whose mothers have previously carried inferior stock. So that there are sexual ante-natal influences which may deteriorate the quality of the progeny. The Jews understood this principle, in the raising up of sons and daughters unto a deceased brother. The fact that the sexual influence of a previous conception is not lost, is illustrated when, in a second marriage, the wife bears a son or daughter resembling bodily or mentally, or in both of these respects the former husband. This indicates a union for life by natural influences which never die out.
With some species of fish and reptiles, the egg is impregnated internally, and the process of laying commences immediately, but it proceeds so slowly through the excretory passages, that it is hatched and born alive. This is called ovo-viviparous generation.
As we rise in the scale of organization, animals are more completely developed, and greater economy is displayed in their preservation. The germ passes from the ovary into an organ prepared for its reception and growth, to which, after fecundation, it becomes attached, and where it remains until sufficiently developed to maintain respiratory life. This organ is called the womb, or uterus, and is peculiar to most mammalia. This mode of reproduction is termed viviparous generation.
The kangaroo and oppossum are provided with a pouch attached to the abdomen, which receives the young born at an early stage of development. They remain in contact with the mammæ, from which they obtain their nourishment, until their growth is sufficiently completed to maintain an independent existence. This is called marsupial generation. The variety of reproduction which is most interesting, is that of the human species, and is called viviparous generation. It includes the functions of copulation, fecundation, gestation, parturition, and lactation.
For the full and perfect development of mankind, both mental and physical chastity is necessary. The health demands abstinence from unlawful intercourse. Therefore children should not be allowed to read impure works of fiction, which tend to inflame the mind and excite the passions. Only in total abstinence from illicit pleasures is there moral safety and health, while integrity, peace, and happiness, are the conscious rewards of virtue. Impurity travels downward with intemperance, obscenity, and corrupting diseases, to degradation and death. A dissolute, licentious, free-and-easy life is filled with the dregs of human suffering, iniquity, and despair. The penalties which follow a violation of the law of chastity are found to be severe and swiftly retributive.
The union of the sexes in holy matrimony is a law of nature finding sanction in both morals and legislation. Even some of the lower animals unite in this union for life, and instinctively observe the law of conjugal fidelity with a consistency which might put to blush other animals more highly endowed. It is important to discuss this subject and understand our social evils, as well as the unnatural desires of the sexes, which must be controlled or they lead to ruin. Sexual propensities are possessed by all, and they must be held in abeyance, until they are exercised for legitimate purposes. Hence parents ought to understand the value of mental and physical labor to elevate and strengthen the intellectual and moral faculties of their children, to develop the muscular system and direct the energies of the blood into healthful channels. Vigorous employment of mind and body engrosses the vital energies and diverts them from undue excitement of the sexual desires.
Sexual generation by pairing individuals is the most economical mode of propagating the species. The lower orders of animals possess wonderful multiplicative powers and their faculty for reproduction is offset by various destructive forces. The increased ability for self-maintenance implies diminished reproductive energy; hence the necessity for greater economy and safety in rearing the young. As certain larvae and insects increase, the birds which feed upon them become more numerous. When this means of support becomes inadequate, these same birds diminish in number in proportion to the scarcity of their food. Many have remarked that very prolific seasons are followed by unusual mortality, just as periods of uncommon prosperity precede those of severe disaster.
The increased mental and moral cultivation of mankind imposes upon them the necessity for greater physical culture. "Wiser and weaker," is a trite saying, and means that the exercise of the higher nature discloses the equivalent necessity of culturing the body, in order to support the increasing expenditures of the former. Mental and moral discipline are essential for a proper understanding how to provide for the body, for physical training increases the capacity of the individual for self-preservation. Constant vigilance is the price of health as well as of liberty.
It is an interesting physiological fact that, while the growth and development of the individual are rapidly progressing, the reproductive powers remain almost inactive, and that the commencement of reproduction not only indicates an arrest of growth, but, in a great measure, contributes toward it. From infancy to puberty, the body and its individual organs, structurally as well as functionally, are in a state of gradual and progressive evolution. Men and women generally increase in stature until the twenty-fifth year, and it is safe to assume that perfection of function is not established until maturity of bodily development is completed. Solidity and strength are represented in the organization of the male, grace, and beauty in that of the female. His broad shoulders represent physical power and the right of dominion, while her bosom is the symbol of love and nutrition. The father encounters hardships, struggles against difficulties, and braves dangers to provide for his household; the mother tenderly supplies the infant's wants, finding relief and pleasure in imparting nourishment, and surrounds helpless infancy with an affection which is unwearied in its countless ministering attentions. Her maternal functions are indicated by greater breadth of the hips. Physical differences so influence their mental natures, that, "before experience has opened their eyes, the dreams of the young man and maiden differ." The development of either is in close sympathy with their organs of reproduction. Any defect of the latter impairs our fair ideal, and detracts from those qualities which impart excellence, and crown the character with perfections. Plainly has Nature marked out, in the organization, very different offices to be performed by the sexes, and has made these distinctions fundamental.
Likewise, Nature expresses the intention of reproduction by giving to plants and animals distinctive organs for this purpose. These are endowed with exquisite sensibility, so that their proper exercise produces enjoyment beneficial to both. Excessive sexual indulgence not only prostrates the nervous system, enfeebles the body, and drains the blood of its vivifying elements, but is inconsistent with intellectual activity, morality, and spiritual development. The most entrancing delights and consummate enjoyments are of the emotive order, ideal, abstract, and pure, so inspiring that they overpower the grosser sensual pleasures and diffuse their own sweet chastity and refining influence over all the processes of life.
Hence, the gratification of the sexual instincts should always be moderate. It should be regulated by the judgment and will, and kept within the bounds of health. No person has a moral right to carry this indulgence so far as to produce injurious consequences to either party, and he who cannot refrain from it is in no proper condition to propagate his species. In all culture there must be self-control, and the practice of self-denial at the command of love and justice is always a virtue. Self-government is the polity of our people, and we point with pride and laudable exultation to our political maxims, laws, and free institutions. The family is the prototype of society. If self-restraint be practiced in the marital relation, then the principle of self-control will carry health, strength, and morality into all parts of the commonwealth. The leading characteristics of any nation are but the reflection of the traits of its individual members, and thus the family truly typifies the practical morality and enduring character of a people.
OVULATION.
The Ovaries are those essential parts of the generative system of the human female in which the ova are matured. There are two ovaries, one on each side of the uterus, and connected with it by the Fallopian tubes; they are ovoidal bodies about an inch in diameter, and furnish the germs or ovules. These latter are very minute, seldom measuring 1/120 of an inch in diameter, and frequently are not more than half that size. The ovaries develop with the growth of the female, so that, finally, at the pubescent period, they ripen and liberate an ovum, or germ vesicle, which is carried into the uterine cavity through the Fallopian tubes. With the aid of the microscope, we find that these ova are composed of granular substance, in which is found a miniature yolk surrounded by a transparent membrane, called the zona pellucida. This yolk contains a germinal vesicle in which can be discovered a nucleus, called the germinal spot. The process of the growth of the ovaries is very gradual, and their function of ripening and discharging an ovum every month into the Fallopian tubes and uterus is not developed until between the twelfth and fifteenth years.
This period, which indicates, by the feelings and ideas, the desires and will, that the subjects are capable of procreation, is called puberty. The mind acquires new and more delicate perceptions, the person becomes plumper, the mammæ enlarge, and there is grace and perfection in every movement, a conscious completeness for those relations of life for which this function prepares them. The period of puberty is also indicated by
MENSTRUATION.
The catamenial discharge naturally follows the ripening and liberation of an ovum, and as the ovaries furnish one of these each month, this monthly flow is termed the menses (the plural of the Latin word mensis, which signifies a month). The menstrual flow continues from three to five days, and is merely the exudation of ordinary venous blood through the mucous lining of the cavity of the uterus. At this time, the nervous system of females is much more sensitive, and from the fact that there is greater aptitude to conception immediately before and after this period, it is supposed that the sexual feeling is then the strongest. When impregnation occurs immediately before the appearance of the menses, their duration is generally shortened, but not sufficiently to establish the suspicion that conception has taken place. The germ is the contribution of the female, which provides the conditions which only require the vivifying principle of the sperm for the development of another being. The period of aptitude for conception terminates at the time both ovulation and menstruation cease, which, unless brought about earlier by disease, usually occurs about the forty-fifth year of her age.
FECUNDATION.
Since in the beginning God created male and female, and said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," it is evident that what was originated by creation must be continued by procreation. The process of generation the reader will find described on pages 12 and 13. Then commences a wonderful series of transforming operations, rudimentary changes preliminary to the formation of tissues, structures and functions, which finally qualify the organism for independent existence. The ovum, when expelled from the ovary, enters the fimbriated, or fringe-like extremity of the Fallopian tube, to commence at once its descent to the uterus. The process of passing through this minute tube varies in different animals. In birds and reptiles, the bulk of the expelled ova is so great as to completely fill up the tube, and it is assisted in its downward course, partly by its own weight and partly by the peristaltic action of the muscular coat of the canal. In the human subject, however, the ova are so minute that nature has supplied a special agent for their direct transmission; otherwise they might be retained, and not reach their destination. Accordingly, the fimbriated, trumpet-shaped extremity of the Fallopian tubes, which is nearest to the ovaries, and, consequently from the ovary first receives the ovum when expelled; is provided with a series of small hairs, termed cilia, forming the lining or basement membrane of the tubes, and, the movements of these cilia being towards the uterus, transmit, by their vibrating motion, the ovum from the ovary, through the Fallopian tubes, to the uterus.
The mature ovum, however, is not by itself capable of being converted into the embryo. It requires fecundation by the spermatic fluid of the male, and this may take place immediately on the expulsion of the ovum from the ovary, or during its passage through the Fallopian tube, or, according to Bischoff, Coste, and others, in the cavity of the uterus, or even upon the surface of the ovary. Should impregnation, however, fail, the ovum gradually loses its vitality, and is eventually expelled by the uterine secretions. It occasionally happens that the descent of the impregnated ovum is arrested, and the formation of the embryo commences in the ovary. This is termed ovarian pregnancy. Or again, the ovum may be arrested in its passage through the Fallopian tube, causing what is termed tubal pregnancy; or, after it has been expelled from the ovary, it may fail to be received by the fimbriated extremity, and escape into the cavity of the abdomen, forming what has been termed ventral pregnancy. If the microscopic germ lodges in some slight interstice of fiber, during its passage through the walls of the uterus, it may be detained long enough to fix itself there, and when this occurs, it is termed interstitial pregnancy. All these instances of extra-uterine pregnancy may necessitate the employment of surgical skill, in order that they may terminate with safety to the mother. Their occurrence, however, is very rare.
The intense nervous excitement produced by the act of coition is immediately followed by a corresponding degree of depression, and a too frequent repetition of it is necessarily injurious to health. The secretions of the seminal fluid being, like other secretions, chiefly under the influence of the nervous system, an expenditure of them requires a corresponding renewal. This renewal greatly taxes the corporeal powers, inducing lassitude, nervousness, and debility. It is a well known fact that the highest degree of mental and bodily vigor is inconsistent with more than a moderate indulgence in sexual intercourse.
To ensure strength, symmetry, and high intellectual culture in the human race, requires considerable care. Consideration should be exercised in the choice of a companion for life. Constitutional as well as hereditary ailments demand our closest attention. Age has also its judicious barriers. As before stated, when reproduction commences, growth, as a rule, ceases, therefore, it is inexpedient that matrimony should be consummated before the parties have arrived at mature stature.
PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION.
Much has been written upon the question whether married people have a right to decline the responsibilities of wedlock. The practice of inducing abortion is not only immoral but criminal, because it is destructive to both the health of the mother and the life of the embryo being. If both the parties to a marriage be feeble, or if they be not temperamentally adapted to each other, so that their children would be deformed, insane, or idiotic, then to beget offspring would be a flagrant wrong. If the mother is already delicate, possessing feeble constitutional powers, she is inadequate to the duties of maternity, and it is not right to lay such burdens upon her. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, which all ought to respect. The woman may be able to discharge the duties of a loving wife and companion, when she cannot fulfill those of child-bearing. If the husband love his wife as he ought, he will resign all the pleasure necessary to secure her exemption from the condition of maternity. It seems to us, that it is a great wickedness, unpardonable even, to be so reckless of consequences, and so devoid of all feeling, as to expose a frail, feeble, affectionate woman to those perils which almost insure her death. To enforce pregnancy under such circumstances is a crime. Every true man, therefore, should rather practice self-control and forbearance, than entail on his wife such certain misery, if not danger to life.
Undoubtedly, the trial is great, but if a sacrifice be required, let the husband forbear the gratification of passions which will assuredly be the means of developing in his delicate wife symptoms that may speedily hurry her into a premature grave. Before she has recovered from the effects of bearing, nursing, and rearing one child, ere she has regained proper tone and vigor of body and mind, she is unexpectedly overtaken, surprised by the manifestation of symptoms which again indicate pregnancy. Children thus begotten are not apt to be hardy and long-lived. From the love that parents feel for their posterity, from their wishes for their success, from their hopes that they may be useful from every consideration for their future well-being, let them exercise precaution and forbearance, until the wife becomes sufficiently healthy and enduring to bequeath her own vital stamina to the child she bears.
From what has been said on this subject, it behooves the prudent husband to weigh well the injurious, nay criminal results which may follow his lust. Let him not endanger the health, and it may be the life, of his loving and confiding wife through a lack of self-denial. Let him altogether refrain, rather than be the means of untold misery and, perhaps, the destruction of the person demanding his most cherished love and protection. On so important a subject, we feel we should commit an unpardonable wrong were we not to speak thus plainly and openly. An opportunity has been afforded us, which it would be reprehensible to neglect. We shall indeed feel we have been amply rewarded, if these suggestive remarks of ours tend in any way to remove or alleviate the sufferings of an uncomplaining and loving wife. Our sympathies, always susceptible to the conditions of sorrow and suffering, have been enlisted to give faithfully, explicitly, and plainly, warnings of danger and exhortations to prudence and nothing remains for us but to maintain the principles of morality, and leave to the disposal of a wise and overruling Providence the mystery of all seemingly untoward events. In every condition of life, evils arise, and most of those which are encountered are avoidable. Humanity should be held accountable for those evils which it might, but does not shun.
By a statute of the national government, prevention of pregnancy is considered a punishable offense; whereas every physician is instructed by our standard writers and lecturers on this subject, that not only prevention is necessary in many instances, but even abortion must sometimes be produced in order to save the mother's life. As we view the matter, the law of the national government asserts the ruling principle, and the exceptions to it must be well established by evidence, in order to fully justify such procedure. The family physician may, with the concurrence of other medical counselors, be justified, in rare cases, in advising means for the prevention of conception, but he should exercise this professional duty only when the responsibility is shared by other members of the profession, and the circumstances fully and clearly warrant such a practice.
After fecundation, the length of time before conception takes place is variously estimated. Should impregnation occur at the ovary or within the Fallopian tubes, usually about a week elapses before the fertilized germ enters the uterus, so that ordinarily the interval between the act of insemination and that of conception varies from eight to fourteen days.
DOUBLE CONCEPTION.
If two germs be evolved simultaneously, each may be impregnated by spermatozoa, and a twin pregnancy be the result. This is by no means a rare occurrence. It is very unusual, however, to have one birth followed by another after an interval of three or four months, and each babe present the evidences of full maturity. Perhaps such occurrences may be accounted for on the supposition that the same interval of time elapses between the impregnation of the two germs as there is difference observed in their birth; that after the act of insemination, sperm was carried to each ovary; that one had matured a germ ready for fecundation, then impregnation and conception immediately followed, and the decidua of the uterus hermetically sealed both Fallopian tubes, and thus securely retained the sperm within the other Fallopian canal. The stimulus of the sperm so pent up causes that ovary to mature a germ, although it may do so slowly, and after two or three months it is perfected, fertilized, and a second conception occurs within the uterus. If each embryo observe a regular period of growth and each be born at maturity, there must be an interval of two or three months between their births. But it is far more common for the parturition of the first, displaying signs of full maturity, to coincide with the birth of a second which is immature and which cannot sustain respiratory life. The birth of the latter is brought about prematurely, by the action of the uterus in expelling the matured child.
UTERINE PREGNANCY.
There are many who manifest a laudable desire to understand the physiology of conception, the changes which take place, and the order of their natural occurrence. When impregnation takes place at the ovaries or within the Fallopian tubes, there is exuded upon the inner surface of the womb a peculiar nutritious substance. It flows out of the minute porous openings surrounding the termination of the Fallopian tube within the uterine cavity, and, thus, is in readiness to receive the germ, and retain it there until it becomes attached. Undoubtedly, the germ imbibes materials from this matter for its nurture and growth. This membranous substance is termed the decidua, and disappears after conception is insured. Two membranes form around the embryo; the inner one is called the amnion, the outer one the chorion. Both serve for the protection of the embryo, and the inner one contains the liquor amnii, in which it floats during intra-uterine life. Immediately after conception, the small glands in the neck of the uterus usually throw out a sticky secretion, filling the canal, or uniting its sides, so that nothing can enter or leave the uterine cavity.
The fertilized ovum rapidly develops. After its conception it imbibes nourishment, and there is a disposition in fluids to pass into it, through its delicately-organized membranes. If this process is not involuntary, it is, at all events, at the convenience and use of the developing germ. After three months the embryo is termed the foetus. Its fluids are then so much more highly organized, that some of them are tinged with sanguine hues, and thenceforward acquire the characteristics of red blood. Out of red blood, blood-vessels are formed, and from the incipient development of the heart follow faint lines of arteries, and the engineers of nutrition survey a circulatory system, perfecting the vascular connections by supplementing the arteries with a complete net-work of veins and capillaries.
THE PLACENTA OR AFTERBIRTH.
Whenever conception occurs, a soft, spongy substance is formed between the uterus and the growing ovum, called the placenta. It is composed of membrane, cellular tissue, blood-vessels, and connecting filaments. The principal use of this organ seems to be to decarbonate the blood of the foetus, and to supply it with oxygen. It performs the same function for the foetus that the lungs do for the organism after birth. It allows the blood of the foetus to come into very close contact with that of the mother, from which it receives a supply of oxygen, and to which it gives up carbonic acid. This interchange of gases takes place in the placenta, or between it and the uterus, through the intervening membranes. This decarbonating function requires the agency of the maternal lungs, for the purpose of oxygenating the mother's blood.
The placenta is attached to the uterus by simple adhesion. True, in some instances, morbid adhesion takes place, or a growing together in consequence of inflammation, but the natural junction is one merely of contact, the membranes of the placenta spreading out upon the cavity of the uterus, so that, finally, the former may be entirely removed without a particle of disturbance or injury to the latter. Formerly, it was supposed that the placental vessels penetrated into the substance of the uterus. We know now there is no such continuation of the vessels of the one into the other. The decarbonation of the blood requires the placental and uterine membranes to be in contact with each other.
If the union were vascular, the mother's blood would circulate in the foetal body, and the impulses of the maternal heart might prove too strong for the delicate organism of the embryo. Besides, the separation of the placenta from the uterus might prove fatal to both parent and offspring. The placenta is only a temporary organ, and when its functions are no longer required, it is easily and safely removed.
THE UMBILICAL CORD.
The foetal blood is transmitted to and fro between the body of the child and the placenta, by a cord which contains two arteries and one vein. This is called the umbilical cord, because it enters the body at the middle of the abdominal region, or umbilicus. It is composed, also, of its own proper membranous sheath, or skin, and cellular tissues, besides the blood-vessels. Two months after pregnancy, this cord can be seen, when it commences to grow rapidly.
QUICKENING.
Not until the mother feels motion is she said to be quick with child. That is, the child must be old and strong enough to communicate a physical impulse, which the mother can distinctly perceive, before it is regarded as having received life. This is a fallacy, for the germ has to be endowed with life before organization can begin. The act of impregnation communicates the vital principle, and from that moment it starts upon its career of development. A long period elapses after this occurs before it can make the mother feel its motions. Before quickening, the attempt to destroy the foetus is not considered so grave a crime by our laws, but after this quickening takes place, it is deemed a felony.
THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE PREGNANCY.
The expediency and the moral right to prematurely terminate pregnancy must be admitted when weighty and sufficient reasons for it exist. Such a course should never be undertaken, however, without the advice and approval of the family physician, and, whenever it is possible, the counsel of another medical practitioner should be obtained. There may be so great a malformation of the pelvic bones as to preclude delivery at full term, or, as in some instances, the pregnant condition may endanger the life of the mother, because she is not able to retain nourishment upon the stomach. In such cases only, is interference warranted, and even then the advice of some well-informed physician should be first obtained, to make sure that the life of the mother is endangered before so extreme a measure is resorted to.
Those who are qualified for maternal duties should not undertake to defeat the intentions of nature, simply because they love ease and dislike responsibility. Such persons may be considered genteel ladies, but, practically, they are indifferent to the claims of society and posterity. How such selfishness contrasts with the glorious, heroic, Spartan spirit of the young woman who consulted us in reference to the acceptance of a tempting offer of marriage! She was below medium size and delicately organized. She hesitated in her answer, because she was uncertain as to her duty to herself, and to her proposed husband, and on account of the prospective contingencies of matrimony. After she was told that it was doubtful whether she could discharge the obligations of maternity with safety to herself, and yet that she might prove to her intended husband a true and valuable wife, she quickly answered, her black eyes radiant with the high purpose of her soul: "If I assent to this offer, I shall accept the condition and its consequences also, even if pregnancy be my lot and I know it will cost me my life!" She acceded to the proposal, and years found them one in happiness; then a daughter was born, but the bearing and nursing were too much for her delicate constitution, and she continued to sink until she found rest in the grave. Of all her beautiful and noble sayings, none reflect more moral grandeur of spirit than the one in which she expressed her purpose to prove true to posterity.
THE SIGNS OF PREGNANCY.
The symptoms which indicate pregnancy are cessation of the menses, enlargement of the mammæ, nausea, especially in the morning, distention of the abdomen, and movement of the foetus. A married woman has reason to suspect that she may have conceived, when, at the proper time, she fails to menstruate, especially when she knows that she is liable to become pregnant. A second menstrual failure strengthens this suspicion, although there are many other causes which might prevent the appearance of the menses, such as disease of the uterus, general debility, or taking cold, and all of these should be taken into account. In the absence of all apparent influences calculated to obstruct the menses, the presumption ordinarily is that pregnancy is the cause of their non-appearance. The evidence is still more conclusive when the mammæ and abdomen enlarge after experiencing morning sickness. Notwithstanding all these symptoms, the audible sound of the heart, or the movements of the foetus, are the only infallible signs of a pregnant condition.
THE DURATION OF PREGNANCY.
The ordinary duration of pregnancy is about forty weeks, or 280 days. It is difficult to foretell exactly when a pregnancy will be completed, for it cannot be known precisely when it began. Some gestations are more protracted than others, but the average duration is the time we have given. A very reasonable way to compute the term, is to reckon three months back from the day when the menses ceased and then add five days to that time, which will be the date of the expected time of confinement. It is customary, also, for women to count from the middle of the month after the last appearance of the menses, and then allow ten lunar months for the term. This computation generally proves correct, except in those instances in which conception takes place immediately before the fast appearance of the catamenia. A few women can forecast the time of labor from the occurrence of quickening, by allowing eighteen weeks for the time which has elapsed since conception, and twenty-two more for the time yet to elapse before the confinement. With those in whom quickening occurs regularly in a certain week of pregnancy, this calculation may prove nearly correct.
The English law fixes no precise limit for the legitimacy of the child. In France a child is regarded as lawfully begotten if born within three hundred days after the death or departure of the husband. There are a sufficient number of cases on record to show that gestation may be prolonged two, and even three, weeks beyond the ordinary, or average term. The variation of time may be thus accounted for: after insemination, a considerable interval elapses before fecundation takes place, and the passage of the fertilized germ from the ovary to the uterus is also liable to be retarded. There are many circumstances and conditions which might serve to diminish its ordinary rate of progress, and postpone the date of conception. This would materially lengthen the apparent time of gestation.
It is likewise difficult to determine the shortest period at which gestation may terminate, and the child be able to survive. A child may be born and continue to live for some months, after twenty-four or twenty-five weeks of gestation; it was so decided, at least, in an ecclesiastical trial.
We have not the space to describe minutely, or at length, the formation and growth of the foetal structures, and trace them separately from their origin to their completion at the birth of the child. The student of medicine must gain information by consulting large works and exhaustive treatises on this interesting subject.
What trifling contingencies defeat vitality! Conception may be prevented by acrid secretions, the result of disease of the reproductive organs. Leucorrheal matter may destroy the vitalizing power of the sperm-cells. There are many ways, even after impregnation, of compromising the existence of the frail embryo. Accidents, injuries, falls, blows, acute diseases, insufficient nutrition and development, in fact, a great variety of occurrences may destroy the life of the embryo, or foetus. After birth, numerous diseases menace the child. By what constant care must it ever be surrounded, and how often is it snatched from the very jaws of death!
What, then, is man but simply a germ, evolving higher powers, and destined for a purer and nobler existence! His latent life secretly emerges from mysterious obscurity, is incarnated, and borne upon the flowing stream of time to a spiritual destination--to realms of immortality! As he nears those ever-blooming shores, the eye of faith, illuminated by the inspired word, dimly discerns the perennial glories. Quickened by Faith, Hope, and Love, his spirit is transplanted into the garden of paradise, the Eden of happiness, redeemed, perfected, and made glorious in the divine image of Him who hath said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE."
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I. HYGIENE DEFINED.--PURE AIR
The object of hygiene is the preservation of health. Hitherto, we have considered, at some length, the science of functions, or Physiology, and now, under the head of Hygiene, we will give an outline of the means of maintaining the functional integrity of the system. It is difficult to avoid including under this head Preventive Medicine, the special province of which is to abate, remove, or destroy the many causes of disease.
The Greeks bestowed divine honors upon Aesculapius, because he remedied the evils of mankind and healed the sick. The word hygiene is derived from Hygeia, the name of the Greek goddess of health. As male and female are made one in wedlock, so Medicine and Hygiene, restoration and preservation, are inseparably united.
Hygiene inculcates sanitary discipline, medicine, remedial discipline; hygiene prescribes healthful agencies, medical theory and practice, medicinal agencies; hygiene ministers with salubrious and salutary agents, medicine assuages with rectifying properties and qualities; hygiene upholds and sustains, medical practice corrects and heals; the one is preservative and conservative, the other curative and restorative. These discriminations are as radical as health and sickness, as distinct as physiology and pathology, and to confound them is as unnatural as to look for the beauties of health in the chamber of sickness.
The true physician brings to his aid Physiology, Hygiene, and Medicine, and combines the science of the former with the art of the latter, that restoration may be made permanent, and the health preserved by the aid of hygiene. But when any one makes Hygiene exclusively the physician, or deals wholly in hygienic regulations with little respect for physiology, or lavishly advertises with hygienic prefixes, we may at once consider it a display, not of genuine scientific knowledge, but only of the ignorance of a quack. Some of the modern twaddle about health is a conglomeration of the poorest kind of trash, expressing and inculcating more errors and whims than it does common sense. Many persons dilate upon these subjects with amazing flippancy, their mission seeming to be to traduce the profession rather than to act as help-mates and assistants. We do not believe that there is any real argument going on between the educated members of the medical profession but rather that the senseless clamor we occasionally hear comes only from the stampede of some routed, demoralized company of quacks.
In the following pages we shall introduce to the reader's attention several important hygienic subjects, although there are many more that ought to receive special notice. Such as we do mention, demand universal attention, because a disregard of the conditions which we shall enumerate, is fraught with great danger. Our lives are lengthened or shortened by the observance or neglect of the rules of common sense, and these do not require any great personal sacrifice, or the practice of absurd precautions.
PURE AIR FOR RESPIRATION.
Ordinary atmospheric air contains nearly 2,100 parts of oxygen and 7,900 of nitrogen, and about three parts of carbonic acid, in 10,000 parts; expired air contains about 470 parts of carbonic acid, and only between 1500 and 1600 parts of oxygen, while the quantity of nitrogen undergoes little or no alteration. Thus air which has been breathed has lost about five per cent. of oxygen and has gained nearly five per cent. of carbonic acid. In addition the expired air contains a greater or less quantity of highly decomposable animal matter, and, however dry the atmospheric air may be, the expired air is always saturated with watery vapor, and, no matter what the temperature of the external air may be, that of the exhaled air is always nearly as warm as the blood. An adult man on a average breathes about sixteen times in a minute and at every inspiration takes in about thirty cubic inches of air, and at every expiration exhales about the same amount. Hence, it follows that about 16-2/3 cubic feet of air are passed through the lungs of an adult man every hour, and deprived of oxygen and charged with carbonic acid to the amount of nearly five per cent. The more nearly the composition of the external air approaches that of the expired air, the slower will be the diffusion of carbonic acid outwards and of oxygen inwards, and the more charged with carbonic acid and deficient in oxygen will the blood in the lungs become. Asphyxia takes place whenever the proportion of carbonic acid in the external air reaches ten per cent., providing the oxygen is diminished in like proportion, and it does not matter whether this condition of the external air is produced by shutting out fresh air from a room or by increasing the number of persons who are consuming the same air; or by permitting the air to be deprived of oxygen by combustion by a fire. A deficiency of oxygen and an accumulation of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, produce injurious effects, however, long before the asphyxiating point is attained. Headache, drowsiness, and uneasiness occur when less than one per cent. of the oxygen of the atmosphere is replaced by other matters, and the constant breathing of such an atmosphere lowers vitality and predisposes to disease.
Therefore, every human being should be supplied, by proper ventilation, with a sufficient supply of fresh air. Every adult individual ought to have at least 800 cubic feet of air-space to himself, and this space ought to communicate freely with the external atmosphere by means of direct or indirect channels. Hence, a sleeping-room for one adult person should not be less than nine by ten feet in breadth and length and nine feet in height. What occurred in the Black Hole at Calcutta is an excellent illustration of the effect of vitiated air. One hundred and forty-six Englishmen were confined in a room eighteen feet square, with two small windows on one side to admit air. Ten hours after their imprisonment, only twenty-three were alive.
VENTILATION OF SCHOOL ROOMS. The depression and faintness from which many students suffer, after being confined in a poorly ventilated school room, is clearly traceable to vitiated air, while the evil is often ascribed to excessive mental exertion. The effect of ventilation upon the health of students is a subject of universal interest to parents and educators, and at present is receiving the marked attention of school authorities. Dr. F. Windsor, of Winchester, Mass., made a few pertinent remarks upon this subject in the annual report of the State Board of Health, of Massachusetts, 1874. One of the institutions, which was spoken of in the report of 1873, as a model, in the warming and ventilation of which much care had been bestowed, was visited in December, 1873. He reports as follows: "I visited several of the rooms, and found the air in all, offensive to the smell, the odor being such as one would imagine old boots, dirty clothes, and perspiration would make if boiled down together;" again, in the new model school-house the hot air enters at two registers in the floor on one side, and makes (or is supposed to make) its exit by a ventilator at the floor, on the other side of the room." The master said "the air was supposed to have some degree of intelligence, and to know that the ventilator was its proper exit." Thorough ventilation has been neglected by many school officials on account of the increased expense it causes. In our climate, during seven months at least, pure atmospheric air must be paid for. The construction of vertical ducts, the extra amount of fuel, and the attendant expenditures are the objections which, in the opinion of many persons, outweigh the health and happiness of the future generation. It is necessary for the proper ventilation of our school rooms that an adequate supply of fresh air should be admitted, which should be warmed before being admitted to the room, and which should be discharged as contaminated, after its expiration. The proper ventilation of the school room consists in the warming and introduction of fresh air from without, and the discharge of the expired and unwholesome air from within. This may be accomplished by means of doors, windows, chimneys, and finally by ventilators placed, one near the level of the floor, and the other near the ceiling of the room. The ventilators ought to be arranged on the opposite sides of the room, in order to insure a current, and an abundant supply of air. When trustees and patrons realize that pure air is absolutely essential to health, and that their children are being slowly poisoned by the foul air of school rooms, then they will construct our halls of learning with a due regard for the laws of hygiene, and students will not droop under their tasks on account of the absence of Nature's most bountiful gift, pure air.
VENTILATION OF FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. This is a subject which demands the immediate attention of manufacturers and employers. The odors of oil, coal gas, and animal products, render the air foul and stagnant, and often give rise to violent diseases among the operatives. From two to four hundred persons are often confined in workshops six hundred feet long, with no means of ventilation except windows on one side only. The air is breathed and re-breathed, until the operatives complain of languor and headache, which they attribute to overwork. The real cause of the headache is the inhalation of foul air at every expansion of the lungs. If the proprietors would provide efficient means for ventilating their workshops, the cost of construction would be repaid with compound interest, in the better health of their operatives and the consequent increase of labor. Our manufacturers must learn and practice the great principle of political economy, namely, that the interests of the laborer and employer are mutual.
VENTILATION OF OUR DWELLINGS. Not less important is the ventilation of our dwellings; each apartment should be provided with some channel for the escape of the noxious vapors constantly accumulating. Most of the tenements occupied by the poor of our cities are literally dens of poison. Their children inhale disease with their earliest breath. What wonder that our streets are filled with squalid, wan-visaged children! Charity, indeed, visits these miserable homes, bringing garments and food to their half-famished inmates; but she has been slow to learn that fresh air is just as essential to life as food or clothing. Care should be taken by the public authorities of every city, that its tenement houses do not degenerate into foul hovels, like those of the poor English laborer, so graphically portrayed by Dickens. But ill-ventilated rooms are not found exclusively in the abodes of the poor. True, in the homes of luxury, the effect of vitiated air is modified by food, etc. Men of wealth give far more attention to the architecture and adornment of their houses, to costly decorations and expensive furniture, than to proper ventilation. Farmers, too, are careless in the construction of their cottages. Their dwellings are often built, for convenience, in too close proximity to the barn. Because they do not construct a suitable sewer or drain, the filth and refuse food is thrown out of the back door, where it accumulates and undergoes putrefaction; the vitiated air penetrates the interior of the house, and, there being no means of ventilation, it remains to be breathed by the occupants. The result is, that for the sake of saving a few dollars, which ought to be expended in the construction of necessary flues and sewers, the farmer often sees the child he prizes far more than his broad acres gradually decline, or suddenly fall a victim to fevers or malignant disease. Parents, make your homes healthy, let in the pure, fresh air and bright sunlight, so that your conscience may never upbraid you with being neglectful of the health and lives of your little ones.
SITE FOR HOMES.
MALARIA. When about to construct our residences, besides securing proper ventilation and adequate drainage, we ought to select the location for a home on dry soil. Low levels, damp surroundings, and marshy localities not only breed malaria and fevers, but are a prolific cause of colds, coughs, and consumption. Care should be taken not to locate a dwelling where the natural currents of air, or high winds, will be likely to bring the poison of decayed vegetable matter from low lands. Certain brooks, boggy land, ponds, foggy localities, too much shade, all these are favorable to the development of disease. Then the walls of a building should be so constructed as to admit air between the exterior and interior surfaces, otherwise the interior of the house will be damp and unwholesome. In the dead of winter in northern latitudes the house ought to be kept slightly tempered with warmth, both night and day, a condition very favorable to the introduction and change of atmospheric currents. The invigorating tendencies of a dry, pure atmosphere are remarkably beneficial, while air charged with moisture and decay is exceedingly baneful, introducing diseases under various forms.
Neither should the dwelling be shaded by dense foliage. The dampness of the leaves tends to attract malaria. Trees growing a little distance from the house, however, obstruct the transmission of unhealthy vapors arising beyond them. Malaria generally lurks near the surface of the earth, and seems to be more abundant in the night time. Persons sleeping in the upper story of a house may escape its morbid influence, while those occupying apartments on the lower floor, become affected.
DAMP CELLARS.
Damp cellars, under residences, are a fruitful cause of disease. Dr. Sanford B. Hunt, in an article in the Newark Daily Advertiser, speaking of the recent epidemic of diphtheria in New York City, says:
"Pestilences that come bodily, like cholera, are faced and beaten by sanitary measures. Those which come more subtly need for their defeat only a higher detective ability and a closer study of causes, many of which are known, but hidden under the cellars of our houses, and which at last are only preventable by public authority and at public expense in letting out the imprisoned dampness which saturates the earth on which our dwellings are built. Where wood rots, men decay. This is clearly shown in the sanitary map printed in the Times. In the great district surrounding Central Park, and which participates in its drainage system, there are no cases. On the whole line of Fifth Avenue there are none. The exempt districts are clearly defined by the character of the soil, drainage, and sewerage, and by the topography, which either has natural or artificial drainage, but most of which is so dry that only surface-water and house-filth--which does not exist in those palaces--can affect the health of the residents. But in the tenement houses and on the made lands where running streams have been filled in and natural springs choked up by earth fillings, diphtheria finds a nidus in which to develop itself. The sanitary map coincides precisely with the topographic map made by Gen. Viele. Where he locates buried springs and water-courses, there we find the plague spots of diphtheria and in the same places, on previous maps prepared by the Board of Health, we find other low types and stealthy diseases, such as typhoid and irruptive fevers, and there we shall find them again when the summer and autumnal pestilences have yielded place to those which belong to the indoor poisoned air in the winter. The experience of other cities, notably London and Dublin, once plague spots and now as healthy as any spot on earth, proves that most of the causations of disease are within the control of the competent sanitary engineer, even in localities crowded beyond American knowledge, and houses built upon soil saturated for centuries with the offal of successive and uncleanly generations. Wet earth, kept wet by the boiling up of imprisoned springs, is a focus of disease. Dry earth is one of the most perfect deodorizers, the best of oxydizers and absorbents, destroying the germs of disease with wonderful certainty. On those two facts rests the theory of public hygiene."
DUST AND DISEASE.
The air we breathe is heavily loaded with minute particles of floating dust, their presence being revealed only by intense local illumination. Professor Tyndall says: "solar light, in passing through a dark room, reveals its track by illuminating the dust floating in the air. 'The sun,' says Daniel Culverwell, 'discovers atoms, though they be invisible by candle-light, and makes them dance naked in his beams.'"
After giving the details and results of a series of experiments in which he attempted to extract the dust from the air of the Royal Institute by passing it through a tube containing fragments of glass wetted with concentrated sulphuric acid, and thence through a second tube containing fragments of marble wetted with a strong solution of caustic potash, which experiments were attended with perfect failure, the Professor continues, "I tried to intercept this floating matter in various ways; and on the day just mentioned, prior to sending the air through the drying apparatus, I carefully permitted it to pass over the tip of a spirit-lamp flame. The floating matter no longer appeared, having been burnt up by the flame. It was, therefore, of organic origin. I was by no means prepared for this result; for I had thought that the dust of our air was, in great part, inorganic and non-combustile." In a foot note he says, "according to an analysis kindly furnished me by Dr. Percy, the dust collected from the walls of the British Museum contains fully fifty per cent of inorganic matter. I have every confidence in the results of this distinguished chemist; they show that the floating dust of our rooms is, as it were, winnowed from the heavier matter." Again he says: "the air of our London rooms is loaded with this organic dust, nor is the country air free from its presence. However ordinary daylight may permit it to disguise itself, a sufficiently powerful beam causes dust suspended in air to appear almost as a semi-solid. Nobody could, in the first instance, without repugnance, place the mouth at the illuminated focus of the electric beam and inhale the thickly-massed dust revealed there. Nor is the repugnance abolished by the reflection that, although we do not see the floating particles, we are taking them into our lungs every hour and minute of our lives." "The notion was expressed by Kircher and favored by Linnaeus, that epidemic diseases are due to germs which float in the atmosphere, enter the body, and produce disturbance by the development within the body of parasitic life. While it was struggling against great odds, this theory found an expounder and a defender in the President of this institution. At a time when most of his medical brethren considered it a wild dream, Sir Henry Holland contended that some form of the germ-theory was probably true." Professor Tyndall proposes means by the application of which air loaded with noxious particles may be freed from them before entering the air passages. The following embodies his suggestions on this point:
COTTON-WOOL RESPIRATOR.
"I now empty my lungs as perfectly as possible, and placing a handful of cotton-wool against my mouth and nostrils, inhale through it. There is no difficulty in thus filling the lungs with air. On expiring this air through a glass tube, its freedom from floating matter is at once manifest. From the very beginning of the act of expiration the beam is pierced by a black aperture. The first puff from the lungs abolishes the illuminated dust, and puts a patch of darkness in its place; and the darkness continues throughout the entire course of the expiration. When the tube is placed below the beam and moved to and fro, the same smoke-like appearance as that obtained with a flame is observed. In short, the cotton-wool, when used in sufficient quantity, and with due care, completely intercepts the floating matter on its way to the lungs.
The application of these experiments is obvious. If a physician wishes to hold back from the lungs of his patient, or from his own, the germs or virus by which contagious disease is propagated, he will employ a cotton-wool respirator. If perfectly filtered, attendants may breathe the air unharmed. In all probability the protection of the lungs and mouth will be the protection of the entire system. For it is exceedingly probable that the germs which lodge in the air-passages, or find their way with the saliva into the stomach with its absorbent system, are those which sow in the body epidemic disease. If this be so, then disease can be warded off by carefully prepared filters of cotton-wool. I should be most willing to test their efficacy in my own person. But apart from all doubtful applications, it is perfectly certain that various noxious trades in England may be rendered harmless by the use of such filters. I have had conclusive evidence of this from people engaged in such trades. A form of respirator devised by Mr. Garrick, a hotel proprietor in Glasgow, in which inhalation and exhalation occur through two different valves, the one permitting the air to enter through the cotton-wool, and the other permitting the exit of the air direct into the atmosphere, is well adapted for this purpose. But other forms might readily be devised."
LIGHT AND HEALTH.
Our dwellings ought freely to admit the sunlight. Diseases which have baffled the skill of physicians have been known to yield when the patients were removed from dark rooms to light and cheerful apartments. Lavoisier placed light, as an agent of health, even before pure air. Plants which grow in the shade are slender and weak, and children brought up in dark rooms are pale, sallow, and rickety. It is a bad practice to avoid the sunlight through fear of spoiling the complexion, since the sun's rays are necessary to give to it the delicate tints of beauty and health. Air is necessary for the first inspiration and the last expiration of our lives, but the purity and healthfulness of the atmosphere depend upon the warming rays of the sun, while our bodies require light in order that their functions may be properly performed. We know that without solar light, there can be no proper vegetable growth, and it is equally necessary for the beauty and perfection of animal development. Our dwellings should therefore be well lighted and made as bright and cheerful as possible. Women who curtain the windows, soften the light, and tint the room with some mellow shade, may do so in order to hide their own faulty complexions. The skin of persons confined in dungeons or in deep mines becomes pale or sickly yellow, the blood grows watery, the skin blotches, and dropsy often intervenes. On the other hand, invalids carried out from darkened chambers into the bright sunlight are stimulated, the skin browns, nutrition becomes more active, the blood improves, and they become convalescent. Light is especially necessary for the healthy growth of children. There is nothing more beautiful and exhilarating than the glorious sunlight. Let its luminous, warming, and physiological forces come freely into our dwellings, enter into the chemistry of life, animate the spirits, and pervade our homes and our hearts with its joy-inspiring and health-imparting influences.
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