WORRY AND ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXI, Issue 2509, 25 August 1876, Page 2

WORRY AND ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS.

[sCLENTmO AMERICAN.] : ; To so every-day and common, a state of mind as worry, ranging, as it may, from a passing "fit of the blue?" up to the most poignant mental anxiety regarding life itself little importance ia popularly attached ; and is especially among so. excep tionally nervous and rapid a people as the Americans, the fact of a person succumbing under mental strain is- of too ordinary occurrence to give rise to extended comment. To the list of the insane immured in asylums and brought, thither through hereditary or by their own excesses, thousands are added suffering with broken minds induced by anxiety ; but the great majority of people thus affected continue in the ; r places in society, '" by no means lunatics, nor maniacs,. , nor idiots, but. nevertheless of brain unsound in parts. The world sometimes dubs them. " eccentric ;" and if they be so' distinguished, their odd habits, absence of mind, and like traits furnish rich material for the biographer ; in other cases the. eccentricities become crimes, and indiacriminating justice may declare the life forfeited because of the workings of hidden fatclties, uncontrollable, because disorganised. Worry, then, is dangerous, more so than the alcohol which kite the drunkard; for the latter involves a taste and a habit which may be put aside, the former is the creature of necessity, and creeps insidiously into every man's life. Its physiological effects, , therefore, should be clearly and adequately realised. And the knowledge of the ills may, in some instances, prevent the existence of the cause. During the early stages of dementia induced by mental anxiety, Dr Richardson tells us in his. "Diseases of Modern Life" there is nothing more than an increased tension of the minute vessels wh'ch supply the brain. In later stages, the Bubatance o? the nervous tissue itself undergoes a modification by which -its ac-* tivity is permanently -lost. These are the physiological ■ consequences, . most briefly summed up. The first symptoh is a want of full bodily vigour ; then follows craving f or ; more, work, disturbed sleep, acute sensitiveness to external impressions, and, finally, strange figures and sounds are seen and heard. This condition may continue for years, and the sufferer in time may begin to accept abnormal creations as natural. Dr Richardson cites a case of a merchant, who for weeks retained in his vision the spectra of three lights, oval ia shape, of the size of an egg, and so clearly denned to the observer than he would watch them half -consciously as they floated before him. on the wall the ceiling, or in space. In this stage of the disease lies the foundation of all hypotheses of ghost-seeing, of ecßtatics visions, and even of poetic frenzy. A curious instance directly in point, which came to our notice very recently, is that of a well-known writer on the press, who for some time past, has devoted attention to the subject of morbid ment«l coniitiofß. Tais gentleman in a letter to a daily journal, states himself to be the victim of the horrible spectacle of two men hanging frost a gal

lows, a sight which he once beheld while acting as a city reporter. The suspended corpses are clearly brought before him by the sound of rain (the execution occurred during a rainstorm), and also by the sound of laugtter, since, through some uncontrollable impulse during the hanging, he was induced to utter an untimely peal of merriment. That the writer's brain is injured, possibly by the excessive mental strain peculiar to his profession^ seems probable ,; and the lession is manifested, as already described, by the constant recurrence of the apparition.^ „-. ■■< ...r-.--«r*. It is a well known fact that we have two natures, one purely organic and emotional, the other subject to the reasoning powers. The \ organic; nervous chain exists in the body as a link; between emotional mental acts and vascular supply. An impression from without, made through the organs of the senses upou the emotional centres, is reflected .directly from them to the vascular;: expanse, i The part flushes or blanches, and 1 the heart hesitates, palpitates, reboundsi or intermites; so that these centrea, excited ;.by anxiety, .or grief, or joy, or sorrow;, - influence the 'waves of ' blood ' passing through the . system, and the brain ; promptly ;f gels the" imperfect regulation ' of the' 'supply. Under .varying, .tensions,, of- the i. vessels^ there are flashes, chills, coldluess of ;<tiie extremities, and other oppressive s&efcfe toms, while in addition appear tb " treating ringing: or hammering wFf the head. These sounds are arterial murmurs,- vibrations ot the blood which press with'eaoh impulse 'of 'the- iieart'on the bony'; surroundings of : tne : relaxed carotid canal, situated at the base of the skull. The canal is m direct ..bonntoctioiij, by solid conducting siibstialice^^with. the organs "of hearj.ngj ; and thus the! fJMntesj vibration '''Ji»;.;.'4etecHed..-/ J The lt ';":'Bpana produced when it is. sudden and expected, as in moments of fear ia : mistaken for a spund proceeding from without i with noobyious cause* „ , ;_• rThus,' the~sufferer l is likely "to . see^ visions and hear strange noises, impal- : pable- so/to speak, but as purely physical, as the most common things in life. In some instances they are actually perceptions of real facfa or objects, caught by an ; extremely susceptible and delicate nervous I surface;" ' r In otlter they' aie- intensified 1 i recognition of movements within the !body; bat in the vast majority ;idf;-inV stances they are actual impressions made at some time on the .organism andr now^ •recalled and rendered more definite by constant recurrence. :" \bu x-.^i At thisi point, if the mental powers be allowed rest, and the fountains of care be closed recovery may take place ; but if the over-Btrain continue, the disease assumesstill graver form. There is a maddening-i. desire for work, more work, coupled with the sad sensation that the : physical powers are failing ;. and .then there are lapses of memory.; The man in business forgct3 important details, he is irritable, distrusts everybody and himself most, makes mistakes, and yet persists in ac.v cumulating ■ more work on himself. TbJb ; poet and novelist become over-sentimental and morbid ; the man troubled with remorse for gviilt confesses his crime, or commits, suicide. The .downward course is rapid ;in one case epilepsy occurs", in another paralysis, a third develops some hereditary malady like cancer, a fourth dies from nervous failure and local disease of some vital organ. The majority, escaping these special ends, become prema-' turely old, and sink helplessly into death; ' The brain becomes disorganified, ; this balance is broken, and 'anarchy; : succeeds to what once was order. ' ' " j x -' v ''' : •'■'-■■- In every brain, in fact, there is set up primitively a kingly force,' to which all other forces bend. -The 'king may be good or a usurper, but he. holds, the. ba- , lance ; kill the king, and, in r/iriety-nina cases out of a hundred, the kingdom is made chaos and .dark night. .>