WORRY AND ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4998, 31 March 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

WORRY AND ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS.

(From the Scientific American.) To so everyday and common a state of mind as worry, ranging, as it may, from a passing “fit of the blues” up to the most poignant mental anxiety regarding life itself, little importance is popularly attached ; and especially among so exceptionally 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 here’ditary or by their own excesses, thousands are added suffering from broken minds induoed by anxiety ; but the great majority of people thus affected continue in their 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 little traits furnish rich material for the biographical j in other cases the eccentricities become crimes, and indiscriminating justice may declare the life forfeited because of the working of hidden faculties, uncontrollable because disorganised. Worry, then, is dangerous, more so than the alcohol which kills the drunkard; for the latter involves a taste and a habit which may be put aside ; the former is a 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 case. During the early stages of dementia induced by mental anxiety. Dr. Richardson, tells us, in his “Diseases of Modern Life,” there is nothing move than an increased tension of the minute vessels which supply the brain. In later stages the substance of the nervous tissue itself undergoes a modification by which its activity is permanently lost. These are the physiological consequences, most briefly summed up. The first symptom is a want of full bodily vigor ; then follows craving for 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 a week retained iu his vision the spectra of three lights, oval iu shape, of the size of an egg, and so clearly defined to the observer that he would watch them half-consciously as they floated before him on the wall, the ceiling, or iu space. In this stage of the disease lies the foundation of all hypotheses of ghostseeing, of ecstatic 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 in the press, who for some time past has devoted attention to the subject of morbid mental contidions. This gentleman, in a letter to a daily journal, states himself to be the victim of the horrible spectacle of two men hanging from a gallows, 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 laughter, 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 lesson is manifested, as al- ; ready described, by the constant recurrence of the apparition.

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 upon the emotional centres, is reflected directly from them to the vascular expanse. The part flushes or blanches, and the heart hesitates, palpitates, rebounds, or intermits ; so that these centres, excited by anxiety, or giief, or joy, or sorrow, influence the waves of blood passing through the system, and the brain promptly feels the imperfect regulation of the supply. Under varying tensions of the vessels, there are flashes, chills, coldness of the extremities, and other oppressive symptoms, while in addition appear the distressing ringing or hammering sounds in the head. These sounds are arterial murmurs, vibrations of the blood which press with each impulse of the heart on' the bony surroundings of the relaxed carotid canal, situated at the base of the skull. The canal is in direct connection, by solid conducting substance, with the organs of hearing, and thus the vibration is detected. The sound produced when it is sudden and expected, as in moments of fear, is occasionally mistaken for a sound proceeding from without with no obvious cause.

Thus the sufferer is likely to see visions and hear strange noises,, impalpable so to speak, but as purely physical as the most common things in life. In some instances they are actual perceptions of real facts or objects, caught by an extremely susceptible and delicate nervous surface. In others they are, an intensified recognition of movements within the body ; but in the vast majority of instances they are actual impressions made at some time on the organism, and now recalled and rendered more definite by constant recurrence.

r At this point, if the mental powers be allowed rest, and the fountains of care be closed, recovery may take place ; but if the overstrain continue, the disease assumes still graver form. There is a maddening 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 of business forgets important details, he is irritable, distrusts everybody and himself most, makes mistakes, and yet persists in accumulating more vyork on himself. The poet and novelist become over r sentimental and morbid ; the man, troubled with remorse for guilt, confesses his crime, or commits suicide. The downward course is rapid; in one case epilepsy occurs,-in another paralysis, a tliird develops some hereditary malady like cancer, a fourth dies from norvous failure and local disease of some vital organ. The majority, escaping these special ends, become prematurely old, and sink-, helplessly into death. The brain becomes disorganised, tho balance is broken, and anarchy succeeds to what once was order. . 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 bad, ho may be an hereditary king or a usurper, but ho holds the balance ; kill tho king, and, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the kingdom is made chaos and.dark night.