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This is like the unhappy persons who live, if they can be said to live, in the statical chair; who are ever feeling their pulse, and who do not judge of health by the aptitude of the body to perform its functions, but by their ideas of what ought to be the true balance between the several secretions. Is a committee of Cornwall, &c., thronged, and the others deserted? No.
To sum up: My contention is, that the direct influence of emotional states upon bodily organs and functions has been greatly exaggerated; that it is exceedingly doubtful whether, for instance, any individual in a reasonable condition of health was ever killed by an imaginary or even an emotional shock; that there is surprisingly little valid evidence that the hair of any human being turned white in a single night, or was completely shed within a few hours, under the influence of fright, terror, or grief; that the effects upon bodily functions and secretions, digestion, etc., produced by emotion, are due to secondary effects of the latter, diverting the energy of the body into other channels and disturbing the general balance of its forces and blood-supply; that the actual percentage of cases in which the imagination plays the chief, or even a dominant part, is small, probably not to exceed five or ten per cent; that a very considerable share of the influence of mental impressions in the cure of disease is due to the relief of mental panic, permitting the rallying of the recuperative powers of the body, and to the extent to which they produce the reform of bad physical habits or surroundings or conditions.
In considering the anomalies of the secretions, it must be remembered that the ingestion of certain kinds of food and the administration of peculiar drugs in medicine have a marked influence in coloring secretions. Probably the most interesting of all these anomalies is the class in which, by a compensatory process, metastasis of the secretions is noticed. Colored Saliva.
But as the evolution of heat attends almost all chemical combinations, it is probable, that it also attends the secretions of the various fluids from the blood; and that the constant combinations or productions of new fluids by means of the glands constitute the more general source of animal heat; this seems evinced by the universal evolution of the matter of heat in the blush of shame or of anger; in which at the same time an increased secretion of the perspirable matter occurs; and the partial evolution of it from topical inflammations, as in gout or rheumatism, in which there is a secretion of new blood-vessels.
Indigestion causes pessimism. Physical pain is so disturbing that the sufferer thinks mostly of himself and is unable to perform his work well. We never do our best when self-conscious. If there is severe pain the mind can perform no useful labor. On the other hand, anger stops digestion and poisons the secretions of the body. Worry does the same.
Thus if two grains of opium be swallowed by a person unused to so strong a stimulus, all the vascular systems in the body act with greater energy, all the secretions and the absorption from those secreted fluids are increased in quantity; and pleasure or pain are introduced into the system, which adds an additional stimulus to that already too great.
I would not for the world be mistaken for one of those literary roughs whose brass knuckles leave their mark on the foreheads of so many inoffensive people. There is a human sub-species characterized by the coarseness of its fibre and the acrid nature of its intellectual secretions. It is to a certain extent penetrative, as all creatures are which are provided with stings.
Oil is not a natural product of the parts to which it is applied, it is chemically unlike their secretions, and to smear the delicate organs with a fluid that is foreign to their nature, is unwise, unsanitary, not to say filthy. It is like greasing the mouth to make food slip down easily.
What probably is true is that if a man lives in thought an impure life, and submits himself to exciting suggestions and imaginations, the secretions of his body will be increased, so that he may become subject to very severe strain. And that, if continued, may work nervous damage. But this only means that a continent life requires thought and proper direction.
Taken altogether, the internal secretions are the forces which build up the man's and woman's distinctively sexual constitution: the special disposition and growth of hair, the relative development of breasts and pelvis, the characteristic differences in motor activity, the varying emotional desires and needs.
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