It is of singular interest that all those agencies that produce a hypersecretion of the adrenals are the same which are known to be harmful in causing arteriosclerosis. In the front rank of such are tobacco, alcohol, and different kinds of poison, such as lead, mercury, etc.; also infectious diseases, especially syphilis, the important rôle performed by which, in the production of arteriosclerosis, has been treated of very competently by Professor Edgreen,[207] of Stockholm, and Darier, of Paris. Arteriosclerosis can also be produced very frequently by abundant meat food and by strong tea or coffee. There is as yet no scientific proof to show that abundant meat food has the same deleterious action on the adrenals as upon the thyroid, ovaries, pituitary body, pancreas, liver, kidneys, etc., upon which we have enlarged in previous chapters of this book; and, moreover, we have no knowledge of any work written on this subject; but as such a diet is very efficacious in producing a sclerotic condition of the kidneys, it may, for these reasons alone, tend to further the development of arteriosclerosis, considering that so often in such conditions both kidneys and adrenals are found in a hypertrophic condition. This disease may be produced by alcohol, tea, and coffee, by causing a great variation in the tone of the capillaries. According to Professor Romberg and others, it remains to be proved whether they affect the adrenals at all; but we have already shown what their action is on the kidneys. Footnote 207: “Die Arteriosclerose,” Leipzig, 1898. To keep the adrenals in good condition and thus prevent arteriosclerosis, it is necessary to avoid all the above harmful agencies. It is true that there are some people who can enjoy these things in large quantities with impunity and without injurious effects until they reach a considerable age; but it is different when they all act together. Especially deleterious are mental emotions, grief, and sorrow, on which we have dwelt in the introduction to this chapter, and on the effects of which we have previously remarked; they produce a great variation in the tone and calibre of the blood-vessels. We will therefore endeavor to treat of the prevention of a prolonged continuance of this most disastrous agency in our chapters on the hygiene of the mind. Emotions of a sexual character are, perhaps, more than emotions from other sources, disastrous to the heart and blood-vessels, as shown by the fact, which may often be observed, that persons addicted to sexual excitations frequently die from sclerosis of the coronary arteries. That the sexual glands are in intimate relations with the heart, which can often be irritated in consequence of changes in these glands, especially in women, has been already mentioned.