system, as the act of vision is with the eye; and therefore it must be guarded against, in inflammation of the brain, as vision is in inflammation of the eye. The same may be said, to some extent, at least, of every other part as well as the brain, for every organ is supplied with nerves connecting it with the mind. As an illustration of these remarks, I will introduce a case, showing the influence of the irritation of passion upon a diseased body. I refer to the death of John Hunter, who has been often called the greatest anatomist and physiologist of his age. “On October 16, 1793,” says his biographer, “when in his usual state of health, he went to St. George’s hospital, and, unexpectedly meeting with some things that ruffled his temper, he allowed himself to give way to passion; the heart became overloaded with blood, the ossified aorta, not yielding to the effort of the heart, the countenance became dark, angina pectoris immediately ensued, and turning round to Dr. Robertson, one of the physicians of the hospital, he was incapable of utterance, and died.” This, it is true, is an extraordinary case; but the result of mental irritation in common cases of disease, though not as great and as palpable as in this case, is nevertheless as real. While it caused in the case of John Hunter a sudden and final suspension of the heart’s action, it would, in a man suffering from some inflammation, aggravate that disease, by driving the blood too forcibly into the inflamed part, and by making its irritable nerves partake of the general excitement of the system. The effect might not be at any moment very powerful, but if the irritation be repeated or continued, although it may be vastly less in amount than it was in the case of Hunter, the accumulative effect of the excitement upon the disease would at length become very great, perhaps destructive. And in certain low states of disease, when, in the midst of great weakness, the nervous system is in an extremely agitated condition—a condition, in which little causes may produce powerful effects—a comparatively slight irritation induced in the mind, connected as it is with every trembling filament of that nervous system, may overwhelm the very powers of life as certainly, if not as suddenly, as did the strong passion of Hunter, in overloading his diseased heart, and thus stopping its action.