Physiological Researches on Life and Death — John Shaqi
Physiological Researches on Life and DeathBichat, Xavier
Science
Physiological Researches on Life and Death
Bichat, Xavier
Death (Biology); Life (Biology)
And that lively sensation at the pylorus under strong emotion,
that ineffaceable impression which sometimes remains there, from
whence succeed the schirri of which it is the seat, that sentiment
of stricture, as it were, about the stomach, about the cordia in
particular; under other circumstances those spasmodic vomitings,
which sometimes follow the loss of a beloved object, the news of
a fatal accident, or any kind of trouble, the cause of which are
the passions; that sudden interruption of the digestive phenomena
either in consequence of agreeable or disagreeable news, those
affections of the bowels, those organic lesions of the intestines,
of the spleen observed in cases of melancholy, or hypochondria,
diseases which are always preceded by sad forebodings and the
darker affections of the mind; do not all these indicate the very
strict connexion of the digestive viscera with the state of the
passions?
They do; and the secreting organs have not a less connexion with
them. Sudden fear suspends the course of the bile, and is the
occasion of jaundice; sudden anger is often the origin of bilious
fever. In a state of sorrow or joy, sometimes even in that of
admiration, our tears flow abundantly: the pancreas is not less
frequently affected in hypochondria.
But the functions of the circulation, of digestion, respiration and
secretion, are those which are most directly under the influence
of the passions; those of exhalation, absorption and nutrition
appear to be less so. Doubtless, the reason of this is, that these
functions have not as the former any principal focus, or essential
viscera, the state of which may be compared with that of the mind.
Their phenomena disseminated throughout all the organs belong
exclusively to none, and cannot be observed as well as those, the
effects of which are confined within a narrow compass.
Nevertheless, the alterations, which these functions experience are
not less real, do not become less apparent after a certain time;
let the man, whose hours are marked by sorrow, be compared with
him, who lives in peace of mind, and the difference of the process
of nutrition in the one and in the other will easily be seen.
Let us, for a moment, approximate the times, when the terrible
passions of sorrow, of fear and revenge seemed to brood over our
country, and those, when safety and abundance continually supplied
us with the gayer ones so natural to us; we may then recall what
at the two periods were the outward appearances of our countrymen,
and appreciate the influence of the passions on the process of
nutrition. The very expressions which are continually in our mouths
that such a one is dried up with envy, preyed upon by remorse,
consumed and wasted away with sorrow, do not even these announce
how much the nutritive functions are modified by the passions?
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