The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand
John Stuart Mill · en
That ordinary alimentation, which includes the process of digestion, the
subsequent vital changes involved in the conversion of food into blood,
and its final transformation into tissue, causes mental languor and
dullness, as well as bodily exhaustion, is attested by universal
experience. A torpid condition of the liver, one of the most inveterate
of chronic derangements, is indicated by sullenness, melancholy,
despondency, loss of interest in the affairs of life, sluggishness,
etc., and the ultimate tendency of this morbid state is towards
_suicide_. A broad and deep development of the middle lobe of the brain,
shown by a fullness under the chin, and of the adjacent portion of the
neck, denotes tendencies to somnambulism, delirium, and insanity. If
such characteristics of the organization do not culminate in mental
derangement, they exhibit childishness, helplessness, and great
dependence. Age abates the vigor of the executive faculties, and old
people manifest not only bodily infirmities, but the relaxing and
enfeebling influences proceeding from the lower portions of the brain.
They totter about in their second childhood, mentally and physically
enervated. Those who become dissipated by the use of intoxicating
beverages are not only weak, trifling, and foolish, but walk with an
unsteadiness which betrays their condition. These illustrations show
that this part of the brain is destitute of energy. Diseases of the
digestive organs also indicate it. Cholera, whether induced by invisible
animalcules in the air, or in water, takes the route of the alimentary
canal, opens the vital gates, and myriads of victims are swept down to
death. It proves remarkably fatal to those having this cerebral
conformation. Perhaps enough has been said to indicate the relaxing and
enfeebling tendencies of this region of the brain. They may be
classified as follows:
_REGION OF FEEBLENESS._
/ SERVILITY,
/ CAUTIOUSNESS,
/ FEAR,
Cerebral Functions: { ANXIETY,
\ SENSIBILITY,
\ CUNNING,
\ PROFLIGACY.
/ ATONIC,
Physiological conditions / EXCITABILITY,
and tendencies: { RELAXATION,
\ FEEBLENESS,
\ DISEASE.
This classification shows their tendencies to chronic disease,
functional derangement, insanity, and suicide.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.