OCR Text |
Show CHAP. XU I. 340 and knowledge nrc c1ninently capu,ble of forn1ing a sound judgment, are convinced that attention or consciousness (which latter term Sir H. Holland thinks the more explicit) concentrated on almost any part of the body produces some direct physical effect on it. This applies to the n1ovements of the involuntary muscles, and of the voluntary 1nuscles when acting involuntarily,-to the secretion of the glands,-to the activity of the senses and sensations,-and even to the nutrition of parts. It is known that the involuntary movetnents of the heart are affected if close attention be paid to then1. Gratiolet 34 gives the case of a man, who by continually watahing and counting his own pulse, at last caused one beat out of every six to intermit. On the other hand, my father told n1e of a careful observer, who certainly had heart-disease and died from it, and who positively stated that his pulse was habitually irre· gular to an extreme degree ; yet to his great disap· pointment it invariably became regular as soon as my father entered the room. Sir I-I. Holland remarks 35 ' that" the effect upon the circulation of a part froin the " consciousness suddenly directed and fixed upon it, " is often obvious and ilninediate." Professor Laycock, who has particularly attended to phenomena of this nature/6 insists that "when the attention is directed " to any portion of the body, innervation and circula· " tion are excited locally, and the functional activity of " that portion developed.'' vol. ii. pp. 937, 1085) of the influence of the attention on the sen es. Sir J. Paget discusses the influence of the mind on the nutrition of parts, in his 'Lectures on Surgical Pathology,' 1853, vol. i. p. 39 : I quote from the 3rcl edit. revised by Prof. 'furner, 1870, p. 28. See, also, Gratiolet, De la Phys. pp. 283-287. · 34 De la Phys. p. 283. 31 'Chapters on Mental Physiology,' 1858, p. 111. 3fl 'Mind and Brain,' vol. ii. 1860, p. 327. C IIA.P. XII[. BLU. HlN ~ , 341 It is geneeally believed th h . . meuts of the intestine. . . fl at t e peri t altw nlove-paid to them at fi sdare In uenced by attention being xe recurrent · d movements depend th pe:Io s; and these d · on e contraction f t · an Involuntary muscle 'rh b . o uns nped voluntary muscle in \ e a normal action of tho known to b .::f;i epi epsy, chorea, and hysteria il:) e In uenced by th . attack, and by the si"'ht e exp~ctatwn of an affected."7 So it is with th ~f o~her pattents similarly and laughing. e mvo untary acts of yawning Certain glands are much . fl them, or of the conditions un~:ruen~cd by thinking of habitually excited Thi's . .r. .-vlrv.luch they have been h . · Is 'ami Iar to e . . t e Increased flow of saliva h h vel y one In t · ' w en t e thou 1 t .r. • s ance, of Intensely acid fruit is k g l ' lOr InIt was shown I·n . I ept before the mind.3s our s1xt 1 chapt . tl and long-continued desire e'th tel, lat an earnost 1 er o repres"' 0 • t · crease, the action of the lacr mal ~' r o InSome curious cases have b y glands ls effectual. women, of the power of t~en ~ecdorded in the case of 1 d e min on the m g an s; and still more remal'lrable . a~mary the uterine function . 39 ones In relation to 3. 7 '...C h apters on 1\'Ieutal Phy.s ioloO' ' - a~ See Gratiolet on th' . oY, pp. 101- IOG. :J!) D . Is subJect, De lu. Phy~ 2 r. J. Crwhton Drowno f h · · p. 7. con vi need that attention dire~t~~~or ~s obsor:a tious . on tho in an ', i-3 organ may. ultimately iniluenco its ca ~~.olon~ed per~o<l on any parL or He has given mo some extrn.·)rclin:rt .try cireuln.twu an l nutrition. ·an not hero be related in full f t y cases ; one of these which . ,,. } I b ' ro crs o a married ' .to ' w 10 a oured under the firm a d ~voman fifty years or ~l.w was pregnant. When tho ox n lOI~g-contmued delusion that <.:Is~ly as if she bad been really r:::l~:!l~~rwd arri:ed, she acted pre~ utler xtrcmo pain, so that the ers . . of a child, and seomeu to r ho ro.:~u1t was that a state of pth ' ptratwn broke out on her forehead U~' \)r S, w1 H .c 1 lUO'S returnc l t' . l had ceased durin O' tl o . .~.. ' corr muing for three gives, in his ' l\Iagic, Hypnotisom , 1~ SlX p;·ovwu::~ years. Mr. llraitl works, analogous ca~;os, as well a~ t~' 1~;>2, p. D5, and in his other fluoncc of the will on the mammar o or acts showing the great in-y glands, even on one breast alo nc, |