CHAPTER II.

THE CAUSES OF NERVOUS DERANGEMENTS AND
AFFECTIONS OF THE BLOOD.

HE subject of this chapter opens a boundless field for the investigation of physiologists. Indeed, should an attempt be made to trace out all the influences, immediate and remote, which tend to destroy the mental and nervous equilibrium, and render the blood a fountain of death rather than life, many volumes like this would be filled, and then the task would be unfinished. Ishall, therefore, limit myself to an explanation of the principal causes; those over which we have the easiest control. Each shall be treated under its appropriate head, with such variety of matter as may be necessary to make it entertain. ing, as well as instructive.

Ignorance.

This is the vehicle, loaded down like a city omnibus, or an excur

sion steamboat, that conveys into the system nearly all the nervous derangements and affections of the blood which afflict the human family. A large proportion of all the evils the essays in this chapter will complain of, really spring from one common root-ignorance. Errors in eating, drinking, sleeping, dressing, ventilation, sexual isolation, sexual association, medicating, &c., the bad habits of childhood, and of adult age, may be traced directly to ignorance. It casts a black shadow over every hearth-stone-it makes a dark corner in every institution of learning-it

Fig. 8.

clothes with bigotry and intolerance thousands who claim to be the apostles of the Christian religion-and it even revels in the halls of science, putting smoked glasses over the eyes of those we are taught to revere as philosophers and sages—it makes the peoples of all our planet play "blind-man's buff," where, on every side, there are moral and physical pit-holes ready to ingulf them. No one sees his neighbor in his true character, and if he grasps for him, only catches costumes or professions. We are like moles, with only the rudiments of eyes, groping above the ground inhabited by those burrowing beneath. Thank God, we have powers which those little quadrupeds have not, and if we will but place ourselves openly to the light which is ready to shine upon us, if we will be tolerant of each other's opinions, weigh all things, and hold fast that which is good, our posterity, if not we, may behold the brightness of the "good time coming."

There are two kinds of ignorance-real and wilful.

The latter

is the outgrowth of the former. No sane person will voluntarily sacrifice health through wilful ignorance, unless that wilful ignorance is plumply backed by some of the genuine article. Like the "Jacobs," "Original Jacobs," and "Real Original Jacobs," they are all Jacobs after all. A person may shut his eyes to a disagreeable truth-resolve within himself that he will not see it, and impatiently trample it under his feet, and yet, did he fully comprehend the consequences, he would desist from his folly. A glutton may overload his stomach, with a full knowledge that he is violating a physical law-knowing that this violation will certainly render him physically uncomfortable. But were he sufficiently informed to have presented clearly to his mind the latent as well as active derangements one such violation engenders; could he but see the innumerable ills which will remotely spring from a cause apparently so slight, is it to be supposed he would sacrifice years of physical comfort for a momentary gratification of a morbid appetite? A thoughtless young woman may dress imprudently to attend a fashionable ball, covering but partially, or leaving completely exposed, portions of her person which she habitually wraps in flannels or furs. She is told of the danger, but laughingly retorts, "I know it, but I am bound to have a good time." This may be attributed to wilful ignorance, but a stratum of real ignorance lies at the bottom of it. She has an imperfect knowledge of how fearfully and wonderfully

she is made, and how one slight physical derangement may lay the foundation for many diseases; to future years of mental and bodily wretchedness; and finally, a premature grave. "A short life, and a merry one!" she gayly ejaculates, without knowing that such a thing is a physical impossibility; but it is, unless she ends her brief hours of frivolity by cutting her throat, or otherwise abruptly terminating her existence in one short moment, for all recklessness leads to mental and physical suffering; and though life may be short under such circumstances, it is always long enough for nature to inflict her penalties; for a person cannot die without disease, or physical infirmity, except by accident or suicide, and when a few days or weeks of reckless hilarity are followed by months of mental and physical distress, even if death does come to the rescue, what becomes of the theory, of "a short life, and a merry one"?

Let the foregoing two instances suffice for an illustration of what is generally called wilful ignorance. We see that this species has its origin in real ignorance, and that a better understanding of the laws of life and health would speedily put an end to recklessness entered upon with but a partial knowledge of the consequences.

Real ignorance is the fearful enemy of mankind. Let us commence at the very beginning of the human being. How many know the essential conditions to bring into the world a healthy child? A man and woman love each other, or think they do, or they do not, but it is expedient to marry, and they do marry. The next thing you hear is, that the wife is pregnant. How did she become so? Accidentally, probably, for nearly all children are the accidents of gratified passion, instead of the products of willing parents who premeditated and prepared themselves for so important a work. Most married people are ignorant of the fact that their own physical conditions at the moment each yields the germ, which is to start into existence a human being, has an everlasting influence upon that being. Many a child has been conceived when its father was lounging about home on account of sickness, and to-day suffers physically, and perhaps mentally, from the effects of that paternal illness. There are thousands of children to-day with disordered nervous and vascular systems, who are so because they were conceived at the "making up" of quarrelsome progenitors. Many a child is the offspring of a rape, perpetrated by a brutal husband

upon an unwilling wife, and this offspring goes through life with a weakly nervous system as a consequence.

Men and women marry, ignorant of the laws of mental and physical adaptation. This botchery of human procreating machinery goes blindly at work turning out babies. The babies do not ask to be born. Life and disease are both thrust upon them. Poor things! The doctors will earn half their bread and butter from these wretched specimens of humanity, if the unfortunates manage to live long enough to earn any thing. The ignorance of parents prior to, or at the moment the embryo of a new being is created, brings forth only the first instalment of disease with which it will have to contend. Here and there a prudent woman may be found who knows to what extent the offspring within her womb is physically influenced by her habits of thought and action. The majority do not. Few men, when treating pregnant women with unkindness, are conscious of the injury they are inflicting upon the miniature human being. The period of utero-life is one fraught with danger to the health of the defenceless little creature, which nestles as shrinkingly within the walls of the uterus before, as it does timidly to its mother's bosom after its birth.

The babe is born! What next? Not one mother of a thousand knows how to rear a child in a way to promote health of nerve and blood. She feeds and clothes it improperly during infancy and childhood; she drugs it almost to death, or lets some doctor do it, for ills proceeding from one or more of the causes already alluded to.

Then the child must be vaccinated. How few know the fact that scrofulous, syphilitic, and other impurities are taken from the arms of diseased children, and inoculated into the blood of those who are free from such impurities! The knife of the father, or the needle of the mother, or the aid of a physician with whom the parents are entirely unacquainted, is employed to perform this important operation, when only those combining skill with the greatest integrity, should be trusted. So that, from this source, a new element to corrupt the blood is imparted to the infant. As the child advances in years, a new and strange passion seizes it, often before the proper age of puberty. Ignorant of the complexity and offices of the procreative organs, it falls into bad habits in efforts to gratify the passion, and further nervous and blood derangements ensue. If it be a female, she arrives at the age when menstruation begins, un

taught regarding this function. She observes the blood issuing from her body, and frightened at its appearance, attempts to stay the flow. I have many times been consulted by pale women suffering from menstrual irregularities, which were induced in childhood, by attempting to arrest the menstrual discharge, by applying cold water, ice, or snow to the parts. Those who do know enough of the function to avoid this error, do not know how necessary prudence is during its performance. In rural districts, the out-houses are often built to project over streams, or they stand on hill-sides, so that draughts of air are continually passing up through them. The best of them in the country are poorly built for the protection of the health, and especially the health of women. Many cases of menstrual irregularities, particularly in those who have but just commenced the performance of the function, may be traced to exposures in badly constructed places of this kind. Keeping the feet dry, and the bosoms from sudden changes of temperature, when they have been made sensitive, and susceptible to disease by excessive dress, are precautions too often neglected. In some cases too little, and in others, too much, exercise is indulged in during the menstrual flow.

The coyness of young people of both sexes, but especially of young women, in attending to the "calls of nature," are also fruitful sources of nervous and blood derangements. Children are brought up to regard the necessary attentions to the bladder and bowels as something so indelicate as to require the greatest privacy, so much so, that if places constructed for such purposes are not entirely shielded from observation, a young man, or a young woman, will go all day, or possibly for several days, without attending to two very important functions. The results are, the blood becomes poisoned by the retention and absorption of waste matters, the nervous energies of the liver, bowels, kidneys, and bladder, become paralyzed, and if the victim be a female, the pressure of water in the bladder in front, of the excrementitious matters of the bowels above and behind, displaces that sensitive organ, the womb, and then follow all sorts of ills to make life wretched. What kind of etiquette is this which teaches people to be ashamed of the functions an All-wise Creator has instituted to preserve and keep active the most complex machinery ever made by His hand? Is it indeed a disagreeable task, one we are to be ashamed of, to dispose of the useless portions of the liquids and solids we have put into our mouths? May we not better