ally mutilated at an early age, he is emasculated morally as well as physically. Eunuchs are said to be the most depraved creatures morally: they are cowardly, envious liars, utterly deceitful, and destitute of real social feeling. And there is certainly a characteristic variety of insanity caused by self-abuse, which makes the patient very like a eunuch in character.

It has been affirmed by some philosophers that there is no essential difference between the mind of a woman and that of a man; and that if a girl were subjected to the same education as a boy, she would resemble him in tastes, feelings, pursuits, and powers. To my mind it would not be one whit more absurd to affirm that the antlers of the stag, the human beard, and the cock's comb, are effects of education; or that, by putting a girl to the same education as a boy, the female generative organs might be transformed into male organs. The physical and mental differences between the sexes intimate themselves very early in life, and declaro themselves most distinctly at puberty: they are connected with the influence of the organs of generation. The forms and habits of mutilated men approach those of women; and women, whose ovaries and uterus remain from some cause in a state of complete inaction, approach the forms and habits of men. It is said, too, that in hermaphrodites the mental character, like the physical, participates equally in that of both sexes. While woman preserves her sex, she will necessarily be feebler than man, and, having her special bodily and mental characters, will have to a certain extent her own sphere of activity; where she has become thoroughly masculine in nature, or hermaphrodite in mind-when, in fact, she has pretty well divested herself of her sex-then she may take his ground, and do his work; but she will have lost her feminine attractions, and probably also her chief feminine functions.

Allowing that the generative organs have their specific effect upon the mind, the question occurs whether each of

the internal organs has not also a special effect, giving rise to particular feelings with their sympathetic ideas. They are notably united in the closest sympathy, so that, although insensible to touch, they have a sensibility of their own, by virtue of which they agree in a consent of functions, and respond more or less to one another's sufferings; and there can be no question that the brain, as the leading member of this physiological union, is sensible of, and affected by, the conditions of its fellow-members. We have not the same opportunity of observing the specific effects of other organs that we have in the case of the generative organs; for while those come into functional action directly after birth, these come into action abruptly at a certain period, and thus exhibit their specific effects in a decided manner. It may well be, however, that the general uniformity among men in their passions and emotions is due to the specific sympathies of organs, just as the uniformity of their ideas of external Nature is due to the uniform operation of the organs of sense.

It is probable that an exact observation of the mental effects of morbid states of the different organs would help the inquiry into the feelings and desires of the mind which owe their origin to particular organs. What are the psychological features of disease of the heart, disease of the lungs, disease of the liver? They are unquestionably different in each case. The inquiry, which has never yet been seriously attempted, is, without doubt, a difficult one, but I believe that the phenomena of dreams might, if carefully observed, afford some help. The ground-tone of feeling in a dream, the background on which the phantoms move, is often determined by the state of an internal organ, the irritation of which awakens into some degree of activity that part of the brain with which the organ is in specific sympathy; accordingly sympathetic ideas spring out of the feeling and unite in a more or less coherent dream-drama. How plainly this happens in the case of the generative organs it is unnecessary to point out: exciting their specific dreams, they teach a lesson concerning

SPECIFIC ORGANIC SYMPATHIES.

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physiological sympathies which, applied to the observation of the effects of other organs, may be largely useful in the interpretation, not of dreams only, but of the phenomena of insanity. Dreams furnish a particularly fruitful field for the study of the specific effects of organs on mind, because these effects are more distinctly felt and more distinctly declared when the impressions from the external senses are shut out by sleep. As the stars are not visible, although they still shine, in the daytime, so the effects of an internal organ may not be perceptible during the waking state while consciousness is actively engaged. But just as, when the sun goes down, the stars shine visibly, which before were invisible, veiled by his greater light, so when active consciousness is suspended, organic sympathies, which before were insensible, declare themselves in the mind. Perhaps it is in the excitation of its sympathetic feeling and ideas by a disordered organ during sleep that we may discover the explanation of a fact which seems to be undoubted, and to be more than accidental-namely, that a person has sometimes dreamed prophetically that he would have a particular internal disease, before he consciously felt a symptom of it, and has been afterward surprised to find his dream come true.

It is natural to suppose that the passion which a particular organ produces in the mind will be that which, when otherwise excited, discharges itself specially upon that organ. Notably this is the case with the sexual organs and the passion to which they minister. When we consider the effects which a joyful anticipation, or the elation of a present excitement, has upon the lungs-the accelerated breathing and the general bodily exhilaration which it occasions-we cannot help thinking of the strange hopefulness and the sanguine expectations of the consumptive patient, who, on the edge of the grave, projects, without a shadow of distrust, what he will do long after he will have been "green in death and festering in his shroud." Observe how fear strikes the heart, and what anxious fear and apprehension accompany some

affections of the heart. Anger, disappointment, and envy, notably touch the liver; which, in its turn, when deranged, engenders a gloomy tone of mind through which all things have a malignant look, and from which, when philosophy avails not to free us, the restoration of its functions will yield instant relief. The internal organs are plainly not the agents of their special functions only, but, by reason of the intimate consent or sympathy of functions, they are essential constituents of our mental life.

The time yet at my disposal will not allow me to do more than mention the effects of mental states on the intimate processes of nutrition and secretion. Emotion may undoubtedly favor, hinder, or pervert nutrition, and increase, lessen, or alter a secretion; in doing which there is reason to think that it acts, not only by dilating or contracting the vessels through the vaso-motor system, as we witness in the blush of shame and the pallor of fear, but also directly on the organic elements of the part through the nerves, which, as the latest researches seem to show, end in them sometimes by continuity of substance. If they do so end, it is difficult to conceive how a strong emotion vibrating to the ultimate fibrils of a nerve can fail to affect for a moment or longer the functions of the organic elements. Be this so or not, however, the familiar observations-first, that a lively hope or joy exerts an enlivening effect upon the bodily life, quiet and equable when moderate, but, when stronger, evinced in the brilliancy of the eye, in the quickened pulse and respiration, in an inclination to laugh and sing; and, secondly, that grief or other depressing passion has an opposite effect, relaxing the arteries, enfeebling the heart, making the eye dull, impeding digestion, and producing an inclination to sigh and weep-these familiar observations of opposite effects indicate the large part which mental states may play, not in the causation of all sorts of disease alone, but in aiding recovery from them. A sudden and great mental shock may, like a great physical shock, and perhaps in the same way, par

alyze for a time all the bodily and mental functions, or cause instant death. It may, again, produce epilepsy, apoplexy, or insanity; while a prolonged state of depression and anxiety is sometimes an important agent in the causation of chronic disease, such as diabetes and heart-disease. Can it be doubted, too, that the strong belief that a bodily disorder will be cured by some appliance, itself innocent of good or harm, may so affect beneficially the nutrition of the part as actually to effect a cure? To me it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the mind may stamp its tone, if not its very features, on the individual elements of the body, inspiring them with hope and energy, or infecting them with despair and feebleness. A separated portion of the body, so little that our naked eye can make nothing of it, the spermatozoon of the male and the ovum of the female, does at any rate contain, in a latent state, the essential characters of the mind and body of the individual from whom it has proceeded; and, as we are utterly ignorant how this mysterious effect is accomplished, we are certainly not in a position to deny that what is true of the spermatozoon and ovum may be true of other organic elements. And, if this be so, then those who profess to discover the character of the individual in the character of the nose, the hand the features, or other part of the body, may have a foundation of truth for speculations which are yet only vague, fanciful, and valucless.

Perhaps we do not, as physicians, consider sufficiently the influence of mental states in the production of disease, and their importance as symptoms, or take all the advantage which we might take of them in our efforts to cure it. Quackery seems to have here got hold of a truth which legitimate medicine fails to appreciate and use adequately. Assuredly the most successful physician is he who, inspiring the great est confidence in his remedies, strengthens and exalts the im. agination of his patient: if he orders a few drops of pepperwint-water with the confident air of curing the disease, will