utritive
processes are active before a nervous system is formed. The lower
faculties of the mind exert a remarkable influence over nutrition,
secretion, and the molecular changes incident to life. Anger or fear may
transmute the mother's nourishing milk into a virulent poison. The
following incident, taken from Dr. Carpenter's Physiology, illustrates
this statement: "A carpenter fell into a quarrel with a soldier billeted
in his house, and was set-upon by the latter with his drawn sword. The
wife of the carpenter at first trembled from fear and terror, and then
suddenly threw herself between the combatants, wrested the sword from
the soldier's hand, broke it in pieces, and threw it away. During the
tumult, some neighbors came-in and separated the men. While in this
state of strong excitement, the mother took up her child from the
cradle, where it lay playing, and in the most perfect health, never
having had a moment's illness; she gave it the breast, and in so doing
sealed its fate. In a few minutes the infant left-off sucking, became
restless, panted, and sank dead upon the mother's bosom. The physician
who was instantly called-in, found the child lying in the cradle, as if
asleep, and with its features undisturbed; but all resources were
fruitless. It was irrecoverably gone. In this interesting case, the milk
must have undergone a change, which gave it a powerful sedative action
upon the susceptible nervous system of the infant."

Anxiety, irritation, hatred, all tend to the vitiation of the
disposition and bodily functions, perverting the character and
constitution at the same time. Depravity of thought and secretion go
together. Degradation of mind and corruption of the body are
concomitants. There is a very close affinity between mental and moral
perversion and physical prostitution, of which fact too many are
unconscious. Nervous influence preserves the fluidity of the blood and
facilitates its circulation, for it appears that simple _arrestment_ of
this influence favors the coagulation of the blood in the vessels; clots
being found in their trunks within a few minutes after the brain and
spinal marrow are broken down. Habitual constipation is the source of
many ills. Perversion of the functions of the stomach, and of the
circulation of the blood, produce general disaster.

Diseases which characterize this temperament are acute, violent, or
inflammatory, indicating repletion and active congestion; intense
inflam