t,
whose organ is much more remote, in the cerebral hemispheres, it should
follow that emotion, and not thought, should most easily influence the
vaso-motor centre, and be followed by peculiar modifications of the
ganglionic system and of the circulation. This supposition is confirmed
by the occurrence of many vaso-motor phenomena that commonly follow
emotion, but are rarely observed after even prolonged thought. It is
not, therefore, stimulation of the intellect, but excitement of the
feelings, that can be shown from physiological data to have an injurious
effect upon the vaso-motor nerves of the uterus, or the ganglionic
nerves of the ovaries, or, in other words, can be concerned in the
production of uterine haemorrhage. To be just, however, it must be
admitted, that still another view is possible. For it might be affirmed:
first, that in women communication of impressions between different
parts of the nervous system was so rapid, that the limitation of
activity to a particular part of the brain was impossible; in other
words, that the distinction between thought and emotion was effaced,
because any action set up at the surface of the cerebral hemispheres,
invariably called the emotional centres into play; or, second, it might
be said, that the original organization of the cerebral tissues in women
was so imperfect, that a slight amount of activity was sufficient to
exhaust them, and hence become a cause of haemorrhage by the mechanism
previously described.

Neither of these assertions is made by Dr. Clarke, but it is certain
that one or both of them might be made in regard to a large number of
women. To these, however, severe intellectual exertion would be
injurious, not only if performed during the week of menstruation, but if
performed at all. Nervous excitement during the inter-menstrual period,
is quite as likely to be followed by pain or excessive haemorrhage at the
next menstruation, as if it had been sustained at the critical epoch
itself. Nature generally provides for a portion of this contingency, by
rendering such women little capable of mental exertion, and little
ambitious for it. But, though they be kept in the most complete
intellectual quiescence, the condition of these unfortunates is scarcely
improved. Withdrawn from the serene and powerful movement of
intellectual life, they are left to all the agitations of their
ganglionic nerves; impressions, unfelt by others, raise storms of
feeling in them, t