ing, so a race of gifted men might be obtained under exactly similar conditions." For long years Galton has pondered this great question. As a result of his thinking a new science is being discovered that of eugenics. The University of London has established the "Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics." From that laboratory there will soon be published a Treasury of Human Inheritance, which will contain family histories illustrating various types of heredity, such as, intellectual ability, tuberculous stocks, epileptic tendencies, physical depravity, etc.1

1 For literature on eugenics consult: Galton, "Eugenics, Its Definition, Scope, and Aim," Am. Jour. of Soc., 10: 1-6, 1904; Karl Pearson, The Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of National Eugenics, Oxford University Press; Pearson, A First Study of the Statistics of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Delau & Co., 1907; Fisher, "Report on National Vitality," Bulletin 30 of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1909; Saleeby, "The Psychology of Parenthood," Eugenics Review, April, 1909; Bateson, W., The Methods and Scope of Eugenics, Cambridge University Press, 1908; Saleeby, Parenthood and Race Culture, 1909.

CHAPTER X

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN MIND AND BODY

THIS is a subject which has not received adequate consideration in pedagogics. Some account has been taken of it in recent medical literature, but even there the importance attached to it has been slight compared with its merits. We are still too much under the domination of drugs and nostrums. In innumerable cases where drugs have brought relief, the cures in reality have been brought about by mental states. The only difference between such cures and those effected by drugless therapeutics is that with the majority of people the drugs are a necessary means in producing the desired mental beliefs.'

Influence of Mind Over Body.—If we reflect a little we shall realize that the mind exerts a most powerful influence over bodily states. We know that grief causes the face to become pallid, while joy produces heightened color. Love, shame, and anger bring blushes to the cheek. Grief and sorrow stimulate the lachrymal glands to action. The same emotional states produce retarded circulation, impaired digestion, and the entire body often suffers in efficiency. Joy and happiness, on the other hand, increase the heart action, the blood goes bounding on its way; respiration is deeper, the digestive organs are toned up and physical vigor is manifested in every bodily action.

The sight of food often causes the mouth to water. The thought of a disgusting sight may produce nausea and vomiting. A French physician, Dr. Durand, reported that he made experi

This chapter is not an endorsement of any so-called Christian Science or faith cures, although each of those makes use of the fundamental principles for which I shall contend. When one goes so far as to maintain that all disease is imaginary, that no disease is real, or that drugs cannot assist nature, or that thinking can replace a lost limb or reset a broken bone, the position becomes not only unscientific and unphilosophical, but absurd.

ments upon one hundred hospital patients by giving them drinks of sugared water and then pretending "to have made a mistake in inadvertently giving them an emetic, instead of syrup of gum. The result may easily be anticipated by those who can estimate the influence of the imagination. No fewer than eighty-four-fifths-were immediately sick. How many of the rest suffered from nausea is not stated." 1

The salivary glands are profoundly affected by mental states, especially emotions. Every school-boy who has gone to the platform to declaim and who has felt any degree of stage fright, knows of the dryness of the mouth that in turn becomes a source of difficulty and embarrassment. The story of the ancient Hindoo method of discovery of thieves among suspected servants in a family has become a classic. Each offender was required to chew a quantity of rice for a few minutes. The one who had the driest mouthful was deemed the offender. The gastric fluid is so much affected by fear that its secretion may be entirely suspended. This has been noted among animals as well as in the case of man. Good cheer probably promotes the flow of the gastric juice, for the digestion is certainly aided by cheerful emotions. Fear has a very great influence over the heart. We have the classic example of this in the story of the prisoner condemned to death by bleeding. He was placed in a chair, blindfolded, the back of a knife-blade drawn across the wrist and a little tepid water made to trickle over the wrist. A few tremors ensued. and then he became quiet. The bandage was removed and the bystanders beheld a staring corpse. Fear had stopped all cardiac action.

Every-day experience demonstrates that actions of the body except those which are reflex and automatic are under control of the mind. In the discussion of volitions an attempt will be made to show that even many reflexes may have a mental origin. Anatomy shows that the stimuli from the outside world acting upon the senses in some way induce sensations, perceptions, feelings, and other mental states. In turn the different nerve 1 Hack Tuke, Influence of the Mind upon the Body, p. 126.

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currents which have excited mental changes are succeeded by efferent currents from the brain and other central ganglia which excite muscular action. Pathology has demonstrated that mental diseases are frequently due to brain diseases. Post-mortem examinations even show that frequently particular brain lesions are correlated with particular mental diseases. Any direct disturbance of the brain by means of vivisection or through accident usually produces mental aberration of some kind. Excision of different parts shows corresponding characteristic mental changes, as in the case of the removal of the cerebrum or the cerebellum of frogs and pigeons. Physical exercise in moderation promotes mental activity, a good supply of oxygen is the best mental tonic, while excessive physical exercise producing fatigue has a depressing mental effect. The effects of various drugs, such as opiates, stimulants, and narcotics, are well known. Thousands are yearly made mental wrecks by dosing their bodies with opium, chloral, or alcoholic stimulants. The cigarette fiend among our schoolboys is not only dwarfed in body, but his mind suffers even a worse fate. Some sicknesses, such as fevers and neurasthenia, cause a great variety of mental affections. Blows received on the head or other parts of the body frequently cause unconsciousness. Bodily death means cessation of mental activities. Psychologists have demonstrated that when imagining any thing precisely the same centres are innervated as when perceiving the same thing. Crook the finger and think hard of pulling the trigger of a pistol and fatigue will ensue as if the action had really been performed. Imagined activity in dreams is often more fatiguing than the reality in waking hours. Excessive day-dreaming is as exhausting as genuine work. The imagined states in certain pathological processes are especially debilitating. It is said that medical students studying the heart and directing their thoughts to it frequently suffer from its disturbed action. The eminent surgeon, John Hunter, is quoted by Tuke as saying: "I am confident that I can fix my attention to any part until I have a sensation in that part." Suppose a person is told that there is

an ant or a big worm crawling upon the back of his neck. If the statement is believed, in many cases the ant or worm will be felt, though not there. The writer once suggested to a popular audience that they think intently that ants were on their necks. So vividly did one woman experience the sensation suggested that she went into hysterics.

So decidedly do vivid imaginations of a given state affect some persons that they often sympathetically suffer precisely as others whose sufferings they witness. Personally I have suffered acutely from a given pain when witnessing others in agony from the same. Tuke cites the following case related by Quain at the Westminster Medical Society: "A gentleman who had constantly witnessed the sufferings of a friend afflicted with stricture of the œsophagus, had so great an impression made on his nervous system, that after some time he experienced a similar difficulty of swallowing, and ultimately died of the spasmodic impediment produced by merely thinking of another's pain."1

Fear exerts a profound influence upon all the organs of the body, causing the knees to shake, the hand to tremble as with palsy, the tongue to cleave to the roof of the mouth, the lips to move as in pantomime, the eyes to stare as if starting from their sockets, the face to blanch and its muscles to twitch, the heart to thump, to flutter, or to cease action. It may even produce complete syncope.

Anger affects the body so decidedly that often control is completely lost. Heart failure is a frequent effect of uncontrollable anger. The eminent surgeon John Hunter was a constant sufferer from the effects of emotional excitement. In relating an affecting story his articulation was always much disturbed. He used to say: "My life is at the mercy of any scoundrel who chooses to put me in a passion." His words proved prophetic, for when arguing before a hospital board for a certain measure he made some remarks which were contradicted by a colleague: "Hunter immediately ceased speaking, retired from the table, and struggling to suppress the tumult of his 1 Tuke, Op. cit., p. 126.