And it is from a neglect of this principle, that some of the
most exemplary and conscientious persons in the world suffer a thousand
mental agonies from a diseased state of body, while others ruin the
health of the body by neglecting the proper care of the mind.
When the mind is excited by earnest intellectual effort, or by strong
passions, the blood rushes to the head and the brain is excited. Sir
Astley Cooper records that, in examining the brain of a young man who
had lost a portion of his skull, whenever "he was agitated by some
opposition to his wishes," "the blood was sent with increased force
to his brain," and the pulsations "became frequent and violent." The
same effect was produced by any intellectual effort; and the flushed
countenance which attends earnest study or strong emotions of interest
of any kind, is an external indication of the suffused state of the
brain from such causes.
In exhibiting the causes which injure the health of the mind, we shall
find them to be partly physical, partly intellectual, and partly moral.
The first cause of mental disease and suffering is not unfrequently
in the want of a proper supply of duly oxygenized blood.
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