Principles of mental physiology : with their applications to the training of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions / by William B. Carpenter.

  • Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of mental physiology : with their applications to the training of the mind, and the study of its morbid conditions / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of anger produce a very irritating milk, followed by griping in tbe infant, with green stools. Grief has a great influence on lactation, and consequently upon the child. The loss of a near and dear rela- tion, or a change of fortune, will often so much diminish the secretion of milk, as to render adventitious aid necessary for the support of the child. Anxiety of mind diminishes the quantity, and alters the quality, of the milk. The reception of a letter which leaves the mind in anxious suspense, lessens the draught, and the breast becomes empty. If the child be ill, and the mother is anxious respecting it, she complains to her medical attendant that she has little milk, and that her infant is griped and has frequent green and frothy motions. Fear has a powerful influence on the secretion of milk. I am informed by a medical man wh© practises much among the poor, that the apprehension of the brutal conduct of a drunken husband will put a stop for a time to the secretion of milk. When this happens, tho breast feels knotted and hard, flaccid from the absence of milk, and that which is secreted is highly irritating; and some time elapses before a healthy secretion returns. Terror, which is sudden and great fear, instantly stops this secretion.” Of this, two striking instances, in which the secretion, although previously abundant, was completely arrested by this emotion, are detailed by Sir A. Cooper. There is even evidence that the Mammary secretion may acquire an actually poisonous character, under the influence of violent mental excitement; for certain phenomena which might otherwise be regarded in no other light than as simple coincidences, appear to justify this inference, when interpreted by the less striking but equally decisive facts already mentioned. b. “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 furiously between the combatants, wrested the sword from the soldier’s hand, broke it in pieces, and threw it away. During the tumult, some neighbours 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 tho infant left-off