The pathology of emotions : physiological and clinical studies / by Ch. Féré ; rendered into English by Robert Park.

  • Féré, Ch. (Charles), 1852-1907.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pathology of emotions : physiological and clinical studies / by Ch. Féré ; rendered into English by Robert Park. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/570 (page 19)
    If, in moderate doses, coffee lias merited the name of intellectual drink, in strong and repeated doses it produces a very characteristic state of depression. Moreover, even in moderate doses, its exciting effect is followed hy a marked depression capable of explaining the saying of Madame de Sevigne; “Le cafe m’abetit: ” hut it is a secondary effect which does not allow the denial of the other. Balzac was right when he said that sots were more ennuied when they took coffee; but it is not because they are more drunk, but because they exhibit their drunkenness with more exuberance. Tea, the active principle of which is identical with that of coffee, has analogous effects. In feeble doses it stimulates the nervous system, excites the circulation, the digestion, physical and intellec- tual activity: the movements are more energetic, the time of reac- tion less long. It augments the secretion of sweat and urine. In large doses it provokes a sort of poisoning, in which the phenomena of excitation take the place of those of depression: discoloration of the skin, enfeeblement of the pulse, coldness of the extremities: then appear headaches, vertigos, troubles of sight, uncertainty of gait, irregularity of pulse, which becomes more and more en- feebled, painful palpitations, dyspnoeas, syncopes, suffocation. To this physical state corresponds a considerable depression of the mental, and a great irritability. Alimentation inadequately prolonged ends by bringing about what Bouchardat has described under the name of jihysiological misery: a general state of enfeeblement, anemia, wasting, relaxa- tion of respiration and pulse, diminution of exhalation of carbonic acid, and slight lowering of the temperature; all conditions creat- ing a special vulnerability of the organism, which expresses itself by defective resistance to physical agents and infective germs. Inade- quate alimentation predisposes especially to typhus. Inanition has been studied in man: but Chossat, who has ex- perimented on animals, has related interesting facts which are capable of being applied to human physiology. Hunter had already determined that in mice privation of aliments is often fol- lowed by a notable lowering of the temperature of the body and a diminution of the faculty of resisting the action of intense cold. Martius has made analogous observations. But Chossat has ascer- tained precisely that, under the influence of abstinence, respiration