Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / [Amariah Brigham].

  • Amariah Brigham
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / [Amariah Brigham]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    development of the mental powers of children awakens the passions and appetites earlier than they would be, butforthisprematurementalcultivation.andtherefore excites the heart while it is in a tender and delicate state. “ At Howfyl more than one instance has occurred, in which it was necessary to diminish the amount of a pupil’s intellectual efforts, in consequence of the alarming tendency to sensuality which it pro- duced.” 69 But not only does strong mental emotion greatly endanger children, but it is to be feared that the emotions of the mother may predispose her offspring to disease. This is the opinion of Corvisart, Esquirol, and many other very accurate observers.™ j must therefore repeat what I have elsewhere said, that the powerful and constant excitement of the minds of the females of this country, together with their neglect of proper physical education, threatens dangerous conse- quences. Whoever notices their general attendance at meetings where strong feelings are awakened, and perpetuated for weeks and months, by very frequent C9 Annals of Education, 1833. [;70 This fact seems quite undoubted. If a mother, while pregnant, is subjected to annoyances which fret and irritate her, the offspring will run a strong risk of inheriting a temper similar to that under which she herself laboured during gestation. Pinel mentions that out of ninety-two children born after the. blowing up of the arsenal at Toulon in 1793, eight were affected with a species of aretinism, and died before the expiration of the fifth year; thirty-three languished through a miserable existence of from nine to ten months’ duration ; sixteen died in coming into the world, and si.x were born with numerous fractures of the larger bones. The latter effect must have been produced by the inordinate and deranged contraction of the uterus.—R. M.]