Part 6 (1/2)

It is the withdrawal of the stimulus necessary to the healthy exercise of the brain, and the consequent weakening and depressing effect produced upon this organ, that renders solitary confine ree of the same cause that renders continuous seclusion from society so injurious to both mental and physical health This explains why persons who are cut off from social converse by some bodily infirmity so frequently become discontented and morose, in spite of every resolution to the contrary The feelings and faculties of the mind, which had formerly full play in their intercourse with their fellow-creatures, have no longer scope for sufficient exercise, and the almost inevitable result is irritability and weakness in the corresponding parts of the brain

This fact is strikingly illustrated by reference to the deaf and blind, who, by the loss of one or more of the senses, are precluded from a full participation in all the varied sources of interest which their more favored brethren enjoy without abatement, and in whom irritability, weakness of mind, and idiocy are known to beother classes of people ”The deaf and duence, character, and the development of his passions, certain modifications, which depend on his state of isolation in the midst of society He remains habitually in a state of half childishness, is very credulous, but, like the savage, remains free from many of the prejudices acquired in society In his are not deep; he appears susceptible neither of strong attachratitude; pity moves him feebly; he has little emulation, few enjoyments, and few desires This is what is commonly observed in the deaf and du of universal application; soreat development of their intellectual and moral nature; but others, on the contrary, remain immersed in complete idiocy”

Andral adds, that we must not infer from this that the deaf and dumb are therefore constitutionally inferior in mind to other men ”_Their powers are not developed, because they live isolated from society Place them, by some means or other, in relation with their fellow-men, and they will beco up of both mind and features, which is so often observed in blind or deaf children when transferred froht the means of converse with their fellows

I haveillustrations of the benefits resulting from mental culture in persons who have lost one orthese I would especially instance the American Asylum at Hartford for the education and instruction of the deaf and dumb, and the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, located at South Boston, to the accomplished principals and teachers of both of which institutions I would acknowledge my indebtedness for valuable reports and the inforly co the past summer

Dr Howe, the accomplished director of the Asylum for the Blind, after many years of experience and careful observation in this country and in Europe, expresses the conviction that _the blind, as a class, are inferior to other persons in mental power and ability_ The opinions put forth in almost every report of the institutions for the blind in this country, in almost all books on the subject, and even the doctor's earlier writings, ht to disprove this statement He is now, nevertheless, fully convinced that it will be found true This erroneous conviction, every where so prevalent, ent parents of blind children could at first co educated, and even _they_ would not think of trying the experiment except upon a child of more than ordinary ability As soon, however, as the experiment proved successful, and institutions for the blind becaht and the backward, the bold and the ti of the _whole class_ The result is, that nohile the schools for the blind present a certain nuress in _intellectual studies_ than the average of seeing children, they also present a er number who are decidedly inferior to theor

The loss of one sense makes us exercise the others so constantly and so effectually as to acquire a power quite unknown to cooes far to coe, and enables him to learn vastly more of _some_ subjects than other men; but there are capacities of his nature which can never be developed

Perfect harmony in the exercise and development of his mental faculties he can never possess, any more than he can exhibit perfect physical beauty and proportion

The proposition that the blind, _as a class_, are inferior in mental power and ability to ordinary persons, has been established beyond a doubt Take an equal nue and situation in life as may be, and it has been established by well authenticated data, that when all the blind have died, there will still be about half of the seeing ones alive In other words, the chance of life a The standard of bodily health and vigor, then, being sothe blind, the inevitable inference is that mental power and ability will be proportionably less also; for such is the dependence of the mind upon the body, that there can be no continuance of or

It is also true that _the deaf and dumb, as a class, are inferior to other persons in eneral reasons for this are the saiven in the case of blind persons, and need not hence be repeated The truth of this proposition is established beyond a doubt by the concurrent testireatest experience with this unfortunate class of persons both in this country and in Europe The report of the directors of the American Asylu the year

One of these had an affection of the lungs which terminated in consumption, and the disease of the other was dropsy on the brain In a third, hereditary consu itself Others, still, had been subject toof the case of a young man in whom _hereditary consu statereat destroyer of our race is found extensively in Europe, as well as in our own country, to be a _coht on by scrofula, by fevers, by violent colds, and by various other causes; and there is often, no doubt, _a hereditary tendency to it in families connected by blood_” If this is the effect of the loss of one of the senses upon the _bodily health_, keeping in view the principle already stated, we shall naturally enough be led to inquire what the influence is upon the _health of the mind_ A careful examination of the educational statistics of several states has convinced e proportion of the deaf and due proportion of the blind, and especially those who have rehtened--have been visited with ement, and have _lived and died insane_

This is easily accounted for Uneducated persons, who are deprived of one or more of the senses, are isolated from the world in which they live The book of nature is open before them, but they are unable to peruse it The si on around thema to themselves Even those who are endoith inquisitive s They know nothing of the physical organization of the planet we inhabit, of its political and civil divisions, and of the whole norant of the past history and future destiny of the race to which they belong It is not remarkable that mind so unnaturally and peculiarly circue so obstructed, and deprived of external objects to act upon--should prey upon itself, and thus superinduce insanity in its usual forms, and more especially when unaided and undirected by education

Keeping the same principle in viee shall not be surprised to find that _want of exercise_ of the brain and nervous system, or, in other words, that inactivity of intellect and feeling, is a very frequent predisposing cause of every form of nervous disease, even with those who have not been deprived of any of their senses For demonstrative evidence of this position, we have only to look at the nuher ranks, who have no call to exertion in gaining the means of subsistence, and no objects of interest on which to exercise their mental faculties, and who consequently sink into a state of mental sloth and nervous weakness, which not only deprives the, both of body andabroad upon society, we find innumerable examples of mental and nervous debility from this cause When a person of so round of employment, which affords neither scope nor stimulus for one half of his faculties, and, from want of education or society, has no external resources, his mental powers, for want of exercise to keep up due vitality in their cerebral organs, become blunted, and his perceptions slow and dull Unusual subjects of thought becos not being provided with interests external to themselves, must either become inactive and weak, or work upon themselves and become diseased

But let the situation of such persons be changed; bring them, for instance, from the listlessness of retireive them a variety of imperative employments, and place theans that extent of exercise which gives health and vivacity of action, and in a fewHealth, animation, and acuteness will take the place of former insipidity and dullness In such instances, it would be absurd to suppose that it is the _ain revives into energy by these changes in external circues in the state of the _brain_, and the mental manifestations and the bodily health have been improved solely by the i from excessive or ill-timed exercise of the brain, or any of its parts, are numerous, and equally in accordance with the ordinary laws of physiology When we use the eye too long or in too bright a light, it becomes bloodshot, and the increased action of its vessels and nerves gives rise to a sensation of fatigue and pain requiring us to desist If we turn away and relieve the eye, the irritation gradually subsides, and the healthy state returns; but if we continue to look intently, or resuained its natural state by repose, the irritation at last becoht, or even blindness, lass-blowers, sht

Precisely analogous phenomena occur when, fro in a state of excessive activity The only difference is, that we can always see what happens in the eye, but rarely what takes place in the brain Occasionally, however, cases of fracture of the skull occur, in which, part of the bone being removed, we _can see_ the quickened circulation in the vessels of the brain as easily as in those of the eye Sir Astley Cooper had a young gentleht to him who had lost a portion of his skull just above the eyebrow ”On exa the head,” says Sir Astley, ”I distinctly saw that the pulsation of the brain was regular and slow; but at this tiitated by some opposition to his wishes, and directly the blood was sent with increased force to the brain, and the pulsation became frequent and violent” Sir Astley hence concludes that, in the treatment of injuries of the brain, if you oitation, your other

A still more remarkable case is said to have occurred in the hospital of Montpellier in 1821 The subject of it was a fee portion of her scalp, skull-bone, and duraportion of her brain was consequently bare, and subject to inspection

When she was in a dreamless sleep, her brain was motionless, and lay within the craniuitated by dreams, her brain moved and protruded without the cranium

In vivid dreams the protrusion was considerable; and when she ake and engaged in active thought or sprightly conversation, it was still greater

In alluding to this subject, Dr Caldwell re an injury to other parts, to augment the constant afflux of healthy arterial blood to the brain, the orated by it This position is illustrated by reference to the fact that when a public speaker is flushed and heated in debate, his mind works more freely and powerfully than at any other time And why? Because his brain is in better tune What has thus suddenly improved its condition? An increased current of blood into it, produced by the excitement of its own increased action That the blood does, on such occasions, flow more copiously into the brain, no one can doubt who is at all acquainted with the cerebral sensations which the orator himself experiences at the time, or itnesses the unusual fullness and flush of his countenance, and the dewiness, flashi+ng, and protrusion of his eye

Indeed, in many instances, the increased circulation in the brain attendant on high mental excitement reveals itself by its effects when least expected, and leaves traces after death which are but too legible

Many are the instances in which public men have been suddenly arrested in their career by the inordinate action of the brain induced by incessant toil, and more numerous still are those whose mental power has been forever ienerally known that the eye, when tasked beyond its strength, becoht, and ceases to convey impressions to the mind The brain, in like ht, and consciousness is well-nigh lost in a feeling of utter confusion At any time in life, excessive and continued mental exertion is hurtful; but in infancy and early youth, when the structure of the brain is still immature and delicate, permanent injury is more easily produced by injudicious treatment than at any subsequent period In this respect, the analogy is complete between the brain and the other parts of the body, as we have already seen exemplified in the injurious effects of premature exercise of the bones and muscles Scrofulous and rickety children are the enerally re, and sreat size of the brain, and the acuteness of the rowth, and even with the best ement, the child passes the first years of its life constantly on the brink of active disease Instead, however, of trying to repress its mental activity, as they should, the fond parents, enius, too often excite it still further by unceasing cultivation and the never-failing stiress, for a time, equal to their warmest wishes, they look forith ecstasy to the day when its talents will break forth and shed a luster on their nahter to their fancy, the probability of its beco realized becomes less; for the brain, worn out by premature exertion, either beco the mental powers feeble and depressed for the rey is thus, in the end, easily outstripped in the social race by many whose dull outset prouide the necessities of the constitution, it will be obvious that the modes of treatment commonly resorted to should in such cases be reversed; and that, instead of straining to the utmost the already irritable powers of the precocious child, leaving his dull coht to be uid faculties of the latter, while no pains should be spared to ive tone to the activity of the forent child is generally sent to school, and tasked with lessons at an unusually early age, while the healthy but more backward boy, who requires to be stimulated, is kept at home in idleness merely on account of his backwardness A double error is here committed, and the consequences to the active-minded boy are not unfrequently the permanent loss both of health and of his envied superiority of intellect