Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1875 — Mental Activity in Disease. [ARTICLE]

Mental Activity in Disease.

Therd are two distinct physical conditions under which the intellect seems to possess a pow-er anU a brilliancy much exceeding the normal standaid. These two conditions are; 1. The initial ot pretubercular stage of pulmonary phthisis ; and, 2. The condition of chronic gout. Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the explanation of the cause of this high state of mental activity there can be none as to the fact. There is, as it were, almost an aureole of intellectual light around the heads of those tvho are about to enter the fated pathway of pulmonary tuberculosis. To what it is due it is difficult to say. One factor may be some accession of arterial blood to the cerebral cells in excess of of the normal flow. We know that there are usually an accelerated pulse-rate and a heightened temperament in such cases. There may be some nerve communication between the lungs and the vaso motor nerves of the cerebral vessels, of which we are as yet but dimly conscious, which may some day explain the matter to us. As to the intellectual power of the gouty, there is less difficulty in explaining it. In the first place, the blood of the gouty is highly charged with nitrogenized matter. Carpenter has pointed out (“ Human Physiology,” Sec. 62) how desirable . a nitrogenized diet is for the evolution of nerve-force, w hile Liebig dilates upon the effect of food upon disposition in his xvell-known “ Letters on Chemistry.” M. Metz, of Mattray, found the value of a liberal dietary in giving strength of will to irresolute boys in his reformatory. An excess of nitrogen in the system, and especially in the biood, acts as a stimulant to the brain cells in the case of the gouty. Tnis. however, is but half of the matter; there is an equally or even more important factor in the condition of the circulation.— Popular Science Monthly 'for March.