Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/582

564

When Greg talks of intellect disengaged from matter, he is led away into poetical metaphor, which is, however, allowable in one who is not a professed physiologist.

We are all familiar with the effects of alcohol upon the intellectual powers. A gentleman mentioned by Dr. Willis, who was liable to periodical attacks of insanity, said that he expected the paroxysms with impatience, because, during them, he enjoyed a high degree of pleasure. "Every thing appeared easy to me. No obstacles presented themselves either in theory or practice. My memory suddenly acquired a singular degree of perfection. Long passages of Latin authors occurred to my mind. In general, I have great difficulty in finding rhythmical terminations, but then I could write verse with as great facility as prose."

There are two distinct physical conditions under which the intellect seems to possess a power and a brilliancy much exceeding the normal standard. These two conditions are: 1. The initial or 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 who 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 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, while Liebig dilates upon the effect of food upon the disposition, in his well-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 blood, acts as a stimulant to the brain-cells in the case of the gouty. This, however, is but half of the matter; there is an equally, or even more important factor, in the condition of the circulation.

Careful investigation has demonstrated to us the state of the