Attitudes and the Mind.—With regard to the influence of the body on the mind, and the stimulating mental reaction that follows even a pose of well-being and good feeling, perhaps nothing affords more striking evidence than the effect of assuming the expressions and attitudes usually associated with various states of mind and then noting the results. If a man throws his shoulders back, and takes in long breaths of air, expanding his chest and stimulating his circulation, his whole body as well as his mind feels the effect. A slow walk with bowed shoulders and head, while one moodily turns over all the possibilities for ill in the life around, does very little good, while a brisk walk with head thrown back, shoulders erect, brings a man home with mind and body both ready to throw off temporary obstacles of all kinds, and in addition to the fact that the mental depression has disappeared, to some extent at least, all the physical functions will be accomplished better than before.
Tears and Feeling.—Some of the usual translations of the meaning of external expressions are not justified by what we know of their actual purpose and effects. For instance, tears are supposed to be a sign of deep grief. Except in the very young they are not, as a rule, to be thus understood. As we grow older they are much more frequently a sign of deep feeling that is usually quite pleasurable. It is almost impossible for a human being to be touched deeply without a glistening of the eyes that readily runs over into tears. A mother who is proud of something that her children have done is quite sure to have tears in her eyes. If she is present at a successful musical or dramatic performance given by a son or a daughter, especially where there is something of a triumph for them, she is sure to have tears in her eyes. There are few mothers who fail to be moved in this way when their children take prizes, or when some one writes to tell them how well their children are doing. Tears, indeed, far from being a sign of sadness, usually in adults indicate profound joy.
Tears, then, instead of being discouraged, should rather be encouraged, unless when indulged in to excess. We realize how trying to health and strength is the stony grief that does not melt into tears. The mother who faints over the sudden death of her child, and who wakes to silent consciousness, is in a dangerous condition until the solace of tears comes to her. Until there are tears, we fear for the effect upon her mind of the grief. The sufferer from melancholia is sad, but a good outburst of tears will, indeed, often mean the end of a prolonged period of melancholia. In the trials of life tears are a consolation rather than an addition to sorrow. In the olden times men wept as well as women, and Homer's heroes thought it not at all beneath their dignity to be seen in tears. Over and over again, the physician learns that while people have been going to "shows" that were supposed to make them laugh and so divert their minds, the best possible effect is derived not from trivial laughter, but from a serious play that touches the heart deeply and makes all who go to it melt a little. Many nervous patients never feel better than after they have had a good quiet cry.
The influence of the serious things of life in producing favorable states of mind is not sufficiently appreciated, or at least has come to be neglected in our day. There is a seeking far and wide for pleasure and diversion that should be obtained near home, through the simple joys of domestic life or intimate contact with others who need us in some way. As has been well said, it is not far-fetched pleasure, but simple joys that are more needed in our time. Nothing so enables the patient to get his, and above all her, mind off self as care for others. This must be expressed, however, in external acts accomplished by ourselves for others to have any deep effect. Doing things for other people deepens the feeling of sympathy, and so makes the mind much more ready to respond to increase of these feelings so profoundly as to displace selfish considerations. Exercise is valuable, but exercise undertaken for a worthy motive, constantly before the mind during the time it is taken, means ever so much more in awakening all the sources of energy that there are in men and women to make life worth living for themselves and others.
Application of Principles.—The best possible source of relief from that combination of mental despondency, and the lack of bodily vitality which so often accompanies it, and which, if not interrupted, may lead to a serious breakdown of mental health, is the discipline of work; above all, work for the benefit, of others, to which one forces one's self gradually but persistently, not with, long intervals, but day after day. The discipline of the asylum and the sanatorium is probably the most efficient curative agent when these cases are at their worst. When the symptoms are beginning, a discipline of a milder character, yet resembling that of the institution, but appealing to higher motives and leading to frequently repeated actions for the benefit of others, will undoubtedly do much to prevent worse developments or make the future condition of the patient less serious than it would otherwise be. Undoubtedly some of the old monastic regulations were efficient in preventing the more serious developments of despondency when the danger to himself and others of the melancholic was not so well recognized as at present.
Laughing Cures .—Every now and then the newspapers announce that some physician has invented a laughing cure, or a smiling cure, or something of the kind. Sometimes these reports are founded on actual occurrences; oftener, perhaps, they are the invention of a reporter suffering from a dearth of news. There is, however, no doubt that a smiling cure will do much to make people, even those who have serious reasons to be depressed, feel better. Every physician knows that if melancholic patients of the milder type can be amused quietly, their depression is modified for the better. Accordingly, we advise them to see farces or lively comedy, and we try to pick out cheerful nurses for them. The depression consequent upon some serious illness can be better relieved in this way than by any tonics or stimulants. For the depression, for instance, that so often follows a stroke of apoplexy, the employment of a nurse with a good human sense of humor and a large sympathy with the humorous side of things in life will do more to arouse a man from the lethargy into which he settles than almost anything else.
With regard to laughing, there is, of course, another element that must be remembered. A hearty laugh moves the diaphragm up and down vigorously, empties and ventilates the lungs, stimulates the heart mechanically by its action upon the intra-thoracic viscera, and is one of the best tonics that we have for the circulation in the abdominal cavity, and probably also for the important nervous mechanisms centered there. Its action upon the lungs is readily recognized. Its influence upon the heart is usually not so much thought of, but deserves even a more prominent place. It is now well known that when patients have gone into coma or the apneic condition that sometimes follows shock, or the administration of an anesthetic, when the heart ceases to beat, the only effectual means of resuscitation is by directly irritating the organ. It has been suggested that if the abdominal cavity is open the surgeon's hands should be passed up and should squeeze the heart through the diaphragm. It has even been proclaimed that tapping on the chest vigorously over the precordium may arouse a heart that has for the moment stopped beating. It is easy to understand, then, that a hearty laugh, by stirring up all the intra-thoracic viscera, stimulates the heart mechanically and sets it beating more vigorously than before. This is one of the reasons why people feel so well after a hearty laugh.
Even slight swallows of water act as a distinct heart stimulant. When people have fainted, a succession of swallows of water, each of them acting as a heart tonic, is one of the best methods that we have of stimulating the heart's action. It is usually said that this action is a consequence of the reflex from the terminal filaments of the vagus nerve