Body: | Blood Circulation in the body
(Exercitatio anatomica de circulatione sanguinis)
William Harvey
1649 AD
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Introduction:
In 1649 AD, William Harvey discovered the blood circulatory system
of the body. He notes that the mind, spirit and emotion cause physical
changes in the body, sometimes causing death. "And what indeed is more
deserving of attention than the fact that in almost every affection,
appetite, hope or fear, our body suffers, the countenance changes, and the
blood appears to course hither and thither. In anger the eyes are fiery and
pupils contracted; in modesty the cheeks are suffused with blushes; in
fear, and under a sense of infamy and of shame, the face is pale, but the
ears burn as if for the evil they heard or were to hear; in lust how
quickly is the member [penis] distended with blood and erected!" He gives a
case story of a man who overcome with anger, hate and revenge, died: "I was
acquainted with another strong man, who having received an injury and
affront from one more powerful than himself, and upon whom he could not
have his revenge, was so overcome with hatred and spite and passion, which
he yet communicated to no one, that at last he fell into a strange
distemper, suffering from extreme oppression and pain of the heart and
breast, and . . . in the course of a few years . . . became tabid and
died". Of course this is nothing new. Modern science recognizes how stress
can cause heart attacks and drive one to insanity. However, the doctor
contributed to the myth of hysteria by blaming the uterus for inducing
insanity. Modern psychiatry retained hysteria until it was replaced in the
first edition of the DSM-I in 1952 with "conversion reaction" and
"somatization disorder." Here we have it's beginning stages of development
by the myth that human females, like animals, go insane if they do not get
sex when they need it: "All animals, indeed, grow savage when in heat, and
unless they are suffered to enjoy one another, become changed in
disposition. In like manner women occasionally become insane through
ungratified desire, and to such a height does the malady reach in some,
that they are believed to be poisoned, or moonstruck, or possessed by a
devil." Equally quaky, is the idea that a woman who is suffering from
"hysteria" needs to do "Hymeneal Exercises", whatever that is, or just get
a husband to get enough sex to cure her mental illness: "That this Maid
having remained a great while in the Hospital without being cured, Dr.
Harvey, out of Curiosity, visited her sometimes; and suspecting her strange
Distemper to be chiefly Uterine, and curable only by Hymeneal Exercises, he
advised her Parents (who sent her not thither out of poverty) to take her
home, and provide her a Husband, by whom, in effect, she was according to
his Prognostic, and to many Men's wonder, cured of that strange Disease."
(Blood Circulation in the body (Exercitatio anatomica de circulatione
sanguinis), William Harvey, 1649 AD)
"The body-mind relation especially the influence of the passions had
long been discussed in medical literature within the ancient framework of
humours. Harvey applying his new experimental and observational method to
the same problems related them to the circulation of the blood. In De motu
cordis (1628) he commented on the important influence of emotions on the
heart : 'every affection of the mind that is attended with either pain or
pleasure, hope or rear, is the cause of an agitation whose influence
extends to the heart'. Twenty years later he elaborated this in the extract
quoted in which he also referred to a collection of 'Medical Observations'
which, had it been published, might have been the first psychosomatic
casebook. In the second extract Harvey's observations on the connection
between mind and generative system show how early in the history of
psychiatry sexual disorders were considered causes of mental illness. For
this reason he advised 'Hymeneal Exercises' for a girl suffering from
hysterical anaesthesia as here reported by Robert Boyle. Harvey also
observed two cases of pseudocyesis or phantom pregnancy; in one the
delusion was accepted by the patient's sister and so gave rise to a folie a
deux." (300 years of Psychiatry, Richard Hunter, 1963, p119)
Blood Circulation in the body (Exercitatio anatomica de circulatione
sanguinis), William Harvey, 1649 AD
William Harvey (1578-1657)
MD Padua & Cantab., FRCP, physician to James I and Charles I, and to St
Bartholomew's Hospital, London; discoverer of the circulation of the blood
Exercitatio anatomica de circulatione sanguinis, 1649 Cambridge
Translated by R. Willis in: The works of William Harvey, 1847 London,
Sydenham Society pp. 127-9, 189-90
Exercitationes de generation animalium, 1651 London Ibid., pp.
542-3, 528-9
Robert Boyle : Some considerations touching the usefulnesse of
experimental naturall philosophy, 1663 Oxford, Davis Part 2, pp. 72-3
PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE
(Exercitatio anatomica de circulatione sanguinis, 1649 Cambridge Translated
by R. Willis in: The works of William Harvey, 1847 London, Sydenham Society
pp. 127-9, 189-90)
I was acquainted with another strong man, who having received an injury and
affront from one more powerful than himself, and upon whom he could not
have his revenge, was so overcome with hatred and spite and passion, which
he yet communicated to no one, that at last he fell into a strange
distemper, suffering from extreme oppression and pain of the heart and
breast, and . . . in the course of a few years . . . became tabid and died
. . . His friends thought him poisoned by some malesicent influence, or
possessed with an evil spirit . . . In the dead body I found the heart and
aorta so much gorged and distended with blood, that the cavities of the
ventricles equalled those of a bullock's heart in size. Such is the force
of the blood pent up, and such are the effects of its impulse .. . We also
observe the signal influence of the affections of the mind when a timid
person is bled and happens to faint: immediately the flow of blood is
arrested, a deadly pallor overspreads the surface, the limbs stiffen, the
ears sing, the eyes are dazzled or blinded, and, as it were, convulsed. But
here I come upon a field where I might roam freely and give myself up to
speculation. And, indeed, such a flood of light and truth breaks in upon me
here; occasion offers of explaining so many problems, of resolving so many
doubts, of discovering the causes of so many slighter and more serious
diseases, and of suggesting remedies for their cure, that the subject seems
almost to demand a separate treatise. And it will be my business in my
'Medical Observations', to lay before my reader matter upon all these
topics which shall be worthy of the gravest consideration.
And what indeed is more deserving of attention than the fact that in almost
every affection, appetite, hope or fear, our body suffers, the countenance
changes, and the blood appears to course hither and thither. In anger the
eyes are fiery and pupils contracted; in modesty the cheeks are suffused
with blushes; in fear, and under a sense of infamy and of shame, the face
is pale, but the ears burn as if for the evil they heard or were to hear;
in lust how quickly is the member distended with blood and erected!
HYSTERIA AND PSEUDOCYESIS
(Exercitationes de generation animalium, 1651 London Ibid., pp. 542-3,
528-9)
It is of the same significance in these animals [birds, many insects,
fishes] when they conceive eggs, as it is in young women when their uterus
grows hot, their menses slow, and their bosoms swell - in a word, when
they become marriageable; and who, if they continue too long unwedded, are
seized with serious symptoms - hysterics, furor uterinus, &c. or fall
into a cachectic state, and distemperatures of various kinds. All animals,
indeed, grow savage when in heat, and unless they are suffered to enjoy one
another, become changed in disposition. In like manner women occasionally
become insane through ungratified desire, and to such a height does the
malady reach in some, that they are believed to be poisoned, or moonstruck,
or possessed by a devil. And this would certainly occur more frequently
than it does, without the influence of good nurture, respect for character,
and the modesty that is innate in the sex, which all tend to tranquillize
the inordinate passions of the mind .. .
In those pale virgins who labour under chronic maladies, and in whom the
uterus is small and the catamenia stagnate, 'by coition', says Aristotle,
`the excrementitious menstrual fluid is drawn downwards, for the heated
uterus attracts the humours, and the passages are opened'. In this way
their maladies are greatly lessened, seeing that want of action on the part
of the uterus exposes the body to various ills. For the uterus is a most
important organ, and brings the whole body to sympathize with it. No one of
the least experience can be ignorant what grievous symptoms arise when the
uterus either rises or falls down, or is in any way put out of place, or is
seized with spasm - how dreadful, then, are the mental aberrations, the
delirium, the melancholy, the paroxysms of frenzy, as if the affected
person were under the dominion of spells, and all arising from unnatural
states of the uterus. How many incurable diseases also are brought on by
unhealthy menstrual discharges, or from over-abstinence from sexual
intercourse where the passions are strong ! .. .
I am acquainted with a young woman, the daughter of a physician with whom I
am very intimate, who experienced in her own person all the usual symptoms
of pregnancy; after the fourteenth week, being healthy and sprightly, she
felt the movements of the child within the uterus, calculated the time at
which she expected her delivery, and when she thought, from further
indications, that this was at hand, prepared the bed, cradle, and all other
matters ready for the event. But all was in vain. Lucina . . . tutelar
deity of childbirth . . . refused to answer her prayers; the motions of the
foetus ceased; and by degrees, without inconvenience, as the abdomen had
increased so it diminished; she remained, however, barren ever after. I am
acquainted also with a noble lady who had borne more than ten children, and
in whom the catamenia never disappeared except as the result of
impregnation. Afterwards, however, being married to a second husband, she
considered herself pregnant, forming her judgment not only from the
symptoms on which she usually relied, but also from the movements of the
child, which were frequently felt both by herself and her sister, who
occupied the same bed with her. No arguments of mine could divest her of
this belief. The symptoms depended on flatulence and fat. Hence the best
ascertained signs of pregnancy have sometimes deceived not only ignorant
women, but experienced midwives, and even accurate physicians.
HYMENEAL EXERCISES
(Robert Boyle : Some considerations touching the usefulnesse of
experimental naturall philosophy, 1663 Oxford, Davis Part 2, pp. 72-3)
Mr. Hollyer . . . told me, that among many Patients sent to be cured in a
great Hospital [St. Thomas's] (of which he is one of the Chirurgions) there
was a Maid of about eighteen Years of age, who, without the loss of motion,
had so lost the sense of feeling in the external parts of her Body, that
when he had, for tryal sake, pinn'd her Handkerchief to her bare Neck, she
went up and down with it so pinn'd, without having any sense of what he had
done to her. He added, That this Maid having remained a great while in the
Hospital without being cured, Dr. Harvey, out of Curiosity, visited her
sometimes; and suspecting her strange Distemper to be chiefly Uterine, and
curable only by Hymeneal Exercises, he advised her Parents (who sent her
not thither out of poverty) to take her home, and provide her a Husband, by
whom, in effect, she was according to his Prognostic, and to many Mens
wonder, cured of that strange Disease.
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