ness
of those nearest or dearest to them, are positively mortified and
ashamed because their countenances show so little of the pallid hues and
the haggard lines supposed to be inseparably associated with grief. So
long as the body-surplus is abundant enough to stand the heavy
overdrafts made on it by grief and mental distress, without robbing the
stomach of its power to digest and the brain of its ability to sleep,
the physical effects of grief, and even of remorse, will be slight.

It must be remembered that loss of appetite is not in itself a cause of
trouble, but a symptom of the stomach's inability to digest food; in
this instance, because it finds that it can no longer draw upon the
natural resources of the body in sufficient abundance to carry out its
operations. The state is exactly like a tightness of the money market,
when, on account of unnatural retention or hoarding in some parts of the
financial field, the accumulation of sufficient amounts of floating
capital at the banks for moving the crop or paying import duties cannot
be carried out as usual. The vital system is, in fact, in a state of
panic, so that the stomach cannot get the temporary credit or capital
which it requires.

A similar condition of temporary panic, call it mental or bodily, as you
will, occurs in disease and is not confined to the so-called imaginary
diseases, or even to the diseases of the nervous system, but is apt to
be present in a large number of acute affections, especially those
attended by pain. Sudden invasion of the system by the germs of
infectious diseases, with their explosions of toxin-shells all through
the redoubts of the body, often induces a disturbance of the bodily
balance akin to panic. This is usually accompanied and aggravated by an
emotional dread and terror of corresponding intensity. The relief of the
latter, by the confident assurance of an expert and trusted physician
that the chances are ten to one that the disease will run its course in
a few days and the patient completely recover,--especially if coupled
with the administration of some drug which relieves pain or diminishes
congestion in the affected organs,--will often do much toward restoring
balance and putting the patient in a condition where the natural
recuperative powers of the system can begin their work. The historic
popularity of opium, and of late of the coal-tar products (phenacetine
and acetanilide), in the beginning of an acute illness, is l