Powerfully depressing emotions, which are called by Kant
"asthenic," such as great and sudden sorrow, grief, or fright,
have a pronounced effect on the vital functions, at times even
causing death. Throughout literature and history we have examples
of this anomaly. In Shakespeare's "Pericles," Thaisa, the
daughter to Simonides and wife of Pericles, frightened when
pregnant by a threatened shipwreck, dies in premature childbirth.
In Scott's "Guy Mannering," Mrs. Bertram, on suddenly learning of
the death of her little boy, is thrown into premature labor,
followed by death. Various theories are advanced in explanation
of this anomaly. A very plausible one is, that the cardiac palsy
is caused by energetic and persistent excitement of the
inhibitory cardiac nerves. Strand is accredited with saying that
agony of the mind produces rupture of the heart. It is quite
common to hear the expression, "Died of a broken heart;" and,
strange to say, in some cases postmortem examination has proved
the actual truth of the saying. Bartholinus, Fabricius Hildanus,
Pliny, Rhodius, Schenck, Marcellus Donatus, Riedlin, and
Garengeot speak of death from fright and fear, and the
Ephemerides describes a death the direct cause of which was
intense shame.
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