Treatment.—It should always be remembered, that in most cases of the kind I have been considering, the state of health is not good. In some cases the deranged state of the body operates, doubtless, to depress the spirits and to derange the mental manifestations. In other cases the mind appears to become first affected, and afterward the body suffers in consequence thereof. In some cases, also, it is to be supposed that the action is reciprocal, and probably pretty fairly balanced between the two.
This explanation will enable us to form an opinion as to what the course of treatment should consist in, which is, as far as possible, to remove the causes of the difficulty.
In the slighter cases of mental depression a little improvement of the general health is often sufficient to work a radical change in the patient’s feelings. In the more persistent cases we should do all in our power to tranquilize the mind and restore the bodily health.
LONGINGS.
Some women, when pregnant, experience the most strange and wayward desires in regard to particular articles of food. This sensation is what is commonly called longing; and it is believed that if the preternatural craving is not gratified, a likeness or representation of the article longed for is very apt to be impressed upon the child.
It is true that some writers of eminence—as Professor Meigs, of Philadelphia, for example—have doubted the existence of any such sensation as the one in question; but the majority of writers are of the opposite opinion. Women also themselves—and they ought to be the best judges in a matter of this kind—do tell us that they know positively the truth of such a sensation as longing.
There are some remarkable facts on record concerning the symptoms which I am considering, and which would go to prove that it is not always the good things of this world that are longed for. If women were always in the habit of craving good and savory dishes under these circumstances, we should have some reason to suspect them of dishonesty in regard to the reality of longing; but when the fickle and morbid appetite is found often to crave the most unrelishable articles, we must admit the truth of the doctrine of which we are speaking.
A lady has been known, who, when not pregnant, having a great horror of eating eels, and yet when in this situation she has demanded them with an importunity not to be resisted. She would not only eat them with avidity, but in large and repeated quantities, for the first few months; she would then become indifferent to them, but not averse, until after her delivery.
A woman pregnant, riding over a common, has scented spoiled shad that had been thrown out, and became instantly so fascinated by their odor, that she obliged her husband to take some of them into his gig; and as soon as she arrived at home, began to eat of them, raw as they were, and continued to do so daily until they were consumed, though they were extremely offensive to every body else in the house.
A woman pregnant, while passing through her kitchen, has taken a disgusting piece of bacon boiling in a soap-kettle, out of the vessel, eating it afterward, with the greatest relish.