Karamzin's Letters of a Russian Traveler

[Stefani, Sara Marie]

There is also the concept of spleen in Western European literature and culture, with the idea that an overproduction of fluids by this bodily organ can affect one's emotional state. The same idea is present in Dostoevsky's underground man, who is ill (if I remember correctly, he says it's his liver) and this affects his character, making him full of spite. In "Hamlet," one of the characters engages in the "luxury" of a deep sigh, because at the time it was thought that the body only had a certain amount of breath or spirit, and that by sighing one was shortening one's life.

I haven't researched any of this (so take all this with a grain of salt), but all these ideas seem to be connected to ancient Greek ideas about medicine - namely, the concept of the four humors in the body and the belief that overproduction of one of the four fluids impacts a person's mental and emotional state. Our good friend wikipedia says this under the entry "humoral medicine":

"From Hippocrates onward, the humoral theory was adopted by Greek, Roman and Islamic physicians, and became the most commonly held view of the human body among European physicians until the advent of modern medical research in the nineteenth century."

Obviously, you'd want to check up on this through more reliable routes, but at least it offers some kind of explanation to your question.

Good luck,
sms

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] on behalf of Alina Israeli [aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU]
Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2010 10:10 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Karamzin's Letters of a Russian Traveler

Желудок was understood as the whole digestive tract. For ex.

Если кто, имея больной желудок, не может принять горького лекарства,
которое, бы его очистило, и погибает, то мы обвиняем не лекарство, а
слабость органа; так и здесь причина — в слабости души. (Иоанн
Златоуст. http://www.orthlib.ru/John_Chrysostom/riml09.html)

Желчный even though related to a physical function was and still is
associated with human character.

AI

Nov 14, 2010, в 9:42 PM, Alexei Kutuzov написал(а):

> There's a passage in Karamzin's Letters of a Russian
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> There's a passage in Karamzin's Letters of a Russian Traveler that
> has been
> giving me some problems.  The passage takes place shortly after the
> traveler has
> received news of the French Revolution (under the entry for July 29)
> and is
> speaking to a "young doctor."  The passage reads as follows:
> "Испорченный
> желудок," сказал он, бывает источником не только всех болезней, но и
> всех
> пороков, всех дурных навыков, всех злых дел."  Can anyone on the
> list confirm
> the medical accuracy of this assertion?  That is to say, does an
> upset stomach
> really have substantial influence on one's moral qualities?  I'm not
> clear if
> the history of medicine bears this out, but I'd like to have
> confirmation before
> proceeding with an interpretation of the work.  Many thanks in
> advance for any
> leads.
>
> With best wishes to the list,
>
> Alexei Kutuzov
> Independent Scholar
>
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387  fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu

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