What Imagination Will Do

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1911

What Imagination Will Do

Dr. Charles K. Mills, of Philadelphia, told at a dinner an amusing story of the influence of the imagination on the health.

“A young bank clerk,” he said, “feeling fagged from the excessive heat of a trying summer, consulted a physician. The physician questioned him, sounded his lungs, and then gravely said, ‘I will write you to-morrow.’”

“The next day the bank clerk received a letter from the medical man, telling him that his right lung was gone, and his heart seriously deranged, and advising him to lose no time in putting his affairs in order.”

“‘Of course,’ the doctor said, ‘you may live for weeks; but you would do well to leave nothing important unsettled.’”

“Naturally, the young bank clerk was very much depressed by this sad letter. He did not go to work that morning, and before noon he was having trouble with his respiration, while severe pains shot rapidly through his heart. He did not get up all day, and toward midnight he had a sinking-spell that caused his people to send post-haste for the doctor.”

“The doctor, on his arrival, was astounded.

“‘Why,’ he cried, ‘there were no symptoms of this sort yesterday! What on earth have you been doing to yourself!’”

“The patient’s face screwed up with pain; he pressed his hand to his breast, and said, feebly, ‘It’s the heart, I suppose, doctor.’”

“‘The heart?’ said the doctor; ‘there was nothing the matter with it yesterday.’”

“‘My lungs, then,’ the patient groaned.

“‘What ails you?’ the doctor cried. ‘You don’t seem to have been drinking.’”

“‘Your letter, doctor—you told me I had only a few weeks to live.’”

“‘Nonsense! Are you crazy? I told you to take a month’s vacation at the seaside, and you’d be as good as new again.’”

“The patient drew the fateful letter from a drawer beside his bed.

“‘Well,’ said the doctor, glancing at it, ‘this is a pretty mess. This letter was intended for another man. My secretary must have mixed the envelopes.’”

“The patient laughed. He sat up in bed. His recovery was rapid. That night, in fact, he was well again.

“And what,” ended Mr. Mills, “what of the dying consumptive, who received this young man’s letter? The consumptive, delighted with the prediction that a month at the seaside would make a sound man of him, packed his trunk and took the first train for New England. That was ten years ago, and to-day he is in fair health.”—Selected.