Power of the Imagination.
THAT imagination may prove fatal, receives fresh proof from "a case of fatal shock from supposed snake bite," reported in the Medical Press, April 25, 1883, by Dr. C. R. Francis. The patient, awakened from his sleep by something creeping over his naked legs, immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was a cobra, went into a state of collapse and died, though it was discovered, even before death, that the supposed cobra was a harmless lizard. There is no doubt but that a very large portion of the sickness and death of adults might be warded off by a proper and determined exercise of the will power. A late number of Hall's Journal of Health, in dwelling upon this subject, remarks as follows: To regain or recover health, persons should be relieved from all anxiety concerning diseases. The mind has power over the body. For a person to think he has a disease will often produce that disease. This we see effected when the mind is intensely concentrated upon the disease of another. It is found in the hospital that surgeons and physicians who make a specialty of certain diseases are liable to die of it themselves, and the mental power is so great that sometimes people die of diseases which they only have in imagination. We have seen a person seasick in anticipation of a voyage before reaching the vessel. We have known a person to die of cancer in the stomach when he had no cancer or any other mortal disease. A blindfolded man slightly pricked in the arm, has fainted and died from believing that he was bleeding to death. Therefore, well persons, to remain well, should be cheerful and happy, and sick persons should have their attention drawn as much as possible from themselves. It is by their faith men are saved, and it is by their faith that men die. If he wills not to die, he can often live in spite of disease, and if he has little or no attachment for life, he will slip away as easily as a child will fall asleep.