The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1857-01-16
INFLUENCE OF THE MIND ON THE
BODY.

| DOD1.
The influence Of faith, belief or opinion
ON the body is nnquestionable. We have
seen children of two, three or four years oI
age shiver in the cold bath, because they
feared, beforehand, it would be cold to them
The proof of mental influence in this case is
derived from the fact, that when the same
process in the same circumstances, or those
which nearly resemble it, is submitted 10
cheefully aud without apprehensions, there
is no shivering. ..
The same truth Is applicable almost ev-
cry where in life, and in nearly all crcum.
stances. Things are, to a very great extent
as We apprehend them. If we expect q
room will be cold at sixty degrees of Fab
renheit, il is very apt TO prove so. If we ex-
pect TO be iatigued with II certain kind or
d.gree Of exercise or labor, we are apt to be
81; and the contrary. So if we expect to
catch cold or any other disease--even small
pox-we are very apt TO ind it so. On the
contrary, he who does not expect to be sick
or be assailed, may walk unscratched
through dangers which the more timid man
would he DESTROYED. w, might illustrate
the principle at which we MIN by numerous
examples, but few will be sufficient for
our present purpose. We wish, If possible
to fasten the conviction on lhe minds of our
readers, that just as surely as the expectation
of being wealthy, wise or good, tends to
such results, so surely does he expectation
that we shall be healthy or diseased tend to
make us so.
IN Paris Life Of Sir Humphrey Davy, we
are told that Dr. Bcddoes once went to him
with patient who was greatly afflicted with
nne sp, cirs of palsy, in order that he might
receive the nitrous oxide gas, but without
explaining to his patient the nature of the OPP
Grafton. Before administering Ihe gas. how.
ever, a thermometer was placed under his
tongue. TO ascertain the general temperature
of his system. The patient, not so much us
imagining what was done, no sooner felt the
bulb of The thermometer under his tongue
than he declared that he was better. The
gas, therefore was not given, but the man
us required to come and be operated upon
in the same way the following day, which he
did, and with similar happy effects. In fine,
after repeating the operation of placing the
bulo Of the thermometer under his tongue
every day, for fortnight, the patient was
dismissed perfectly cured.
Equally worthy of our credit, though it
may seem to partake little more of the
marvellous, is story which DR.. Gregory, Of
Ediuguurg, was accustomed to relate to his
students.
20 Having nrdersd q young patient Of his--
n medical student-to take an anodyne at
bed time, the young man understood him to
say catharic, The medicine was accor-
dinghy taken inthe full expectation of lax
atve effect; which in truth, were realizpd.-
When Dr.. g., asked the next morning what
effect the anodyne had the sick man exclam.
ed with great suPrise-"Arodye, Sit! did you
not send me call'artic!" BY no means said
the doctor; it was an anodyne. Well, said
the patient, it has certainly operated as n ca
tlnrtic, and feel greatly relieved by it.
Now, it is quite possible that the condition
Of The young man was such that the an
odyne produced cathartic effects, independ.
ent of the state Of the mind; still it is scarce
ly probable.
1t is the same principle that medicines in
general not only in the hands of quacks but
in those of regular physicians themselves
have much of ftseir efficacy. The influence
ofcharms, and cupjurations, and incantations,
to restore health to savage, is well Known
We are, all of us, in this respect, but little
elevated above the condition of The savages.
We ARE the continued dupes of our fears,
sand feel thousand deaths in fearing one"
Col Raui,,u nuI,iish.a n in I.f