The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-04-27
Che Aenusha ge1egraph.
KENOsHA, WIS, APRIL 81, 1871.
THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION
AND THE WILL.

The mind and body bear such an init
mate relation to each other that disorder
in one occasions disorder to the other
They are affected very frequently by the
same causes, and exert reflex influence
upon one another. Keeping these facts in
view, we can often trace and remove the
source of real or supposed illness with
out the physicians aid. and thereby avoid
much pain and many prescriptions. 1t
may be asserted with safety that fully one
half of the sickness Of the present day is
fictitious. unreal. "Imdgindti0 general
cou8ams,' the proverb of the schoolmen,
holds true to-day-"The Imagination
creates what it imagines." Being well, We
think ourselves into being unwell Suf-
fering from enpui and lack of exercise,
the lady in the boudoir takes to her bed
under the belief of illness, and the hale
farmer magnifes chest pain into dys-
pepsia, on being told that his malady is
becoming very common in the rural dis
tricts, by reason of too much pork eating.
Physicians are applied to by hundreds to
cure troubles, hose existence has merely
been assumed from the perusal of spurious
medical books, scattered broadcast by
cQaEldtdnS. TIC hiiDWtCoEC III CUS IdCb
that it has been Hereditary in their fami-
lies, has been sufficient to bring insanity
npon individuals. Proofs of the power
full influence OF the imagination on our
corporal natures, are to be drawn from
every quarter. Writing of the Chinese
Riccius says "If it be told them that
they shall be sick upon certain day,
when that day comes they very frequent
ly will he sick, and will be SO terribly af.
hicttd that sometimes they die upon it"
An instance is on record, of a condemned
man being found dead on the scsfsld
when the sheriff unbound his eyes, pre-
paratory to reading his pardon TO him.
It was one of Frederick the Greats SOL
diers, if we mistake not, who dropped
dead, when, after burlesque court-mar-
shall, twelve comrades discharged yolley
of blank cartridges at him. a woman,
thinking that she had swallowed pin,
was seized with severe pains. A compan-
ion believing it was a mere fancy, caused
her to reich, at the same time placing a
crooked pin in the bottom of the basin
On seeing the latter, she supposed that
she had cast it up, and was at once re-
lieved of her pains.
There is a story told of Frenchman,
who crossed a dangerous passage on a
plank in the night, and upon percei71ng
the next day what narrow escape he
had had, fell down dead. The eminent
DR.. Gotta narrates two instances of death
produced by imagination. Burton says,
in his natomy OF Melancholy, ''imagina-
ton is the medium diterens of passions,
by whose means they work, and produce
many times prodigious effects. have
heard of one that coming by chance in
company of him that was thought to be
sick of the plague (Which was not so), fell
down dead. Another was sick of the
plague, with conceit. One, seeing his
fellow let blood, fell down in swoon.
Another fell down dead, seeing but man
hanged" Nontaigne wrote: IL am one
of those who are most sensible of the
power of Imagination, A perpetual cough
in another tickles my throat [ take pos
session Of the disease and look on, and do
not at all wonder that fancy should give
feYers, and sometimes kill such as allow
of too much scope aud are too willing to
entertain it." 1t is through means Of the
imagination, that quacks work what are
sometimes seemingly astonishing cures
County, Ohio, in the winter of 1856, we
were pointed out several children who,
their parents declared, were cured of
scrofula, in this manner: An auger-hole
was made in an elm-tree. A lock of hair,
cut as near as possible from the top of the
head of the sufferer, was placed in this
hole, and plug inserted When the
bark grew over, the scrofula disappear
ed" This was the common "cure" in
that region for scrofulous affections.
From these, and numerous other illustra-
tions which might be cited, we may learn
how very easy it is to make ourselves sick,
through mere fancy and conceit and how
important it is that the Imagination
should be employed on the side of
health.
The exercise of the will has very much
to do IN determining our physical condi-
ton. Many persons with weak constitu
tions, but strong wills, have STAYED off
sickness, year IN and year out, when
others with less resolution would have
settled into habitual invalids. So bent
was Cardinal Richelieu upon carving out
his colossal schemes that he Systematically
ignored his physical ailments, and to per
suade the people that he was we'll fire.
quently rode out before them in military
dress, with huge red feather in his cap,
and sword dangling his by side. John
Randolph and Alexander Stephens are
signal examples of what strong will
can accomplish, though joined to feeble
body. Many instances are reported Of
persons who have recovered from physi
cal maladies through the power of the
will, when medicines failed Mr.. Walker.
author of the 0rfginnL tells US that ION
one occasion be determined to be we'll.