Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-07-22
IMAGINED DISEASE.
How People are Scared out of the World.
From the Brooklyn Eagle, Juy3 3.

How People are Scared out Of the World.
From the Brooklyn Eagle, July 3.
Entwistle, the printer, who was bitten
by dog in April last, died yesterday.
Some believe he died of hydro
phobia still more believe that he died
merely of the fear of it. AS it is APP
parent that the disease is sealed book
of science, either belief may be the true
one. That the imagination will kill is
certain. Many of our readers will re-
member the case of the gardener at
either Heidleburg or Gottingen. This
man was working in the garden on a
fresh spring morning, in the very prime
of health. A student passed him with
the words:
"Ah, Fritz, passed bad night, eh?"
"No, sir, Never felt better"
I'm glad to hear it. Thought you
looked pale. Your garden looks beauti-
full, Fritz"
Thank you, sir"
Comes along another student.
Good morning, Fritz.
Good morning, sir"
"System little out of order %
"No, sir p
"You look bad, heavy eyed, and
pale" .4 '@.t l.
"Didn't know it, sir.
GA mere spring debility, I suppose.
Good morning."
Fritz (sot1s)-I do feel a sort of
queer like.
Comes along professor.
"Well, Fritz, how are the violet 2
Sc RpoI1tjf111 c1r nno11t1f111 -
You don't look very beautiful.
What's the matter with you? Let me
see your tongue. Your forehead clammy
too. I think you'd better go home to
bed, Fritz
81 do feel queer, SIR
81 should think you would. Go to
bed. Keep quiet for few days
believe I will, sir.
81 see DR.. Brock coming this way
ask him. Good day, Fritz, I am sorry
to see you in this state"
"Good day, sir
Up comes the Doctor.
doctor, what's the matter with
me?"
"Springoliana, Fritz, evidently. Get
to bed, my man. And here send this to
the dispensary, and take tablespoon
full every hour. Don't eat until [ see
you again. I'll call after the lecture is
over, however. Be very careful. I'll
bring Doctor Wolff with me to see you.
It is a curious case. ;"
Fritz went to bed. The doctors
came. They walked on tiptoe spoke
in whispers. They darkened the room.
They gave him medicine-i.e spoons
full of pure water, and pills made of
bread.
They left him. That night Fritz
grew weaker and weaker. And in the
morning the students and the faculty
were shocked with terror and Mortified,
in the midst of their laughter at poor
Fritz's fears, when his weeping daugh-
ter came to tell them that her stout,
strong father of 80 odd years lay dead
at home-dead of phantasy There
is no case better authenticated
Another case is that Of the French
criminal condemned to death, and
given to the doctors to experiment.
upon. He pleaded for an easy death,
and they gave it to him in this wise ::
They stretched him, naked, on table,
blindfolded his eyes, placed basins OF
water at his arms and knees, pricked
him with pin, not drawing blood even
They dropped from four Walls little
drops into the basins, SO that the I'M
fortunate man could hear continuous
drip, caused, he supposed, by the trick
ling of his own blood The doctors
held their watches. -. 1
"Another half hour and it Will be
over. You don't feel any pain. do
you?"
"No, doctor, but I feel my strength
going" .a.
"Of course of course. It is like
falling into sleep" .s..s.
In an hour and a quarter the poor
fellow was dead.
Several other examples of the power
of imagination over life, as we'll anthem
ticated as either Of the foregoing,
might be cited but these will suffice.
We now come to the last case, that Of
the man Entwistle, who died yesterday
In this last case Entwistle's magma
ton was worked on by the stir III the
papers regarding hydrophobia. His
imagination became excited at the mar
ratives told him in the papers, and out
Of them about it's dreadful effects. The
fear it begot of water, the irrepressible
tendency to initiate the contortions he
had read OF heard of, displayed the ma
MIA that attends an imagination excited
to the utmost by fears of what it will
suffer, and which accepts as present
that which at first it only feared for
the future. AS the fears grew, the
imagination strengthened, just as the
cases already quoted, and the result has
been the same. 21 .2
4 ReWarding Human Drivers.
DR.. Retz, physician inordinary to
Louis XVI, wrote to one of the Paris