The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-12-23
THE MIND IN DISEASE.
Some Interesting but Startling Incidents
of n Scientific Theory.

some Interesting Dut startling lncfdents
of n Scientific Theory.
The Popular Science Monthly cites
some curious incidents of the acute de-
velopment of certain mental faculties in
disease. As the impairment of one
faculty intensifes the power of another,
so physical prostrations of similar
nature produce the same phenomena.
Imagination and memory, as the most
impressionable faculties, are subject to
| physical influences. Imagination has
produced death when the physical all
ment did not warrant it, and courage
has not unfrequently enabled men
stricken with disease to overcome its
ravages. 1t is estimated that large
proportion of the deaths of O cholera
visitation result from terror. This dan
ger is distinctly recognized by physi-
clans, who often combat the terror they
encounter as much as the real disease.
The effect of imagination is illustrated
in the textbooks of mental philosophy.
by instances where criminals condemned
to death were placed in a warm bath,
with the information that they were to
be bled to death; then came slight cut
and finally death. Such is the effect of
imagination on mind and body. Hypo-
chondria and homesickness are names
given by the doctors to mental diseases
that have often had fatal results.
The Monthly states the case of near
relative suffering from extreme nervous
debility, who begged to be taken to an
asylum for the insane on account of
vivid and unnatural impression of
"thinking of two things at the same
time" The same person was also
afflicted with startling consciousness of
things happening to her children at
distance, which proved to be correct, the
anticipation of what people were going
to say, and the power of reading the
motives of others. A similar phenome-
non came within the experience of now
famous actor, who, in his younger days,
was given to a free use of stimulants.
He anticipated the words and thoughts
of those who were speaking to him, and
would frequently approach a stranger
on the streets and startle him with call
ing his name, speaking his thoughts,
telling him some secret of his past life
or some undisclosed intention for the
future. The impulse to do this at times
was irresistible. OF late years this NOR
bid perception has passed away entirely,
and, as is stated, it would seem to be
because it has not been subject to the
excitation of stimulants.
DR.. Steinbeck once found an illiterate
peasant praying aloud in Greek and
Hebrew when he was prostrated with
disease it was subsequently ascertained
that he had heard the parish minister
pray i'll those languages when he was a
child, and, though he could not recall a
word of them when in health, they came
back to him in disease. Abercrombie
relates how the attendants of an asylum
found young girl inmate playing diff
cult AMI exquisite music on the violin,
with no previous instruction or practice
only she had been accustomed to sleep
in room adjoining that occupied by an
itinerant musician of great talent. She
could only play these airs when asleep.
Memory i'll aged persons often grows
more vivid with advancing age and de-
cining powers. Sir Walter Scott, who
had oyerstrained his physical powers,
speaks of being haunted by "sensc of
pre-existence. The faculty of intensity
ing in sleep the thoughts or study Ill
which one is engaged in waking hours
belongs to the SAL phenomena A stu
dent in Germany, anxious to acquire the
language, and deeply immersed in the
study of it, in order to attend lectures,
found that he could carry on a converse
ton fuently in his sleep, though he
could only stumble along when awake.
The latest mania of "mind reading" is
perhaps another development in the
same direction.