The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-19
ALL IN THEIR MIND.
Diseases Which Exist Only in Their Fright
ened Victims Imagination.

Philadelphia Times.
This Is a singular case, sure enough" said a
young physician yesterday, but there are a
great many diseases which exist only in the i'm
aginations of their supposed victims. The doc
tor had been reading the story of a man who
thought himself victim of heart disease until
his physician discovered that the "creaking
sound of which he complained whenever he
took deep breath was caused by little pulley
wheel on a pair of patent suspenders which he
wore The doctor laughed and laid down his
paper.
This is the first case l ever heard of where
saspendeTs were to blame" said he, but great
deal of what passes for heart disease is mild dys-
Pepsia Nervousness is an arstocratic name for
iFritability aud bad temper and Two thirds of the
so-called malaria is nothing but laziness A
fellow practitioner once told me of an old lady
he knew of in Newburyport, Mass. She had
kept her bed for three years and in spite of her
physicians assurances she believed herself hope
leSsly paralyzed One night her grandson got up
a ghost to scare her and the old lady ran half a
mile before they could catch her.
"The longer hallucination is INDUCED the
more deeply rooted 1t becomes In many cases
it ultimately develops into monomania or de-
usonal insanity Dr. S. Weir Mitchell per-
forms many Of his most remarkable cures of So
called nervous disease simply by his wonderful
success in persuading patients that nothing on
earth ais them Few physicians have the
ability TO do this, ard still fewer have the dis
erection to adopt course of treatment adapted to
the mental peculiarities of each particular case
Sometimes persuasion is necessary, but fire.
quently little tonic combined with a good
scolding produces the desired result
when delusion is harmless it is often the
best plan to humor it, A relative of NINE who
was clergyman, lived for several years in my
family. He firmly believed that he could not
sleep after preaching on Sunday night unless he
was put under the influence of an opiate. Time
and again have seen him doze off as soundly
as tired child after taking teaspoonful of
sweetened water, which 1 had prescribed as
morphia Without this harmless little dose,
however he would toss about restlessly for
hours.
"The negroes indulge some very funny super
stitions about disease and their cures. One of
the things of which they have a peculiar horror
is the common difficulty known as elongation
of the palate. When | was practicing as a
newly fiedged student in Virginia an old negress
called on me one evening Her hair was pulled
back from her forehead and knotted with a cord
in tight bunch on the crown of her head. She
was evidently suffering from bad cold.
Mars doctor, she said Use afraid Use got
faln OBJ de palate. Use done tied up my har as
hard as l can, but it don't pear to make it no
better, an l 'spects mebby need some pills
IL examined her throat and found nothing the
matter but slight Inflammation I don't think
you need any pills, auntie, said |. If you can
only get your hair tied up little closer for day
or two have no doubt your palate will shorten
up all right. She came in again in a few days
and told me she much better but her ole
man had tied her hair so hard that she had had
to sleep with her eyes open, cause she couldn' t
even make a wink"