The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1888-11-17
IMAGINARY DISEASES.
Odd and Often Fatal Delusions of
Many Hypochondriacs.
Some Very Remarkable Cases-Interesting
Talks with Physicians on the Subject
The Causes and Cure of
the Complaint.

The doctors just now are very much
interested in case of a woman who
died the other day of an imaginary
cancer. The woman's name was Emma
Felch, and she lived in Danvers, Mass.
Several months ago her mother died OF
a cancer. Immediately after the burial
the daughter told her friends that she
was afflicted with the same trouble.
She brooded over this until she became
very i'll and physicians were called in.
They assured her that she had no can
Ger, but she would not believe them.
She told them that she knew better;
that she was firmly convinced she had
a cancer. She died in that belief. A
pOst-mortem examination was made of
the young woman's body, and not a
trace of a cancer or any other disease
was found. A Philadelphia Press re-
porter called the other day on a num-
Der of prominent physicians and asked
them if among their patients they had
many who imagined they had diseases
which they did not have. Some very
interesting information was obtained.
The doctors said 1t was found to be
very common. trouble, and that tho
chief diseases these people imagine
they have are cancer, heart disease
and Bright's disease. In the language
of the profession the complaint is
known as hypochondriasis Said one
physician:
1--WE doctors are fairly overrun
nowadays with these people. As
rule they are persons of hysterical
temperaments or of extreme nervous
ness. The influence of the imagina-
ton is so powerful upon the body that
sometimes it actually develops the
semblance of the disease imaSined.
The symptoms come on, but when the
patient is completely reassured by the
doctor the symptoms disappear in
two hours. Such people become the
ready prey of quacks and humbug
doctors, faith curists and such people.
1t may be said to be a mild form of
melancholia and easily develops into
that disease unless properly looked
after. 1t is due to various causes,
such as excessive work, producing
nervous depression and an inactive
life where a person has no healthful
occupation and is apt to get brooding
or worrying about him or herself. 1t
is noticeable that women more than
men have the disea
1t was found that the disease is often
epidemic. At the time of General
Grants sickness and death from cancer
of the threat and during the illness of
the late Kaiser Friedrich hundreds of
people, with nothing serious at all the
matter with them, called upon DIR.
Shrady, who attended General Grant,
and told him they had cancer of the
throat coming on and wished to be
treated for it. One large, strong,
healthy man came all the way from
Denver to see the doctor for the pur-
pose of having his tongue cut out.
There was only a little ulcer upon it,
but the man was firmly convinced that
he was affected with cancer and that
his tongue must go. He had nerved
himself for the operation and was quite
prepared to have the doctor cut it out
at once. When told that there was
nothing the matter with him he grasp
ed hold of the doctor and fairly raised
him off his feet in his rapture, handling
the doctor so roughly for the moment
that he thought the man had gone
crazy. The man said his belief had !
been formed from reading the cases of |
General Grant and the Crown Prince.
Said another physician: Sensitive,
nervous persons, having little pain
will rub the spot and |
poke at it until they make it tender;
then they will talk about it and get |
other people to talk about it, brood !
over if, read about cases, and finally |
become convinced that they really |
have something the matter with them" |
"But how" it was asked, "do you
account for the fact that some of these
people die apparently from their
imaginary diseases?"
''They do not die of imaginary dis
ease. What they die of is heart fail
ure, resulting from extreme nervous
depression. They have no backbone
to Withstand this nervous depression
One celebrated physician. who made |