The Portland daily press., 1890-01-18
DON'T WORRY TO DEATH.
Sensible Advice Regarding Disease In
General and Grip in Particular.

New York Journal of Commerce.
The large number of deaths which attend
the prevalence of epidemics is not altogether
due to the fatal character of the disease. 1t
is fact, not so difficult to explain as might
be supposed, that many persons succumb to
an attack at a time when numbers are sick
OF the same malady and not few are dying
from it who would have recovered If they
had been the only sufferers. The effect of
the mind upon the body is so str0 ngly mark
ed that the first effort of all wel-informed
physicians, when called to attend a person
seized with any malady, is to secure mental
tranquility for the patient and hopeful
spirit Whatever may be said of the power
of faith to cure disease and to restore the
sick, no one who has had any experience
with invalds will deny that the want of it
has left many to die who would have recover
ed IL they had been sanguine of the result.
A fright will check the action of the heart,
and thousands perish annually without any
organic disease simply from the shock of a
sudden alarm which has filled them with
terror.
The power Of the will to prolong life in a
frail body has been so often witnessed that
the medical authorities now accept it as
established beyond all contradiction. And
the great difficulty, not to say the utter i'm
possibility of restoring to health an invalid
who despairs of his own life, Is equally un-
deniable There is nothing to build on"
said an eminent physician who was called to
attend faint-hearted girl lying at deaths
door because of sore mental trouble. "The
other in a somewhat similar ;ase, where the
bodily constitution was breaking down un-
der the strain of the mind; and he added
Medicine will do little good, as the patient
has no disease which it can reach" He
prescribed tonicS and stimulants, but always
shook his head as to the result. The ap-
petite was gone. and what food was taken
would not assimilate, the stomach seeming
to be paralyzed with the load of grief that
burdened heart and brain
There are valuable practical lessons to be
drawn by these facts, and every one should
apply them in his daily life. Whatever else
you do, don't worry yourself to death, If you
never die" was the sage advice of the vener-
able Mrs. Tower, who lived herself to almost
five score years. A cheerful. hopeful spirit
Is fountain of health and "a merry heart
doeth good like medicine" is more than a
poetic metaphor; it is blessed physiological
truth Of immense practical value. But the
lesson is not OF Importance solely for its per-
sonal application to ones self it is rule for
the treatment of others. The ''scare' about
the prevalent influenza has been aggravated
all over the world by the method of discus
sing the subject, both in and out of the press.
The peril to life was increased tenfold among
the mercurial Frenchmen by the excited
terms with which the disease was heralded,
and In which its presence and effects were
discussed after 1t reached the CAV me,rOp-
oils.
The disease claimed hundreds of victims
who would hardly have taken to their beds
If they had not been seriously frightened as
to the result by the exaggerated comments
that we're upon every tongue and filed the
columns OF the papers. Had the same epi-
demc prevailed here without the widespread
alarm with which its advent was heralded,
It's mortality, we verify believe, would have
been in no wise remarkable. 1t Is not mat
ter OF mere speculation, but a sober fact,
which can be abundantly verified by the
highest testimony, that hundreds have yield
ed IT, the ailment, and lain down to die, who
would have recovered beyond all question If
they had not been depressed in spirit and de-
void OF hope. All the instrumentalities that
contributed to the public alarm have had
hand in adding largely to the death rate;
While the excitement was at its height, it
was iI Impossible s to arrest the mischief-makers
the worst is over the lesson ought
to be laid to heart. and both the
tongue. and the printing press put under
bonds for their better behavior. We had re-
ported to us daily as many exciting details
concerning the malady as were printed in the
most sensational journals, but we refrained
from their use. If every word Of the har-
rowing accounts had been true, it would not
have been wise to print them, and thus to
add fuel to the fame The daily essays upon
the death rate, the comparison from hour to
hour with the small number of deaths in
healthy seasons, the capitalized head lines
and all the sensational descriptions of the
ravages of the disease, were directly calcu-
lated to increase the general fear and to rem
der the attacks fatal. The disorder itself
had depressing effect upon the nervous
system, but the terror needlessly excited
killed almost as many people as the pneu-
monia which in many cases followed it. We
| hope for more common sense on the visit of
the next epidemic.