Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1893-01-12
POWER or IMAGINATION.

Gases are continually presenting
themselves, which illustrate the
great powerasf the Imagination to
give reality o. things which are
not. The pkysician may often use
this power in effecting ths.cure of
patients, while the practical joker
may tand too otter. dlu I'm ploy it
to brighten children and ignorant
persons. Well-known cases are on
record where imagination produced
sickness and even death, without
any real disease. In epidemics i'm
agination, exciting fears, often null
tiplies the number of fatal cases.
On the other hand, if often proves
the best kind of medicine.
During the siege of Breda, in
Holland, in 1925, when the garri-
SON was on the point of surrender
ing to the enemy, on account of the
ravages of the scurvy, the Prince
of Orange ordered few walls OF
sham medicine to be carried into
the fortress, and distributed among
the scorbutics. 1t was stated to be
an infallible specific most valuable,
and that one or two drops would eff
feet q cure. 1t was then shared
among the soldiers, in doses of a
few drops. Those who had not
used their limbs for months, were
seen walking in the streets. sound,
straight and whole. Many, who
declared they had been rendered
worse by other remedies, recovered
in few days.
The late Mr.. Baggage, of Eng
land, the inventor of the famous
calulating machine, used to tell Gu
rious stories of the power of imsgi-
nation in his own experience. He
caught severe cold one day at din
ner, from seeing an open window
behind him. 1t turned ont to be
no open window at all, but a large
plate-glass which deceived him; but
the cold was genuine one. One
night, visiting at a strange house,
he had no MICHIGAN. de feared
posture, but a piece of string around
the head saved him. Imagination
was equally effective in giving a
cold, and in warding it off.
The story of the butcher and the
Oxford students is a familiar one
abroad. A number of them agreed
to meet him SUCCESSFULLY. one morn
ing, and ask him If he was sick, or
what made him so i'll. He laughed
at the first two or three, but before
the last came, he was thoroughly
sick, and needed to be taken home
for medical advice. Imagination
had done the whole mischief.
Even hydrophobia may be brought
on by strong mental emotion of va
rious kinds. A schoolmaster, after
a violent fit of anger, died in fifteen
hours, with decided symptoms of
hydrophobia. Fright will have the
same effect. A man bitten by a
dog, which he believed to be mad,
had fearful attacks of hydrophobia,
which ceased several months after
ward, on his learning that the dog
remained in perfect health. A girl
who witnessed a sudden broil, in
which the disputants fought with
swords, was so terror-stricken that
she was seized with hydrophobia,
and died.
Sir Walter Scott was fond of tel
ling q story, where the facts came
within his personal knowledge. A
timid man was persuaded that th'
ground over which he was walking
was full Of adders. He was great
ly alarmed, and soon thought b.
felt one in his boot. He strucl
violently at the boot with stick il
his hand, to kill the reptile. A
he struck hard, he was certain h
heard the adder hiss, and, excite'
almost to terror, he kept peltini
away at the boot till the ankle wa
sore from the pounding. Stoopinl
at last from sheer exhaustion, an,
listening, he said,-
sAh, now he is silent. think
have done for him.
And he pulled off his boot.
What was his surprise and cha
grin at finding that the adder wa
his match, which had slipped dow
into the boot, and the breaking o
the spring was the only hiss b
heard. 1t may be hoped that b
learned good lesson, and did no