Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-10-25
MENTAL REACTION.
SOME PEOPLE MAY BE LITERAL
LY SCARED TO DEATH.

views OF an Eminent Physician of the Retro.
Active Effects of Mind Over Mstter-Pain in
Back Attributed to Disarmament of the
Kidneys and Twnee in the Chest Regarded
as the Precursor of Tuberculosis-F FaIIacies
About the Eyes and Teeth-Tobacco and
Coffee are Not the Disaffectants that Many
Persons Believe They Are.
"Scared to death" is bit OF phrase.
ology almost as old as the language,
says the Chicago Tribune. 1t seldom
has been taken literally, in its full
sense, but that its possibilities are
worthy of sober consideration in the
onset of diseases has been referred to
by DR.. Francis w. Mcnamara, of Chi
cago, as a more or less urgent truth.
"No fallacy in the lay mind finds
deeper root than does medical fall
lacy" said DR.. Mcnamara, "and the
necessity of destroying some of these
fallacles is apparent. Some of these
came from misdirected science years
ago; Others are the product of un-
trained minds, which have mingled
observations and superstitions. All OF
these false notions are distractions to
the art Of healing.
Think OF it! Ten years ago an
up-to-date physician, having a patient
covered with tOils, would dose the vic.
tim with drugs in order to free his
blood from impurities. He would
even make the remark :hat each boil
was worth S. to the patient, as giving
an outlet to impurities in the blood.
To-day any well-read physician
laughs at the idea. He knows that
the boil is of microbe origin that the
parasite, perhaps carried by the wind,
lodges in the garments or on the skin
and follows hair follicle into the
skin, where irritation and pus secre-
tions follow. If the persons blood be
poor and his health bad he is more
likely to become victim of the boil
germ. Nowadays, instead of the nau-
seOus medicines given internally, an
tiseptic lotions are applied, and often
the patient suffers only from one boil,
whereas, under old-time methods, he
might have reinfected himself until
he had a dozen.
How many lives have really been
shortened by sudden sensation of
pain in the back? A man, bending
over and walking as if on eggs. feels
that he has kidney disease. The pain
is just there. He can can feel it be-
yond doubt as to its location.
"Yet in kidney diseases there is no
pain until, perhaps, suppuration be-
gins. The mans pain is rheumatic,
perhaps, or simply muscular; yet the
fright he gets may have serious conse.
quences.
"Another man feels that he is to
have pneumonia, or even tuberculosis.
because, after slight cold, he feels a
pain in his chest. Now, neither pneu-
monia nor tuberculosis starts with
pain. The nagging pain in the rib re-
gion or behind the shoulder blade
most frequently is neuralgia or rheu-
matte symptom, following bad or long
continued state of wet feet.
"Many people have an idea that a
a cut between the thumb and finger
or an injury to the sole OF the foot is
at all times threatening OF lock jaw.
1t is-only If the microbe of tetanus
finds lodgment there and multiplies.
If this vegetable growth, common to
garden soil, should find lodgment in a
wound in any other part of the body,
lockjaw would be jus: as certain. If
the germ does not get in there can be
no lockjaw.
Millions of people are made
wretched every year, or, perhaps, have
their lives shortened, by feeling that
they have heart disease. They have a
pain in that region, and their own d.
agnosis is sufficient to convince them
of the malady. As matter Of truth,
there is seldom any pain from heart
disease. The trouble is indigestion
only. The stomach. lying just under
the heart, is distended to q painful de-
gree by gases, and, crowding toward
the heart, perhaps, makes the pain
seem to be in that organ.
"Take the eye. Many people have
the idea that it can be removed from
the head by surgeons. The idea
comes from the fact that with both
eyelids turned inside out the eye
seems to be on the cheek. To remove
the eye, however, with its six muscles
and its thick nerve passing into the
brain, would destroy the sight of that
organ forever.
"Often you hear person say his
sight is failing, but that he will not
put on glasses for the reason that he
would have to continue wearing them.
This is a mistake in modern eye sur
gerry, for the reason that glasses are
now made to correct abnormalities in
the eye itself. Defective sight in so
many cases comes from an alteration
in the shape of the lens in the eye.
In the extremely young this lens is al
most round, making the child near
sighted. As the person grows older
the lens enlarges and flattens, until at
old age we find the person can readily