The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-12-27
DISEASES CAUSED By FEAR.
Many MaladIes Said to BE Directly
Traeeable to the Drend


Almost every malady catalogued in
the portly tones of the NJ, DIS may be
produced through the influence of fear,
SAYS DIR. I. j. Franklin, of Rush med.
zeal college, and this in spite Of the
pronouncedly materialistic methods
Of the medical diagnosis of to-day, re-
ports the Chicago Tribune.
Scoffers there sre'who think fear in
the role of disease maker is supersti-
ton and folly. But science in this in
stance, says DR.. Franklin, is on the
side Of the superstitious.
Fear is wizard with the germs. mi
tcrobes, bacilii and other matter of fact
creatures who do woeful business in
the human frame, bewitching them
into undreamed of alertness and mis-
chief. They suddenly appear in places
where it was supposed they had had
no habitations, stealing about like
wraiths and ghosts until some appoint
ed hour comes when fear leads them
forth to do their foul deeds. In fact,
they go about in such extremely
wraithlike and spectral guises that
the subtlest science is required to de-
tect their presence and to give to the
malady that has been frightened into
existence lawful reality.
There are cases innumerable on rec
ord where fright was the only assign
able cause for the development of dis
ease. II is only by the application of
the latest medical theories to their
diagnosis that they are associated
with germs and bacilli, microbes and
toxins. ita- stst tiiiss 49, 2. -
With to-day's knowledge of medicine
| the most romantic vagaries of supersti-
ton can be reconciled with the stur-
diest science. DIR. Franklin does not
abandon the necessity of microbes in
producing disease, hut he shows how
microbes may be present when there is
no reason to suspect them to be.
This fact, together with the inau-
ence exerted by fear upon the nervous
system and through that upon the
whole body, is sufficient to explain the
role played by fear in producing i'll
ness. W ~ ist.is Es a1g i.sSiss -
In IS per cent of the autopsies made
at the Cook county hospital, says DR..
Franklin, either latent or activetuber-
culous germs are found. Yet the sub
ject in question may not have been at
fected in the, least by the white
| plague" OF these was Prof. Christian
Fenger, Chicago's celebrated surgeon,
| who died last winter of pneumonia.
Although his body was active and
healthy it revealed at the autopsy the
| presence Of tuberculous germs. The
same is true of other germs.
If the lungs and air passages OF the
most healthy person in Chicago were
submitted to examination they would
probably disclose colonies of germs not
suspected by the devotee of hygiea
and which all his life through may not
afford him the slightest appreciable
inconvenience. The wee, villainous or.
ganisms of pneumonia, of typhoid
| fever. of influenza, of tonsilitis, OF
| diphtheria, of scarlet fever, of small
pox, measles, or any other .iisturbeI
| of mankind's constitutional peace, In
fact. almost all pathogenic reanisms
would probably be found, either fully
alive and Eide awake or in 9 htenI
I state. -
| 1t is with such typical, healthy
happy man that the history of thu
power of fear in producing disease be
gins While he is happy and healthy
the mischievousl germs are powerless
They have nothing on which to thrive
His happiness and health are a de
fensive amor which renders him proc
against them. But suppose one day HI
begins to feel afraid thu he will have
influenza. This fear preys upon hi
mind; he worries. All his worry il
stamped on his nerves and they in turf
stamp it upon his body from tip to toe
reflexiyely lessening the nourishmen
of the body and thus lessening the re
sistance of the body to the hostile littl
strangers within itsgates. Unless th,
worry IS checked there will come tim,
/ when the poisonous germs will hav,
power to make successful attack, or
in less figurative language, to grow
multiply and increase. AT last, the dis
i ease willset ia in the plenitude of il