Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-19
WILL TO BE WELL
By H. Addington Bruce

VIZ ILL power plays far larger part in
w life than most of us appreciate
Health itself to great extent de-
ponds on efficient willing. And when ill
health comes active exercise of the will may
go long way toward insuring recovery
This, in few words is the message of an
unusual book recently published, Health
Through Will Power,'' written by the we'll
known New York physician, Dr. James j.
Walsh. 1t is book already receiving much
attention from thoughtful people. And de-
servedly.
For it deals constructively with problems
OF vital interest to everybody. 1t emphasizes
neglected needs in popular education. Above
all, it offers new hope to the sick and all
ing.
Speaking in the light of many years. expe-
rience as a keenly observant medical man.
DR.. Walsh insists that will power is both a
preventive and a curative agent as regards
innumerable diseases. Often it is the chief
agent in recovery, so potent as to bring back
to health men and women deemed hopelessly
i'll. Eloquently he declares:
1T is Wellspring of vitality that checks
for a time at least even lethal changes in
the body, and undoubtedly is one of the most
important factors for the prolongation of life
1t represents the greatest force for health
and power of accomplishment that we have"
And, becoming specific, DR.. Walsh details
just what the will can do and has done for
persons afflicted with various maladies rang
ing from functional disorders to grave organic
diseases AS to these last he properly makes
the qualifying statement
The will cannot cure organic disease in
the ordinary sense of that term It is lust
as absurd to say that the will can bring about
the cure of Bright's disease as to suggest
that one can by will power replace a finger
that has been lost
But he is quick to add
There are, however, a great many or
ganic diseases in which the will may serve
an extremely useful purpose in the relief of
symptoms and sometimes in producing such
a release of vital energy as will enable the
patient to react properly against disease
This is typically exemplified in tuberculo-
sis of the lungs. Nothing is so important in
this disease as the patients attitude of mind
and his will to get we'll. Without that there
is very little hope.
with that strongly aroused all sorts of
remedies, many of them even harmful in
themselves, have enabled patients to get bet
ter merely because the taking of them adds
suggestion of assurance of cure
"The cells of the lungs have been DESTROY
ed by the disease are not reborn much less
recreated. But nature walls off the diseased
parts, and the rest of the lungs learn to do
their work in spite of the hampering effect
OF the diseased tissues
Similarly with sufferers from pneumonia,
asthma, intestinal troubles, heart disease,
chronic rheumatism and other bodily ills
For all such unfortunates DR.. Walsh has
something practically helpful to say To
them, therefore, I commend his book.
l commend it, indeed, to all who would
avoid disease, not merely overcome it. And
to parents and educators l commend particu-
larly DR.. Walshs urgent and amply supported
plea for the paying of more attention to the
training of the will than is generally paid
today.
Copyright. 1919, by the Associate kewspa-