THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION.

Kumara Times, Issue 1380, 4 March 1881, Page 2

THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION.

A celebrated physician* author of an excellent work on the force of -imagkwtu tion, being desirous to add experimental to his theoretical knowledge} made application to the Minister ofJustice in France some time since to be allowed an opportunity of proving what he asserted, experiment on A Criminal Condemned' to death. Thd Minister complied with his.ret)nest, and i delivered over to him-an assassin, a mart >, who had b'eeh bqrn of ■ distinguished parents. The physician told him that several > persons who i had ,taken; an -, iiu terest in his family ; had obtained - leave . of the minister that ?he- should suffer - , death in some other, -way. than on,- the. ■ scaffold, to avoid thd disgrace of a pub*, lie execution \ and that .the.,-easiest tJ -death'he could die,' would. be.,by blood letting; The. Criminal agrCed to thd ; proposal, and Cpunted himself happy in ' being freed from the ‘painful exHiVitioh which, he otherwise, would have beert made of, and rejoiced at thus bding. ; enabled to spare the feelings of hid friends and family. At,,the time ajn pointed the physician .repaired to thd prison, and the patient having bdert extended on a table, his eyes ,boUnd| i; and everything being ready, lie. vbisf ■ slightly pricked near the principal of the legs and arms with a point of al, pin. .At the four corners of the table ,' were four little fountains, filled witjH water, from which issued little ■ falling into basins placed there to reK ceive them. The patient, thinking tbatV it was blood that trickled into thd! basin, became weaker and weaker by degrees, and the remarks of the iuedicat men in attendance in reference to the, quality and appearance of the blood, (made with that intention) increased the delusion, and he spoke more and more faintly, until his voice was aft length scarcely audible. The profound ' silence which reigned in the apartment, and the constant dropping of the fountainj had so extraordinary an effect on the brain of the poor patient that all his vital energies were soon gone, ah though before a very strong man, and he died without having lost a single drop of blood.

A female patient itl tlie hospital at. New Haven well illustrated the powetf of imagination. She is a weak woman, 45 years of age, with chronic! gastritis and several other chronic and had been in the habit of taking morphine in the form of “ deeping drops.” For the first few .times she was given morphia, bnt after; this they had a bottle carefully labelled “ sleep-, ing drops,” and filled with water. .Of this she took a dram at bed time.!: At first she complained -that the medicine was too strongahd made her head feel badly the next day, iso: that the dose was reduced. ; This she-.did . for nearly a month,, sleeping nicely when; she did take it, and not sleeping at all. when it was withheld. , „