LAUGHTER AS A MTDICINE.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 364, 12 September 1874, Page 2

LAUGHTER AS A MTDICINE.

A short time since, the Sanitarian reports, two individuals were lyinq 1 in one room, very side, one with brain-fever, and the other with an aggravated attack of the mumpa. They were so low that watches were needed every night, and it was thonght doubtful if the one sick of fever could recover. A gentleman was engaged to watch overnight, his duty being to awaken the nurse whenever it became necessary to administer medicine. In the course of the night both watcher and nurso fell asleep. The man with the mumps lay watching the clock, and saw that it was time to givo the fever potion He was unable to speak aloud, or to move any portion of his body except his arms, but, seizing* a pillow, he managed to strike the watcher in the face with it. Thus suddenly awakened, fch" watcher sprang from his seat, and falling on the floor, awakened both the nurse and the fever-pa-tient. Tho incident struck the sick men as very ludicrous, and they laughed heartily at it for some fifteen to twenty minutes. When the doctor came in the morning he found the patients vastly improved, and said he never knew so sudden a (urn for the better. Now both are up and well. Who says laugh ler is not the best of medicines ? And this reminds the writer of another case. A gentleman was suffering from an ulceration in tho throat which at last became so swollen that his life was despaired of. His household came to his bedside to bid him farewell. Each individual shook hands with the dying man, and then went away weeping. Last, of all came a pet ape, and, shakingthe man's band went away also with his hand ever his eyes. It was so ludicrous a sight that the patient was forced to laugh, and laughed so heartily that the ahcess broke, aud his life was saved.

The Turakina correspondent ofa Wnngnnui paper writes : — " I must nlto refer to tlip brood of sheep here, which can hardly be Mii l pn«-e(l. A few dnys ngo, u wether from tho flock of Mi Let In Imdjie was exposed in the butcher's shop, which rcuclu'd tho enormous weight of 163 lbs, — boing, in fact) too fat to be eatable."