Influence of mind over health - Resisting contagious diseases-Immunity of nurses - Concentration of thought - Dispensations of Providence - Protection a natural law - Mental determination - Case of Dr. Tanner - Maintenance of health - No time to get sick - Danger in retiring from business - Imagination and disease - Fear often causes disease - Imaginary hydrophobia - Idleness invites disease - Hypochondria - Appliances to ward off disease - Belts and charms - Electric belts - Pilgrimages - Miracles performed at shrines.

The greatest possible benefits to be derived from hypnotism are those in connection with disease. The mind exerts a wonderful influence over the health of the body, and persons subjected to the most debilitating influences, and surrounded by the most unhygienic conditions, have been able to ward off disease by mental effort.

There is no preventive against contagion so effective as an absolute sense of security. It is often asked, "Why do not physicians contract contagious diseases from their patients?" Occasionally they do, but as a rule their familiarity with disease gives them a feeling of immunity, and their interest in the case and their sense of responsibility serve to engender that feeling. How frequently we hear of a wife nursing a husband through an attack of smallpox without herself contracting the disease. Ask her if she wasn't afraid of "catching it," and she will say she never thought of such a thing. Her interest lay in the patient, her mind was constantly upon his welfare, she was too unselfish to think of her own danger, and consequently she was saved from contracting the disease.

Nurses in hospitals constantly run risks of contagion, but seldom succumb. During cholera epidemics some of the most heroic deeds were performed by those who risked health and life for the benefit of others. But that heroism was their protection. In olden days the immunity of such persons from contagion was ascribed to miraculous power, and they were said to have been spared as a divine reward for. their self-sacrifice. It was this belief that prompted many to offer their services during visitations of the various plagues.

In the light of modern science we realize that concentration of thought away from the idea of personal danger was the chief cause of immunity. Its explanation comes under the domain of hypnotism, and not under a special dispensation of Providence.

Is it not narrowing the actions of the Almighty down to a small personal compass to regard every individual case of protection as the result of spccial decree of Providence? How much grander appears the supreme wisdom of the Almighty when we realize that it is a natural law that has been obeyed, and that a natural consequence has followed. Through the study of hypnotism we are enabled to get an insight into these laws and to place ourselves under their control.

Virtue brings its own reward as a natural consequence. Being unselfish, and thinking not of our own selves while striving to benefit others, will give us immunities from many things otherwise deemed inevitable. Missionaries have labored for years in the leper colonies without contracting the loathsome disease, their minds being wholly occupied in relieving the sufferings of others. "Keep up courage" is the watchword that has sustained many footworn travelers and explorers through the direst extremities.

The mental determination and resolution to attain notoriety preserved Dr. Tanner during his famous fast of forty days and nights - a fast unequaled by mortal man and utterly impossible under any circumstances other than mental enthusiasm. Let a man be forced against his will to abstain from food for half that length of time, and he could not survive.

The maintenance of health by mental determination is within the powers of all who have ordinary physical attainments. The resolution not to be sick has saved many persons from attacks of disease. The cultivation of this species of self-hypnotism cannot be too strongly urged upon those who would live long and be successful in life.

The needle has been pushed entirely through the center of the tongue without pain and without loss of blood, which is remarkable as the tongue is full of sensitive nerves and many small blood vessels.

"I haven't time to get sick," is an expression often used by business men who are straining every nerve and employing every moment in the pursuit of wealth. They speak truthfully, for they have no time to give to worrying about the risks to health they are constantly incurring.

Their friends speak of them as being "held up by the excitement." That is true. Let these same men retire from business, and see how quickly they become the prey of disease. It is a common thing to notice that when a man has amassed a fortune and retired with the intention of doing nothing but live upon its income, he soon dies, when, as his friends remark, he was just getting ready to live. The fact is, the excitement of life being over, there was no longer anything to hinder the natural consequence of the excessive strains he had endured for years.

A man long accustomed to active business cannot safely retire suddenly. He will live longer if he determines to "die in the harness."We. often wonder why men of wealth keep plodding* on in their old age. It seems to be an intuitive sense of safety that prompts them to do so; or, as they express it, "I long ago got into the habit of working, and I am now too old to break the habit."

Imagination exerts a powerful influence over our lives, and this is especially true in regard to the matter of disease. We are constantly witnessing evidences of this fact as manifested by our friends and acquaintances, and possibly ourselves. Fake medical men take advantage of the well-known tendency of all to imagine the worst in regard to their weaknesses and indispositions. Advertisements are prepared with sypmtoms of fatal diseases arranged in a manner calculated to make the reader believe they "fit his case exactly," and as a rule they accomplish the purpose for which they are written. They act upon the principle of suggestion made upon a mind already concentrated upon the one idea of possible sickness beyond recovery.

Possessors of family medical guides and new-students of medicine, after reading and studying the symptoms of various diseases, are very apt to become convinced that some of the fatal forms of disease have a hold upon them.

During an epidemic nervous persons who dread the prevalent malady are prone to believe every indisposition a sign of the dreaded disease. They make themselves familiar with the leading symptoms and daily and hourly watch for them, and in this manner make themselves far more liable to contract the disease they so much dread. Such persons can be greatly relieved by the positive and emphatic assurance that their fears are unfounded.

A gentleman of wealth and education became convinced that he was a victim of smallpox. He had a chill, followed by a high fever, with bones aching and severe pains in the head and back.

"See," he said, "I have all the symptoms of smallpox, except the eruption, which is due to-morrow."

"Not all the symptoms," said his physician; "your tongue is clear, and that would be impossible in a case of smallpox."

The positive assertion from one who should know what he was talking about soon convinced the patient that he had a bad cold and nothing more.

A few years ago a case of unusual interest occurred in this connection, It was during the "dog days" that a crowd of boys was watching the "dog catcher" pass by with his cart. One of them conceived the idea that it would be great sport to catch one of the little boys and put him into the cart, which was empty. Accordingly a little chap was caught and thrown into the cart. The driver entered into the fun and carried the boy a couple of blocks, with his companions following. Suddenly the boy began to scream, and then to growl and to bite. This he did so violently that the cart was stopped and the boy set free. He began to snap at the others, who became alarmed and fled. The little fellow found his way home, where he terrified the family by his antics. They thought at once that he had hydrophobia, and sent for a physician. His companions told the story of how it happened, and the facts caused a great sensation. The physician soon became convinced that the difficulty was entirely caused by fright and the mental association of the idea of hydrophobia with the "dog cart." The boy rolled upon the floor and suffered frequent spasms. He frothed at the mouth and refused to drink.

After watching him for sime time the physician said, "It does not look like hydrophobia, for persons bitten by mad dogs roll first on one side and then on the other." Instantly the boy rolled from side to side. It was then remarked that persons who had hydrophobia would always bark three times and then growl. This the boy quickly did. Again it was stated that mad dogs had periods of rest, during which they would sleep soundly and snore loudly. At once the boy shut his eyes and began to snore. Many other suggestions were made and quickly acted upon, until finally the matter became laughable instead of alarming, and then tiresome, when the doctor said, "Come, Eddie, you have done enough of this nonsense; you are all right, and nothing is the matter with you." He rubbed his eyes and looked strangely about him, and said, "Oh, my! how glad I am it wasn't true," and that was the end of his attack of hydrophobia. By the surroundings and what they suggested, and by the fright his being thrown into the wagon caused him, the boy had been hypnotized and acted upon suggestions until he had been forcibly awakened from the condition of hynosis.

Incidents are not lacking where suggestions have caused actual disease. The idle mind is most frequently affected in this manner, resulting in hypochondria, which is quite frequent among the wealthy, who have little to employ them, and seldom met with in those who are well occupied.

Persons who are subject to hypochondria are actual sufferers, and do in reality feels the pains and inconveniences of which they complain. Concentration of thought upon their bodily condition has hypnotized them, and it takes but the merest suggestion of a pain or of disease to affect them, which suggestion may come through reading symptoms or by a casual remark of a friend, or by seeing or hearing of others suffering.