It is a well-known fact that a person can so completely concentrate his thoughts upon his liability to sickness that the least suggestion will produce in him all the discomforts of actual disease and not infrequently the disease itself.

Persons who, during a small-pox epidemic, are in constant dread of "catching" the disease, are extremely liable to cantract it upon exposure. Abundant proof of this has been furnished. The mind has been so concentrated upon the subject and upon the symptoms of the disease that there exists no longer any resistive powers.

By constantly believing that they have heart disease, many persons cause the heart to beat irregularly and to palpitate. Some can readily control the heart's action and make it beat at pleasure anywhere from thirty to two hundred times a minute. A gentleman, who was once refused insurance on account of a heart beat of over one hundred per minute on several occasions, practiced the method of autosuggestion and was enabled to regulate his heart pulsations to seventy-five per minute while undergoing a subsequent examination. This regulation of the heart causes amusement to many, but its common practice is unadvisable, for the reason that it is never beneficial to force any of the organs of the body to perform their functions in a manner that is not physiological. Care must be taken in all hypnotic experiments to avoid anything that will injure or weaken the body.

The power of imagination is capable of doing great harm. Persons who have little to do in this life are very apt to concentrate their thoughts entirely upon themselves and in that manner make themselves liable to be affected by the least suggestions of bodily ailments. The hypochondriac is an example of self-hypnotism. He suggests to himself the possibility of his being affected by various diseases of the internal organs - heart disease being a general favorite. By studying the symptoms of these various diseases he soon convinces himself that he experiences them all, and in most cases actually does suffer the pains he imagines.

This is occasioned in precisely the same manner that a hypnotized subject may be made to believe, by the suggestions of the operator, that he is warm or cold or wet or suffering. The only difference is that in the case of self-hypnotism the sufferer is the operator and subject combined in one.

An illustrative case of auto-suggestion has recently been brought to the notice of the students attending the clinic of Prof. L. D. Rogers. A gentleman, who had most probably exposed himself to the contact of disease, presented himself for treatment of a possible infection. He was thoroughly examined and no evidence whatever found to indicate the least pathological condition. He contended that he had nearly all the symptoms of the difficulty feared and believed that by some accident he had contracted it. Here was clearly a case of imagination, based upon undoubted exposure. Fear had concentrated the mind upon the single thought of contracting the disease and the suffering was consequently experienced, although there was no physical evidence of wrong. After due consultation, held before the patient, it was decided to give him "No. 79," a name given a placebo, or simple water, supposed to be a solution of some powerful drug. The strong character of the preparation was impressed upon the patient and he was given directions how to use it. A few days afterward he returned to the clinic greatly improved, but still suffering from some of the symptoms he imagined. It was decided in his presence to give him a "much stronger preparation," called "No. 97," which was to be taken with great exactness.

This preparation was in reality nothing but distilled water, but nevertheless it had the desired effect.