BODILY CONDITIONS MENTAL STATES. 41 



of the mind, as of hope or despondency. Or, more in detail, medical 

 men have observed that certain mental states affect certain functions in 

 certain definite ways. As, for instance, sudden anxiety, as of the non- 

 arrival of a friend when expected, may cause an increase of the peris- 

 taltic action, while prolonged anxiety is apt to cause the contrary effect. 

 Joy over good news or at the return of long-absent friends diminishes 

 gastric secretion and causes loss of appetite. The feeble hold on life 

 of the suicidal,* and the surprising recoveries from serious diseases and 

 after apparently fatal injuries, in persons whose mental characteristics 

 are hopefulness and determination, are often-recurring facts, familiar 

 to all. 



The nature of what we call mind and its relation to the functions of 

 the body is a very wide field of inquiry too wide, indeed, for our pres- 

 ent consideration. But having had unusually favorable opportunities 

 for observing certain phases of psycho-biological relations, I ask your 

 attention while I present some studies which may help us, possibly, to 

 arrive at more practical results, through more satisfactory explanations 

 of certain phenomena, than we have hitherto possessed. So, without 

 further preface, I will introduce my subject by giving a striking exam- 

 ple of the influence of a simple mental impression as distinguished 

 from and as independent of thought, will, or consciousness in control- 

 ling the manifestation of function. 



In September, 1876, I received a letter from a prominent physician 

 living in a Western city, saying that he, in connection with two other 

 medical men, had been treating, unsuccessfully, a case of ununited frac- 

 ture of the left thigh-bone ; and he inquired if I thought I could do or 

 suggest anything which would lead to its union. The result of some 

 correspondence was that, a few weeks afterward, in October, the patient 

 presented himself with his father at my office. 



The case was briefly as follows : 



Two years before the young man had met with an accident, and had 

 broken his thigh-bone just above the middle. The family doctor pro- 

 ceeded to set it and apply the proper dressings. In due course of time 

 the fracture united, and the jmtient got about with some shortening of 

 the limb, and walked with perfect facility for one year, when, in cross- 

 ing the street, he fell and broke the same bone again about four inches, 

 so they told me, below the seat of the former fracture. Neither of the 

 physicians who had attended him on the previous occasion being in the 

 city, a third medical man, a surgeon of national reputation, was called, 

 who proceeded to apply the proper bandages for fracture. After that 

 the three attended the case conjointly, but no union of the fracture 

 could be obtained, they said, though every usual means had been ex- 

 hausted to secure it. Such, in brief, was the case as it was presented 

 to me. A careful examination revealed two facts. The first was that there 

 was no ununited fracture, and the second was that the bone had not 

 been broken at the second accident. He was a well-grown, finely formed, 



