INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 257 



gress of disease. In the army this principle has 

 often been exemplified in a very striking manner, 

 and on so large a scale as to put its influence beyond 

 a doubt. Sir George Ballingall mentions, in his 

 excellent lectures on Military Surgery, that the 

 proportion of sick in garrison in a healthy country, 

 and under favourable circumstances, is about five 

 per cent.; but that, during a campaign, the usua 

 average is nearer ten per cent. So marked, how- 

 ever, are the preservative effects of cheerfulness and 

 the excitement of success, that, according to Vaidy, 

 the French army cantoned in Bavaria, after the bat- 

 tle of Austerlitz, had only 109 sick in a division of 

 8000 men, being little more than one in the hundred. 

 When, on the other hand, an army is subjected to 

 privations, or " is discouraged by defeat or want of 

 confidence in its chiefs" the proportion of sick is 

 " of ten fearfully increased"* 



The same principle explains why it is so import- 

 ant for the physician to carry the feelings of the 

 patient along with him in his curative measures. It 

 is well known, for example, that those who live in 

 constant apprehension of fever, cholera, or other 

 ailment are generally among its first victims when 

 exposed to its cause. The reason is obvious. The 

 depressing nervous influence resulting from the pain- 

 ful activity of the selfish feelings affects all the 

 functions of the body, and places them on the brink 

 of disease, even before any external cause is in ope- 

 ration ; and hence the easy inroad the latter makes 

 when it comes into play. 



So efficacious, on the other hand, is a more cheer- 

 ful state of mind, from the more healthful nervous 

 influence which it diffuses through the frame, that 

 surprising recoveries occasionally happen, which 

 can be ascribed to no other cause but this. A sin- 

 gular but instructive instance fell under the observa- 



* Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. xxxvi. p. 430, 

 Y2 



