218 The Work of Faith and Hope. [April, 



The preservative influence of faith and hope has been illustrat- 

 ed in a thousand instances. How often have physicians and 

 nurses escaped the pestilence, where hundreds were attacked who 

 felt nothino; of the sustaining influence of these emotions. But 

 if hope thus sustains and fortifies against disease, fear, the oppo- 

 site, unhinges the doors to that central fortress, the heart, and lets 

 in the consumer which wastes and destroys. The physical eflfects 

 of both passions are exceeding striking. In hope, the pulse liter- 

 ally beats high; in fear, it flags and labors in its office, and its 

 palsy is witnessed in the paleness of the face, the blanching of 

 the lip, and the falling of the jaw and relaxation of the muscles. 

 A sense of danger, however, sometimes rouses the latent energies, 

 and gives the dormant limbs activity and power. It is related 

 that an officer in the Indian army was confined by asthma. He 

 could only breathe with difficulty in the erect posture. A party 

 of Mahrattas broke into the camp; the asthmatic sprung out, 

 mounted his horse, and used his sword with great effect. A lady 

 affected with hysterical semi-paralysis had been confined to her 

 bed for years, when it happened that a fire broke out in the 

 house, the hitherto helpless creature rose up, rushed out of the 

 room, and reached the street ere she was sensible what she had 

 done. 



The gout has more than once been cured by strong mental emo- 

 tions. An officer on board of a ship was cured instantaneously of 

 the gout by an alarm of fire. An old man, suffering and helpless 

 under the annual paroxysm of this disease, was instantly cured by 

 his son driving the shaft of his wagon through the window of his 

 room. 



Long and continued anxiety ends either in organic disease of 

 the heart, or in insanity. The embarrassment of debt, and even 

 an inordinate love of wealth, leads to insanity. In the foregoing 

 illustrations of mental influence on the body, the book has been 

 open before us, and we have taken such cases as seemed to illus- 

 trate our subject. The greater part of the article, however, is 

 intended more for the physician than general reader, and we have 

 omitted at least three-fourths of the chapter. The influence of 



