198 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



tion. My informant, whom I will henceforth call A., said 

 that, though he could not assert from experience that con- 

 sumption was curable, he believed that in many cases where 

 the tendency to consumption is inherited, and the consump- 

 tive constitution indicated so manifestly that under ordinary 

 conditions the person would before long be hopelessly 

 consumptive, an entire change may be made in the condi- 

 tion of the body, and the person become strong and 

 healthy. He said : ' I belong myself to a family many of 

 whose members have died of consumption. My father and 

 mother both died of it, and all my brothers and sisters save 

 one brother ; yet I do not look consumptive, do I ? ' and 

 certainly he did not. He then took from a pocket-book a 

 portrait of his brother, showing a young man manifestly in 

 very bad health, looking worn, weary, and emaciated. From 

 the same pocket-book A. then took another portrait, asking 

 if I recognised it. I saw here again a worn and emaciated 

 face and figure. The picture was utterly unlike the hearty 

 well-built man before me, yet it manifestly represented no 

 other. If I had been at all doubtful, my doubts would have 

 been removed by certain peculiarities to which A. called my 

 attention. I asked how the change in his health had been 

 brought about. He told me a very remarkable story 

 of his treatment of himself, part of which I omit because 

 I am satisfied he was mistaken in attributing to that 

 portion of his self- treatment any part of the good result 

 which he had obtained, and that if many consumptive 

 patients adopted the remedy, a large proportion, if not all, 

 would inevitably succumb very quickly. The other portion 

 of his account is all that concerns us here, being all that 

 illustrates our present subject. He said : ' I determined to 

 exercise every muscle of my body ; I set myself in front of 

 a mirror and concentrated my attention and all the power of 

 my will on the muscle or set of muscles I proposed to bring 

 into action. Then I exercised those muscles in every way 

 I could think of, continuing the process till I had used in 

 succession every muscle over which the will has control 



