236 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



BODILY ILLNESS AS A MENTAL 

 STIMULANT. 



DURING special states of disease the mind sometimes 

 develops faculties such as it does not possess when the body 

 is in full health. Some of the abnormal qualities thus 

 exhibited by the mind seem strikingly suggestive of the 

 possible acquisition by the human race of similar powers 

 under ordinary conditions. For this reason, though we fear 

 there is no likelihood at present of any practical application 

 of the knowledge we may obtain on this subject, it seems to 

 me that there is considerable interest in examining the 

 evidence afforded by the strange powers which the mind 

 occasionally shows during diseases of the body, and 

 especially during such diseases as are said, in unscientific but 

 expressive language, to lower the tone of the nervous system. 

 We may begin by citing a case which seems exceedingly 

 significant Miss H. Martineau relates that a congenital 

 idiot, who had lost his mother when he was less than two 

 years old, when dying, ' suddenly turned his head, looked 

 bright and sensible, and exclaimed, in a tone never heard 

 from him before, " Oh my mother ! how beautiful ! " and 

 sank down again dead.' Dr. Carpenter cites this as a case 

 of abnormal memory, illustrating his thesis that the basis of 

 recollection * may be laid at a very early period of life.' 

 But the story seems to contain a deeper meaning. The 

 poor idiot not only recalled a long-past time, a face that he 

 had not seen for years except in dreams, but he gained for 

 a moment a degree of intelligence which he had not pos- 



