248 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



be having been himself attacked by the fever, and having 

 been under the care of this physician, his friend and col- 

 league, Dr. A. Another of Dr. A.'s patients whom we shall 

 call Mr. B., seems to have been the first to make the attempt 

 in question ; and impressed with the necessity of taking due 

 precautions, Dr. A. then visited Dr. C., in whose hearing he 

 gave directions to have the windows properly secured, as Mr. 

 B. had attempted to throw himself out Now Dr. C. distinctly 

 remembers, that although he had not previously experienced 

 any such desire, it came upon him with great urgency as 

 soon as ever the idea was thus suggested to him ; his mind 

 being just in that state of incipient delirium which is marked 

 by the temporary dominance of some one idea, and by the 

 want of volitional power to withdraw the attention from it 

 And he deemed it probable that, as Dr. A. went on to Mr. 

 D., Mr. E., &c., and gave similar directions, a like desire 

 would be excited in the minds of all those who might hap- 

 pen to be in the same impressible condition.' The case is 

 not only interesting as showing how the mind in disease 

 receives certain impressions more strongly than in health, 

 and in a sense may thus be said to possess for the time an 

 abnormal power, but it affords a useful hint to doctors and 

 nurses, who do not always (the latter indeed scarcely ever) 

 consider the necessity of extreme caution when speaking 

 about their patients and in their presence. It is probable 

 that a considerable proportion of the accidents, fatal and 

 otherwise, which have befallen delirious patients might be 

 traced to incautious remarks made in their hearing by foolish 

 nurses or forgetful doctors. 



In some cases doctors have had to excite a strong antago- 

 nistic feeling against tendencies of this kind. Thus Zerffi 

 relates that an English physician was once consulted by the 

 mistress of a ladies' school where many girls had become 

 liable to fits of hysterics. He tried several remedies, but in 

 vain. At last, justly regarding the epidemic as arising from 

 the influence of imagination on the weaker girls (one hysteri- 

 cal girl having infected the others), he determined to exert 



