THE TONIC POWER OF HOPE. 9(J1 



fever. Nor can the fevers thus induced be easily 

 distinguished from such as are brought on by the 

 influence of cold, miasmata, filth, and a vicious or 

 poor diet ; but present the typhoid or jnfiamma- 

 tory type, according to the greater or less injury 

 of the brain, state of the constitution, &c. 



It has been long known that during the preva- 

 lence of epidemics, fearful and desponding indi- 

 viduals, like those who have been weakened by 

 intemperance, poor living, cold, impure air, and 

 exhaustion from too much labour, are among the 

 first to be attacked, and the most difficult to cure. 

 Nor is there anything in the whole materia medica 

 so potent in the prevention and cure of disease, 

 as a buoyant state of mind. And it is certain 

 that a better knowledge of nature, as connected 

 with the laws of health, would banish much of 

 the idle terror that prevails among the people ; 

 and which is too often fostered by their spiritual 

 leaders, who ought to know that despair of re- 

 covery is the beginning of death. 



In those cases of partially suspended anima- 

 tion, termed trance, which occur chiefly in per- 

 sons of weak or disordered minds, especially 

 females of irritable constitution, the brain is 

 paralyzed by over excitement of the nervous 

 system, caused by religious emotions of ecstasy, 

 fear, &c. Respiration is so far arrested, that the 

 temperature of the patient has been known to 

 fall 20 or 30 below the natural standard, when 



