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Ofic Selector.
VAGARIES OF IMAGINATION.
It is well known how i min was cured who fancied that he was dead, and refused all sustenance His friends deposited bira with all due formalities in a dark cellar One of them rinsed himself soon after- wards to be carried into the same place in i coffin containing a plcn tiful supply of provisions, and assured lum that it was customary to cat and drink in that world, as well as in the one which they had just left Ile suffered himself to lie persuaded, and recovered-Another, who imagined tint he had no brad (a notion that is not so common as the reverse), was speedily convinced of the real existence of his head, by i heiv y liât of le id whu.li was set upon it, and which, hy its près sure, made lum feel for the first time, during i long per od, that he actinlly possessed tins necessary appendage -But the most dangerous slitc of all i», when the imigiiiation fixes upon things, the lively re- presentation of which tiny finally induce their realization Of this sort was a ense which fell under my own professional experience, and which affords one of the most striking proofs of the power of su over
stmncd inngination
A youth of sixteen, of a weakly constitution and delicate nerves, but in other respects quite healthy, quitted his room in the dusk of the evening, but suddculy returned, with a face pale as death and looks betraying the greatest terror and in a tremulous voice told a fellow student who lived in the same room with lum, tint lie shou'd die at nine o clock in the morning of the day after the next His compa- nion naturally considered tins Midden transformation of i cheerful youth into a candidate for the grave as very cxtiimdiniry, he in quired the cause of tins notion, and, is the other declined to satisfy his curiosity, he strove at lost to hugh lum out of it His tinirte, however, were unavailing All the inswer he could obtain from lus comrade was, tint his death was certain and inevitiblc A number of well-meaning friends assembled ibout linn, and endtavoured to wean him from his idea by lively conversation, jokes, and even satirical re- marks Ile sat among them with a gloom), thoughtful look, took no share in their discourse, sighed, and at length grew inc,ry when they began to rally lum It was hoped tint sleep would dispel this melan- choly mood, but be never closed his eyes, and his thoughts were en- gaged all night with his approaching decease E irly next morning I was sent for I found, in fact, the most singular sight in the world ?
a person in good health miking all the arrangements for his fiineial, taking an affecting leave of his friends, and writing i letter to his father, to acquaint lum with his approaching dissolution, and to bid lum farewell I examined the stile of his bod), mil found nothing unusinl but the paleness uf his f tee, eyes dull and rathci inflamed with weeping, coldness of the extremities and a low contracted pulse
indications of igeneril cramp of the nerves, which was sulicicntly manifested in the stite of his mind I endeavoured, thercfire, to con vince him, b) the most powerful irDiimcnts, of the futility of Ins notion, md to prove tint a person whose bodily hcilth was so good, bid no reason wlntevcr to ipprehcnd speed) deith in short, 1 exerted ill my eloquence, md my profession ii knowledge, but without making the slightest impression He willingly admitted that I, is a physi
cían could not discover any cuise of death in lum but this, he ion tended, was the peculiar circumstance of his eise, tint without any natural cause, merely from in unalterable decree of fate, his death must ensue, and though he could not expect us to share this con- viction, still it was equally certain that it would be verified by the event of the following day All tint I could do, there'ore, «is to tell 'um, that under these circumstances I must treat lum as a person la- bouring under a distise, and prescribe medicines itcordingly " Very well, replied he, "but you will see not only that your medicines will not do me any good, but that they will not operate at ill
There was no time to be lost, for I hid only tu eu tv-four hours left to effect a cure I thereforejudged it best to employ powerful reme- dies in order to release lum from this bondage of hu imagination With this view a very strong emetic ind cathartic were administered and blisters applied to both thighs He submitted to every thing, but with the assurance that his body was already hilf dead, and the reme- dies would be of no use Accordingly, to my utter astonishment, I learned when I called in the evening, tint the emetic had taken but little or no effect, and tint the blisters had not even turned the skin red Ile now triumphed over our incredulity, and deduced from this lnefXcacy of the remedies the strongest conviction that he was already little better than a corpse lo me the case began to assume a very serious aspect 1 saw how powerfully the slate of the mind had af fectcd the body, ind whit a degree of insensibility it bad produced, md I had just reason to apprehend tint au imagination, which had reduced the body to such extremity, was capable of carrying mattet s to still greater lengths
All our inquiries, is to (he nuse of Ins belief, had hitherto proved lbortive Ile now disclosed to one of his friends, but ni the strictest confidence that the preceding evening, on quitting his room, he had seeua figure in white, which beckoned to lum, and at the same mo
ment a voice pronounced the words-" The day after to morrow, at nine in the morning, thou slialt die 1 und the fite thus predicted nothing could enable lum to escape He now proceeded to set his house in order, made his will, and gave particular directions lor his funeral, specifying who were to carry, and who to follow lum to the grave . -He had insisted on receiving the <<acraniciit, a wish, how. ever, which those about lum evaded complying with -Night came on and lie began to count the hours he had yet to live, till the fitil nine the next morning, ind every time the clock struck, his anxiety evidently increased I begin tobe apprehensive for the result, for I recollected instances in which the mere imagination of death had really produced a fatal result I recollected also the feigned execu- tion, when the criminal, after a solemn trial, was sentenced to be be
beaded, and when, in expectation, of the fatal blow, his neck was touched with a snitch, on winch he fell lifeless to the ground, as though his head had reilly been cut off and this circumstance gave nie reason to fear that a similar result might attend this case, and that the striking of the hour of nine might prove as fatal to my patient «sthe blow of the snitch on the above mcntioued occasion At any rate the shock communicated by the striking of the clock, accom- panied by the extra irdiniry excitement of the imagination and the general cramp, which li id determined ill the blood to the head, and the internal parts, might produce a most dangerous revolution spasms, f tinting fits, or haemorrhages, or even totally overthrow reason, which had already sustained so severe an attack
What was then to be done' In my iud"meiit every thing depended on carrying bun, without his being iware of it, beyond the fatal mo ment, and it »is to be hoped tint as his whole delusion lunged upon
this point, he would then feel ashamed of himself and be cured of it
I therefore pheed mj reliance on opium, winch, moreover, was quite appropriate to the state of his uerves and prescribed twenty drops of laudanum, with two grains of hen banc, to be taken about midnight 1 directed tint if, as I hoped, he overslept the fatal hour, his friends should assemble round his bed, and on Ins aw iking, laugh heartily at his silly notion, that, instead of being allowed to dwell upon the gloomy idea, I e might be rendered thoroughly sensible of its absur
Uity- My instructions were punctually Obey ed, soon after he bad taken the opiate, he feel mto a profound sleep, from which he did not awike till about cleve io clock the next day " What hour is it'
was the first question on opening his eves , and when he heard how long he had overslept his death, and was it the same time greeted with loud laughter for his lolly, he crept ashamed upon the bed clothes, and at length joined in the laugh, declaring that the whole affair ap pcired to him like a dream, and that he could not conceive how he could be such a simpleton . Since that time he has enj< \ ed the best health, and has never had any simihar attack - New Monthly
Magazine