Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus FearthoughtFletcher, Horace
Philosophy
Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought
Fletcher, Horace
Fear; Happiness
In the last chapter I stated that the bad effects of fear were so well
known to every one that it was not necessary to dwell upon them, but
second thought suggests stating a few special cases that have been told
me by physician friends who are interested in the lay experiments I am
making.
In the Southern States of the United States of America, where the
black race comes into closest touch with Caucasian civilization under
conditions of free expression, is probably the best place to study fear
and its opposite, chivalrous courage.
Dr. William E. Parker, of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, was once
called to attend a big negro who had been brought in by the ambulance,
and whom the students in charge of the ambulance had frightened nearly
to death by telling that he was badly wounded in the stomach, and would
probably die.
The negro was big and burly and black, and yet, livid with fear.
Both pulse and temperature indicated serious trouble within, and the
convulsive tremors that shook him from time to time revealed a state
of collapse that might end in death at any time. There was no outward
flow of blood, but the probable inward flow seemed more dangerous in
consequence.
The account of the case, as related by the students, told of a shooting
affray, in which the negro had been hit in the abdomen, as evidenced by
a bullet-hole in his clothing.
Dr. Parker began an examination by ordering the clothing of the patient
removed, and during which a bullet, much flattened, fell upon the
floor. This bullet had done no serious injury, of course, but there
might have been two shots and two bullets, one of which had penetrated
the body, and hence the bullet that fell upon the floor caused no
special attention, till search had been made in vain for a hole in the
skin. Complete examination revealed the fact that the negro had been
hit, but that the bullet had struck a button, causing a bruised place
behind the button, but had lodged in the clothing, in harmless inertia.
As the doctor held up the bullet, and told the patient of the slight
extent of his injury and the wonder of his escape, good, warm blood
returned to the livid countenance, the pulse and the temperature
assumed their normal condition, a grateful sparkle lit up the almost
glassy eyeballs, and the broadest possible grin spread over the face of
the erstwhile dying man.
The negro got down from the operating-table, arranged his clothing,
and, after apologizing for the trouble he had caused, and after
thanking the doctor and the students for their attentions, went out
into the street as well as ever. He had been, half an hour before, at
death's door.
Dr. Henry A. Veazie, one of the student-heroes of the yellow-fever
epidemic of 1878, who had splendid opportunity to witness the effects
of fear during an epidemic, asserts that fear is a certain cause of
attack of yellow fever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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