Femina, A Work for Every Woman — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Femina, A Work for Every Woman
John Stuart Mill · en
There is a class of these faith healers, composed of silly, loquacious
women and men, who know nothing at all of the principle governing their
cures, and they glibly tell their patients, “You must say or think
there is no disease, or I have no pain, or there is no body; all is
well; all is good,” and a great deal of similar nonsense. All is not
good, and all is not well by any means. I would say, Indeed there is
pain, disease, and a body, but by striving to live a healthful moral
life, and thinking healthful thoughts, of the good, the pure, and the
beautiful, the curative energy of nature will become stimulated to
repair the defects, to harmonize the functions and dissipate disease.
A person who is troubled with dyspepsia cannot get well if he thinks of
nothing but an acid or sour stomach, or feels the food disagreeing with
him before he has it in his mouth. He must have thoughts quite remote
from these, and the chances are nine out of ten he will not feel what
he eats. There is the same state of mind about “catching cold.” Some
persons are forever on the alert to catch a cold, and why should they
not, when they are always watching out for it? If you dress so that
you do not sweat, and do not use too thick bedcovering, and are not
constantly on the catch or lookout, I assure you you will not catch
cold, nor will it catch you.
Terror or fright causes or cures diseases. Dr. Toad reports the case
of a boy, in Tuke’s work, nine years of age, who was frightened into
chorea, or St. Vitus’ dance, by his sister, who had covered herself
with a white sheet and appeared before him unexpectedly, while he was
in bed. I know, also, a case of functional bladder weakness of a child
who wet his bed at night during sleep. There appeared no signs of any
local disease, nor was any remedy which I employed of the slightest
advantage. The father of the child, becoming exasperated, gave the
child a severe thrashing one morning. The mother remonstrated at what
she considered cruel and useless chastisement. But, strange yet true,
that child never wet the bed after that; it was entirely cured by
fright.
Sympathy will often make persons sick; of this I had in my own
experience an opportunity for a very interesting observation. It was
the husband of a woman who had been retching and vomiting incident to
the early months of her pregnancy. So great was the sympathy of her
husband that he retched and vomited exactly like his wife, not only
when in her presence, but when separated from her, the impressions
or thought exciting the _excito-motor_ nerves of the stomach. This
sympathetic sickness lasted as long as that of his wife.