Many minor affections are also known to be at once removed or suspended, under the strong impression of fear, as toothache, and other nervous pains; hypochondriasis, seasickness, etc.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FEAR CONTINUED.--DEATH IS SOMETIMES THE CONSEQUENCE OF EXTRAVAGANT FEAR.-VARIOUS PAINFUL DISEASES ARE NOT UNFREQUENTLY THE CONSEQUENCE OF ITS OPERATION.— THE TERRORS AND MORBID EXCITEMENTS OF RELIGION ARE OFTENTIMES FOLLOWED BY THE MOST MELANCHOLY EFFECTS ON MIND AND BODY.-THESE EFFECTS MAY BECOME GREATLY EXTENDED THROUGH THE PRINCIPLE OF IMITATION OR SYMPATHY.--TERROR MAY OPERATE THROUGH THE MOTHER ON HER UNBORN OFFSPRING.-ITS EFFECTS ON THE HAIR AND DIFFERENT SECRETIONS. THE FEARS AWAKENED IN THE IMAGINATION DURING SLEEP, WHEN FREQUENT AND IMMODERATE, MAY BE FRAUGHT WITH SERIOUS INJURY TO HEALTH.

TERROR is sometimes instantly fatal, at once destroying the nervous energy, and suppressing the action of the heart; or it may bring on hemorrhages or convulsions, quickly terminating in death. Children and females being generally more sensitive and susceptible in their nervous system, are most liable to become the victims of fear.

Montaigne informs us, that at the siege of St. Pol, a town in France, "a gentleman was seized with such a fright, that he sunk down dead in the breach without any wound."

Marcellus Donatus tells of a child who instantly fell dead in a field on seeing, in the morning twilight, two persons clothed in black suddenly appear by his side. Another child was so frightened by the report of a cannon from a vessel while he was bathing in the sea, that he instantly fell into convulsions, and died in fifteen minutes.

An old writer relates of a nun, that she was so terrified on seeing herself surrounded by hostile soldiers with drawn swords, that the blood suddenly flowed from all the outlets. of the body, and she immediately perished in their presence.

Broussais gives the case of a lady, who, on feeling a living frog fall into her bosom from the claws of a bird of prey, while she was sitting on the grass, was instantly seized with such a profuse bleeding from the lungs, that she survived but a few minutes.

A case is told by Pechlin* of a lady, who, upon looking at the comet of 1681, through a telescope, became so affected with terror, that she died in a few days.

Predictions of death are sometimes punctually fulfilled through the influence of fear upon the imagination. Lord Littleton, it seems to be well authenticated, died at the exact moment at which his fancied vision had forewarned him his death would take place. The superstitious subjects of such hallucinations have sometimes been preserved from death, which they believed was to happen at a fixed time, and for which their terrors seemed to be fast preparing them, by putting back the hands of the clock, or, as in the

* Observ. Med., lib. iii, observ. 23.

case related by Dr. Darwin, by administering a dose of opium, so as to cause the person to sleep beyond the predicted period..

It is related of a person sentenced to be bled to death, that though the execution of the sentence was only feigned, by causing warm water, after his eyes were blinded, to trickle down his arm, yet the fearful impression on his imagination that the blood was flowing from his veins, destroyed his life as effectually as if the punishment had been actually accomplished. The fear of the axe, too, has sometimes caused death as surely as its fall. A malefactor, as we read, being condemned to decapitation, a reprieve arrived just as his head had been laid upon the block, but life was found to be already extinguished. "In Lesinsky's voyage round the world, there is an account of a religious sect in the Sandwich Islands, who arrogate to themselves the power of praying people to death. Whoever incurs their displeasure, receives notice that the homicide litany is about to begin; and such are the effects of imagination, that the very notice is frequently sufficient with these poor people to produce the effect."*

"Some young girls went one day a little way out of town to see a person who had been executed, and who was hung in chains. One of them threw several stones at the gibbet, and at last struck the body with such violence as to make it move; at which the girl was so much terrified, that she imagined the dead person was alive, came down from

* Cited by Dr. Reid, in his Essays on Nervous Diseases..

the gibbet, and ran after her. She hastened home, and not being able to conquer the idea, fell into strong convulsions, and died."*

The following case from the same author just quoted, will serve to show the hazard of operating upon the timidity of children, as a means of punishment:

"A schoolmistress, for some trifling offence, most foolishly put a child into a dark cellar for an hour. The child was greatly terrified, and cried bitterly. Upon returning to her parents in the evening, she burst into tears, and begged that she might not be put into the cellar; the parents thought this extremely odd, and assured her that there was no danger of their being guilty of so great an act of cruelty; but it was difficult to pacify her, and when put to bed she passed a restless night. On the following day she had fever, during which she frequently exclaimed, 'Do not put me in the cellar.' The fourth day after, she was taken to Sir A. Cooper, in a high state of fever, with delirium, frequently muttering, 'Pray don't put me in the cellar.' When Sir Astley inquired the reason, he found that the parents had learned the punishment to which she had been subjected. He ordered what was likely to relieve her, but she died in a week after this unfeeling conduct."

Terror, although, as seen, it may occasion instant or speedy death, yet is more apt to be followed by various disorders of mind and body, either slight and transient, or serious and lasting. Deafness, dumbness, blindness, loss of

*Pettigrew; cited from Platerus.