disease and even death; the presumption, of course, being that, if able
to produce these conditions, it would certainly have some influence in
removing or preventing them. Upon this point the average man is
surprisingly positive and confident in his convictions. Popular
literature and legend are full of historic instances where individuals
have not merely been made seriously ill but have even been killed by
powerful impressions upon their imaginations. Most men are ready to
relate to you instances that have been directly reported to them of
persons who were literally frightened to death. But the moment that we
come to investigate these widely quoted and universally accepted
instances, we find ourselves in a curious position. On the one hand,
merely a series of vague tales and stories, without date, locality,
name, or any earmark by which they can be identified or tested. On the
other, a collection of rare and extraordinary instances of sudden death
which have happened to be preceded by a powerful mental impression, many
of which bear clearly upon their face the imprint of death by rupture of
a blood-vessel, heart failure, or paralysis, in the course of some
well-marked and clearly defined chronic disease, like valvular
heart-mischief, diabetes, or Bright's disease.

Upon investigation most of these cases which have been seen by a
physician previous to death have been recognized as subject to a disease
likely to terminate in sudden death; and practically all in which a
post-mortem examination has been made have shown a definite physical
cause of death. The fright, anger, or other mental impression, was
merely the last straw, which, throwing a sudden strain upon already
weakened vessels, heart, or brain, precipitated the final catastrophe.
In some cases, even the sense of fright and the premonition of
approaching death were merely the first symptoms of impending
dissolution.

The stories of death from purely imaginative impressions, such as the
victims being told that they were seriously ill, that they would die on
or about such and such a date, fall into two great classes. The first of
these--involving death at a definite date, after it had been prophesied
either by the victim or some physician or priest--may be dismissed in a
few words, as they lead at once into the realm of prophecy, witchcraft,
and voodoo. Most of them are little better than after-echoes of the
ethnic stories of the "evil eye," and of bewitched indi