it mitigate any of its symptoms. With regard to the affection of the
mind itself in this disease, it does not appear that the patients are
deprived of reason; some have merely, by the dint of resolution,
conquered the dread of water, though they never could conquer the
convulsive motions which the contact of liquids occasioned; while this
resolution has been of no avail, for the convulsions and other symptoms
increasing, have almost always destroyed the unhappy sufferers.
--_Abernethy's Lectures_.


EFFECTS OF KINDNESS ON THE SICK.


Under all circumstances, man is a poor and pitiable being, when stricken
down by disease. Sickened and subdued, his very lineaments have a voice
which calls for commiseration and assistance. Celsus says, that knowing
two physicians equally intelligent, he should prefer the one who was his
friend, for the obvious reason that he would feel a deeper interest in
his welfare. Kindness composes, and harshness disturbs the mind, and
each produces correspondent effects upon the body. A tone, a look, may
save or destroy life in extremely delicate cases. Whatever may be the
prognosis given to friends, in all febrile cases, the most confident and
consoling language about the ultimate recovery should be used to the
sick, as prophecies not unfrequently contribute to bring about the event
foretold, by making people feel, or think, or act, differently from what
they otherwise would have done. Again, in chronic cases, as time is
required for their cure, by explaining to the patient this fact, we
maintain his confidence, we keep his mind easy, and thus gain a fair
opportunity for the operation of regimen or remedies; in short, the
judicious physician, like the Roman general, Fabius, conquers through