producing a mutiny among the Swiss soldiers, at that time in the employ
of the French king.

Predictions of death, whether supposed to be supernatural, or emanating
from human authority, have often, in consequence of the poisonous
effects of fear, been punctually fulfilled. The anecdote is well
attested, of the licentious Lord Littleton, that he expired at the exact
stroke of the clock, which in a dream or vision, he had been forewarned
would be the signal of his departure. In Lesanky'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 the imagination, that the
very notice is frequently sufficient with these people to produce the
effect.

Thousands of other instances might be cited, illustrative of the fatal
effects of inordinate indulgence in passion.


[1] A cleverly conducted work containing more popular information
on Medicine, Surgery, and what are termed the collateral sciences,
than we are accustomed to find in a "professional" journal.

[2] Rammazini.

[3] Preface de Narcisse Oeuvres, Diverses, t. l. v. 172.

[4] Pathol. lib. 3. cap. 2. Oper. Omm. p. 406.