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Show KJtted by His Fancy Case of Criminal Who Thought HimsclfBtced- ing to Death. Other Tate of DUeaje -and "Death Due to Effect of the Imagination A. Fatal "Bath. A remarkable case of death caused by Imagination whs recorded tho other day. says a 'London correspondent. A .young girl, depressed through III health, drank w hat she supposed was a bottle of carbolic acid and bogged to be taken to a doctor. Despite nil medical efforts, however, she sank rapidly nnd died. A post mot tern examination showed no trine of poison, and lln bottle' of carbolic car-bolic acid was found untouched, while the bottle from which she had drunk THEY l'MCKM) HIS riXT. the contents was proved to have contained con-tained only a perfectly harmless mixture. mix-ture. "Fancy can kill and fancy can cure," Is quoted far and wide wherever thu English language Is spoken. "Fancy can kill!" More than that. It has killed strong, healthy men, nnd where It has not killed them It has given them disease dis-ease of an unmistakable kind or has produced effects through tho action of drugs exactly opposite to thoso which tho drugs ordinarily Induce. How "fancy" can kill, how It actual-. actual-. ly destroyed life, was demonstrated by the physicians of Montpelller nt the time when they were In tho hnblt of having delivered to them every year two criminals whom they vivisected In accordance with the custom which had been handed down to them from Home. One day they determined to see what effect the mere expectation of. death would have on a man who was perfectly perfect-ly healthy. They therefore took such a subject and told him that they would kill him In the easiest way by opening his veins In warm water. They got a bath of warm wnter, Into which they put his feet. Next they blindfolded him nnd pricked his feet with the point of a lancet, tint without drawing blood. Then they began talking to each other as If the man was bleeding to death. In n little whllo they removed tho bandage from his eyes. Tho man was dead, killed by fancying that ho was bleeding to death, Only n year ngo there was a young artillery recruit at Doual who was a perfectly healthy man, but who labored labor-ed under tho belief that If ho had a bath ho would die. Ills comrades laughed at him, nnd to demonstrate how absurd was his belief they stripped strip-ped his clothes off and put him Into the bath. When thev took him nut nf tliu water he was dead. It might be urged that lie was suffering from some organic or-ganic disease, and the shock of tho water wa-ter killed him. A postmortem examination exami-nation was, however, held, and no disease dis-ease wns discovered. In a certain prison there was a caso of smallpox. The fact waa known, as lu some Inscrutable way which tho authorities au-thorities would probably find It difficult diffi-cult to explain such facts nlwnys do get known, -to the prisoners. One 'of them, a perfectly strong, sound, healthy man, showing no symptoms of weakness, was moved Into a roll In which ho was told a prisoner suffering from smallpox had died. The statement state-ment was Inaccurate, for there had never been n smallpox caso In that coll at all. In a day or two the man complained of being 111, In a few days mora ho exhibited evi'c.v symptom of smallpox. ,As a mnttrriof act, ho had smallpox and died from It. In striking contrast with his case was that of another prisoner. He' was' put Into the cell tn wlii;h the original' smallpox patleut had died. He was, 'assured that no ono had died there orj had ever had the disease In It. Although Al-though tho room 'must have been swarming with the germs thrown off, by tho man who had died there only a short tliuo before, 'the second prisoned prison-ed did not get smallpox. |