Zurich Herald, 1954-12-02, Page 7i r+ iIndw
M ..,,., n Kill Or Cure
All was ready for the opera
tion upon the fair-haired boy of
four. 'Taesurgeon knew that all
his skill must be exercised to
save the lad's life,
They knew the boy -- a high
ly strung youngster --- would be
nervous when he was laid on the
bper ation table. And his condi-
tion was such that this tension,
even under the anaesthetic,
might prove fatal to the success
of the operation.
Then the surgeon hacl a bril-
liant idea. Why not let the boy's
imagination come to his aid?
With his head inside a plastic
space helmet he could imagine
he was going on a magic jour-
ney to the moon,
A fantastic idea? Perhaps. But
it worked. When that small boy
came to some time later, the
delicate operation .had been sue-
eessfully carried out.
The helmet, ingeniously link-
ed with a cylinder of anaesthet-
ic gas, had got the boy into the
operating theatre without his
showing the slightest trace of
fear. For his thoughts were con-
centrated onthat wonderful trip
to the moon,
What amazing power imagin-
ation has on the human mind!
It can kill --- or cure. It can ex-
ercise a tremendous influence
for good or ill on our bodies as
well. Hundreds of true -life stor-
ies prove this.
One morning a young and very
pretty woman named Madame
Lernaitre was rushed in a car to
a Paris hospital, the victim of a
strange ailment,- She declared
that she had swallowed a live
lizard and had for days been stut-
tering intense pain as a result.
It was known beyond doubt
that she was the victim of her
vivid imagination -that she had
not swallowed a lizard or any ,
other animal. But nobody could
convince her of the truth.
There was only one thing for
the surgeon to do, and he did it,
He put the woman under chlaro-
form, made a trifling cut on her
flesh, and as she came rouna
showed her a small lizard which
had been rushed to the hospital
for him by a pet -shop owner.
The woman sighed with re-
lief when she saw it and said her
pains were oyer. Within a few
FOR SNAKES ONLY -No train on
earth could travel roller coaster.
like tracks above, and yet doz-
ens every day pass over these
apparently wiggly rails in the
Kansas City freight classifica-
tion yards. The wiggle isn't In
the rails, it's In the "eye" of
the camera which took this p!c-
ture; a telephoto lens which
brings distant objects close-up,
but gives a fore -shortened per.
spective to foreground of area
covered.
hours she was fit and well again.
A well authenticated story
told by the author Arthur Mach -
en proves that imagination can
cause actual bodily injury.
When a young airman during
the first world war was ordere
to go up by his commanding of-
ficer, he pleaded that he was
"nervy," adding: "If I fly today,
I know I shall crash." But the
officer insisted.
"All right," said the young air-
man, "but I shall be killed and
I'll haunt you afterwards."
He flew, crashed and, as he
had feared, was killed,
Then, reported Mr. Machen,
the commanding officer went
of his head and was delirious
for days. Ile kept crying out that
the dead airman was strangling
him, and that his hands were
gripping his throat
Nobody could persuade him
that he was imagining it.
He was taken to see a hospital
specialist. And when he was ex-
amined there were black finger-
marks abouthis throat
In Prance a famous doctor was
once permitted to test the ef-
fect of imagination on a convict
under sentence of death.
The man was blindfolded,
strapped on a table, and told that
an artery would be opened and
that he would be allowed to
'bleed to death. Close to his head
was placed a bowl of water
which, when released, flowed
through a tube and dripped into
a basin on the floor.
After preparation had been
made, the doctor slightly scratch-
ed the man's neck with a needle.
drip at short regular intervals.
the water began to drip, drip,
The tap .was then turned on and
Five minutes passed and then
the tap was turned off. They lift-
ed the man from the table. He
was dead, The dripping water
had drained his life away as
surely as if each drop had been
his heart's blood.
Why some people are able to
experience pain by an effort of
the imagination was explained
by Dr. Edwili. Bramwell in 1930.
He said a friend of his could
imagine himself sliding down a
sloping roof until his heels came
into violet contact with the bal-
ustrade below.
The friend said he could feel
the pain in his heels and the jar
to his spine as vividly as if the
accident had actually occurred.
Pain, explained Dr. Bramwell,
may be suggested by a previous
illness, by the illness of another
or by the surroundings in which
it has formerly appeared.
A Siberian railway porter
killed himself by his own imag-
ination. He was accidentally
locked one day in a refrigerating
van attached to a train. When
the train reached its distant des-
tination the van was opened.
The porter's body, still and
cold in death, lay on the floor
of the van where he had writ-
ten in chalk a pathetic record Of
his sufferings from the intense
cold. The last words, feebly
scrawled, were: "I am dying -
good bye!"
To the amazement of those
who found the inan's body, the
temperature of the van was nor-
mal -- about fifty degrees. They
discovered that the refrigerating
apparatus was out of order and
had not worked during the whole
journey.
The "intense cold" mentioned
in the porter's last note had ex-
isted only in his fancy.
Visiting a slowly dying girl
patient one morning, a famous
English surgeon found she was
reading a newspaper serial story
in which the young heroine suf-
fered from the same disease as
she had.
He rang up the newspaper, got
the author's address and hur-
ried to him, The author told him
that the heroine would die in
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37, Corrupt
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41, Biblical 11140111
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Fashion Hints
the last instalment in as fort-
night's time.
"Please change the ending and
let your heroine live," pleaded
the surgeon. The author agreed
to do so.
The patient, who in'her imag-
ination had been identifying her-
self with the heroine, recovered
and was able to leave hospital
and resume her job some weeks
later.
Another amazing story of the
power of imagination is told
about a Polish sailor, who was
marooned some years ago with
a dozen other men on a barren
island where food was hard to
come by.
On the fourth day, when they
were redueed to eating dry bread
frorri a small box of ship's stores
which had been washed up, the
Pole ate his crusts with great
gusto explaining: "I'm pretend-
ing it's roast pork. How good it
smells!"
Dailly he enjoyed his imagin-
ary roast pork, often sighing:
"My wife's a fine cook, but shell
never cook so well as this," The
other men began to think he was
mad. They were wrong,
They were all rescued an the
ninth day. The Pole looked as
robust as he was on the day they
were marooned. The others were
dejected, pale and frail -looking.
It was the Pole's imagination
which had mysteriously kept
hint from suffering semi -starva-
tion and the effects of the mis-
eries they had undergone.
Household .rots
Strong cheese has an odor
(some call it aroma!) which is
fine in the cheese but far from
tempting in the refrigerator.
The answer to the problem is
a polythene bag or flexible plas-
tic box with a tight lid, The air-
tight and moisture -proof poly-
thene won't let the chesse dry
out and it keeps the smell in.
To keep the refrigerator sweet-
smelling in spite of Oka or
Roquefort, twist the open end of
the cheese bage and close it
with a rubber band.
When there's no storage prob-
lem, cheese earl be kept on hand
to sorve in an amazingvariety
of dishes, Rich in proteins and
vitamins, it can be used in ap•.
petizers, salads, and even des-
serts. It adds zest to apple pie
and makes 'a creamy chocolate
cake icing.
'^. k I 1. .i•*+
H ONICLES
(11071-tcl.niinc D Ci,occl&a
At last we have something
worthwhile in "give-away"
prizes! Yesterday I opened a
packet of a certain breakfast
cereal and to my delight I
found an attractive printed re-
production - i -J colour -•of a
well-known picture in the To-
ronto Art Gallery, This picture
is to be one of a series, On the
back is a short biographical
sketch of the painter, This
premium is certainly a welcome
change from Hallowe'en "false
faces" and exchange coupons.
When an attempt is made at
giving away something that has
educational value -such as these
' pictures - one naturally has a
better opinion of the firm that
sells the cereal.
Which reminds me that at
our last W.I. Area Convent= a
resolution went through re-
questing legislation prohibiting
the use of premium coupons in
packets of soap and detergents,
What a relief it would be if
washing powder manufacturers
would see the light and stop
this stupid practice of sending
coupons through the mail, But
until they do I have another
idea, Some of us have more
than we can use of these "trade-
in" coupons, So, if we have a
surplus, why not take them to
our next W.I. or W.A. meeting
and give them away to anyone
who can use them. Perhaps if
more of the coupons were cash-
ed in the soap manufacturers
might think it wasn't such a
smart idea after all,
Isn't it wonderful , . , we have
actually had a few hours of
sunshine yesterday and today -
and more promised for tomor-
row. I suppose as long as the
weather holds we shall all be
trying to get two day's work
done 1n one On dull days the
dreariness just seems to seep
into your very soul. You de-
velop aches and pains where
there was never r stwinge
be-
fore. At Ginger Farm even
Tippy was 1lmph g around last
week with rhetimatisxn in one
leg. 'However, you never can
tail, even aches and pains may
turn out to be blessing im die -
vies. If it hadn't been that m
back Was still bothering mea
should probably have bean at
that Press Club luncheon last
week. Remember -- where so
many of the members and their
guests were victims: of food
poisoning? I am sure everyone
will be glad when the reason-
for
eason-for that unpleasant near -die -
ester is made known, .It is
.dreadful to think that poison-
ous conditions cart be present in
food that appears to have no-
thing whatever the matter with
it. In a recent issue of the
Canadian Home Journal there
was a splendid article dealing
with that very subject. But I
wasn't too happy after reading
it. I wondered why half of us
were not victims of food poison-
ing more often. I almost devel-
oped all the symptoms just from
reading the article. Think of
the school lunches and the
working men's lunches that are
put up every day and very
often kept under the very con-
ditions that invite food poison-
ing. I imagine the reason it
doesn't often happen is because
most of us stick to ordinary,
everyday sandwiches, a piece of
cake or pie, and some kind of
raw fruit. With such a lunch
there is little danger. But
when, with the idea of making
lunches more attractive we use
fancy concoctions of salads and
milk -custard desserts, then I
guess we are asking for trouble.
Well, it looks as if more
changes are in store for our
neighborhood. Last week we
had a man in from the Tele-
phone Company asking permis-
sion to put up new poles ready
for a re -wiring job. And from
him we heard some welcome
news! Rural lines in our dis-
trict are in for some overhaul-
ing so that not more than ten
subscribers will be on any one
party line. That day cannot
Dome too soon for at present
we have no less than thirteen
parties on our line. To put a
call through is sometimes an all -
day job -to say nothing of the
time one wastes running hope-
fully back and forth to the tele-
phone. Next summer it will be
even better as then the dial
system goes into effect and
there will be only six to a party
line.
Conversion of electric power
to 60 cycles is also not too far '
distant. I suppose it, too, will
be a tremendous improvement. _w
As to that we are not greatly
excited. We are so thankful to
have hydro power of any kind
that either 25 or 60 cycle is all
right with us, We remember
too well what it was like when
we didn't have any at all, Thi
morning, for instance, I came
out to make our early morning
cup of tea. As I plugged in the
electric kettle I noticed a box
of kindling for the kitchen
stove that Partner had brought
in the night before. Ten years
ago I would have used that
kindling to boil water for our
tea and it would have taken
from 15 to 20 minutes, With the
electric kettle the tea was made
inside of five minutes. So, we
have only to look back a few
years to be very thankful for
the conveniences. It is a fact
we very seldom forget,
BOUNCING BOX
While sitting in the window
of a third -storey room, six-year-
old Anthony Wagner, of Hagen
Court, Durban, South Africa,
over -balanced and fell twenty-
five feet to the ground,
All he suffered was a lost
tooth - knocked out of his
mouth by a stone on the grass
patch where he landed.
Dy Bev. R. Barclay Warrens,
A Prayer for Porgivenlesa
le whims 1:30; 86; 3-5, 1I.-13,
Memory Selection: T.boe,
Lord, art good, and ready ks
forgive; and plenteous in merely
unto all them that call upen
thee. Psalm 86: 5.
We are losing sight of the sin-
fulness of sin. Warden Lawee
of Sing Sing said that few crim-
inals regard themselves as bad
characters. So men rationalize
and justify and def end evil
deeds of every kind. One mag-
istrate thinks that this light-
heartedness regarding sin ie
due in part to the fact that
many preachers no longer
preach on the reality of hell.
We would rob God of his sense
of justice, his power to punish
the wicked who repeatedly and
finally reject his Son Jesus
Christ.
But man still has a conscience.
Most people know when they
are breaking God's holy com-
mandments. We are not fool-
ing ourselves as much as we
think. Many of the illnesses
for which people go to doctors
and more particularly, psychia-
trists, are mental disturbances
arising from a sense of conflict
between one's inherent sense of
right and one's behaviour. We
may call it "nerves" or "malad-
justment," The fact is we can't
quite shake off conscience.
With God there is forgiveness
of sin. This has been dearly
purchased through the death of
His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a
very real experience. But there
must first be conviction for sin.
We must see our sins as not
only against society but ageing
God, The awakened prodigal
said, "I have sinned against
heaven and in thy sight," Then
with a godly sorrow for our sins
we turn to God for forgiveness.
We plead for mercy in the name
of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
"In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling."
Let the sinner turn at once.
God loves to forgive the repent-
ant sinner.
FOOD FOOLISHNESS
Some of these food faddists
recommend a daily eating set
swiss cheese and limburger. It
has always been a puzzle why
the swiss cheese has the holes
in it, whereas it's the limbergek
that needs the ventilation.
The bride was told by a well-
meaning friend that sea food
would _ . give her husband that
daily umph, So she went ist
and ordered oysters,
"Large or small, ma'am?"
"Really, I don't know, sir"®
she said, "They're for a mala
with a size 161/2 collar."
She was probably the bride
who worshipped her husband.
According to Don Ameche, she
used to place burnt offerings
before hila three times a day.
Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking
asv
.ia sari
eesee
a an-restauranteur Ahead - Kyritsis,rm
Mild Winter Ah d-Matohna fist
who does weather forecasting on the side, says Waukegan, his
home town, is going to have a mild winter. He bases his predic-
tion on the life habits of the perch. Kyritsis says his near -shorn
nets were filled, while the deepwater ones were almost empty,
which tells him the weather will, be mild.