Observations placeholder
Hack Tuke, Daniel – Sickness - Inducing nausea as a consequence of suggestion only
Identifier
026052
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
As described in Illustrations Of The Influence Of The Mind Upon The Body In Health And Disease, Designed To Elucidate The Action Of The Imagination - Daniel Hack Tuke, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
PART I. THE INTELLECT.
CHAPTER IV. INFLUENCE OF THE INTELLECT UPON THE INVOLUNTARY MUSCLES.
The rejection of the contents of the stomach from a purely mental state is well exemplified in an experiment made upon 100 patients in a hospital, and reported by Dr. Durand (de Gros) in his able work, "Essais de Physiologie Philosophique."
The house-surgeon administered to them such inert draughts as sugared water; then, full of alarm, he pretended to have made a mistake in inadvertently giving them an emetic, instead of syrup of gum.
The result may easily be anticipated by those who can estimate the influence of the Imagination. No fewer than 80 — four-fifths — were unmistakably sick. How many of the rest suffered from nausea is not stated.
We need not approve of the deception of the infirmier ; but, the experiment having been made, it is a pity so many people should have been rendered miserable without good use being made of their discomfort.
In regard to misleading patients generally, even causa scientice, one of the practical difficulties the investigation into the influence of the Imagination presents, is certainly the unseemliness of making experiments of this nature, and the danger of sullying that strict honour which by no profession is more prized or maintained than by the professors of the medical art.