is based upon principles recognized as sound by the medical
profession--so literally true is the Hebrew proverb that "a merry heart
doeth good like a medicine."
"Mirth is God's medicine," said Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes; "everybody
ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety,--all the rust of
life,--ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth." Elsewhere he says:
"If you are making choice of a physician be sure you get one with a
cheerful and serene countenance."
Is not a jolly physician of greater service than his pills? Dr. Marshall
Hall frequently prescribed "cheerfulness" for his patients, saying that
it is better than anything to be obtained at the apothecary's.
In Western New York, Dr. Burdick was known as the "Laughing Doctor." He
always presented the happiest kind of a face; and his good humor was
contagious. He dealt sparingly in drugs, yet was very successful.
The London "Lancet," the most eminent medical journal in the world,
gives the following scientific testimony to the value of jovialty:--
"This power of 'good spirits' is a matter of high moment to the sick and
weakly. To the former, it may mean the ability to survive; to the
latter, the possibility of outliving, or living in spite of, a disease.
It is, therefore, of the greatest importance to cultivate the highest
and most buoyant frame of mind which the conditions will admit. The same
energy which takes the form of mental activity is vital to the work of
the organism. Mental influences affect the system; and a joyous spirit
not only relieves pain, but increases the momentum of life in the body."
Dr. Ray, superintendent of Butler Hospital for the Insane, says in one
of his reports, "A hearty laugh is more desirable for mental health than
any exercise of the reasoning faculties."
Grief, anxiety, and fear are great enemies of human life. A depressed,
sour, melancholy soul, a life which has ceased to believe in its own
sacredness, its own power, its own mission, a life which sinks into
querulous egotism or vegetating aimlessness, has become crippled and
useless. We should fight against every influence which tends to depress
the mind, as we would against a temptation to crime. It is undoubtedly
true that, as a rule, the mind has power to lengthen the period of
youthful and mature strength and beauty, preserving and renewing
physical life by a stalwart mental health.
I read the other day of a man in a neighboring city who was given up to
die; his relatives were sent for, and they watched at his bedside. But
an old acquaintance, who called to see him, assured him smilingly that
he was all right and would soon be well. He talked in such a strain that
the sick man was forced to laugh; and the effort so roused his system
that he rallied, and he was soon well again.
Was it not Shakespere who said that a light heart lives long?
The San Francisco "Argonaut" says that a woman in Milpites, a victim of
almost crushing sorrow, despondency, indigestion, insomnia, and kindred
ills, determined to throw off the gloom which was making life so heavy a
burden to her, and established a rule that she would laugh at least
three times a day, whether occasion was presented or not; so she trained
herself to laugh heartily at the least provocation, and would retire to
her room and make merry by herself. She was soon in excellent health and
buoyant spirits; her home became a sunny, cheerful abode.
It was said, by one who knew this woman well, and who wrote an account
of the case for a popular magazine, that at first her husband and
children were amused at her, and while they respected her determination
because of the griefs she bore, they did not enter into the spirit of
the plan. "But after awhile," said this woman to me, with a smile, only
yesterday, "the funny part of the idea struck my husband, and he began
to laugh every time we spoke of it. And when he came home, he would ask
me if I had had my 'regular laughs;' and he would laugh when he asked
the question, and again when I answered it. My children, then very
young, thought 'mamma's notion very queer,' but they laughed at it just
the same. Gradually, my children told other children, and they told
their parents. My husband spoke of it to our friends, and I rarely met
one of them but he or she would laugh and ask me, 'How many of your
laughs have you had to-day?' Naturally, they laughed when they asked,
and of course that set me laughing. When I formed this apparently
strange habit I was weighed down with sorrow, and my rule simply lifted
me out of it. I had suffered the most acute indigestion; for years I
have not known what it is. Headaches were a daily dread; for over six
years I have not had a single pain in the head. My home seems different
to me, and I feel a thousand times more interest in its work. My husband
is a changed man. My children are called 'the girls who are always
laughing,' and, altogether, my rule has proved an inspiration which has
worked wonders."
The queen of fashion, however, says that we must never laugh out loud;
but since the same tyrannical mistress kills people by corsets, indulges
in cosmetics, and is out all night at dancing parties, and in China
pinches up the women's feet, I place much less confidence in her views
upon the laugh cure for human woes. Yet in all civilized countries it is
a fundamental principle of refined manners not to be ill-timed and
unreasonably noisy and boisterous in mirth. One who is wise will never
violate the proprieties of well-bred people.
"Yet," says a wholesome writer upon health, "we should do something more
than to simply cultivate a cheerful, hopeful spirit,--we should
cultivate a spirit of mirthfulness that is not only easily pleased and
smiling, but that indulges in hearty, hilarious laughter; and if this
faculty is not well marked in our organization we should cultivate it,
being well assured that hearty, body-shaking laughter will do us good."
Ordinary good looks depend on one's sense of humor,--"a merry heart
maketh a cheerful countenance." Joyfulness keeps the heart and face
young. A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody
around us, and puts us into closer touch with what is best and brightest
in our lot in life.
Physiology tells the story. The great sympathetic nerves are closely
allied; and when one set carries bad news to the head, the nerves
reaching the stomach are affected, indigestion comes on, and one's
countenance becomes doleful. Laugh when you can; it is