Cheerfulness as a Life Power | Page 2

squeeze and shakes it. Frequent
laughing sets the stomach to dancing, hurrying up the digestive process. The heart beats
faster, and sends the blood bounding through the body. "There is not," says Dr. Green,
"one remotest corner or little inlet of the minute blood-vessels of the human body that
does not feel some wavelet from the convulsions occasioned by a good hearty laugh." In
medical terms, it stimulates the vasomotor centers, and the spasmodic contraction of the
blood-vessels causes the blood to flow quickly. Laughter accelerates the respiration, and
gives warmth and glow to the whole system. It brightens the eye, increases the
perspiration, expands the chest, forces the poisoned air from the least-used lung cells, and
tends to restore that exquisite poise or balance which we call health, which results from
the harmonious action of all the functions of the body. This delicate poise, which may be
destroyed by a sleepless night, a piece of bad news, by grief or anxiety, is often wholly
restored by a good hearty laugh.
There is, therefore, sound sense in the caption,--"Cheerfulness as a Life Power,"--relating
as it does to the physical life, as well as the mental and moral; and what we may call
THE LAUGH CURE

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