s that we have to be constantly on guard against it. Though we
may not be its victim, we have all felt its influence at some time, and
even one experience of it is sufficient to satisfy the most exacting. It
is an absolute medical fact, that the dread of disease will render one
more profoundly miserable and unhappy, and will cause more mental and
physical incompetents than will any severe, prolonged, actual sickness.
People who are victims of nosophobia are probably the most miserable and
wretched individuals on earth. This is essentially so because of the
peculiar characteristics of the disease. It is an insinuating and
insidious ailment and its progress is cumulative. When we begin to worry
about our health the germ of nosophobia takes up its habitation in our
midst and we never know another happy moment.

The dread of disease is probably more common now than it used to be,
partly because people know more about it, and, therefore, have more
material out of which to manufacture dreads, and partly because a large
number of people have the leisure to worry about various symptoms and
sensations that come to them, and the significance of which they
exaggerate by dwelling on them until they become positive torments. It
is particularly those who have not much to do, and, above all, those who
have absolutely nothing to do who suffer most from the affection.
Children never suffer from this malady because pains and aches have no
significance to them. The probability of death through sickness never
bothers them. Their minds are always occupied. They are always busy,
they think only of life and of living. As we grow older, however, we
become introspective and we permit conditions to favor the development
of a wrong mental attitude. We accentuate the seriousness of each
trifling pain and illness, and the specter of death looms up in the path
of each ailment. Soon we spend needless time in worry and we imagine we
are not as healthy as we ought to be and that we may probably die in the
near future. This affects our temperament and our efficiency. Life is
no longer tolerable or attractive, and we shortly are numbered with the
failures and the incompetents.

One of the unfortunate consequences of nosophobia is that a victim of it
not only renders her own life miserable, but she unfortunately affects
the happiness of every member of the household. She is as a rule gloomy
and morose, and this constant depressive environment is not condu