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Four Minute Essays By Dr. Frank Crane: 101 total pages.

138 ANGER POISON A LL the poisons are not kept chained bottles on drug-store shelves. All the cases of strange illness and wast­ing are not due to subtle drops from India nor mysterious powders sold by old witches. And all the shocking deaths are not the result of taking tablets of bichloride of mer­cury thinking they are of aspirin. The commonest, deadliest, and most dreadful poisons are those we carry around with us. They are contained in our mind. There is no doubt about the injurious ef­fects of certain emotions upon the body. They are as well authenticated as the opera­tion of henbane or arsenic. The exudation of sweat-glands, for in- FOUR MINUTE ESSAYS 139 stance, has been analyzed, and certain strong feelings have been shown to produce certain definite injurious secretions. Anger is one state which produces dis­eased conditions, as headache, loss of appe­tite, deranged digestion, even syncope. In one instance the anger of a mother had such an effect upon her suckling child that it died in paroxysms. Not only the occasional

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