The Daily Dispatch: February 27, 1861., [Electronic resource]

The power of Hearty laughter.

‘ A short time since two individuals in this city were lying in one room very sick, one with brain fever, and the other with an aggravated case of mumps. They were so low that watchers were needed every night, and it was thought doubtful if the one sick of fever recovered. A gentleman was engaged to watch one night, his duty being to wake the nurse whenever it became necessary to take the medicine. In the course of the night both watchers and nurse fell asleep. The man with the mumps lay watching the clock, and saw that it was time to give the fever patient his potion. He was unable to speak aloud or to move any portion of his body except his arms, but, seizing a pillow, he managed to strike the watcher in the face with it. Suddenly awakened, the watcher sprang from his seat, falling to the floor and awakening both the nurse and fever patient. The incident struck both the sick men as very insidious, and they laughed most heartily at it for fifteen or twenty minutes. When the doctor came in the morning, he found his patients vastly improved --said he had never known so sudden a turn for the better — and they are now both out and well. Who says laughter is not the best of medicines?--New Haven Palladium.

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