Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/332

286 valve being destroyed and the surrounding tissues infiltrated with calcareous matter.

It is necessary to remember that, fantastic as the theory of poisoning by mental suggestion may sound, Mrs. Eddy thoroughly believed in it, and she considered her husband's death absolute proof of the power of malicious mesmerism to destroy life. Charles J. Eastman, who attended Mr. Eddy just before his death, agreed with Mrs. Eddy that the symptoms were those of arsenical poisoning, and she doubtless thought that the autopsy would corroborate this opinion. After the autopsy she still clung to her conviction, and, although Dr. Noyes actually took Mr. Eddy's heart into the room where she was and pointed out to her its defects, she still maintained that her husband had died from mental arsenic. On Monday she gave out the following interview:

My husband's death was caused by malicious mesmerism. Dr. C. J. Eastman, who attended the case after it had taken an alarming turn, declares the symptoms to be the same as those of arsenical poisoning. On the other hand, Dr. Rufus K. Noyes, late of the City Hospital, who held an autopsy over the body to-day, affirms that the corpse is free from all material poison, although Dr. Eastman still holds to his original belief. I know it was poison that killed him, not material poison, but mesmeric poison. My husband was in uniform health, and but seldom complained of any kind of ailment. During his brief illness, just preceding his death, his continual cry was, "Only relieve me of this continual suggestion, through the mind, of poison, and I will recover." It is well known that by constantly dwelling upon any subject in thought finally comes the poison of belief through the whole system. . . . I never saw a more self-possessed man than dear Dr. Eddy was. He said to Dr. Eastman, when he was finally called to attend him: "My case is nothing that I cannot attend to myself, although to me it acts the same as poison and seems to pervade my whole system just as that would."

This is not the first case known of where death has occurred from what appeared to be poison, and was so declared by the attending