Article January 18, 1919 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from A. O. Freel

[Seattle (Wash.) Post-Intelligencer]

The Los Angeles Times, rejoicing that its five weeks' flu blockade has closed, remarks that, in departing, the "infernal flu has left us something to debate about for the rest of eternity," and it wonders "if we would have had the flu if we hadn't got into a panic of fear. Was there really a flu, or did we invent something and then fear it?"

Panic, fear, are generally coming to be recognized as mental conditions that have determining effects upon the bodily organism, and both are regarded as invitations to disease. Even the materialist now tells us that panic disarms the protective forces of the body and works directly against its welfare. There is no question about fear or panic temporarily paralyzing the processes of digestion, straining the heart, and affecting the circulation of the blood; there is no question that the mental attitude of the individual may weaken the physical system and make it more susceptible to disease. Thus far the Times may quest in agreement with what humanity has already learned by bitter experience.

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