Neville tells his audience about a friend, present that night, who had several skin cancers on his face; after his doctors said he had already received all the radiation his skin could take and that only surgery remained, the friend refused the operation and instead simply held the imagined conviction, every day as he shaved and faced the sight of them in the mirror, that they were not there. He could not say when they actually vanished, but one day they were gone, leaving no trace. Neville says he first heard the story years earlier, while he was lecturing at the Ebell, and confirms that close examination of the man's face tonight shows no sign the cancers were ever there.