A Look Round.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 208, 2 September 1893, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Look Round.

Treatment of Disease by Suggestion,

In bho current number of ' The Century! there is an interesting paper on this subjact, in which tho writer says : —By suggestion wo are enabled to explain many so-called • miracles, none of which are mote wonder" iul than those which occur at Lourdes, where even now extensive pilgrimages are made. French literature is full of instances of really astonishing cures made at this famous place, and JI. Henri Lnsserro has collected a * large,,, number of such cases, some of which ara simply marvellous. Long-standing paralysis and contractures, and disturbances of vision innumerable, wore promptly rolioved by tho use of water from the famous spring?. Lasserre speaks of the case oE Mile. Marie Moveau, a young girl of 16,' who suffered from that form of blindness called amauro3is, tho eight of one eya being wholly gone. After nine days of prayer, a bandage dipped in the water of Lourdes was applied to her eyes, and in tho morning she aroso completely, enred. So widespread is the belief in the wonderful powers of this water, that ito is no uncommon tiling to find devout Catholics sending for ibeven from America.. One invalid who came under my notice, and who suffered from an incurable nervous disease for many years, would never take an ordinary dose of medicine without] diluting it with water from this source, for which she regularly sent. From timo immemorial there have been instances of suggestion attending the use of amulets, tho bones of saints, and fetishes of various kinds, which have worked miracles or effected marvellous cures, and every once in a while some popular craze mnrk3 the appearance of an epidemic of imaginary cures. Wholo communities share in cummon the belief in tho power of a madatoae, which is treasured by its fortunate possessor and sought after by persons hundreds of mileß distant, who have been unlucky enough to have been bitten by a more or less rabid dog. Sometimes theseare simply ■ broken aerolites, porous stones, or trilobitee. ( But if such credulity exists, especiallyin the wild parts of the Western and Southern; '. States, what can be said of the universal belief in common rings made of iron or antimony, which are worn by educated andofton< times scientific peopleas asovereigncure for rheumatism ? Some years ago I was incited to pass judgment upon a very popular article of so-called electric clothing. The most careful testa with the galronometer, however, failed to reveal the existence of the s'ightesi current, and it is to be assumed that fch9 virtues of this particular belb were no greater than those of somo less pretentious natural object). In England and elsewhere suggestion has been used for the correction of certain mental states mnnifested in moral perversion, among which dipsomania and certain varieties of infantile vicioueness figure; and my own experience has convinced me that in some insanities it is certainly a most valuable means for combatting the development of delusions, and in restoring tho equilibrium of an unbalanced nervous system. A form of medical disorder which has been described by tho French as folia dv, doule, and by the writer as introspective insanity, in which the person, whoee intellectual health in most respects' is unaffected, though he is tortured by doubts of t^e most aggravating and morbid kind, is decidedly relieved by the production of the hypnotic state, and ifc' suggestion of certainty and assurance. Its efficacy in tho cure of insomnia i» isi" doubted, especially where the wakofulness is the result of more cr less excitement.