They Simply Fade Away

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 13 (Supplement)

They Simply Fade Away

FROM time to time new fads aeizr hold of the popular imagination, sweep through the community, and after being faithfully practised by thousands of ndherrnts, gradually lose their appeal. and eventually are completely forgotten. Fourteen years ago Coueism was heralded as a cure for the ills of mind and f •" .. remarkable curc«. M. C<mc

wiiii n<>f ft'P i' - k. but, on the contrary, an linnost. rnrin'-t little man, who preached thn gosrie! of niito snjrjrestion in order tlnvt people miirht leuni how to cure thrmti'lwv lfi> nlwny* insisted thnt he did not. rure patients, but that they Hired th -flic*. His fame, spread be-

yond l!'' 1 I"""dcrs of France, and in ] 02.1 ],e delivered in London and New York a peril"* nf lecture* in explanation of his

theories. These lei lures and detnonstra

tions were at tended by rich and poor. Jfi-» London audiences included Indies of

title, np'in'ier; of I'arliaQiout. nnd mem

her* of Ihe r.cdical profession. The London newspaper* £,i\e a great, deal of p|.;it'e to reports of liis lectures and. descriptions of his demonstration. Tie became Iho most talked of man in England. Society hostesses became interested in him and tried to lionise him. but he refused to be lionised. lie declined their invitation* to dinner, and their attempts to rret hiin ns a week end guest St their country houses.

Magic Value of

Mere Repetition.

A little hoolc entitled ""Hip Practice of Aiitn-Huggcstion by the. Method of M. ('Me." which wm on sale when AT. ('..no lectured in London, gave a detailed rxpliitinl ion nf how the reader could apply I lie treatment. He was to «ay to liirns'-lf many times a day: "Day by day, in every way, I'm getting better and belter." "The words should be littered nloud; that is loud enough to bo audible to your own ears," said thi« little book. "In this way the idea i» reinforced by tho movement** of lips ■nd tongue, anil by tho auditory impressions conveyed through tho ear. Sny the words simply without effort, liko a child absently murmuring a nursery rhyme. Thus you avoid an nppenl to the critienl faculties of the conscious, which would lessen the outcropping. When you have, got used to this exerclso and rain *ay it quite 'unconsciously,' begin to let your voice rise or fall—it does 'rot matter which— on tho phrase 'in every way.'" It seemed a very simple method of curing illness, and undoubtedly it did effect some euros. But as was pointed out in London at tho time, on behalf of the medical profession, it would bo

un\vl«e for anyone to rely on atitoMigui'xlioii for the treatment of disease, iiml to neglect surgery, drugs and vaccine). Pain is often Nature's warning signal that something is radically wrong, uml to ignore the warning by attempting to cure it by auto-sugges-tion might prove disastrous to the put icnt. As a matter of fact every doctor uses auto-suggestion, consciously or unconsciously, when he assures a patit'll t that ho is on the road to recovery. Hut ho does not rely on such assurance as the only form of treatment necessary, no matter what the illne«*i from which the patient is sulfcring.

Fasting Care Wat Next Fashionable.

A few years after interest in Coucistn had faded out the fasting cure became faxlih.mi hie in Kngland and America. Thousands of people became convinced thnt. lusting was a cure for bodily ills, and llh v adopted the fasting treatment. At the'little town of Thring, in Herefordshire, .'lO miles from London, a hospital for tlio treatment of patient* by I'aMing wa* established, and considerate publicity was given in the newspaper-, to the treatment. The hospital had m-eoniniodntinn for 40 patients, some of whom had been under orthodox medical treatment lor years without ■ ppnviahlo benefit. But under the stinmln I in-.: effects of fasting the patients were said to be renewing their youthfu! energy. Patients were not con- j lined to the institution the whole of the time they were under treatment. Thoae •who had business to attend to went about their affairs during the day in the u«ttal way. Those who had nothing to do went lor walks, played tennk and danced. Distinguished members of the medical profession in England and America issued warnings against fasting as a cure-all. and declared that patients ought to seek medical advice be' o " adopting the tasting treatment. Eaating might «uit *">mo people and -not others; it might be beneficial in some diseases and very injurious in others.

"Prolonged fasts are never necessary and do real harm," said one American doctor. "They do not purify the tissues. They cause a reabsorption of bile and other extrementitious elements. Food is a natural laxative. Fasting causes stagnation throughout the whole intestinal tract. The blood and tissue fluids, instead of being purified, are polluted by the reabsorption of bile and putrefaction products." An earlier fad than fasting was Fletcherism, a word which won it* way into American dictionaries. Fletcherism was the discovery of an American named Horace Fletcher, and it had thousands of adherents in America and England. His dietary theory was that people did not masticate their food adequately before swallowing it, and that perfect mastication ensured perfect health. He declared that any food that could not be liquified in the mouth ought to be rejected. He discarded all roughage from his diet, and thereby retarded certain essential functions of the body.

Dr. John Harvey KeTlogg, an American who for a time preached and practised Fletcherism, stated hi the course of an article on'diet fads: "Mr. Flcteher himself suffered greatly from chronic toxemia. His tongue was heavily coated and his breath was highly malodorous. His dentist informed me that his teeth were decaying more rapidly than in any case he had ever seen. Professor William James, who 1 was at one time one of Mr Fletcher's most enthusiastic supporters, said to a friend, 'I tried Fletrherism for three months. I had to "ive it up. It nearly killed me.* Mr. Fletcher died as a result of chronic bronchitis, doubtless aggravated, if not chiefly caused, by chronic toxemia. His cult "has become nearly obsolete, and his name will doubtless disappear from the dictionary; but, unfortunately the idea that he exploited, that indigestible food elements are unnecessary an<t undesirable, is widely prevalent, and not alone as the result of his teaching.

No pamcea of modern times has aroused greater controversy than tar water, which in the middle of the eighteenth century was accepted by rich and poor of many countries as an infallible remedy against disease. In Europe and America hospitals were established for the treatment of every sort of human ailment with tar water. It was easily prepared, but those who could not prepare it for their own consumption could obtain it at the coffee houses The tar used was not coal tar, but a liquid prepared from conifer trees. A gallon of water was added to a quart of tar, and after the mixture had been stirred, it was allowed to stand for 48 hours, and the clean part waß then P° ured ,_ off for drinking. The usual dose for those who wished to preserve health was halt a pint in the morning, and the same at night. Stronger doses were taken for the cure of specific diseases.

Dr. Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, was primarily responsible for the widespread belief in the virtues of tar water. In 1725, when Dean of Derry, he formed a plan for converting the Bed Indians to Christianity, and he sacrificed his lucrative post at Derry in order to establish a training college at Rhode Island for young missionaries, who were to convert the Indians. He remained there seven years. He noticed that the Indians made use of pine tar in their remedies, and he became convinced as the result of investigation and experi-

merit that tar would cure, or at least mitigate, every known disease of the human system When he returned to Europe he preached the virtue of pine tar. He claimed that pine trees captured the vital force of the universe present in sunlight, and stored it up in ■ their sap, and that the introduction of the sap into the human system in the form of tar water was a certain remedy against every disease. But patients found that tar water did not accomplish all that was claimed for it, and after i the death of Bishop Berkeley faith in its remedial properties rapidly declined.