RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 203, 25 May 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

The only complaint we have about this lovely winter weather is that an early summer may come along and spoil it.

A man who ventured into a bear-pit for a woman is reported to have received a smile as a reward. But, then, he wasn’t her husband.

News from Mexico the last week or so seems, to indicate that that country, anyway, is rapidly getting back to normal.

“Why jail the publican as a cure for the drunken motorist?” asks “Grand Idea.” “If the motorist must be exonerated, why not ‘nationalise’ the means of transport (the car) for a month and jail the dealer who sold it to the driver? Then, too, if a man shoots his neighbour who will persist in singing in his bath, by all means exonerate the shooter and jail the chap that sold the gun. U.S.—l’ve just bought a gun.”

News that the sound of Big Ben restored the memory of an inmate in an institution at Salisbury, England, is not so unexpected as it seems at first glance. It has been noted for manyyears that in some inexplicable manner a sudden shock or unexpected sound may effect a cure that has baffled experts. For example, a man blinded by shellshock during the Great War broke bis leg many- years afterward. To his surprise, he found that his sight had been restored. This sounds incredible, but it is a fact that there have been many similar instances. If one shock can take away, another can restore. Indeed, artificial shocks (excluding doctors’ bills) have been given by medical experts with this end in view. A man who was left speechless by shock, had his speech completely restored when he saw for the first time tbe child that hud been born to his wife. Not that there was anything wrong with the child, but the effect ou the man’s emotions was such that the part of the brain which controlled speech got into Rs stride again.

Mention of shocks that have effected cures is a reminder of the cure effected on a paralysed man as a result of a trip by train. An accident occurred during the journey. Tbe man "for- ' got’’ that he was paralysed and escaped out of the upturned carriage with great speed. Fortunately it is not necessary' to stage a railway accident to cure one person and kill others. Sufferers have been, shocked into cure by stunts of a hair-raising nature in aeroplanes. In the case of loss of speech chloroform has been employed. When just going * under, speech often becomes very voluble. A rather unorthodox cure was effected recently in Sydney on a boundary rider who had lost his speech. Investigation proved that, he was physically normal. His speech organs were perfect. “It means a serious operation.”

said tlie doctor, “please sign this document.” He was placed on tbe operating table and given a mild dose of anesthetic. Tbe surgeon made no move until the man was almost recovering. He was then given a smart electrical shock. The patient emitted a yell at the sudden pain and started to tell the doctor just what he thought of him in unmistakeable language and pleasing fluency.

There is very little doubt that one can imagine oneself to be ill. Tactful methods of curing the state of thought effects marvellous cures on tbe flesh. Mind over matter has yielded to medicine that contained nothing more drastic than sugar and water. A patient who complained be bad lost all feeling below the knee stoically endured the pain of pins being jabbed into him. He was given two bottles of coloured water and sugar, and told that before the second bottle was finished he would be well. By the time the second bottle was half empty a pin jabbed below the knee had an instantaneous effect. Indeed, it is on record that sterilised water hyperdermically . injected has "cured” numerous insomnia patients. Certainly it is possible to produce just the opposite effect. A man who contemplated suicide swallowed the contents of a bottle marked poison. He thought he had taken cyanide and died. Analysis showed that he had swallowed nothing more deadly than tap water. Believing certainly makes it so.

The Chinese have based their traditional medical methods upon the mastery of mind over matter, much as was once suggested- by a wellknown person named Coue. Chinese doctors have one method of curing their patients that lias always bewildered and amused Western minds. When a man falls ill the Chinese doctor sticks a pin into him. A needle or copper wire filed to a point suffices. Nothing more is required. No drugs are administered. Strange to say, in many ailments this cure proves 100 per cent, effective. For years this was put down to faith cure and even charlatanism. It can be shown, however, that pricking a patient with a needle in the correct spot has a certain effect on the nerve centres. Experiments have proved that it causes a cessation of violent neuralgia or sciatica. It has .even given temporary relief from asthma. In stomach disorders of a temporary but unpleasant nature, it has given .instant relief. Maybe we shall hear more of this iu the Western world.

The effect: that fear can have upon a person was shown a few- years ago when a native mill worker was admitted into a Bengal hospital witli a broken thigh. Having been X-rayed, tlie doctors arranged to perform .i major operation next morning. Tlie patient was terriiied by the prospect, lie spent the night in prayer. Next morning he was found in the hospital courtyard dancing merrily as if nothing was the matter with him. He was absolutely cured. When questioned he said that lie had had a vision while asleep. A stranger touched his thigh and told him to walk. He had immediately got up and walked. Proof that lie was perfectly normal was not difficult to obtain. Maybe the medical experts had made a faulty diagnosis. Maybe many cures seem strange only because they are simple. For example, it is said that a cure for hysteria is to swing in a garden swing for two hours. What is tlie euro for the subsequent sea-sickness is not disclosed.

“I came home from a visit, to the Venetian merchant, on Saturday night, again impressed by the immortal charm of Portia, and tried to set down my thoughts in a rhyming acrostic,” writes “W.8.M.” Patrician and beautiful, clever and young, Oh, what a love song of thee can be sung, Roused by injustice, ready to try, Try to cheek monstrous vile villainy. In lhe procedure, she shows such a wit, wit, All the world since, has been laughing at it.