FAITH HEALING EXPLAINED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9036, 20 April 1888, Page 6

FAITH HEALING EXPLAINED.

A lecture on the subject, "Faith Healing Explained," was delivered yesterday evening, by Dr. Bakewell, at the Foresters' Hall. Dr. Bakewell, in introducing the Bubject, said that in discussing the modm operandi of faith healing, he did not intend to deal with the religious or supernatural side of the question ; for where the supernatural began, science ended. The cures effected at the innumerable shrines throughout Europe were in many cases genuine, since they had been going on for hundreds of years, and the hypothesis of imposture was out of the question in many cases. The influence of the nervous system on the bodily frame was very great, even in respect to diseases which were not connected with the nerves. It was through the great sympathetic nerve, in his opinion, that faith-heal-ing was accounted for, and the lecturer instanced the influence of joyous emotions as well as those of fear. Mental emotion had a remarkable effect in relieving pain, and by the action of the imagination pain had frequently been cured. If persons had faith in some water or some relic, such a faith produced hope, and the patient, instead of consideringhisdiseaseinahopelessform.now looked upon it in a hopeful way. He, perhaps, went through certain prayers or some devotional exercises, and through setting into a condition of great hope, the blood became better and the digestive organs improved. At length a day is fixed for the cure, and the patient is worked up to a pitch of great excitement, and is healed, though there was nothing in the case to show that it was other than a cure through nervous excitement. Dr. Bakewell instanced the faith in certain medicines as accounting for the cure of diseasess, and pointed out that the fact that certain disease might be cured by galvanism, was a hint that they were nervous disorders, and could be cured by "faith healers." This contention was supported by the result of a number of cases quoted by Dr. Bakewell. At the close of the lecture Mr. T. L. "White moved a vote of thanks to the doctor, which was adopted by acclamation. Dr. Bakewell, in acknowledging the vote, paid his object in giving the lectures of which the present was the first, was to spread useful information. On an average £1000 a-year was taken out of the colony by quacks who came here and traded upon •the ignorance and credulity of the people.