THE GOLDEN CHARIOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9087, 22 June 1888, Page 6

THE GOLDEN CHARIOT.

OPINIONS OF THE DOCTORS. TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —I make no apology for troubling you with a communication on this subject, which is at the present moment occupying far more of the public attention in Auckland than the death of the Emperor Frederick, the new tariff, or the Chinese question. The only matter you ever hear discußsod in tho streets is the marvellous etory of cures wrought by the Canadian doctress.

Now, it is the very unphilosophical practice of most medical men to treat such cases as these with a jeer, or a sneer, to shrug up their shoulders, and express their wonder at the credulity and ignorance of mankind. So used I to do when I was young and foolish, but a longer experience has taught me that whenever the popular enthusiasm is evoked in favour of a boasted remedy, whenever it survives for years, and still proves profitable to its proprietor ; whenever a peripatetic quack gains a great reputation, or whenever any system of treatment (like hydropathy or homoeopathy) survives tho ordeal of many years trial, thero is always something to be learned from it by the diligent student; there is always something good or useful in it. And therefore it is that when Messrs. Stephen and Dowie came to Now Zealand making money out of their faith cures, I set to work to investigate them. I soon found that they were only impudent impostors—ono a gentlemanly impostor, and the other a vulgar impostor—but, for all that, something was to be learnt from both of them. What that something was it would take too long to describe here. With regard to Madame Duflot, I have, as far as I could do so, investigated her method, and seen her at work. The cases I have seen treated have been —teeth extraction, extraction of tumours, and the cure of deafness. But I have heard from separate and independent sources of the cure of paralysis of many years' standing (hemiplegia), rheumatism, also of many years' standing, and of many other cases of deafness. The number of my informants, their general credibility, thoir independence of ono another, and their concurrence in the main facts, forbid me to disbelieve them.

As regards the teeth extraction, both M. and Madame Diiflot are dexterous dentists. They use the old-fashioned key, I observe, an instrument which was going out of date when I commenced my studies forty years ago, and of which I had not seen a single sample in Now Zealand until I saw it in the hands of M. Duflot. It is an instrument which in practised hands will extract teeth very rapidly, but bruises the gum and jaw. But the curious thing was thut none of Madame Duflot's patients seemed to suffer any pain—and I think that, for the most part, they did not suffer any. I can only attribute this to some mesmeric or magnetic influence on tho fifth nerve. I saw one lady have six teeth taken out, apparently with no pain. Tho tumours I saw operated on were extracted in a way no surgeon would think of using. The method was rough in the extreme, and persons who prefer such a method to a simple incision must have a nervous horror of the knife. I see nothing either wonderful or worthy of imitation in the method of working out the tumours by tho thumb-nails.

But the case of deafness, if it was what was doscribed by Madame Duflot, was simply a miracle; quite equal to any miracle of healing described in the Old or New Testament. According to Madame Duflot, the deafness was of some years' standing, and was caused by disease extending to tho "small bones of the ear." Now, those are situated within the tympanum or drum of the ear. She rubbed the ears externally with soino of the tincture which she calls Canadian Perfume, placed pledgets of cotton wool steeped in the "Perfume " within each ear, and then left the boy for a few minutes while she removed two tumours from the head o; a lady. After this had been done she returned to the boy, and asked him his name and whore he lived, in an ordinary tone of voice. The boy readily replied, and also answered similar questions put by some one in the crowd. The boy looked highlydelighted itfindinghishearing so much improved, and A have no doubt that it was improved. If, however, the diseased bones of the tympanum were cured in about lUteen minutes, I unhesitatingly say that it' was a miracle equal to any miracle of healing recorded in the Scriptures. And the same may be said of many of the other cases of which I have heard narratives. I put wholly aside any supposed curative virtues of the tincture or the powder. The mere list of the diseases which these two remedies are asserted to cure is quite enough for anyone with any knowledge of the merest elements of anatomy, physiology, or pathology. I have before me one of the circulars in which are directions for the solf-curo of "dyspepsia, diseases of the chest, whooping cough, asthma, fits, dropsy, scrofulous diseases, female complaints, the whites or fluor albus, catarrh of tho bladder, pains («ic), gout, and rheumatism ! " As if this were not enough, we have special paragraphs devoted to diphtheria, accidental deafness, and tsbothache ; and some other paragraphs addressed " To the Ladies," which I dare not quote in your columns ; and another addressed " To Young and Middle-aged Men," which is also unfit for quotation. I think it very probaole that the tincture contains some powerful narcotic or sedative. The powder is probably a harmless composition containing a little rhubarb, but the obvious impossibility of two such remedies curing the diseases which it is reported Madame Duflot has cured, makes any discussion of their qualities or merits needless. It seems to me that tho whole matter ought to be investigated by a competent tribunal, and I would suggest that a sort of commission should be formed, say, of twelve men, who should act as a jury to investigate such eases as might be willing to appear before them. Such a jury may be formed of throe medical practitioners, three lawyers, and throe educated laymen, and throe uneducated men. The last class would represent the bulk of the community, and the three former the professional skill and the average judgment of the educated part of the community. Such a jury, if formed, would have to investigate: Ist, tho reality of the allegod cures ; 2nd, whether they are accomplished by natural forces of which we are either ignorant, or imperfoctly informed : or, 3rd, whether they are simply miraculous. To illustrate what I mean, let me take the case of hemiplegia alleged to have been cured. The reality of the cure would have to be proved by tho previous history of the case, showing that toe ordinary tests of paralysis depending on organic disease of the brain had been applied, and that there was no suspicion of nyeteria; then the methods employed — whether frictions, magnetic passes, or whatever they might be—would have to be inquired into ; and, finally, the decision arrived at.

This is one of the most complicated and difficult cases that would, come under investigation, but many would be quite simple; and the jury would be shut in to one of two conclusions : either that misstatements had been made, or that the cures wore miracles. Of courso we all know the marvellous effect of the mind on the body, and as I showed in my lecture on Faith-healing, the cases that may be cured by faith alone are much more numerous and much more severe than most medical men are disposed to admit. Many organic diseases involving tissue changes may bo cured by faith, and that in a much shorter time than those who have not studied the subject would believe possible. A week or ten days will effect marvellous changes. But there is a limit to the power of faith or imagination. No conceivable mental emotion or force that we at present linow of in nature, can cure a diseased bono in a quarter of an hour, or cause the absorption of an apoplectic clot in the brain, or the renovation of necrosed brain substance in a few minutes. If these things have been done, as alleged, then they are true miracles, and I leave to the pious people of Auckland the solution of the question how it comes to pass that the Supreme Ruler of the universe permits tde suspension of the laws He has made, apparently for the private benefit of two of our Canadian fellow-subjects. If, however, it should be found that the cures resolve themselves into natural cures, effected it may be partly by magnetic or mesmeric passes, partly by mental emotion, it will be still useful to know this. What is quite certain is that the ordinary medical practitioner has not the power of arousing this enthusiastic faith, even ". he mado use of the mesmeric passes.

In conclusion, permit me to repieat in French the questions that in my opinion require investigation : — 1. Les guerisons faites par Madame Duflot, sont elies replies ? 2. L'eur realit6 ayant et6 reconnue, eont el'Jes accomplies par des forces naturelles ? ou 3. Sont elks miraculeuses ? —I am, etc., R. H. Bakewell, M.D. Hobsen-street, June 21st. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The motley crowd which daily gather in a main thoroughfare to watch and applaud two sensation - mongers, and a public Press which allows (without protest or exposure) thousands of our fellow-citizens to be fleeced and bamboozled of their money and senses by the most flagrant misrepresentations, afford a sorry spectacle to those who would fain have believed that the nineteenth-century civilisation marked an era of advancement, whilst the successful swoops of Dowie, Hugo, and Duflot upon the simple-minded Aucklandere is a melancholy satire upon our socalled progress and the vaunted value of education. To the student, however, of mental science, the situation is one brimful of interest, since in this domain lies tho great secret of their success, and of almost all their "remarkable cures" and "painless operations," which are ever and anon recounted to and swallowed by a gullible public, eager to receive any and everything bordering on the sensational. As moths surround a lamp when bedazzled by the glare, and are eventually consumed in the centre of their attraction, so poor human victims to brain or nerve lesions wrap a mental halo around the pretensions of charlatanism, clothing them (in the realms of their imagination) with the garb of magicians, and flock to the chariots of tho pretenders, irresistibly attracted by the mysterious attributes and surroundings of the pseudo-healer. It is an undoubted fact that in certain forms of cerebral excitement, tho sensory nerves of individuals become paralyzed, and are for the time being wholly or partially insensible to pain. Thus, it is recorded of soldiers, when moved by the voice of the patriot or stirred by tho surroundings of the battlefield, when tho sound of the drum, the rattle of musketry, the roar of artillery, and the bugle-call are the excitants to action, that they rushed into the fray, though wounded to the death, oblivious to pain (even jubilant), whilst revenge and determination stamp every feature. Again, under such mental conditions (the outcome of excitants, whether of a civil, religious, or moral character) have martyrs died, and fanatics endured inconceivable sufferings with apparont complacency. To a minor form of this brain exaltation (but in its presence no less undoubted and appreciable) can be attributed the so-called painless extraction of teeth by Madame Dunot. Although her operations are not absolutely painless, still it is a fact that the pain of extraction is in many cases reduced to a minimum, and that the patients on the Golden Chariot suffer much less than that endured by the clients of our local dentists, when anaesthetics are not used.

That Madame is an expert dental operator accounts for her success in rapidity of extraction, but only partially explains the absence or limitation of pain. The great secret of her success as compared with the comparative failure (in this respect) of the orthodox practitioner will be found in the brain exaltation produced in the patient by the surroundings and pseudo-attributes of the operator counteracting nerve sensation ; whilst the sombre surroundings of our dentists, with painful memories of the past, act powerfully as a depressant, thereby increasing nerve sensitiveness and irritability. On the one hand, there is tho long preliminary suffering, with the final solemn resolve. Then the weary trudge to the dentist's, the darkened staircase, tho quiet room, the formal bow, the long examination, the slow arranging of instruments, then the lancing of the gum, the affixing of the forceps, and the final grip, culminating (from long anticipation and reality of suffering} in a supreme agony and an all-prevailing sensation, that the seat of life itself lay in tho offending tooth, whilst every nerve strove vainly to retain it. Upon the other hand, wo have the erstwhile famous performer stirring tho credulity of the simple-minded with marvellous ta.'es of modical prowess, whilst the victims ascend the Golden Chariot, and are so placed that to move or wince would entail disgrace or ridicule from the surging crowd beneath. Then, amid the din of voices, and the stirring notes of martial music, teeth are extracted by the dexterous dentist and her patients sfrunted ere their brains recover the momentary intoxication engendered by the strangeness of the surroundings, or realise fully the shock of severed nerves and departed grinders. To similar causes and influences may be attributed some so-called cures of deafness where patients are temporarily stimulated by new-born hopes and feverish expectatious, and unconsciously directing renewed nerve force to tho weakened organ, relieve for a time pre-existing nerveatony, only to return with the dreaded deafness as soon as these mental excitants had exhausted their powers. The removal of cystic tumours and simple hypertrophies of sebaceous glands from the head is one of tho easiest operations in surgery, and devoid of risk, whilst the cocaino solution which they previously apply renders the simple procedure painless. Yet theso harmless growths are held up to the wondering eyes of noodles as cases of cancer, and they are artistically hoodwinked as to their true nature.

In the domains, however, of Chorea (St. Vitus' dance) hysteria, and allied disorders dependent upon some functional derangement, lies the great El Dorado for the quacks of all times, and the heroine of the Waverley allotment has not neglected to avail herself of such chance 1 * for cheaply acquired fame. A poor nervous female suffering from hysteria, and shaking from sheer fright is brought to the chariot, and the case pointed out in a lengthy harangue as one of "paralysis near unto death." Then in a short period of time the patient becomes excited by the surroundings, and the motor nerves are placed in a state of tension whilst the band and sea of faces, aided by the manoeuvres of the wily workers, do the rest, until at last the weakling becomes ecstatic and makes a fool of herself by dancing like a monkey to the bid Of her trainer, to the delight of the vulgar and curious. So far from being cured, these cases suffer seriously from the after effects of such excitement, and it would be infinitely better for the patients if cold baths and country air replaced such degrading exhibitions. Ex una disce mimes and neither time nor space allows the enumeration of the many devices adopted to gull the public. To pull out and replace the same tooth within the mouth so quickly as to impress the onlookers that they were separate teeth which had been extracted; to fill the empty cavity with saturated ootton wool, and subsequently withdraw it and exhibit it as a specimen of a tumour; to cajole children and to subsidise adults, are but a few of the tactics adopted to impress the mob. The culminating point of the whole business is reached when the public are invited and induced by the thousands to purchase a bottle containing some aromatics with green colouring matter as a remedy, both internal and external, for all the ills to which humanity is heir. That the public are such "hassea " to be so easily cajoled as to spend their hardearned money upon such representations passes my comprehension. The matter however, assumes a somewhat serious aspect when it is known that these atrangors have already secured some hundreds of pounds of Auckland money, and many more such visitations might soon become little better than national disasters. It would indeed bo well to have an expert committee in each of our ports of entrance to analyse pretended specifics, and to examine into the pretensions of all quacks and faith-healers before allowing vampires to degrade and despoil our struggling communities.—l am, &c., St. Leger.