The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1883.

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 6890, 22 May 1883, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1883.

Mr Milker Stephen, the groat “ boater,” as he styles himself, has, at length, left New Zealand for Australia, after having travelled through this colony from Auckland to Invercargill, and had every opportunity to show us what he could, and what ho could not do, in the way of relieving suffering, and curing bodily maladies. That his visit has been profitable to himself in a pecuniary sense, there can be no question. According to his own statement he “ sometimes made no more than .£lO a week,” and as wo know that the number of his patients was sometimes three or four times as great as at others, we may very fairly conclude that he was, at least, making money at the rate of £IOOO a year. Whether his services wore directly worth that amount, we will not take upon ourselves positively to assert or to deny. We may confidently affirm that, after having seen him on several occasions attempt to cure, and having submitted the evidence as to what he did when wo were not present, to the usual teats of truthful evidence, we have uo hesitation in saying that in some cases ho utterly failed, in some was temporarily successful, and in some accomplished what would be considered under ordinary medical treatment complete cures. It is to these latter cases that we would call special attention, for they are well worth it. That Mr Stephen completely failed on some occasions, is nothing to the point; tho most eminent physicians in tho world have sometimes failed, but that does not at all do away with the value of their discoveries within the limits where they have been found efficacious. Vaccination does not invariably prevbut smallpox, nor does cod liver oil always cure lung disease, nor quinine malarious fever, but the medical profession has no doubt what* ever as to all three being very valuable preventives and curatives. So, also, with regard to Mr Stephen’s healing. In what, then, did his curative powers consist? Was it, as he alleged, the result of a special gift of the Almighty, bestowed upon him personally as a reward for his distinguished moral and religious merits, as a specially prayerful, unselfish, and benevolent man ? Or, on the contrary, was ho merely the possessor of certain powers, which plenty of other men, no more moral or religious than himself, also enjoy, but which can bo, and ought to be, utilised in the noble art of healing? We have no hesitation in asserting tho latter. The contention of Mr Stephen that he was tho possessor of a quasi-miraculous power of healing, similar to that of the Apostles of the Christian religion and their Master, we can only regard as something very much like disgusting blasphemy. We can judge by report something of Mr Stephen’s previous history, and he was never reckoned by those who knew him best as a saintly man. Those who saw him here in Wellington ns an old man, can form their own opinion as to whether his arrogance, his petulance under contradiction, his eagerness for fees, reminded them of the qualities conspicuous in the character of the Apostles and their Master. We can only hope that on this point he was the victim of a delusion, and not a conscious impostor. But for all that, we have no doubt whatever that lie did actually perform some temporary cures, aud some of an apparently permanent character. And it is a question of very great.importance, howl Obviously, if we can find that out, we also and our medical men may to very great advantage make use of tho same means to accomplish similar ends, and employ a new curative agency in medical science with very great effect where received methods of treatment fail. Now a clue must at once have been furnished to all well-informed men, by the striking similarity of Mr Stephen’s treatment to that long since adopted by mesmerists, and practised with great effect by Dr. Elliotson and others in the Home country. There was the same fixed attention of the operator and the patient, the same passes with the hand fr«m the head downwrrds to the heart, the same apparent effluence of some subtle substance similar to electricity, perhaps, from the operator to the patient. In fact, as far ns we could see, the only difference between Air Stephen’s treatment and that usual iu England and the colonies iu tho course of mesmeric lectures, whether of Mr Vincent, Dr. Carr, Madame Cora, aud others, was only in the matter of a less energetic personal contact on the part of tho foxaner. Now, as regards this matter, we may mention that tho more advanced mesmeric operators on tho Continent of Europe, especially the Marquis de Puvsegur, and M. Deleuze, a generation back, employed this, personal contact oven less than Mr Stephen, usually ouly looking the patient in the face, or perhaps lightly touching the hands. Where, then, is the difference between his treatment aud theirs, except that his was the less refined and advanced, and theirs the superior method ? But it may still be asked, What is mesmerism? In what consists its jjower to cure ? On this point we do not care to dogmatise any more than we would on the precise method by which vaccination, eod-llver oil, or quinine operate. Still, it is not difficult to theorise on the subject. To assert, as has been done by Dr. Carpenter and his followers, that such cures as those effected by mesmerism, and by Mr Milner Stephen, are the result of “ expectant attention,” is to offer a very inadequate explanation. First of all, there is often, as we know from cases which have come before our own notice, no prior expectant attention whatever, and tho patient has been either quite ignorant of the effect to be produced, or has been an entire unbeliever. The Swiss savant Agassiz, who was mesmerised by the l?ev. Chafncey Townsend at Cambridge, has left on record his own signed statement that previous to tho operation he did not believe that he could be mesmerised, but prayed to the Almighty that, if there was any such power in existence, it might not operate in his .case. Where was tho expectant attention here ? Besides this, all sudden changes in the bodily condition in one particular direction must bo obviously the result of some applied force. The question of how the change took place is one, not of statics, but of dynamics. Aud indeed “ expectant attention ” can no more in itself give tho possession of health to an invalid than ex-' pectant attention can give a large fortune to an heir-at-law, who is waiting 1

for the decease of a rich uncle or grandmother. That “ expectant attention ” places the mind in such a condition that it is specially sensitive to any impression imparted is true, but the impression has to be imparted, and it is that which really does the business. Now there is really no reason to doubt either that mind acts on matter, or that one mind acts on another mind. How else would it be possible for a great orator so to move a crowd of thousands of men at will by the emanations of his own mind, so that they are swayed, as by one irresistible force, in one direction, and with one impulse are compelled to express their common feeling in tumultuous applause ? Expectant at tention might prepare the photographing paper, but the photographer would decide where his customer should sit, and the impression would correspond. It is obvious, from the long-known effects of mesmerism, and from Mr Stephen’s public experiments, that a great curative agent is in the possession of a considerable number of persons, perhaps of abnormally strong will, to operate on certain other persons, perhaps of abnormally nervous sensitiveness, so as to transfer to them part of that unseen subtle fluid —nervo-vital fluid as it has been called by some mesmerists—which cannot be seen by the eye any more than the electricity, with which the clouds are often charged, can before the storm breaks, but which is part of the vitality of all human beings and can be transferred at will, as electricity is by the shock of the electric eel and electric ray, only that in the former case the effect is to soothe, refresh, and strengthen, not to injure or to kill. We do not insist on the soundness of this theory as to the modus operand! of mesmerism, though it has been confidently held long before Mr Stephen’s time, but we are very certain that mesmerism might be used as a curative agency much more often than it has been, and in cases where the ordinary course of medical treatment, even in the hands of skilful practitioners, has quite failed.