HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3149, 22 July 1914, Page 68

HEALTH COLUMN.

By A FAMILY DOCTOR.

FAITH-HEALING. At periodical intervals the question of faith-healing crops up lor discussion, and there still appears to be a large amount of ignorance on the subject. I find that the commonest error made by those who inquire superficially into the matter is to confuse the vario rs types of patient a doctor has to treat. A nervous lady finds she obtains quiet and comfort by reading tho Bible, and she immediately jumps to the conclusion that every single case can be cured by prayer and reading the Scriptures.' She is so sure she is right that she will not listen to argument. She knows she was cured, and that is enough for her. Her nervous headaches disappeared when she began to meditate on the goodness of God and His invitation to cast her burdens upon Him. Limitations.— No one can doubt the truth of her story; not only nervous women, but strong men, and. indeed, all classes of the community, derive rest and peace and spiritual comfort from religious sources. But the tumour in the brain of her next door neighbour will not bo dissipated by tho same means. Spiritual healing has its limitations, and it is not a fair criticism of a genuine source of benefit to sneer at it because prayer will not set a broken leg. Prayer will do nothing unless backed up by a determination to do one’s best to make a strong personal effort. God helps those who help themselves. The children were never washed by prayer alone. A mother might pray without ceasing; but her children would remain dirty until she procured soap and warm vyater and a towel. . This difficulty of making a correct diagnosis presents itself at the outset. You must not recommend faith-healing to a woman who has gallstones. It is better to have the stones removed and kept in a glass case in tho china cabinet. And it is a mistake to recommend an operation to one whose pains are the result of self-pity and a disordered imagination. It requires all one’s skill and experience to say to which category a given patient belongs. Naturally, the doctor does not want to make the mistake against which he warns tho faith-healers. In most cases there will be a benefit derived from both sources—the practical steps taken by the surgeon and the mental comfort to be found in talking with a sympathetic man. Young doctors should try as hard as they can to build character. The Use of Sympathy.— It is one of the most important, as it is the most sacred, of a doctor’s duties to bring comfort merely by his presence, to give confidence and to make his patients love him because they know that, with human limitations, he is honestly doing his best to bring about a cure. Every doctor has had the experience of being sent for by a patient who knows that his days are numbered, and that no human agency can save him. The quiet, firm manner, the strong sympathy of the doctor, will often alleviate the physical pain of a sufferer. No doctor should refuse to go to such a patient on the ground-that no good can be done. The comfort is definite gain for the patient, quite apart from any cure or attempt at cure. Spiritual Comfort.— The skill of the physician lies in selecting the cases. This woman needs treatment by suggestion, that one treatment by operation. There are no people nowadays who can afford to dispense with the spiritual comfort of religion. A man with a broken leg will do well to spend some of his time in reading the Bible; but he must have a surgeon to see that the bones are in good position as well. I would urge everyone to seek mental rest and comfort from reading, and the language of the Scriptures is the finest literature in the world. But do not write to me and say you have a toothache, and that you have read the whole of Ezekiel through, and the pain has not gone. You must have the tooth stopped. No Miracles To-day.— In some hearts there is a lingering hope that a miracle will be performed if only the patient will renounce himself and give himself up entirely to Divine ministrations. If miracles were performed when our Saviour was on earth, why not to-day? All one can say is that it does not appear to be according to Divine order that sudden cures of a miraculous nature should be brought about. There is not a single authenticated case on record in .modern times. It would be -wrong to raise false hopes. You must not place any credence in the stories of crutches hung on shrines as a proof of immediate cure. The crutches might just as well have been left at homo behind the door as on the shrine. The precise amount of mental effort necessary to dispel the idea that paralysis prevented the worshipper at the shrine from walking could only be conjured up by a state of religious fervour before the tomb of a favourite saint. Another man would never allow tho mind to be overcome by the mental obsession that he was paralysed. There are certain electrical tests which can establish whether the limbs are really paralysed or not, whatever the patient may say. Or the man who is the victim of an imaginary paralysis ■ may be put under tho influence of chloroform, when the limb will move freely. In the administration of chloroform there, is a stage between full consciousness and complete unconsciousness. The patient is in a sort of dreamland, and imagines all sorts of wonderful things. Sometimes he thinks ho is being set upon by thieves, and lands the poor doctor one on the nose. In this stage, known as tho stage of excitement, the paralysed limb may bo freely moved. Magic Wanted.— I shall never forget my first introduction as a student to these remarkable cases of so-called hysterical paralysis. Really, human beings are amazing creatures; (smo amount of study will over exhaust the subject. Imagine a woman being content to hold her arm limp for months and months in the fixed but mistaken idea that she is paralysed. I remember a being given to a medical audience on this very subject, and three or four cases were shown. The lecturer said ho could not cure them; but he had no doubt that a witch, or wise woman.

or image, or anything that aroused the dormant will of the patient would impiediatcly produce a cure.