Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-12-12
INTER esrrNG MEDICAL LECTURE.

rranCiSCO, u lew e'ohinSs "6oi VIVA
the Veteran Corps, the following brief
summary of which we copy from the
Daily Time, of Saturday:
To cure diseases, said the learned
lecturer, is the easiest thing in the
world. Anybody can do it, and any
medicine will do it. People who know
the least have the most confidence In
their power over disease. Men OF WIS
dom and experience are cautious and
deliberate. 1t is difficult to determine
the precise effects Of medicines, and 1t
requires much judgment, Most dist1r-
Dances of health will pass away by n
restorative power of nature, and what
ever happens to be done gets the credit
of the cure. Thus he most ABSURD
agencies have grown into celebrity. IL
was believed at one time that every
medical substance bore the mark OF the
disease for which it was adopted. There
fore, yellow herbs were employed Tor
iaundice, and those with red juices Tor
%eruptions and diseases Of the blood.
John of Gadsden cured the son OF Ed
ward I. Of smallpox by wrapping MN
in scarlet cloths and dressing his attend
ants in scarlet. The Sympathetic Power
was used for wounds, but applied to the
weapon that had made the wound,
whilst the latter was kept closely wrap
ped up. Thousands of people were sup
posed to be cured in this way. Charms
were employed, together with medicines,
and were considered necessary. All
these things were useful, because they
acted favorably on the mind, whilst ma
ture cured the disease. The mind has
much to do both in causing disease and
and in curing it. Medical students are
apt to get sick when they begin to read
of diseases. Fright causes disease. Four
Russian convicts were put to sleep in beds
on which persons had died from cholera.
They did not kow it, and did not suffer.
Then they were put on clean beds, and
told that cholera patients had died on
them. Three of the four died Of chole-
ra in four hours. The brain and the
body are easily disordered through the
mind. If man looks intently'a at his
foot for an hour, there will probably be
something the matter with the foot. By
imagining and believing that some Or
gan Of the body is diseased, the nerv-
Gus distribution to that organ is dis
turbed, and it becomes diseased. So
the mind, acting through the nerves,
tends to cure many diseases. Touch,
OF friction, or laying On of hands, acts
in this way. Any powerful impression
on the nervoas system is often curative.
King Pyrrhus, according to Phiny,
cured many persons of diseased spleen
by touching them with the great toe OF
his right foot. King Charles II. cured
$4,000 persons, during his reign, by
touching them. He sometimes touched
900 in a day, and his W surgeons de-
clared that he had cured many cases
which had deied their skill. Perkins
metallic tractors cured at least n mil
lion of persons in America and England,
and General Washington was so con-
WINGED of their utility that he bought a
set for his own family, at FIVE guineas.
But somebody painted wooden sticks to
resemble the genuine tractors and cured
patients with them, and as soon as this
became known, there was an end to
Perkinism. Many similar illustrations
were adduced, showing the power OF
mind over body, both for evil and fol-
good. Diseases have often become cpl
demic through mental influence, espe-
cially certain convulsive disorders.
When everybody thinks and talks about
a certain disease, the disease may
spread in consequence. Thus neuralgis
has become common and fashionable,
Queen Anne had what her physician;
called the vapors, and so all the ladie:
of the Court must get the vapors, and
half the fashionable ladies Of England
Remedies and modes of cure attract at
tention and become fashionable in the
same way, and then run out and are
forgotten for II century or more, wher
some smart fellow starts them again
This cannot even be regarded as an out
line of the lecture, as the amount o
material crowded into it could not bt
condensed into a notice of this kind
The lecture was well received and thu
vigorous thrusts at charlatanism me
| Win the applause VI Lut huultuCC.
SURELY there Is q vein for the silver and
place for the gold where they nno
That's as true as gospel. We, the
pioneers of the Pacific coast, who have
spent the best years Of our lives among
the gold and silver discoveries of Cali
fornia and Washoe, readily indorse the
foregoing declaration. We were forci'
bly, reminded Of its sterling truth, thi:
morning, on reading Il very interesting
sketch of ginning History" in that val
liable medium Of news from central Ne
vada, the Reese River ReveiHe of last
Saturday; and from which we hereto
append a short extract, which we know
our readers will relish
"Many have read the history Of the
celebrated Real del Monte mine of Mex.
leo, its rich groupings and marvelou:
productions succeeded by many years o.
barrenness and distractions by water,
until it was opened by the toll of a poor
ulluSL "uO NOuol buAhCi " Oldlu
it, for which, and his success in mining
he became the Count de Regla, who,
from the wealth obtained from the mine,
built and presented to the King of Spain
two of the most splendid ships of wal
ever in the Spanish navy, and invited
his sovereign to visit his property
promising him that from the time Of hi:
landing his feet should never touch the
earth, but everywhere he went his way
should be paved with silver. Aftel
poor Pedro Torres, subsequently Count
de Regla, anne companies to be enrich
ed and ruined by turns; but now it
owners constitute one of the riches
mining companies of the world. It i!
very probably that the Comstock, upor
which are many mining companies, viii
furnish a history similar to that Of thu