Litchfield enquirer., 1881-03-03

with very curious results. For instance, girl came to him suffering much from spasnodic affection of the muscles of the neck. She was Catholic and lanented ssthat she could not try the Raterof Louries He told her be had it-but advised her to take aqua Crotonis (Cro- ton water) instead. ! She finally consented, bntinstead of Croton water he gave her the water of Lourdes. It had no effect. He then gave her Croton water telling her it was the water of Lourdes. About an hour after the girl rushed into his office saying T am cured! . Lam cured See. What the- AAlg. Xirgin. has done for mel" And, says Dr Hammond, she DGs cured. He tried the same trick on others with the same result. What the priest attributes to "faith" the doctor attributes to ''expectant attention" He declares ''that it fs.not matter the slightest consequence what the thing is in which faith is put whether it be piece of the rope with which aa murderer was' hung, or powdered snakes and lizards. or the dried blood of, g witch, or the moss grown from dead mans skull, or (and we say it with due reversnce9 prayer to God, or even to the Devil,-for he has his worshppers in India. and miracles are done ID bis name. It makes no difference, one is just as eficacious az the other" And he fur. ther says;s ;slI . iss1f yC sG! td .s.q"la b. Such cases as these are familiar to educated physicians who perceive every. day, in their private practice or ia the hospital wards how strong a therapeutical factor is any ruling idea
 wks foI, haa ha ind Q tient towards the yished-for result. They have seen diseases yield to the clinical ther- -mometer, placed under the patients tongue, anda which was, mistaken by him for mys- terous instrument ef cure They have known common water, through which person had seen galvanic current passed, and which of course had not been mchangedatheFebY, produce violent purging through the, influence of the suggestion that such would certainly be it's action. They have witnessed the sensibiity of the skin 50 thoroughly abolished that it could be punctured or burned without the least sensation of pain being felt, and this through the expectant attention excited by what the subject thought was the bone Of saint, but which in reality was only piece of | tooth. brush handle. They are acquainted with hundreds of other examples in which the suggested result has been produced apparently by means equally inefficacious, but in reality bysa force which is scarcely yet xeckoued at It's full value, .os -5 ,;s..ta,,3 ,-;xfq,a. s.,,, :.
 But ali these cases belong to one class; the class which is peculiarly susceptible to the in- fuence of time, of emotional disturbances, or of other strong mental impressions. None have been of what are called organic diseases. The water of Lourdes has never cured a brok- en arm in day, or caused dislocated thigh bone to slip into it's socket, or made an ampu- tated leg grow out again, or; saved a patient
 with an aneurism of the aerta about to burst, or healed an ulcer sooner than anyotler wa ter, or removed 8 tumor, except perhaps those phantom ones to which hysterical women are subject, or cured case of Brights disease, or of cirrhoss of the liver, or of organic disease of the heart, or of general paralysi of the in- sane, or even produced an aversion of an in- growing toe-nail Its whole history IS the old story which pervades medical literature from end to end, and which will be told again in some form or other so long as women be- come hysterical ecclesiastics desire churches built, or ignorance pravails among the laity.