St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-07-25

and carefully balanced by single
thread, while allowed some freedom OF
motion, the fish is credited with the
power of indicating, by the direction OF
the head. the point of the compass from
which the wind will blow.
That these charms are totally useless
and can produce no effect on the disease
for the cure of which they are admins.
tered, must be evident to every educated
mind. In the nature of things, such
cases are impossible, unless. be it always
remembered, the malady is of a nervous
character, and one over which the i'm
agination is capable of exercising some
control. The power which the mind
exerts over the body is too well known
to be for one moment discredited, and
certain diseases may yield to this influ-
ence, when the patients imagination is
sufficiently excited by belief in the po-
tency of the talisman applied. Number
less instances of this kind of influence
are on record; that given by DR.. Paris
in his ''Pharmacologia" is perhaps the
most strikingly illustrative. As soon as
the powers of nitrous oxide were discov.
cred DR.. Beddoes at once concluded
that it must necessarily be spe-
cific for paralysis. A patient was
selected for the trial. Previous
to the administration of the gas the doc
tor inserted small pocket thermome-
ter under the tongue of the patient. as
he was accustomed to do upon such ac-
casions, to ascertain the degree of ami
NAL temperature. with view to future
comparison. The paralytic man,
wholly ignorant of the nature of the
process to which he was to submit, but
deeply impressed from the representa-.
ton of the physician, with the certainty
of its success, no sooner felt the ther-
mometer under his tongue than he con-
cluded the talismdn was in full opera.
ton, and in burst of enthusiasm de,
clared that he already experienced the
effect of its benign influence throughout
the whole body. The opportunity waa
too tempting to be lost; DIR. BeddOel
desired his patient to renew his visits
on the following day, when the same
ceremony was performed and repeated
every succeeding day for fortnight.
the patient gradually improving during
the period, when he was dismissed al
cured, no other application having been
used. Cures effected by the imposition
of royal hands, by stroking. by mesmer-
ism and the like, are proofs Of the same
principle, principle of which the ju.
dicious physician may sometimes avail
himself for his patients sake, but which
he will never exercise as an instrument
for his own aggrandizement. Advert,
ing, therefore, to the numerous
phases which superstition in past
ages has assumed, there is none which
exhibits the human understanding in q
more degraded light than that con-
nected with the cure of bodily infirmi'
ties. Few if any of these cures had a
show of reason to recommend them to
the cultivated mind: and even these few
were SO clouded with mummery and
jargon that one is apt to treat them
with ridicule. believing that more vir.
tue was ascribed to the mode of admin.
istration than to the potency of the
| article prescribed. Nor did these SUI
perstitions exert the sway over the vul-
gar mind alone; the rich and greai
were equally under their influence, and
| indulged in them all the more that theil
circumstances afforded them the means
1t was left for the progress of science
to dissipate these errors. and though
the simple and uninformed. in remote
districts. may still cling to some o.
these beliefs, and quacks and empires
be ever ready to impose on their credu-
lity, as a nation we are now happily or
the path to more rational and effective
modes of procedure Brooklyn Eagle