The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-07-16

Ie en- AGAIN, II suspended horizontally
and carefully balanced by a 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 infiu-
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 str,kingly illustrative. As soon as
the powers of nitrous oxide were discov-
cred DR.. Beddoes at once concluded
that it must necessarily be a 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 it's success, no sooner felt the ther-
mometer under his tongue than he con-
cluded the taLjsnaan 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 was
too tempting to be lost; DR.. Beddoes
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 a;
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, a 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 numerou!
phases which superstition in pas
ages has assumed, there is none which
exhibits the human understanding in {
more degraded light than that con,
nected with the cure of bodily infrmi
ties. Few if any of these cures had ;
show of reason to recommend them tt
the cultivated mind; and even these few
were so clouded with mummery anC
jargon that one is apt to treat then
with ridicule, believing that more vir
tue was ascribed to the mode of admin
istration than to the potency of th,
article prescribed. Nor did these SD
perstitions exert the sway over the vul
gar mind alone; the rich and grea
were equally under their influence, ant
indulged in them all the more that thei
circumstances afforded them the means
1t was left for the progress of scienc'
to dissipate these errors, and though
the simple and uniformed, in remot
districts. may still cling to some Q
these beliefs, and quacks and empiric
be ever ready to impose on their credu
lity, as nation we are now happily o.
the path to more rational and effective
modes of procedure. Brooklyn Eagle