The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-13
THE MIND CURE.

pie term when large one can be im- pressed into service. Thus the sleep pro- duced by long gazing at a bright object or by the hands of a mesmer is called hypnotism, while the sleep which comes from disease is called a profound coma Following this tendency of science to use high-sounding terms, those who discov- cred the value of the mind in overcom- ing disease saw fit to name the fact or theory the metaphysical cure. As those who are the parents of child have the right to name it, so these discoverers of a new power in the mind had a perfect right to call it by the name that most pleased them.
 It has always been known that the mind can exert good or bad influence over the body. The old mental philoso- phies were full of stories which had a tendency to show how persons had taken to bed after having been told by a sue. cession of acquaiDtances, about the dreadful paleness of fact or of a most un- healthy expression oi the eyes. It was also affirmed, in the olden newspapers, that some mischievous wife made her husband believe that he was swelling up with dropsy, and should by all means hasten to German Springs, and should take her along as nurse, his condition be, ing so critical. The wife thus secured a trip to Europe-her art being that of taking pieces out of her husbands vests, so that it became almost impossible for him to make them reach around his ab- normal body.
 The metaphysical cure is, therefore, not discovery, but the expansion into a medical practice of power which had once been little else than a curiosity. A tendency of our age is to utilize forces Nothing so pains the American mind as the thought of having anything go to waste. We are now in a worry lest there may be an electric potency that might turn all our wheels; we are attempting to run engines by sunbeams the waste of waterpower at Niagara is the grief of many !; while those who have escaped these forms of distress are made unhappy because the air is not as full of balloons ar the streets are of cars and wagons
 In such day it was very naturally concluded that if mind has power over health and disease, let us utilize this power. Let us not permit the force to escape all duty like the waters of Niagara Let us not permit artfal women to use it as a means of inducing dropsy and for eign trip. Let us domesticate this men. tai influence, and extract from it valuable service.
 Thus came the metaphysical cure about eight or ten years ago. In the hands of extremists it is made partly one of the delusions of the world, but in the hands of the wise and moderate it is a tonic of great value, and will displace a large amount of quinine and wild-cherry bitters. Its philosophy may all be summed up in the fact that the soul affects the body and can rouse up its torpid blood, can make the liver, heart, lungs, and the brain-that nerve center-Quick- en their pace and use up or crowd out the diseased globules from the blood and fluids. Clara Morris has, perhaps, saved her life by acting on the stage just enough to enable her mind to recon struct, from time to time, her delicate physique. One of the old poets said,
 The soul doth the body make" it being a well. known fact that the edu- cated and powerful mind makes the face into its own likeness.
 This is, then, the philosophy of the mind cure. It can do much for man, and is not to be reproached because it cannot do everything. If the influence of the mind may benefit one sick person in twenty-five, it will then surpass in value many popular medicines; and if it shall prevent many others from falling into an imaginary illness, it will confer a second benefit upon the community. Man is not in condition to reject any of natures kind offers. By means of all these discovered helps the evils of ill health may be mitigated, if not banished from the world. Will, energy, medicine fasting, good air, good food, good water, are all friends of health, but no one of these is master of the entire field of ail- ment. He will act wisely who employs all these causes at different times of need.
 The instances in which the body is languishing under only a feeble will power are very many. A delicately or .ganized lady of Chicago lay sick a few weeks with lung fever, and became so accustomed to ieebleness that at last she had to be told very plainly by her physi- clan that she was we'll, and that she must rise, dress, and go down to the supper table. She has lived to laugh over the absurdity of spending perhaps two weeks in bed after she had fully recovered.
 A citiren of Chicago who had been in his bedroom for few weeks, and had no thought of going out to business for a week or more vas cured by a con6agra- ton in neighbours house. He went out to save life and property. and became 90 fully aroused that his bedroom lost its charm. He dined with his family and resumed business next day, being unable to sink back to feehleness.
 With masses of such evidence of the power of mind over matter, either to weaken iror to build it up, it is high time for us all to invoke the aid of this spirit ual influence in not a few ways of life; but to call it general practice of medi- cine is to attempt to make . part equal the whole. This feat the new practition- ers are attempting to perform. They are