Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-10-05
CURED BY IMAGINATION.
Firth Not the Only Panace Found Outside
theP harmacop1ia-Queer Remedies.

Fnith Not the Only Panacea Found Outside
the Pharmacopeia-Queer Remedies.
The beneficial effects of faith have
probably come under the observation of
us all when 1t has become a question of
q change of doctors. The old medical
attendant does not please, a new one who
has been highly recommended is engaged,
and so great Is the patients faith in the
new conner that the progress of a fatal
disease often seems arrested. 1t is, Of
course, but a temporary check, and it is
only a question Of time before another
new doctor is looked for. Sometimes,
on the other hand, when 1t is not a case
Of the destruction Of the vital organs, a
cure has actually been effected. Ere
quently, too, patients become impressed
with the curative value of certain medi-
cines, and doctors of long standing have
been puzzled to say where imagination
or faith ended and reality began.
Faith, however, has by no means been
the only panacea found outside the phar-
macopoeia, as the shrewd manufacturers
of elixirs, charms, amulets and magnetic
thingumbobs very well know. Even the
wisest of men are not free from the pecu-
liar thralldom Of imaginative medicines.
Bishop Berkeley, whose idea concerning
the westward course of the star of empire
has become proverbial, was a very clever,
very sedate and very good man, yet he
was a victim to the idea that he had dis
covered a cureall. The universal restor-
alive in his case was tar water. Stir a
quart of tar in a gallon of water, and
drink three glasses of this water daily,
said the bishop, and you would never
know what it was to suffer pain or even
discomfort. Berkeley was not content
with calling the tar a simple remedial
agent, but he went SO far as to write
books about his tarry water, claiming that
tar contained the vital element of the uni
verse. For a time tar water had a pro-
digious success Tar water warehouses
were established, and every one was
going to be cured Of everything. Then
the people began to remark that there
was just as much sickness about as ever,
and gradually the fad died out.
Another great remedy that set people
agog some two hundred years ago was
the earth bath Establishments were
opened all over Europe where the pa
tients were covered up to their necks in
loose, dry earth, and thus planted were
supposed to be cleansed of every infrm-
ity and impurity known to human ma
ture. Human nature continued obsti-
nately to get out Of gear notwithstand-
ing the earth cure, and SO the establish
ments were closed up and the soil carted
off to the nearest garden.
Faith has had some curious allies In
effecting cures. Aided by the peculiar
forms Of oolite called toadstone and ea-
glestone, it has been a charm against dis
ease, shipwreck and famine. Joined to
a proper amount Of faith, the two unat-
tached bones found in the heads of some
fishes, when mounted in gold and hung
around the neck, will prevent the collie.
With the powerful adjunct of faith it
has been found that a ring set with a
bloodstone would stop hemorrhages; that
an amethyst ring would cure drunken.
ness, an agate was ~efficacious against eye
diseases, a jasper against the dropsy, a
sapphire against insomnia, and coral
against nervousness. - San Francisco
Chronicle.