Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-07-12
MODERN MIRACLES.
Delicate Relations of Mind and Matter-A
Moral for Doctors.

Delicate Relations of Mind and Matter-A
Moral for Doctors.
Without any affirmation or denial of ''mi-
racIes," there is one way of accounting for the
cures reported from Boston, from Lourdes,
from Paris, and just now by Canon WILDER
force. May we not be on the track of some
notable discovery as to the influence of the
mind over the bodya The late DR.. W. B. Car
penter, very skeptical and unimaginative
man, records in one of his scientific works a
singular incident of impressionability.
A lady saw heavy window sash falling
on the fingers Of her child. She screamed,
but she was too late; the little fingers were
terribly bruised. But as she took up and
soothed the sufferer she saw that her own
fingers were bruised exactly the same way.
The mental impression produced a physical
result. When a blush comes to boys or
girls face as the result of word or thought,
we seem to have milder form of the same
thing, and the birthmarks on newly born
children, the consequence of some fright suf-
fered by the mother months before, are indica-
lions of similar susceptibility. DR.. Carpenter
also records how man prisoned in his chair
for ten years by a paralytic attack rose and
rushed up stairs on hearing Of the sudden i'll
ness of his favorite child. Here we had what
would be called miracle if it had been
preceded by prayer
The question is, how far does intense men
tai expectancy account for some of the cases
of cure recorded in modern times? If man
is told by Boston healer, a French priest or
q Partisan doctor that at certain day and
hour he may look for change, does the mind
triumph over the bodily ailment and disperse
its Both patients and physicians are well
aware that quite apart from their drugs some
doctors seem to bring healing with them.
Their presence is more potential than their
prescriptions. Is this magnetism, or does the
mind of the patient, acted upon by the genial
strength of his physician, work out the cure!
1t is also certain that sometimes when the
regular doctor retires man called quack
will produce result. Does he do SO by clio
iting faith-by making the patient believe
that he is going to be cureda
The "faith healers" begin their process, &C
cording to American accounts, by telling the
patients that they are victims to delusion
they are not i'll at all; it is diseased fancy
nothing more. So the invalid walks across
the room wherein for months he fancied him
self powerless. In regular practice physicians
frequently meet with the curious phenomena
of simulated disease. A hysterical girl as
sures her doctor that her right knee is SC
tender she cannot bear even the pressure Of
thin sheet, and if he attempts to touch II
she screams aloud in what seems agony-ano
is to her real though purely mental pain
If, however, the doctor can get her attention
diverted he can press unseen, with all hi
force, on the seat of the imaginary disorder
and infict no suffering. The moral of al
the facts would seem to be that medical mer
should neglect no department of their art
| and that it is their business to study the
| minds as well as the bodies Of their patients
for in the occult connection between the two
may lie the secret of all the ages.-Londol