San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-09-11
The Faith Cure Craze.

Western Medical Reporter.
Some four-score years ago an ingenious
gentleman of Leipsic announced to the
world that he had discovered the ra'
t,oual treatment of disease to consist
in the administration of drugs In doses
of such ali infinltesimal quantity that
the patient could scarcely expect to
obtain even q fleeting smell of the
medicament. Little aid Hahnemann
think that in the year lSS9-90 the sys-
tenn which he promulgated would be
taken up and elaborated until it would
be shown that as q drug increased In
power aud efficacy the more 1t was
attenuated, until finally it's greatest
effects were produced by its entire
disappearance the mind itself Is
the great active principle in cure or
disease, and further that disease, de-
cay and death are all the results OF
imagination and can be abolished py
mental power alone; that disease and
death are but the shadowy creatures
of perverted mind and In reality DO
not exist except in the Imagination OF
the individuals; that there Is no evil
in the world, but that all his good or
God. This is the theory of practice
az set forth by the socalled mind Gu
rers, Christian science healers ana
faith cures-different names for the
same methods that are appeals to the
imayipa alton of oversensitive or ner-
yous persons, or to their belief III the
supernatural. These healing fads
have not been unknown TO the medl-
cal profession for many centuries.
Periodically some new craze or cure
is announced, has its day, disappears
and is supplanted by another, each
one for a time finding it's believers
and its victims. The human mind.
or as it is constituted in q certain
phase of humanity, always will be
found believing in and seeking after
strange supernatural reliefs from Ills
of mind and body, real or imaginary.
II Is on this knowledge that quacks,
patent medicine vendors mesmerists,
mind curists, ETC., find field fo- wor-
king their different methods for
the correction of supposed ills to
which, nervous and imaginative wo-
men. and aged, intirm aud impressi-
Bile men are heir. Whenever a new
cure or new theory is announced. it is
at once seized upon by the fanstical,
lut anu viz
II is haralded abroad to q gullible
public, that it is the great cure all;
that its benefits and effects apply
equally to all colors, creeds or physi-
ciai conditions; and that all diseases,
from cancer to consumption, yield to
it's most potent influence. Had the
mind curers and Christian science
healers confined their treatment to
the hystericsI, to nervous disorders
or to the great army of fat-headed
human beings whose great and con-
slant fear OF death leads them to cor =
tinualIy imagine that some serious
ailment is about to possess them,
which needs must be exercised by the
application of remedies, then no harm
would have been done. But as is
generally the case with fanatics, they
imagine no limit to their powers and
boldly undertake the treatment OF
most serious diseases and even of in
durable ailments, in every case assur-
ing the too credulous patient that an
entire cure will surely follow. In
slight ailments and ordinary diseases
this may we'll be done, for it is we'll
known that about twenty. eight out
OF twenty-nin persons that take SICK
will get we'll anyhow.