The San Francisco call., 1895-11-04
PATHOLOGIC FICTION.

That brilliant writer on pathology, DIR.
George M. Gould, editor of the Philadel-
phia Medical NeWs, has more than once
turned his lance against the absurd and
morbid features of recent popular novels,
but his leader in recent issue on 1.-The
Pathologic Novel; is the most forceful that
has ever issued from his pen. AS his pub
hcation is intended for physicians and not
the general public, he writes with tech
meal freedom which may not be INDUCED
here, but the trend of his article is so pow
erful and instructive that its setting forth
is timely.
at is bad enough" he says, "to see dis
tinguished physicians and their favorite
diseases misrepresented and suffering in
digrities of various description in the
ephemeral sheet of the daily or weekly
paper. But when it comes to treatment of
this sort in the pages OF permanent addi-
| tions to our literature, it is time to lift our
| voices in protest. The worst offender in
| this regard is that school of fnovelists falsely
calling themselves 'realists.' As the avowed
| apostles of the uncomfortable and repul-
| sive, disease has of course particular at
traction for them. A carcinoma or ter
tiary ulcer fascinates them as velvet
| cheek or ripping muscle does the true
artist. Carrion of any sort, physical or
moral, attracts them like vultures; but,
like the vulture, they are wretched anato-
mlsts and perverted pathologists."
After showing the diseased and perverted
view and the glaring inaccuracies and un-
truths of Tolstoi's "Kreutzer Sonata" he
takes UP Ibsen's "Ghosts" and Sarah
Grands "The Heavenly Twins, and shows
that these authors, in selecting unthink-
able and repulsive diseases as the ground
work of their novels, present impossible
symptoms and draw the absurdest conclu-
sions. Then he comes to subject of more
recent interest.
"1n 'Trilby,'" he says, 1--WE have a
charming little story utterly wrecked and
ruined by baleful and CHASTITY shadow of
hypnotic influence, which hangs over it
like pail. Like most such 'glooms' it
has, happily, no counterpart in real life,
not even in the life of the hospitals. There
are two absolutely essential elements lack
ing in the verisimilitude of Svengali's in
fuence over Trilby: willingness TO submit
to being influenced on the part of the sub
lect In the first place, and the original pos
session of the faculties which she exhib-
tied in the second. Without the first
requisite hypnotism can never take place.
though, of course, after the hypnotic state
has been reached the subjects actions may
be entirely beyond the control of her own
will. As to the second. an absolutely tone
deaf person, as TIilby avowedly was, could
no more be endowed by hypnotic influence
with the power of appreciating harmony
and distinguishing shades of musical ex-
preston than she could be changed from
blonde to brunette
Thus deaf persons are also mutes, be-
cause they cannot hear the sound of their
own voices. "No amount of suggestion" !"
says DR.. Gould, lean draw from hypno-
tized subject anything more than was III
him before. The popular idea that hypno-
tism is sort of connecting tube through
which the moods, will, impulses and pow
ers of the operator can be poured into the
mind of the subject, is entirely un-
founded"
The assault OF DR.. Gould upon the patho-
logic novel gathers increased force from the
fact he has given it the form of q
semi-confidential notice to physicians
clans that it is the morbidness and ignor-
ance of the public which make possible
the popularity of the diseased and often
sive productions of modern "realists.'