The Washington times., 1903-08-23
teTHE LAW OF MENTAL MEDI-

4
CINE" by Thomson J. Hud-
son, is the last work of the
author. who is best known as the writer
of 'aThe Law of Psychic Phenomena"
and other works dealing with mentality.
The present book is not nearly as wide
IN its scope as its predecessors. and con-
sists rather of discussion of the gen.
eraI principles of mental healing.
The fact that the mind does have O
certain influence over the body cannot
be denied by any sensible person, The
effect of suggestion or auto-suggestion
upon the physical system varies in
kind and intensity with the personality
and susceptibility of the person affected.
1t is true. to a certain degree and in
certain cases. that If a man thinks he
is well. he is well. 1t is easy to imagine
q sensitive. frail person. to whom the
description OF a fit of dyspepsia would
so strongly suggest unpleasant sensa-
tions as to produce them. Such a per-
son, under the influence of some strong
emotion, might forget pain and act as
though perfectly well, and for all prac-
tical purposes he would be well, so long
as the emotion lasted. Mr.. Hudson ar
gues along this line. and sets forth the
principles of mental healing with a
clearness which viii dispel fog in the
minds of many OF his readers.
He does not claim, of course, that
mental healing would be effective in the
case of broken bones or smallpox, but
he does point out the fact and reasons
of its effectiveness in nervous diseases
One of the points which he makes is
that in the records OF Christ's healing
it is plainly shown that the master de-
pended for his curative power on some
thing within the patient. on his belief,
in other words; not on any hypnotic
power in the healer 1t was. in Mr..
Hudson's view. the power of Christ to
awaken this strength in the being of his
patient which was responsible for the
cures. His arguments on this question
are interesting and instructive.
He then takes up the subject of ''Sug-
gestions Adverse to Health" taking the
ground that most of the iIl-health OF
the present day is due to such sugges-
tions; and. as usual with people who
know very little about it, he lays the
blame on the newspapers and their arti-
cles about diet He says:
''It is safe to say that nine-tenths of
all diseases of the digestive organs, es-
pecially dyspepsia, are due primarily to
the suggestions embraced in that kind
of literature. The exasperating feature
of it is that not one newspaper article
in a hundred on that topic Is written by
anyone who knows anything about the
subject. They are generally written by
boys or young ladies who are learning
the trade of newspaper writer's. Every
body familiar with that class of people
is aware that the highest ambition of
the newspaper cub is to write something
that will be extensively copied by other
papers; and he soon learns that any
thing pertaining 10 health in general. or
diet in particular. is sure of an extern
sive and eager hearing"
This is a good example OF the Grass
nonsense that a man will talk when he
gets on a subject on which he is ignor-
ant. 1t may be true that the ''newspa-
per cub" wants TO write something
which Will be copied; but as he is usual
ly a reporter, and as reporting has moth
ing TO do with diet unless one happens
TO report a lecture on health IL is hard
to see how he can get at the particu-
lar line Of work to which DIR. Hudson