Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-14
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Ql sources, many of the leading
lszeEaARl physicians and scientists of
the United States have aban-
doned drugs as t..s cure for the
nervous wrecks presented to them for
treatment. 1t is becoming the fashion
among many of the most brilliant prac-
titioners to treat such cases with
neither medicine nor knife. The new
remedy is Thought, or the use of sug-
gestion with the aid of hypnotism.
There are physicians in New York,
Washington and other large cities VINO
say to the exhausted, nervous society
women: You do not need medicine.
You must teach your brain and your
nerves TO rest. You must receive into
your mind the compelling message that
the only thing which can help you Is
calm and repose. We can give 1t to
you, but not by the use of medicines or
drugs"
To the business man. who has gone
under such pressure that he can con-
troll neither his nerves nor his brain,
they give the same advice. Hypnotism,
which was once regarded as witch
craft and later as an instrument only
for harm, has become a benign intiu-
ence on modern American life, a prac-
teal remedy for the distinctiVely Amer
lean ailment of ''nerves" and the men
tai troubles which follow. 1t has har-
system; it has saved countless men
and women from insane asylums, and
IL has been demonstrated as re-
liable cure of certain cases Of drug
and cigarette habits.
A Washington physician, who is
known as one OF the pioneers in the
movement to treat the ailments of the
brain by the curative force of healthy
and normal mind. recently had young
man patient who has literally
nervous and physical wreck from the
use of cigarettes. He told the patient
that hypnotic suggestion was the only
possible cure for him, and the young
man agreed to try it. For five differ
emit treatments he was hypnotized, and
there was conveyed to his receptive
mind by the physician this one
thought: you will never want to
smoke another cigarette; but, II you
do, 1t will make you feel deathly SICK
so sick that you will never try TO
smoke again." After the fifth treat
ment the doctor declared the cigarette
victim cured. Two days went by with
out any craving for cigarettes on the
Young mans part. On the third day
he attempted to smoke one, but was
seized with such violent nausea that
to this day he has never touched an
other cigarette.
This is a serviccable example of the
simplicity of the cure which has been
advanced for nation which is nerve
ridden. That such a remedy was sore
ly needed is shown by the fact that,
while the death rate from contagious
diseases has dropped 40 per cent since
1880, the rate from kidney, heart and
mental troubles has increased SO per
cent. The physicians say that the
women of America, as well as the men,
hot hnnaIIGa fhnV
not stop when their wearied' bodies
cry out for rest. They see everybody
else on the g., and they do not be-
lieve that they can afford to be left
out.
A New York physician is authority
for the statement that the number or
nervous collapses and breakdowns
among society women has grown to an
almost incredible extent. Washing
ton doctor says that in addition to So
ciety leaders being broken in the fierce
social competition, there are members
of congress and other government Of
ficials who break under the strain
Both physicians agree that much or
the nervous trouble is caused by the
increase in drinking and smoking in
what is known as thigh society"
The New Yorker on one occasion
treated a society woman who was
plainly the victim of Intoxicating drink
He asked her IL she drank to excess
and she manifested indignant surprise
that he should ask the question. Fin
ally, her explanation was that she
drank nothing but absinthe, that she
did this only when she needed IL as
medicine, that she frequently became
exhausted by her social duties. con-
slant calls and late hours, and that
absinthe was the only tonic which kept
her on her feet. Upon his saying she
must discontinue the absinthe drinking,
she professed her utter inability to do
so. After he had treated her by hyp-
motto suggestion she neither liked nor
needed absinthe. She let it alone ba-
solutely and in three months was again
we'll and strong
This same doctor had the case of
broker who had formed the habit OF
buttoning and unbuttoning the top
button of his coat. 1t was merely an
evidence that his nervousness was so
great as to need an outward expression
of some kind, but it had grown to such
an extent as to make him appear
ridiculous to his friends and business
associates. There was never a mo-
ment when his hands were free that
he was not buttoning and unbuttoning
the coat. OF course, when he became
convinced that he could not stop the
habit he at that moment did lose con-
troll of the situation. It was then that
he went TO the physician for the hyp-
motto treatment It required only two
treatments for him to become con-
WINGED that the buttoning OF his coat
was entirely ridiculous and unneces-
sary. The conviction came to him by
the doctors saying to him over and
over again while holding him in a