The Colorado statesman., 1915-02-13
Copyright. 1914. by A. S. Gray)
WONDERS OF DUcTLEss GLANDS

medicine or other remedy, of itself ah-
solutely without effect, produces
very marked improvement or perhaps
even totally corrects all sorts of nerv-
Gus and functional disorders of the hu-
man body, if only the patient is con-
vinced beforehand that the remedy
will be effective and that he will be
cured" thereby.
History, both ancient and modern,
running even down to this present
day, bears witness to many hundreds
of authentic instances of such cases,
and also it records wave after wave of
belief in miracle working remedies
and practices that have from time to
time swept through the habitable globe
curing" the multitudes of their ills.
The uncultured mind has no concep-
tion of the quantitative relations of
cause and effect, but the disciplined
mind knows that there must be an
adequate cause behind every phenom-
enon and it is ever striving for
comprehensive grasp on laws and
principles; and civilization consists Of
the cumulative light of such knowl
edge.
1t is quite generally known that
motion of the hand, or a glance of the
eye. will throw a certain type of weak
and credulous patient into a fit; and
pill made of bread, if taken with suf-
ficient faith, will operate a cure as
we'll, or even better, than all the drugs
In the pharmacopeia. Such cases are
generally assumed to be Mysteries"
But we are beginning to understand
that there must be always an adequate
cause behind such manifestations; 1t
cannot be the result of imaginations;
It cannot be the result of the super
natural, and modern psychologists and
psychologists step by step are unravel
ing the tangled lines and solving the
puzzles. They are proving these hap
penings to be neither freaks of the i'm
agination nor the work of either be-
nign or malignant supernatural" pow
ers, but rather due to an interaction,
the perfectly natural results of ade
quate stimuli normally active within
every human body, and amenable to
personal development. and to individ-
ual control, proving thereby that in a
very large measure every man makes
his own disease.
In Van der Mye's account of the
siege of Breda, in 1925, 1t is stated
that the prince of Orange cured all
his soldiers who were dying of the
scurvy by a philanthropic piece of
quackery which he played upon them
with the knowledge of the physicians,
when all other means had failed: THE
garrison being afflicted with the sour
Wy, the prince of Orange sent the ply
sicians two or three small Walls con-
tanning a decoction of chamomile,
wormwood and camphor, telling them
to pretend that it was a medicine of
the greatest value and EXTREMIST rar-
ity, which had been procured with
very much danger and difficulty from
the East, and so strong, that two or
virtue to a gallon of water. The SOL
diers had faith in their commander;
they took the medicine with cheerful
faces and grew we'll rapidly"
Obviously these sturdy Netherland-
er campaigners of that day, possessed
of the stamina necessary to enable
them to defy and withstand the at
tacks of the most powerful and brutal
OF monarchs, could not justly be
classed as weaklings. neurasthenics or
Mysteries. And it is useless to deny
or to attempt to brush aside such
facts as being unbelievable fables, be-
cause everywhere about us we have
evidence of similar happenings, taking
place today. But we will have to grant
that the soldiers were superstitious.
Belief in unmeaning words and in
inadequate remedies implies the abb
sence of those ideas of causation that
raise the cultured man above the saw
age; consequently If we claim to be
part of civilization we must strive to
understand the principles involved in
these amazing reactions in order that
we may use them intelligently for the
advancement of our individual health
and that we may efficiently cooperate
with our fellow men for the better
ment of the race.
Next to the folly Of declaring that
these things cannot be, and the folly
of receiving blindly everything we
hear is the folly of refusing to accept,
to master and eagerly to grasp and
use the results of modern investiga-
ton, especially when they are clearly
steps in the course of nature and mark
but another stage on the evolutionary
road.
Few minds possess talent for alb
stract thinking, but such ability is not
necessary because all minds are capa-
BILE of acquiring knowledge If only
they remain open and are willing to
be shown. Everybody can see an OBJ
ject when it is placed before him and
all can observe objects in relation
If they willard our scientists are
slowly and Systematically working out