The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-07

Washington, D.. c., July 5.-That
the young soldier, who recently re-
garded his power of speech as the
result of a flight in an sirplane,
was cured solely by the conviction
that he would be cured, is the ssser-
ton of surgeons of the public
health esrvice who are acquainted
with the case.
This patient found himself
wholly unable to speak after an
automobile accident in which he
was not otherwise injured. The
doctors prescribed as a cure a
fight IN an airplane to a great ele-
walton, and the man came down
able to speak once more.
But, contrary to the popular be-
lief, this trip to the clouds, with
its accompanying thrills for one
unaccustomed to sky travel, was
not in itself responsible for reliev-
ing the unresponsive throat of the
young man.
One Immediately thinks that the
rarified atmosphere to be found at
higher attitudes accounts for the
voice recovery; that the throat
trouble, possibly originally due to
bronchial congestion, ceased to
prevent the processes OF speech,
once the clearer air was breathed.
The thought is perhaps even more
general than the fight, with its ex-
elements, it's dips and spins, in
reality scared" the man into
speech. Newspaper and magazine
cartoons following in the wake of
the first announcement of voice re-
covery by flight, have been based
largely on this belief that the voice
its owner sought desperately to
articulate the word Help"
The young man was not scared"
into talking, according to the doc
tors who suggested the flight as a
remedy. The young mans inabil-
ity to speak was not due to ordin-
airy throat troubles, but was the re-
suit of a mis-belief brought about
by weakened physical condition
and the nervous strain of the auto
mobile accident in which he fig
ured
The doctors were asked to ex-
plain why an air trip had been pre-
scribed. They laughed and said,
We could have told him to go
down into a coal mine, with as
much hope and prospects for re-
covery, but Boiling Field Air Sta
ton happened to be handler than a
coal mine.
Cured by Conviction.
Convincing young REM that the
trip in the plane would bring back
his voice did more than the flight.
1t was trick, of course, but it
helped him, and therefore was justi-
fable"
REM had been treated by a num-
Der of doctors at considerable ex-
pense, but without success. He
was becoming melancholy with the
thought that he might never again
use his voice. This negative thought
firmly gripped him, and to break
the spell into which he had been
thrown, it was necessary, the physi-
clans explain, TO suggest a treat
ment whose freakishness would ap-
peal to him as having in it a pos
sible recovery.
REM had never been in a plane
The anticipated experience prom
ised novelty. The doctors were
careful TO keep constantly before
him the thought that when he came
down he would be talking again. If
they had chosen some other new ex-
perience for him, making certain
that he was similarly thoroughly
convinced of it's curing power, the
doctors believe he would have at
tanned equal success.
REM made the trip, and while at
a reasonably high altitude regained
his faculty of speech. The doctors
were as happy as REM, but perhaps
not quite SO surprised.
A few weeks later REM appeared
Before them again, his voice once
more missing. A second trip was
proposed and REM was told that
this was the first time such recur-
renee of voice impairment had oc-
Cured following an air trip. Again
he was convinced that the flight
must be successful, and again he
recovered his voice.
The doctors explained that REM
had merely suffered a relapse in
his positive belief rather than in
actual voice impairment. Some
one had undoubtedly told him that
the recovery would not be perma-
nent, and REM had believed. Thus
far the Young man has continued to