WJiat Nerves May Do Brown- Stquard. 



85 



lh!7 admission and t^ie facts I have mentioned before, 

 we have all the elements, I think, for au explanation of 

 What has been said about the fakirs. 



I flu d, unfortunately, that the titno presses 60 that I 

 Fball uo obliged to pass over a good many facts and 

 couietotho miracles of LaSalette and to Ihe miracles 

 accomplished at the tomb of Father Matthew, and also 

 what has been said of a great many other instances of 

 recovery from illness. I caunot but believe that there is 

 no need of appealing to any other power than what we 

 know of imagination for the explanation of what takes 

 place in those miracles. They are very curious, but 

 hardly more curious than what we see when we know 

 without doubt that imagination, is the cause of such a 

 change. The cure of any illness which does not consist 

 In any disorganization of the tissues can often be ac- 

 complished when the person thinks that it can be done. 

 If we physicians, who treat patients every day, had the 

 power to make them believe that they are to be cured, 

 we certainly would obtain Jess fees than we 

 do, and I must say that the best of 

 us would rejoice at it. There is no 

 doubt at all that if we could give to patients the idea 

 that they are to be cured they would often be cured, 

 especially if we could name a time for it, which is a 

 great element in success. I have succeeded in this way 

 sometimes, and I may say that I succeed more now than 

 formerly, because I have myself the faith that I can in 

 giving faith obtain a cure. I wish, indeed, that phy- 

 sicians who are younger men than inpself, and who will 

 have more time to study this question than I have, 

 would take it up, especially in those cases in which 

 there is a functional nervous affection only to deal with, 

 as it is particularly, though not only, in those cases that 

 a cure can be obtained. Indeed a cure may thus be ob- 

 tained in certain organic aflections ; even in dropsy it 

 may lead to a cure. You know that it will stop pam ; 

 that going to a dentist is often quite enough to make a 

 toothache disappear. | Laughter.] I have seen patients 

 come to me with a terrible neuralgia, who dreaded the 

 operation I was about to perform, and, just, at the time 

 I was to undertake it, ceased to suffer. [Laughter. | 



LIMITS OF NERVE FORCE LAWS OF HEALTH. 



I think I have shown that the power of nerve force is 

 exceedingly various; that nerve force can be trans- 

 formed into chemical force, into motion, into electricity, 

 into heat, into light, and so on. But what are the limits 

 of the action of nerve force! I may say that the limits 

 of the action of nerve force, except after ic has been 

 transformed into other forces, are our own body. Those 

 persons who think that by an imagination, or by an act 

 of will, or by the action of a mesuienzer, we can send in 

 any part of our body an Influence that can modify it, 

 those persons make a great mistake if thev think that 

 this can take place by forces distinct from nerve force 

 in the subject in which the action takes place. If we 

 divide a. nerve jroing to a part, never mind how much we 

 may imagine that we can move the muscles to which it 

 goes; never mind where we go to be the object of a 

 muscle, we shall not have the least action in the muscles 

 to winch that nerve went. That nerve is absolutely" 

 oute-ide of our control. Nerve force cannot be 

 propagated to parts that are not in connection 

 with the nervous centres. This fact is a death blow to 

 the view that there are other forces acting in us than 

 mere nerve force. To continue the illustration of this 

 fact : If the spinal cord, which establishes communica- 

 tion between the brain and the various parts of the 

 body, is divided, the parts of the body that are below 



that section are separated absolutely from any act of 

 will, any act of imagination, a ay act coming from emo- 

 tion, in fact, from anything that comes from tlio bruin 

 There is, I repeat, uo force in our system other than 

 mere nerve force for tho tr.aismlssions that may oomo 

 from the brain, as the seat of tho imagination, the seat! 

 of emotion and the seat of the will. 



I shall uosv add but a few words on the production and 

 expenditure of nerve force. Nerve force is produced as 

 you know through blood. It is a chemical force which 

 is transformed there into nerve force. This nerve force 

 accumulates in the various organs of the nervous system 

 in which it is formed during rest. Bat if rett is pro- 

 longed, then it ceases to bo produced. Alteration takc-a 

 place in the part which is not put to work. On the other 

 hand, action which is so essential to the production oJ 

 nerve force, if prolonged will exhaust force also, but 

 produce a state distinct from that of rest. Rest will 

 produce a lack of blood, while over-action may produce 

 congestion. The great thin}:, therefore, is to have sulli- 

 cieut but not excessive action. 



There is another law which is that we should not 

 exercise alone one, two, or three of the great parts ol 

 the nervous system; since thus we draw blooit to those 

 parts only, and the other parts of the body suffer. In 

 the due exercise of all our organs lies the principal 

 rules of hygiene. This view, you know, comes from a 

 physician. It is not in agreement with what the poet 

 Churchill wrote : 



" The surest road to health, say what yon will, 

 Is never to suppose we shall be ill. 

 Most of those evils we poor mortals know, 

 From doctors and imagination flow." 



Unfortunately Churchill died a victim to this view 

 that doctors were murderers. He died of a fever at the 

 age of 34, and that because he had been too carelesa 

 about calling in a doctor to help him. But it is certainly 

 true that the great rule of health is not to lay imagina- 

 tion aside, and this is why 1 have quoted these verses. 

 Imagination, on the contrary, is to be appealed to far 

 more than we do, and this is one of the great conclusions 

 that I hope young physicians will feeep in mind. 



To conclude with these great rules of hygiene, I should 

 say that we should not spend more than our meana 

 allow us. Many commit this fault. As before said, we 

 should make au equal use of all our organs, and of the 

 various parts of the nervous system. Those who employ 

 the brain suffer a great deal from inattention to this law. 



Lastly, there should be regularity as regards the time ol 

 meals, the time and amount of action, the time and 

 amount of sleep regularity in everything. It is very 

 difficult indeed to obtain it. But there is in our nature 

 more power than we know, and if we conform ourselves 

 to the law of habit things will soon go on without our 

 meddlius with them, and we come to be perfectly reg- 

 ular, alchough we perhaps had naturally a tendency not 

 to be. 



In conclusion. I have to thank the audience that has 

 listened to me so patiently through these long and dis- 

 connected lectures. I Loud applause.] 



ERRATA. 



Page 14. col. 1, line 18: for ' diva," real ymrs. 



Page 33, col. 2. lines 10, 11: lor " haJ the power of conveying 

 various se.isutions in U of otiiur things," read is portrayed in the iiervei 

 and that lliei/ carry with tliem its ttnimus. 



Page 33, col. 2. line 15: for ' I'bmims," read James. 



Page 34, col. 1, line 00: for " both astringents," re a I and an astral' 

 gent substance. 



P.-iae 34, col. 1, line 06: for " l>n Cros," read Durand de (?ro.t. 



Page 34, col. 2, line 10: for " recall," reaU have hturd slated. 



