PSYCHOTHERAPY IN FOLK-MEDICINE 233 



When Christ saw the cross, He trembled and shaked and they said to Him, 

 Hast thou the ague? And He said unto them, I have neither ague nor fever; 

 and whosoever bears these words, either in writing or in mind, shall never be 

 troubled with ague or fever. So help thy servants, O Lord, who put their trust 

 in thee. 



The same Englishman recited, in order to stop a hemorrhage : 



So may it please the Son of God. So His mother Mary. In the name of 

 the Father, stop, O blood! In the name of the Holy Ghost, stop, blood! In 

 the name of the Holy Trinity. 



It is no longer possible, as was only recently the tendency, to deny 

 all the miraculous cures ascribed to sarcred relics and to the touch of 

 saintly persons. Science formerly had no explanation to offer and dis- 

 missed all such claims with contempt. They must now be admitted to 

 be at least of possible occurrence. Authentic cures by healers not of 

 the most exalted character have taken place in our own day almost before 

 our very eyes. Faith in the power of a supposedly sacred personality 

 has made them possible. In the hey-dey of royalty the divinity that was 

 believed to hedge a king produced the undisputed cure of many a 

 wretched invalid. Between three and four hundrd persons were said 

 to have been cured by Queen Elizabeth annually of scrofula or the 

 King's Evil. James the Second is reported to have cured three hun- 

 dred and fifty at one time amid great pomp and ceremony — a circum- 

 stance that doubtless contributed materially to the success of the 

 operation. 



Eeligion after having been expelled by science from the field of 

 therapeutics is now being invited back again. Science is obliged to 

 admit that it was mistaken in its wholesale condemnation of appealing 

 to religion in illness. And this change of attitude on the part of 

 science has been brought about by the rise of two or three new con- 

 cepts — suggestion, subconsciousness, multiple personality. That which 

 formerly seemed absurd, now seems perfectly reasonable. It seems as 

 reasonable that healers of the sick should make use of the immense 

 suggestive reinforcement of religion as of the aid lent by the newer 

 authority of science. 



Unenlightened members of the medical profession in their desire 

 to discount the achievements of psychotherapy declare that all that 

 is of value in the new methods has long been known and used by 

 regular practitioners. A large part of this claim is perfectly true. We 

 all know that the success of many a prosperous physician is not due to 

 his superior scientific equipment — in which he often is notoriously 

 lacking — but to the faith inspired by his "personality." In some 

 instances, gentle, soothing tones, in others, brusqueness and peremptori- 

 ness of manner, convey the very useful suggestion of great ability justi- 

 fied in its assumption of authority. The particular remedy prescribed 

 after that is of no consequence. 



